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  • Answered
    Do they have different meanings? Business investment is up. (‘Investing’ wouldn’t sound wrong, but less professional) Investing in NFTs was all the rage. (Lots of people were making these investments) My investments in NFTs are worthless now.
    0 voted
    March 19, 2025
    0
  • Answered
    I wouldn’t say it is intensifier, exactly. ‘To ‘just’ do something’ here suggests that the something is unlikely or surprising. You are describing something in an extreme way that isn’t normal. I just hate Shakespeare. (Most people wouldn’t describe their feelings in such an extreme fashion) I’m just smarter than you. (It’s a rather sweeping statement that sounds rather impolite, so we normally wouldn’t say it)
    0 voted
    March 18, 2025
    0
  • Answered
    2-7 are (very) wrong. Similar to (and more conventional than) the original: Two minutes after he left there was an explosion. There was an explosion two minutes after he left. Unless there is a connection between him being gone and the explosion, there’s no need for this structure. An example of there being a connection: I hadn’t been working for 30 minutes, so my boss got mad at me. (My activity in the past created another event in the past)
    0 voted
    March 4, 2025
    0
  • Answered
    ‘Speaking’ is more common and more authoritative but talking doesn’t sound wrong.
    0 voted
    March 4, 2025
    1
  • Answered
    By themselves neither are very natural or precise. ‘Youth’ is a vague category which can go as low as age 10 in some contexts, maybe 15 in others. Similarly ‘love’ as a noun could refer to attraction/fondness but also being lovers.
    0 voted
    March 3, 2025
    0
  • Answered
    ‘I haven’t gotten married’ could mean ‘I’ve never been married.’ Or ‘I’ve always been single.’ You could also say ‘I’m in a common law marriage but I haven’t gotten married. ‘ ‘I didn’t get married.’ Is talking about a specific time in the past. I proposed and she accepted but we didn’t get married. (Or just ‘we didn’t marry.’) My sisters married right out of high school but I didn’t get married until I was 35.
    0 voted
    March 3, 2025
    0
  • Answered
    They can’t be synonyms. The first implies that the original condition was ‘in’ whereas the second implies that it was ‘attached (to)’ or ‘stuck on’.
    0 voted
    March 1, 2025
    1
  • Answered
    I would never say your suggestion, though others might. It’s a little vague and folksy for me. Depending on the context, more mainstream are: That’s not how I do things. That’s not my way of doing things. That’s not my practice. (In speech you can emphasize the ‘my’ to contrast it with another way already mentioned.) That’s not something I would (ever) do.
    0 voted
    March 1, 2025
    0
  • Answered
    They have differing levels of formality and both are a little strange. We need to meet /before lunch/today/this week. (Using something vague like ‘urgently’ ironically makes it sound less urgent!) ‘Meeting up’ is usually less formal and less urgent. Let’s meet up for lunch (sometime).
    0 voted
    March 1, 2025
    0
  • Answered
    Seals usually don’t have ‘a hole’ in them, so saying that one does is probably wrong but not necessarily bad English. ‘Seal’ has two meanings here. It can be a physical piece (which could theoretically have a hole I suppose) or it is a collection of pieces which, working together, prevent the flow of gas or liquid. The seal is broken. There’s a good seal. The seal is compromised at low temperatures. (Pieces) The seal is made of rubber. (A piece)
    0 voted
    March 1, 2025
    0