Generate the answer for a given question. The question requires common knowledge of English. Make sure that the answer is in detail, long, consistent with the context, and requires general knowledge of English. To be less repetitive, please vary your language for each question. Give a proper explanation to answer, and if necessary, provide the definition of various terms. And conclude your answer if it's long. If you have used other resources (e.g., Merriam Webster's.) to answer the question, include citations in your answer. You don't need to paraphrase the context of your resources, but make sure that your answer is consistent and complete.

[Q]: I'm aware that when we say things like: It's a cheap cell phone. That's a cheapo, throw it out. It does mean something is clearly of bad quality. But how about when comparing things? for example: Those shoes are cheaper than these. That hotel is cheaper than this one. Does it give the impression of lower quality, too? How subtle is it? Should I avoid it in any case?.
[A]: Cheap has two meanings. Cheap is often used to convey low quality. It easily gets attached to any object being described, even if the price is not low at all. These cheap shoes cost half my paycheck! It can also mean a price that is lower than expected. In fact, the original meaning of cheap was 'bargain'. To make sure it has this meaning, use the adjective to modify something related to the price and not the item itself. Look at the cheap price tag on these shoes! To illustrate, note how the meaning shifts in the following sentences: I bought a cheap laptop. I bought a laptop for a cheap price. The 'low quality' connotation is minimized when 'cheap' becomes the comparative adjective, 'cheaper'. It imparts some context that it is probably the price of two items you are comparing. However, because you are not stating clearly that it is the price that is cheap, it still conveys a the possibility of low quality.


[Q]: Is there a term for a word that means itself? For example the word word means itself and is a word.
[A]: From Wikipedia, emphasis mine: An autological word (also called homological word or autonym) is a word that expresses a property that it also possesses (e.g. the word 'short' is short, 'noun' is a noun, 'English' is English, 'pentasyllabic' has five syllables, 'word' is a word, 'sesquipedalian' is a long word, 'adjectival' is adjectival; see Wiktionary for a partial list).


[Q]: I'm having a serious argument with a friend on the status of the word 'suck' when I used it about him by saying 'You suck!' because he missed a train. We are both non-native English speakers. He claimed that I used it as a foul or slang term. I vehemently disagreed with him about it. I told him that the word 'suck' can be used to describe something inefficient or not good enough as well like it is used in the example 'Samsung mobile sucks'. Am I right to describe the use of the word 'suck' in such context?.
[A]:
Yes, you can use the word in the way that you have described, but it's considered more harsh than polite, and it has somewhat vulgar overtones. How it's regarded or received might be generational. I typed is suck vulgar? on Google, and found mixed responses. Feel free to do the same if you want diverse opinions on the matter. I thought this excerpt from a blog post, though, was worth pasting into an answer here: Some may not believe this, but suck as in 'Man, this class sucks' was also in the raw obscenity category when I was a teenager. It was used plenty in the school hallways but not in front of your teacher and never in front of your mother. I remember some agitation by certain culturally-advanced youngsters who tried to railroad their elders into accepting sucks as a safe and harmless substitute for stinks. The elders weren't having any of it, last I checked, but the liberalizing linguists seem to have carried the day. I have always assumedrightly or wrongly, I do not know that the word was originally intended to carry sexual overtones, which was the reason for its suppression. Today, the sexual overtones are either forgotten or are now acceptable in mixed company. I'm not sure which explanation disturbs me more. I think you and your friend are unlikely to come up with an agreed-upon viewpoint, because you're both right in a way. Feel free to use it on message boards and the like when you want to express a negative opinion, but realize you'll risk sounding a bit uncouth to some when you do. Then again, maybe I'm just showing my age here. As a footnote, you might want to check out our sister site, English Language Learners.


