Help with English

Saint said:
drowning out = suppress ?
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It simply means that a lot of loud noise (music, machinery, conversation, etc.), it makes it difficult or impossible to hear any other sounds in the area.

Sometimes you want to drown out a sound deliberately, such as music that you don't like or conversation on a topic in which you have no interest.

Originally, the word "drown" by itself was used in this sense. Today (at least here in the USA), we usually say "drown out" when we're referring to sound and noise.
 
A mothball is a small ball of chemicals - usually pesticide and some deodorant - that you put around clothes or other places to keep moths away, especially when you're not likely to use those things for a while. So you might put mothballs into a wooden trunk in which you keep spare blankets over the warmer months. The mothballs will keep moths away until you next need to use the blankets.

"To mothball" something is therefore to put things away that you're not going to be using for a while but in a secure fashion so that it remains in good enough condition to use again when required. So a factory that is being mothballed would have the equipment closed down, made safe and secure, tarpaulin put over it etc. with the thought that it's going to be a while before it is used again.

This is in direct contrast to a factory that is permanently closed - where the equipment is dismantled, sold off, scrapped, or just simply neglected - with no intention to reuse it and no preventative measures taken to protect it while not being used.
 
The word "mothball" is commonly used in regard to ships of the U.S. Navy.

From Wikipedia: The National Defense Reserve Fleet (NDRF) consists of "mothballed" ships, mostly merchant vessels, that can be activated within 20 to 120 days to provide shipping for the United States of America during national emergencies, either military or non-military, such as commercial shipping crises.
 
We often convert noun into present participle verb form (I think I recall my English designations correctly).
For example: rain can become "It is raining."

My Brazilian wife, did not know to say: "It is blowing" so she says: "It is winding."

She never heard me (or anyone else) say that and this implies a lot about how our languages works deep down. Much like the "over-regularization" young children make of irregular verbs. For example they may tell their dad when he comes home: "I swimed the whole length of the pool today."

I have zero interest I where words come from, but how we can automatically construct from only stored "stems" and "correct application data" in our lexicons all their many forms and grammatical requirements is interesting. IE some verbs are transitive - require an object, others do not. (Will not even accept one.) etc. EG: I bit ---- . but I snored. (or for the young " I bitted an apple" vs. "I snored.")
 
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Choose the correct answer:

XYZ Co. is letting go of personal/personnel at an alarming rate.

My personal/personnel files include notes on how to take over the world using just a red paperclip.

Match.com and other dating sites have eliminated the need to advertise in the personals/personnels.

The HR department kept James' personal/personnel file updated with all the complaints about his work habits.
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"Personnel" is a mass noun--also called an "uncountable noun." It refers to a labor force: the people who staff an office or a company. If a company only has one employee, he can still be referred to as "our personnel," but it's usually used to refer to a group of employees.

"Personals" is a word popularized by newspapers. It's a contraction of "personal advertisements" -- announcements people place with the goal of finding someone. Usually a stranger to meet for the potential of romance, but it could also be someone searching for a friend or family member with whom they've lost touch.

"Personal" means, literally, "pertaining to a person." When used in a phrase like "personal files," in the context of a workplace, it refers to files that a worker keeps at his desk, but only for personal use (his friends' phone numbers, the dates of his family members' birthdays, etc.)--as opposed to the much larger quantity of files of company business that he uses to perform his job.

A personnel file is a file maintained by the company on each individual worker. As noted, this is where complaints about a worker's bad habits would be stored, but presumably there will also be information about his successes, as well as accounting information such as his age, salary, number of years in the company, etc.

"Personnel" is simply the French word for "personal." Both words were derived from Latin personale. As I've mentioned before, England was conquered by France in 1066, so for several centuries French was the language of commerce, government and scholarship. This is why there are so many French words in our language.

The English people never fought a revolution to overthrow the French domination. On the contrary, the French people in England slowly gave up much of their French culture and assimilated--this included speaking English instead of French.
 
An idiom is a phrase that is not immediately understandable because it uses words in unusual ways. To "kick the bucket," meaning "to die," is an idiom. You have to know that in previous eras, people were often executed by hanging. They were placed on top of an upside-down bucket with the rope tight around their necks. When the executioner kicked the bucket out from under their feet, gravity would pull them downward, breaking their neck.

"A broken clock is correct twice a day" is a saying. The words all retain their standard meanings, and the meaning of the sentence is quite clear and easy to understand.

We often say "an old saying," rather than just "a saying."
 
Even a broken clock is correct twice a day.
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Few would say "correct" - a broken clock is right twice a day.

Originally: a stopped clock is right twice a day (from the days when clocks stopped).
 
Saint said:
mud slinging = the use of insults and accusations, especially unjust ones, with the aim of damaging the reputation of an opponent. Why mud? It can be cow dung.
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People feel fairly confident when handling mud. The worst that can happen is that you get dirty, in which case you can take a bath, or you get your clothes dirty, which can be washed.

But if you handle feces, there's a high probability that some of it will stick to you or your clothes, in which case you're going to stink.
 
Saint said:
licence, license
practice, practise

Which is the correct spelling ?
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Diferent spellings different countries. I think basically the influence of England and a little French, lead to the practise and licence, American English practice and license.
 
In the UK we use "practice" for the noun (e.g. "Today I went to football practice") and "practise" for the verb (e.g. "Today I want to practise the piano").

Similarly the difference between "licence" (noun) and "license" (verb).

But more frequently we are (unfortunately) using the American English of just using "practise" and "license" for both noun and verb. :(
 
Saint said:
=the use of insults and accusations, especially unjust ones, with the aim of damaging the reputation of an opponent.

Why mud? It can be cow dung. :D
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Mud generally sticks to things.
So when it is thrown the idea is that you intend some of it to stick to whoever you're throwing it at. It doesn't do any physical damage but it leaves the person looking a mess.

Within the idiom, cow dung might be taken to be a nastier form of mud... Some insult or accusation that you're hurling that doesn't have as good a chance of sticking, but if it does it has a greater impact to their reputation.

But the general idiom is simply with regard to how well mud sticks to things and makes a mess of what it sticks to.
 
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