Questions tagged [resources]
Questions about finding resources for learning or researching the English language.
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What good reference works on English are available?
Questions that can be answered using commonly-available references are off-topic.
What good reference works on English are available, and what kinds of questions are they good at answering?
General ...
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How trustworthy is WordNet?
I was browsing old questions and answers and bumped into an odd scenario: Can “paper bag” mean any bag?. An excerpt from the accepted answer:
Almost all on-line dictionaries define paper bag as:
...
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"Lexico" will be gone in less than a month
Not sure what the implications for our site will be, but it seems relevant news that Lexico (formerly "Oxford Living Dictionaries", formerly "Oxford Dictionaries Online") is ...
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What is the point of migrating all resource requests to Meta?
There are a couple of resource requests that were recently migrated to ELU Meta (e.g Is there an online speech comparison programme, What are some good and authoritative reference/data source for ...
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RIP Oxford “living” Dictionaries
Don't know when this happened, but Oxford Living Dictionaries is no more. It is now called Lexico (powered by Oxford) whatever that means…
Tsk! You'd think they'd have the decency to consult us ...
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Where can I ask for free proofreading?
I know that proofreading is prohibited in this site. However, I'd like to ask if there are free online websites to do that.
I remember once there was a website where I can help people in Spanish/...
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List of most useful NLP resources and tools
We already have lists of general-reference resources, one on meta and a larger one on main. For the most part, these are things like dictionaries and thesauri, not actual tools related to natural ...
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Book to learn Old English
Is there a grammar book similar to Wheelock's Latin, but for Old English?
And also, is there an equivalent of Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata?
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What sort of resource request questions do we accept on meta?
We often migrate resource request questions to meta, and there's no denying that some resources are very useful to the users of this community.
Here's my attempt at broadly categorising these ...
NVZMod
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Website to see frequency of use of words together
Once, an English teacher shared with me a website where you can see how certain words are used with others. For instance, you would see the type of words with which "mandatory" and "compulsory" are ...
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Is there a thesaurus which takes more than one word as an input? [closed]
When I write a text, I am sometimes looking for a very specific word, which might or might not be present in English (my brain knows that there is such a word, but sometimes it can't provide it ...
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Common accepted online resources [duplicate]
What would be well-known, and in a certain measure reliable, online resources that should be checked before asking a question, or that could help with answering questions?
I've got a few listed that ...
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Does Lexico have dictionary entries in American English?
My recollection is that the old Oxford Dictionaries site had entries in both American English and "British & World English", which could be accessed through different urls.
Lexico has British &...
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Best online slang dictionary for old slang
I'm looking for slang words that would have been in use around 1910 in New York. Anyone know of an online resource that might work?
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As a native English speaker, what source should I use to teach non-native speakers writing?
They ask me about the grammar and I don't know how to explain. So I need a book to teach me how to teach them how to write and why I make the changes I tell them to make.
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Are there any dictionaries for AAE?
Are there any dictionaries for African-American English with definitions and pronunciation? I couldn't seem to find any on the internet.
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Resource for grammatical rules pertaining to mid-17th century English
Salutations to all during this tragic time where all feels quite, quite down,
Firstly I hope all are well.
Now, onward to my question: I have, for the past half-year or so writ a play based in London ...
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Comparison/contrast dictionaries of synonyms
Is there any dictionary or similar for comparing and contrasting related/synonym words, such as for ex. "swing" vs "sway", or "ask" vs "inquire"?
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Which is more trustworthy as a source for UK usages: Google Ngrams or the British National Corpus?
This question was inspired by the comment/chat discussion under this answer. This would be very helpful to know.
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Verbs most commonly used with particular words
Can anyone advise on resource that would list verbs most commonly associated with particular words/nouns? I found a website for descriptive words, but haven’t been successful with verbs.
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Resources to determine pseudo-anglicisms
What resources can I use to determine if a given phrase is a pseudo-anglicism?
For example, "top page" is not a common English expression, but a native speaker of Japanese who's learning English may ...
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Where are lists of hyponyms and their superordinates?
I've been working on natural language processing/understanding for a great many years and sometimes get hung up on trying to figure what superordinate a word belongs to, such as a hammer being a type ...
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Where can I find an English dictionary that I can search by number of syllables, transitive/intransitive, and other grammatical markers?
I need to find lists of English words that meet certain criteria, such as having a certain number of syllables, or being intransitive verbs. Is there an online English dictionary that will allow me to ...
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Where does it say that resources are off-topic on main?
It's been assumed that questions about resources are off-topic because they aren't questions about the language per se.
Here's an example:
Main - I'm looking for a tool for comparing the meaning ...
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Where can I find books from the late 17th/early 18th century about English grammar and phonology?
I'm interested in finding books that explain English grammar (as much of it and in as much depth as possible), written by scholars from the late 17th/early 18th century. Which do you recommend? Could ...
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Resources on larger common word lists
I'm looking for resources on most common general word lists for English.
I'm after lists that are bit large in size - say in the range 10,000-20,000 words.
I have found smaller lists such as the ...
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List of nouns by category
I would like to find a dictionary book which classifies nouns by category: animals, food, part of body, location, etc.
I found lists on Internet, but they are too small and the number of categories ...
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Are there any resources to find which prepositions are appropriate for a given verb/adjective and how they change the meaning?
Sometimes I'm unsure about which prepositions can be used with a verb or adjective and how they change the meaning.
Are there any resources to help me with this?
A few examples of tricky preposition I'...
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As a single-word enthusiast, what links/blogs should I follow?
I am looking for resources to follow online for language and single-word hobbyists as myself. Do you have any good suggestions? Mailing list subscriptions, twitter feeds, etc?
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glossary of grammar terminology
I'm looking for a comprehensive reference book that includes definitions and examples of the terms used in grammar analysis.
So this would have 'adverb' and 'verb' and their various types, the ...
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Historical explanation of relationship between graphemes and phonemes
I'm looking for a more historical perspective on how we ended up with the orthography we have today and why it differs from pronunciation. E.g., the letter "t" does the sound originally symbolized by ...
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What resources do I need to consult before asking a question?
Many Stack Exchange sites require that users do some research before asking a question. Does English Language & Usage have such a policy? If yes, what resources should users consult before asking ...
LaurelMod
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How to find uncommon synonyms
I am currently writing a FanFiction. However, given that it has long chapters, repitition of certain words makes certain parts tedious to read.
I recently saw xkcd's Simple Writer, which helps us to ...
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What is a good source on the use of the definite article for non-native speakers?
Here's my situation: I'm currently proof-reading something a colleague of mine has written. The content is all okay, but his use (or non-use) of "the" is all over the place, because I assume his ...
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Resource request on use of comma
May I request (I think I may?) an exhaustive resource on the use of commas in the English language, for someone whose first language is English. A book resource would be fine, especially if it covers ...
user99677
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Resources to help with answers to regional difference type questions
Here are three recent question examples, including one asked by me:
What do you call the space where you park a car? Parking spot, space, bay or what?
This baby-walking device is called a ([prefix]-)[...
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Resources for finding early uses of words?
I have a strangely deep admiration for archaic language and its usage and find that when working on period-piece writings, sources (catalogs of old books) for researching words used in the period (And ...
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What fine-tuned word finders are out there?
I know there's a lot of word finders, but I'm wondering if there is some this fine-tuned.
For example, if I want words ending in -ade, but only nouns.
accolade, charade, tirade, façade, balustrade...
...
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Seeking cursive writing samples along with a typed version
I want to find some samples of English cursive writing along with their typed versions. Where can I find this?
This is for practice purposes: I want to attempt to read the cursive version and look at ...
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Good resources for collocations [duplicate]
Can you please point me to a good online resource for verb collocations, for American English? Preferably, something with a lot of examples.
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What resources to use for understanding archaic English usage?
I am reading the book "The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood" by James Gleick. Every now and then an old/archaic English sentence, from some reference, is quoted in this text.
How ...
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Need English Grammar Refresher Book, College Level, not ESL text
I am looking for a U.S. college-level English grammar text, one with answers to end-of-chapter exercises. I was born in the U.S. and have only spoken and written in English. I had a good English ...
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Where can I find a list of English words sorted by popularity, together with their pronunciations?
I'd like to have a list of English words sorted by popularity together with their pronunciations. I need it to learn the words I can't pronounce in popularity order. Is there anything like that I can ...
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Is there a reference/archive of English verbs and their argument structure (± their theta roles)?
Is there a reference/archive of English verbs and their argument structure? That is to say, how many and what categories of arguments they require. And maybe even their theta roles? I don't expect ...
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Book recommendation about languages from the linguist's perspective
Not sure if book recommendations are allowed, but I'm looking for a reference book that contains details about a wide variety of languages, written for linguists. For example, let's say I wanted to ...
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Are there any resources for 18th and 19th Century English Grammar?
I recently asked a question regarding archaic English grammar and one of the comments recommended that I make a resource request here on the Meta.
I'm looking for any books or websites that ...
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Criteria specific dictionaries use to decide on ordering of different senses of a given headword
It's fairly common knowledge that OED lists senses of a given headword in the chronological order research has found printed evidence for: it is a historical dictionary.
Equally conveniently, the ...
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Search engine for English idioms?
I am looking for a resources which can provide related English idioms/phrases. For instance, if I were looking up 'to help out', I would find 'to pitch in', etc. Does any such resources exist online (...
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Advice for a book for English Syntax
I want a book for English Syntax, I want you to know that I am an elementary student of English Language and I have finished the book "Essential Grammar in Use (A self study reference and practice ...
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Is Merriam Webster dictionary an outdated and unreliable dictionary?
An experienced user posted this comment under an answer that cited M-W dictionary.
Btw, MW is the worst, most out-of-date dictionary on the planet!, but GKP regularly sings its virtues in public, and ...
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