The three examples all sound correct when using the plural “are”, rather than “is”. Similarly, one reads nonnegative, nonmagnetic, nonferrous, etc. ‘unmanned’ traditionally meant ‘cowardly’ (see the phrase unmanned by fear) non current liabilities examples rather than the opposite of manned. If it’s the fact that it’s a desk that’s important, there’s an idiom about being a “desk jockey” you could work into the sentence (instead of implying something about being a “desk man”). To take care of a place while someone who is usually there is gone, such as a store or one’s home.

Before, “wer” was a prefix that meant male (as used in “werewolf”), and “wif” meant female (which eventually led to the word “woman” from “wifman”). The use of “man” as gender-neutral appears today in the words “mankind,” “human,” and of course “manning.” Therefore, “manning” is a suitable gender-neutral term. The question remains, at least for me, whether unintuitive is sometimes intended or understood to be stronger than non-intuitive, i.e., counter-intuitive or fully contrary. The three words have subtly different meanings, but in the paragraph you posted those distinctions don’t seem to matter much at all.

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  • “Un-” is defined as “a prefix meaning ‘not,’ freely used as an English formative, giving negative or opposite force in adjectives and their derivative adverbs and nouns… and less freely used in certain other nouns.”
  • In this particular case you won’t lose much meaning by reading them all as equivalents.
  • Please include the research you’ve done, or consider if your question suits our English Language Learners site better.
  • It’s less than one and much less than many.So its subject agreement is entirely arbitrary.

The Navy has an interesting expression if you want to tell some to “man their station and get to work.” You tell them to “Turn to, Shipmate.” I suppose you could to tell someone to “work your station.” If they’re taking care of things at X, you could say they’re ‘handling X today’ or ‘will be handling X’. Looks like a person obsessed with not being in control rather than one who is simply not obsessed with control.

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Which is meant to contrast individual intelligence with groupthink,and therefore is unequivocally singular. If it quantifies a plural noun phrase, as in none of us, then it’s equivalent to the negation of a universal quantifier in many cases. Yes, a two-word modifier (like this one) requires a hyphen, except that the commonly held convention is that adverbs ending in “ly” don’t (like that one). “Staffing” can mean “to do the duty”, or “to ensure someone’s on it, not necessarily yourself”, or “to provide staff”.

If there are too many interpretative choices in a non-hyphened usage to my liking, I will include the hyphen. I was always taught that the ‘man’ in ‘manning a desk’ had its origins in ‘managing’, not ‘man/men/male’, which meant it was not a sexist term and was an unnecessary overcorrection to change it. My workplace recently requested that we ‘person a desk’, which grated with me because it sounds awful and doesn’t fit with the phrase’s origins (at least as I was taught them). But perhaps the definition I was given in my youth was well-meaning but incorrect. One issue this question raises is that of being more precise in thinking about who is doing what.

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Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. If we combine the hyphenated and non-hyphenated forms, it appears that non(-)intuitive and unintuitive are roughly equivalent in frequency today, at least looking at their Ngrams. I searched english.stackexchange and found countless answers where the word is used. “Un-” is defined as “a prefix meaning ‘not,’ freely used as an English formative, giving negative or opposite force in adjectives and their derivative adverbs and nouns… and less freely used in certain other nouns.” “Manning” is (or at least has been) gender-neutral. Only in recent history has “man” taken on a gendered connotation.

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(From western movies.) I’m going next door to visit Mrs. Jones. You should open the store at eight o’clock and hold the fort until I get there at ten. Maybe you can describe their job (e.g. “answering the phone” or whatever) rather than that they’re simply occupying the desk. Instead of a “manned mission” or “manning a station” please consider a “crewed mission” or “crewing a station”.

“None of us is” vs “None of us are”, Which is Correct? duplicate

The only ideas I can come up with are “stationed at” the desk or other clunky things. After quite some time searching I couldn’t find any rules in which those words obey to. As you can see in my linked sites though there are quite a few entries in which not is before a verb and little of any others. This is hard to draw a conclusion to make a hard and fast rule. Please include the research you’ve done, or consider if your question suits our English Language Learners site better. A sitting parliamentarian’s constituents are the voters within the electorate represented by him/her.

So it has an appropriate meaning but is potentially more general. As far as I know it’s nevertheless the “standard” alternative in this context. “Covering” is often used by my wife (a registered nurse) in exactly the way of “manning the help desk” in that it denotes responsibility without implying specific activity.

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Stack Exchange network consists of 183 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow, the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers. That said, I then choose to put a hyphen between any word I choose… When I am using the implied meaning of the prefix (whether it is non(not) or otherwise) because at least I choose to make it known and not up to interpretation by any reader… What my intent is, and this is whenever I question the meanings that exist by definition that the reader may choose from.

As you can see, it is quite defined in which each word is used. I can’t think of any that could be used interchangeably at the moment. All of them have different usages and can quite clearly defined in that different contexts. Is there a specific rule, or set of rules, that can be followed to know when to use each word? I have noticed that not is usually used with a verb, but I think that there sometimes are exceptions although I can’t think of one now. Actually looks better because the “freak” is attached to the “non-” as much as it is to “control-“, without the space implying the presence of a phrase break.

  • I have noticed that not is usually used with a verb, but I think that there sometimes are exceptions although I can’t think of one now.
  • That being said, if “manning” is the perfect and precise word, you should use “manning.”
  • “Constituents” are the people represented by a politician.
  • Constituents are people who live in a constituency.

“Constituents” are the people represented by a politician. I would use it to mean all those represented, whether they are voters or not, but there is room for some argument there. In most places “constituents” are a geographically defined group, but they could be, for example, the members of a profession if some body were organised to have representatives of professions. This version and its common interpretation express the intended motivating sentiment. Whether right or wrong, it claims that no single person in the group can outperform the whole group working together — so we should use our combined intelligence. Positive quantifiers are either singular in verb agreement, like each and every, or plural, like all.

“Manning the help desk” for instance often refers to a rotating role where a group of people share a responsibility in turn. This is somewhat different than what would have been meant by “manning the USS Enterprise”. In that context “covering”, “working”, “attending” may all have an appropriate use.