differences - "Like" versus "as"

Is there any difference between the following couples of sentences?

Dress as you would if you were having guests.
Dress like if you were having guests.

She kissed him goodbye, as usual.
She kissed him goodbye, like the usual.

Sweet as she is, she doesn't pay his bills.
Sweet like she is, she doesn't pay his bills.

Answer

As far as the first two sentences go, they mean the same things. However, a couple points of usage:

Dress like if you were having guests.

If is not necessary in this sentence. The word like here means similar, so it is not a conditional, but rather a comparison. The original sentence uses if because of as—how should you dress? As someone expecting to have guests = as if you were to have guests. Also, the original sentence might be more succinctly found as "Dress as if you were having guests".

She kissed him goodbye, like the usual.

The is not necessary, like the original sentence.

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The third example, however, is different, as it uses a different meaning of as:

Sweet like she is, she doesn't pay his bills.

This construction is not found among native English speakers, who always use the word as. The reason is this: like expresses similarity, but in this context, as expresses quantity; in other words, the sentence is saying that she is very sweet. The altered sentence, however, is meaningless.

hyphenation - Is it possible to hyphenate the word "repack" (due to a line break)?

I would like to know if the word "repack" exists at least in one of the variants of the English language (i.e. British English, American English and so on), and if yes, if it can be hyphenated at the end of a line.

Personally, I believe that it exists, because I have read it several times in various articles. But I am completely unsure if it can be hyphenated at the end of a line. On one hand, Merriam-Webster does not know that word at all, Wiktionary knows it, but doesn't say anything about hyphenation, and no online hyphenation service I have tried does hyphenate it.

On the other hand, my personal feeling is that it might be possible to hyphenate it like "re-pack" at the end of a line.

Please note that I am not asking how to spell it when using it in normal text flow, i.e. if it is in one line. I am only interested in separating the word at a line end.

To make it absolutely clear, let's take another word as an example: You may hyphenate the word "power" like "pow-er", but not in normal text flow, i.e. if the word fits into the current line, but only at the end of a line, having the string "pow-" at the end of one line and the string "er" at the beginning of the next one. Of course, writing "pow-er" in the normal case, i.e. not at a line break, is wrong.

So, coming back to my actual problem, I would like to know if I can have "re-" at the end of one line and "pack" at the beginning of the next line even if no dictionary and no online hyphenation service does hyphenate that word.

Could anybody explain which rules apply here (of course, before asking, I have read some articles that gave some general guidance and that made me assume that the word in question could be hyphenated at line ends like shown above, so I just don't get why none of the online services hyphenates that word) or give a reference to a source where I can lookup correct line end hyphenations for English words (the word I have asked for is just an example - since I'm currently translating my website from German to English, there are hundreds of such cases, i.e. words whose line end hyphenation seemingly isn't shown at any source I know and which are not hyphenated by online services although I strongly believe they should).

All links I have seen in the comments so far are definitely not duplicates of my question. Without exception, they all deal with the question how you should write the respective word under normal circumstances, i.e. without a line break taking place.

grammatical number - The plural form of: One's life work

I'm editing an essay about the two founders of a software company, and there is a sentence that currently reads:

They have made it their live's work..."

This looks and feels wrong, but I'm having a brain fart and need some help. Should it be:

• Their life's work


• Their live's work


• Their lives work



• Their lifes work

What's the correct way to write this?

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Please reconsider opening this question, which was closed for being off topic. The "specific source of concern in the text" has indeed been identified, it's been highlighted clearly and several alternatives have been offered by the OP. And as FumbleFingers commented:

...it seems pretty obvious from the comments here that we're not dealing with a trivial issue that could have a single obvious answer.

grammatical number - Verb in context: singular or plural?

I have this sentence:

The thought of her commotion, and the hope that the neighbors heard her, gives her enough strength to push the door open.

Is the singular verb gives correct here? I ask because the second subject is expressed parenthetically, between commas.

grammar - What is to use commas and apostrophes?

"Halloween: the one day where we encourage children to accept candy from strangers, go to strangers' homes, and vandalize property and terrorize people if they don't get their own way."

Original quote by Yvette Colomb

I also notice grammar checks often rebuke my apostrophe placements.

I am wondering if there is a missing comma and if the apostrophe at strangers is correct. Does it have to include an apostrophe for ownership?

I tend to overdo it with commas, and restricted myself this time.

the vandalize property and terrorize people if they don't get their own way

is an inclusive point after the other list items.

Usually I would write:

the one day where we encourage children to accept candy from strangers, go to strangers' homes, vandalize property, and terrorize people if they don't get their own way.

which is not the same thing or:

the one day where we encourage children to accept candy from strangers, go to strangers' homes, and vandalize property and terrorize people if they don't get their own way.

Which is the best or most correct way (if there is one) to write this?

Answer

The sentence as written is perfectly correct, and not only that, it is quite clear and well-written. It makes interesting and humorous points about Hallowe'en. There is some ambivalence about the spelling of Halloween, but that's because of that darned apostrophe. In the US (and possibly Canada?) the apostrophe is largely dropped, but is still the rule in the UK.

word choice - Why "themselves" instead of "himself" when referring to third-person singular?

I've read today a comment from a UK user that sounded weird to me:

so the OP is shooting themselves in the foot here with the tone then.

I would have said instead:

so the OP is shooting himself in the foot here with the tone then.

I've taken a look at this but it's way out of my league, and appearently doesn't even answer this question.

Why did he use the third person plural while referring to a third person singular ?

Answer

In English, "they" is used as a singular personal pronoun when the gender of the subject is not known.

As gender politics have evolved over the past half-century, and the pace of that change has accelerated in the last decade, personal pronouns have proven fraught with risk and created traps for the unwary.

In response to this, commentors have increasingly started using the non-committal -- and more importantly, safe -- singular they to refer to people whose gender is not known with absolute certainty.

Please note that I'm using the word "gender", not "sex", here quite advisedly; sex is biological, gender is psychological (or, in another school of thought, sociological). This (rather new) distinction is yet another driver behind the recent popularity of singular they: even if a person's sex is quite evident (or you believe it is), their gender may not be (e.g. a person who looks like a man may nevertheless wish to be identified as a woman), and using the wrong personal pronoun can land you in a lot of hot water.

In your particular situation, circumstances which may have contributed to the commentor's circumspection are that your avatar depicts both a man and a young girl, and while your name is quite masculine in your homeland (and its own history as you so perspicuously pointed out), in the US, names ending in -a are considered feminine, and "Andrea" is reserved for naming girls.

grammaticality - Is it okay to use "has been" here?

My Dad (diabetic) and I went to a doctor for a checkup. The doctor advised my dad to increase his insulin because his sugar was high in those days. Furthermore doctor told my dad to call him after a week to let him know about his sugar.

It's day 3, but my dad's sugar has been low so far. Would the following sentence be fine for telling the doctor about his blood sugar?

Its has been 3 days since you told me to increase his insulin but his sugar has been low, now what to do?

The main thing I want to know is the use of has been.