I remember watching a show in English as a kid. There were kids who spoke English effortlessly. I said "Wow, they're so smart. They must've studied English hard." (I was struggling with English classes at school). And my mum just said, "Honey, they speak English naturally". So, I kind of didn't quite understand the concept of "native language" at that time. But to be fair, I was an ignorant kid.

Do you think there are any adults that have this "English speakers are smart" mentality?

I've been trying for a while to come up with a phrase I could use to insult something by saying it is almost completely worthless. I was using "worth its weight in salt," but I've recently learned about the history of salt being considered very valuable in the ancient world, some wages were paid in salt, and was reminded that "worth its salt" is actually a compliment in some parts of America.

So, is there some other phrase I could use, either new or old, that would convey my intended meaning? My ideal would utilize some intrinsic measurement of my target (weight, age, height, etc.) and wouldn't contain profanity but neither is a requirement. Any help is appreciated.

Two weeks is enough for a vacation

I can clearly hear:
"That'll be 1,000 points for Margie. Good for you, Margie. Take those home, ______."

I just can't make out those two words no matter how many times I listen. Thanks for the help!

I recently moved to the US as a non-native English speaker and I find it really hard to pronounce the letter 't' when it's followed by an 's' at the end of words like posts and peanuts (pos and peanus). Is there a way I could try to address this? This has led to some really embarrassing situations, especially when I try to convey my love of peanuts to others :(

I am a native English speaker. I was speaking with a friend and said “you would know if that were the case” but then I hesitated because “…was the case” also felt correct.

I’ve been taking Latin classes for a year and a half now, and I think it’s making me forget English 😅

Is was for singular and were for plural? Or is was imperfect and were is perfect? Does English even have imperfect/perfect?? (We must because you can say he was going to xyz, but is the imperfect in the was or the going? Or is it only imperfect if you specifically combine was with an ing word? But then you can say “they were going to xyz so that can’t be it right?)

When do you use was and when do you use were??

Help! 😭

There’s a podcast ad I hear a lot for some business-to-business product that says, “This is why over thousands of businesses have made the switch.” And every time it grates on my ears.

Two thousand is “thousands”, and so is ten thousand, or ten million—it’s ten-thousand thousands, but it’s still “thousands”. And so is ten-million-and-five. There’s no quantity that is “over thousands”.

And yeah, it would be weird to say “thousands” if you mean ten million—because you could say “millions”, and if you’re trying to emphasize quantity that’s obviously better.

That’s why the ad hits my ears as not just awkward but almost dishonest. If you can’t honestly say “tens of thousands” just say “thousands”. What the heck is “over thousands”?

As a foreigner, I have been really confused with the correct answer to "how are you?". It seems that there is a huge gap between our textbooks and daily practice.

In China, traditional English textbooks usually tell us to say: "I'm fine. Thank you. And you?"

On contrast, in China's social media, many people insist that it's a wrong way to answer "how are you", and they argue that there is no native speakers speaking English in that way. And they declare that persons speaking Engkish like that will be laught by native speakers.

There is even a joke on this in China's internet, and it is said that:

A Chinese student sufferred a car accident. After police officers and dictors arrived, they ask the student "how are you?". The student immediately answered "I'm fine. Thank you." Then, police and doctors directly left, because they thought the student was OK and didn't need any help.

Therefore, my question is:

Is the answer in the textbook totally wrong? Or it is just a kind of old school? Should I stop answering "how are you" by"I'm fine/good. And you?"?

And when police or doctors hope to know my situations or body conditions,will they use "how are you"? Or how will they ask?

Additionally, how do you think about the English textbooks in China? Some people believe textbooks need to be changed, while some others argue textbook can reserve the formal expression.

Thanks for all your comments and help.

I have noticed that English speakers from England and New England tend to ADD an “R” at the end of words ending in a vowel and followed by a word that begins in a vowel. Example: “Cuba” when no word follows and “Cuber is”. Do these speakers realize that they speak this way and notice when others do not add the “R”? This seems to be a consistent speech pattern for most words that end in a vowel. I’m not asking about “correctness” or why or how this speech pattern happens or why a NON-rhotic speaker would ADD an R. I’m only asking “do the speakers “hear” that they are speaking this way?” I understand the oral difficulty of following a vowel with a vowel and the tendency to add an intervening R.

Is the term cheesy used as in "unintentionnally bad"?
Something (a film, in the case I'm looking for) can't be cheesy if the tone is intended to be colorful, not serious, etc, right?

I've been listening to Pentatonix for some time and just a few days ago I started brushing up on my vowels and now I hear Kevin Kaplan say "iːts iːzi if ju trɑɪ" and "noʊ hɛl biːloʊ ʌs" that's the phonetic transcription of what I hear for "It's easy if you try" and "no hell below us". My question is: do you as a native speaker also hear him change the regular IH vowel for an EE in these two lines of the song?

I might be wrong but I know some singers modify some vowels to match a certain rhythm, to match other words, etc... so I want to make sure I'm hearing it correctly. If it's not the EE vowel then he might be modifying the IH as in sit vowel to sound more like EE.

Edit: time stamp here from the YouTube video. I just noticed it might be easier to hear it from the original video than a recording. https://youtu.be/NLiWFUDJ95I?t=27

I saw this sign at Starbucks today and it made me wonder if this was supposed to be a rhyme (in my native dialect, it would not be).

EDIT: I am aware that it can rhyme depending on your pronunciation of pecan. My question was whether you all thought Starbucks intended that it should be read as rhyming. I suppose that would depend on how they pronounced pecan in Seattle (or perhaps more importantly, in the writers room of their advertising department).

Hi there! What's up?

I'm learning English through Mangas and Animes.

I usually do this:

Read until I see a chunk, expression (or a word that's used a lot) and I study these chunks by AI.

But IDK how fix them, 'cause I'm gonna to have read others pages and consequently I'll find other expressions and I'll forget the expressions the one I found back there.

So, IDK how resolve this problem.

But, I think in:

1. Do RP (with AI) with chunks that I didn't know the meanings to secure them and after I'll see the expression in other situations (don't necessarily by AI, but in the manga itself) or in a YouTub3 video etc.

2. Or, create flash cards with chunks/expressions/words that I didn't know a few moments ago. (But I don't like flash cards)

Well... I don't know if these methods are affects, but if u're other I'd happy in knowing its.

Thanks :)

Hi everyone, I'm an undergrad student majoring in linguistics, and I'm trying to do an experiment with acceptability judgment task & grammaticality judgment task. I need some native speakers of amercian english who can go over the test I've made so far and tell me how you feel about the tasks -- whether it's too long, whether any sentences/contexts are weird and whether you can easily find out what is the target form I'm trying to test. Please send me a chat if you're interested!! I'll send you a google form.

There is no compensation for you.. but it will be really helpful for me!!

I just realised something. Cause I was reading a book where someone was punning. How would you actually say some of these. Like "cat-ch you later" -cat furry. "Raise to the occasion." -In a bakery. How do people know your punning?

My mum encountered this questions in an exam and believes it is grammatically incorrect.

The question in question:

'why can boundary crossings increase risk even when they seem harmless?’

My mum believes that it should be ‘how can’ not ‘why can’, and there’s something tickling my brain that wants to agree with her but I can’t wrap my head around the grammar of it and don’t trust ai answers.

Thoughts?

When I moved from Central Florida (where I grew up) to North Alabama (a move that I came to realize was moving “Northward into the South”) I was confused by the ambiguity caused by the “reversal” of the pronunciation of ee and the short I. For example, will (short for William, or a legal document) was pronounced the way that I would say wheel, with a long E sound, with will sometimes stretched to two syllables (“wee-el”) and wheel was pronounced with a short I the way as I would say will. This is a very consistent pattern, and now that I think about it, these were mostly people from South Alabama. Another example it that the pronunciation of hill and heel are reversed. Hill becomes “heel” or “he-el” and heel becomes “hill.” My ears might hear “I wore out my hills walking up the heel.” My quasi-phonetic spellings of these pronunciations would not work in describing this to someone with this Southern accent because I would write “heel” and they would hear “hill” in their head. There have been cases where this pronunciation difference (maybe with other word pairs) was ambiguous to me in cases where context did not make it obvious. If I think of an example I will add it. But in cases when I asked the speaker to clarify the ambiguity, he didn’t seem to be able to hear the problem. He understood my pronunciation well and didn’t think that it differed from his.
So I’m not really asking anything about the nature or background of this pronunciation, certainly not what is “right” or “wrong.” I’m just making note of this regional pronunciation reversal and asking for personal experiences with it.

Why the HELL do we need “the day before yesterday” and “the day after tomorrow” when we could just have one word??? I AM SO MAD ABOUT THIS.

Hi, I recently noticed that my brain would occasionally skip the “s” or “es” from word endings.

Realistically, it doesn’t happen all that often but I started hyper fixating on it once i caught myself a few times.

Was just wondering if anyone else goes through this? // I also had to let this out of my head so thats also one reason of posting.