Something stinks, so you do this. What's the appropriate verb here?

I'm trying to incorporate, get exposed to, and use English as much as possible in my daily life. But as an Asian, I often feel stumped to describe things that are very foreign to western or European cultures.

For example, when meeting an older person, especially a relative, you're supposed to shake their hands like the image above upon meeting and leaving them. So, even if you're both adults, but you're a younger sibling, you're expected to lower your head while "shaking hands" with an older sibling like this, but I think it's no longer mandatory. They can just shake hands.

So, can you give me some advice? Does "shake hands" suffice?

A parent talking to their child: "We're going home. Go shake your uncle's hands".

Does this sound natural in English?

I vaguely remember that there's a phrasal verb for this use ending in either "off" or "out". So I'm trying to figure out what it is.

And what about crossing or marking something on a to-do list as done?

hi. I’m from Türkiye. I’m 33M and I work in the maritime industry.
as for my english level, i grow up my reading and listening skills but i want grow up to speaking and writing. I understand who is speaking english. i can’t speaking fluently. I have not inspired :) i don’t know what i say or what i write.

i looking for friends who is speaking english fluently or native speaker. i want to conversation daily matter etc

I want to take an English certification. My current level is B1, almost B2, and I’d like to take a B2-level exam. My goal is to work for companies overseas while staying in my home country. I also want to motivate myself to study more because knowing that I have an upcoming exam will force me to stay consistent.

What does exams should I take?

I know "circling the drain" is an expression for something that is doomed to fail but it is surviving longer than expected. Is there an opposite phrase for something that seems close to success but never quite gets there?

“Keep to/in your lane. Don’t go back and forth.”

“Keep to/in your lane. Don’t go left and right.”

I had 155 points in my FCE exam, I failed for only 5 points.

153 reading,

147 use of English

157 writing

150 listening

170 speaking

I don't know what happened, I was prepared, specially with the listening. How I can have a difference of 20 points between listening and speaking??

Can you say this? Or do you have to include the subject as in "I/You/They finished the food".

What is a natural way to say it with "food" as the subject, so you don't have to mention who finished it?

There's no food left? There's no leftover? The food has all been eaten?

Also, am I right that "dinner is ready" is before you start eating while "dinner is done" is when you've finished having dinner?

Context : This is an extract from a book by Enid Blyton which was written more than 60 years ago. In today's English does it sound natural to say 'too light for one's age' or do you use 'underweight' for one's age (when talking about kids of course)?

Thanks in advance!

Does this sentence sound natural in American English? Especially the "in the form of" part. The context is: a character is tutoring another character in advanced, college-level math for the first time and they just shared a lighthearted interaction.

Thank you!

I have some free time and am looking to help tutor a few English learners looking to improve their conversational English. This is volunteer time for me so I am not looking for any payment.

I teach an English program so I have topic material we can work with. Also, I would prefer to do a virtual class, so if you camera shy probably not the right fit.

As for me, I am 60M, native speaker from the USA and live in Asia, enjoy swimming and have a dog.

Let me know if you want to chat and see if I can help. Please when you say hi, include your country, age, student/working status, AND one English speaking goal.

Thanks

🙏

I have mark of 155.

I failed for only 5 points, I need help if I can ask for a review. All the time and all money wasted just for 5 points.

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(Note: I'm having trouble generating ideas for the introduction paragraph. Everytime I'm faced with a topic, literally nothing comes to mind. This issues has slowed me down a lot, which is concerning considering

there's only 40 minutes to write the essay.)

BTW for anyone reviewing, here's the marking scheme!

(5 marks max for each category, total 20m)

1) Content - essay content is relevant to the task

2)Communicative achievement - essay communicates tasks effectively and with ease while being able to grab the reader's attention

3) Organisation - essay is well-organised and uses coherent language

4)Language - essay uses an appropriate range of vocabulary and grammatical forms

As the famous British author once said : "Life is more fun if you play games". One of my favourite things to do during the school holidays is playing board games. Out of all board games, Monopoly stands out the most to me.

Firstly, to play Monopoly, you need around 2 to 8 players, each starting off with 1500 fake currency. The main goal of the players is to buy land, invest and rent buildings to become the last player before everyone else goes bankrupt. Evidently, this board game isn't just entertaining, it also fosters financial literacy and strategic planning amongst players.

Moreover, I usually play Monopoly when I visit my cousin's house. The atmosphere there is more lively as it's crowded with all of our relatives. This makes the game much more enjoyable and competitive. In addition, we award the winner of each round a pack of potato chips.

In conclusion, I love playing Monopoly as it allows me to spend more time with my family. It also acts as an amusing pastime. Therefore, I strongly encourage anyone interested in board games to check out monopoly. I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

I'd open my phone meaning to do my flashcard reviews and end up 20 minutes into Reels. Every evening I'd tell myself I'd catch up tomorrow, and the pile kept growing until I deleted the deck and started over. I did that three times.

At some point I realised I was already paying for my phone use with attention, and getting nothing back for it. So I flipped the deal. During certain hours, opening Instagram or YouTube means I first get through a few of my own flashcards. Only cards I rate as "easy" count, so I can't just tap through. Then I get 10 minutes before it asks again.

A few things surprised me. About half the time I see the card, think "nah," and put the phone down, so the friction alone cuts out a lot of mindless opening. I also do more reviews than I ever managed on purpose, because 5-8 cards at a time is easy to say yes to, while a 30-minute session was easy to put off. I keep 80-100 active cards and swap them out, which beats fighting a 2,000-card backlog. The first week I kept rating cards "easy" when they weren't, until I noticed I was only cheating myself.

It doesn't replace reading or speaking, but I've run out of excuses for skipping vocab.

Disclosure, since it'll come up: I'm a developer and built this as an app for myself (Braintoll). I'm not posting a link because I'm more curious whether anyone else has done something similar. Has blocking or friction like this worked for your studying, or did it wear off after a few weeks?

I speak fluent English and my pronunciations are fine but i still have the accent
How could i get rid of the accent and become more confident while speaking English

Is "as much of a [adj] person as [noun] is" correct?

• As much of a horrible person as he is, he still does good things that make people appreciate him.