Improve your bloody grammar!

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If anyone is interested, would appreciate someone with a decent grasp of English proofreading my motivational letter to a uni in exchange for a steam game.

It's ~600 words. Curious about the grammar, structure, awkward Eurenglish, or any other comments.

If you're up, let me know and I'll PM!
 
If anyone is interested, would appreciate someone with a decent grasp of English proofreading my motivational letter to a uni in exchange for a steam game.

What I can tell you, free of charge, is that your sentence doesn't clearly articulate whether it's you or the proofreader who gets the Steam game out of this racket.
 
All snow is a single physical object and thus has no plural. However, "snow" can also be a verb and the occurrence of this verb can be described as an event, which can be pluralised. "There was a snow last week", "There have been several snows in the last month".

As for "several", the definition is kind of contentious. It comes from the same root as "sever", implying "split into more than one", but the existence of the word "couple" overrules all other words in this class, making their lower bound at least 3. A lot of dictionaries will thus place the lower bound of "several" at 3, making it synonymous with "a few" and "some".

Personally, I decidedly number among those who regard this as infuriating.

The word has a connotation of referring to a number that may be large enough to slightly surprise the listener. It's generally used similarly to the term "quite a few". Because 3 is the lower bound of "a few", describing 3 as "several" seems disingenuous.

A lot of people mistakenly connect the word to the number seven, so it's popularly used to mean either "at least seven" or "around seven", which, while etymologically false, is both an appropriate niche for the word and also the niche in which it's typically used.

If you use it for 7-12, you won't make any enemies. I would strongly advise not using it for a number below 5 or above 20.
 
What constitutes "several" of something is contextual, I would say. Things which typically come in small numbers may be referred to as several when in numbers as low as three and still convey the described connotation. If someone were to say they had several nipples, you might not find their choice of words frustrating if it turns out they have three as you would naturally expect people to only have two. Anything more than two is exceptional, justifying the use of "several" if the requirement is the connotation described.
 
2 simple questions: can two people be alone? For example "let us be alone together".
In the sentence below, is lie correct? Or it is lies? (house is singular and ruins is plural. I always get that wrong).

Your house now in ruins lie.

(I know the order of words is archaic.)
 
What constitutes "several" of something is contextual, I would say. Things which typically come in small numbers may be referred to as several when in numbers as low as three and still convey the described connotation. If someone were to say they had several nipples, you might not find their choice of words frustrating if it turns out they have three as you would naturally expect people to only have two. Anything more than two is exceptional, justifying the use of "several" if the requirement is the connotation described.
I guess a someone with three nipples who can't count to three could be considered utterly flawless and beyond reproach, but somehow, idk, I think the description would still lead to some amount of disappointment in the discovery of its mismatch with reality.

To me, someone saying "several", when they could, without error, say "three" is plainly hamming it up, rather than using the word accurately. It should be used for a number where the difference between any potential exact figures isn't significant.

Someone with three nipples could be expected to describe them as "countless!", but contextual acceptability of inaccuracy doesn't accuracy make.

I do appreciate your seemingly rational attempt to eat away at the edges of reasonable enumeration, but I think we must sever the head, lest it lead us to some circle of hell roughly between seven and twelve.

can two people be alone? For example "let us be alone together".
Sure thing - groups can be alone. In your example, the thing that lacks company is the "us", rather than its individual constituents.

People can also be alone from something in particular. Even being alone from each other is something that two people can do together - being united by their shared situation, rather than physical proximity.

Alternatively, they could be alone in their respective activities, despite being physically touching, e.g. "They sat and held hands, but John was alone in his quest to memorise Pi in its entirety, while Jane had no company in her pursuit of making louder noises than the human mind can withstand".
 
Could have sworn I replied Angeland. Either way, thank you.

EDIT: I wanted to write someone prophesises/prophesizes something, but apparently that's not a word.

It must be. Is prophesises a correct British spelling, or is it also prophesizes?
 
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Is "none of ... [plural countable] is..." correct or at least acceptable? The way I see it, it's correct because none is the negative version of one so suggests something singular, but I always see the plural form everywhere.
 
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EDIT: I wanted to write someone prophesises/prophesizes something, but apparently that's not a word.

It must be. Is prophesises a correct British spelling, or is it also prophesizes?
Why can't you say "someone prophesies something"?
Example:
I prophesied that Bannerlord will be ****, but people preferred wishful thinking until they saw it for themselves.

Edit: The verb is "to prophesy" and not "to prophesize". You may have been confused by "Prophesy of Pendor" which is actually poorly spelled "prophecy", no matter how some people try to cover it up. :smile:
 
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A counselor is a person who advises.
A guide is a person who assist (you might say advises, or gives guidance to) someone.

Is the term guidance counselor not an tautology? I can't be the only one who thinks it sounds weird.
 
I suppose guiding is a specific form of counseling, so it makes sense to specify what kind of counselor you've been assigned by the prison authorities, Adorno. Don't screw this up!
 
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