A question for the native English speakers?

1 Answer

Answer :

both seem technically true, but phrased in a way likely to get misunderstood. you might want to reconsider the usage of the word “certain” in those statements.

Related questions

Description : (Stupid question) Native English speakers, when do people use someone's first name, middle name and last name?

Last Answer : I’m fairly casual. If you’re using my full name it should be for a formal occasion. But I can see in a school situation maybe Mr first name or Mr last name.

Description : Native English Speakers: How do you feel about the American use of English?

Last Answer : answer:Listening to young Americans talk and using the word like' intermittently sounds very odd and confusing to me. She had this, like, red dress, and it was all, like, tight and stuff.' and then ... what proper English is these days, but I know poor English when I hear it, if that makes sense.

Description : Native English speakers, why is such an "offensive" word used widely as a first name (details inside)?

Last Answer : answer:The name Richard is very old, although its origin is disputed. Richard and Ricard were equally popular in the Middle Ages, and the abbreviations led naturally to diminutives-such as Rich, Richie ... associated with penis is not known, although the riding whip may have pointed the way. Source

Description : Native English speakers, when you speak casually do you use standard pronunciation?

Last Answer : I usually do, except that I tend to not pronounce the “k” in “asked”. When I pronounce it, it sounds like “ast”.

Description : Non-native English speakers, what is your opinion on the difficulty of learning English?

Last Answer : answer:I am a Polish native and thanks to satellite tv I am partially bilingual (English, obviously), so all I had to do was to polish up my English (pun intended :D) - I never actually ... you mean. Another thing English is great for is creating new words. Just splice two nouns together and voila.

Description : Glad to hear it / this / that - are all of these correct My question is addressed to native English speakers?

Last Answer : In most cases, I have seen "Glad to hear it" or "Glad to hear that", which expresses your feelings about smth you have heard or read. Is it ok to write "Glad to hear THIS", responding to some ... the received letter? Or is there no difference at all? I am not a native speaker of English. Thank you.

Description : Do you native English speakers use Future Perfect?

Last Answer : I would use it if it were appropriate. I can't say, Oh yes, I used it a week ago on Monday, but I have used that tense at times in the past. Of course, I know ... things in everyday conversation. I find that other native speakers understand me when I use formally, grammatically correct English.

Description : Why is it that many native English speakers can't write properly?

Last Answer : Some of us skip school and only learn how to pass the test and not how to write. I depend on spell-check just to write this quip.

Description : Native English speakers, how do you feel about the use of "gonna", "gotcha", "gotta"...?

Last Answer : I’m cool if they are capitalized at the beginning of a sentence.

Description : Speakers of other languages: do you notice as much incorrect and ignorant use of those languages (please name them) by native speakers as you hear and see among native speakers of English?

Last Answer : answer:I have always said of myself in my feeble attempts at best at being multilingual… “I can screw up grammar, syntax, and punctuation in about 6 languages.” Especially english, which is my native language.

Description : Why do non-native English speakers sometimes omit articles?

Last Answer : I think your theory is correct one.

Description : How many foreign native English speakers are there in China per year?

Last Answer : I found this article from 2005 which says that there are over 110,000 English-speaking expats in China. You can assume that the number has grown since then. I can’t find any recent figures. link

Description : What English words are most often mispronounced by non-native English speakers?

Last Answer : Many! I have found that it depends on the native language.

Description : English and French speakers, what does the English word "ti" mean?

Last Answer : Do ray mi fa so la ti do. Ti is a music term.

Description : What does English sound like to non-English speakers?

Last Answer : There is always this

Description : English speakers: How do you pronounce a schwa (ə) sound?

Last Answer : Schwa…Ahhhh Martyr = marter Minded = ehhhhd Motion = moshen or moshin

Description : Doing English practice. Asking native people for help.

Last Answer : Hi, and welcome to Fluther. I've made the changes that sound better to me: 1, we are the successor of communism. We are the successors of communism 2, please bathe your hands before you eat dinner. Please ... to go fishing a slender rod, a fishing reel and a hook are enough. I hope this is helpful.

Description : Do you ever notice someone is not a native English speaker, even though the person speaks fluently? How?

Last Answer : Very often the pronunciation, tone, pitch give a non-native speaker away.

Description : What does English sound like to a non-native English speaker?

Last Answer : That’s funny, I wondered the same…you know how many people say Chinese is “ching chong ching chong” or that generic insult? I wonder what American-English would be!

Description : Help me translate from Chinese to English, need a native speaker?

Last Answer : answer:Here's what Hyperwords does for it: Got out of bed has wanted many, the time too to be few too. Wants again to live suddenly for a lifetime.Although lives well, this speech still ... 's time makes more interesting matters, estimated later can not be able happy to regret for the present.

Description : Is this a common practice among native Italian speakers?

Last Answer : answer:My mother in law is a little old lady from Italy – and she does this also. counter = count potato = potat Even names. Frank becomes Fra – Marisa becomes Mari – Christopher becomes Christ which, frankly is a lot to live up to

Description : How do native Spanish speakers sound to each other?

Last Answer : Each country, and certain regions within each country have a differen accent…

Description : The US has more Spanish speakers than Spain! Does that justify Spanish becoming an official second language?

Last Answer : There are more Spanish than English speakers in the world.

Description : Speakers of other languages: when someone asks a question about grammar in your language (please name it), does it incite as much controversy and produce as much heated disagreement as do English grammar questions here on Fluther?

Last Answer : It can, as Finnish grammar is extremely complicated (14 different cases and 7 different verb endings)

Description : English question (details inside)

Last Answer : answer:About your friend’s resume….That’s a puzzler! I think, “To draw a line you should have start and close points,” is okay. In the second one, you need the articles. Otherwise, you are describing a single point as “start and close”.

Description : A question about the way my sentences are written (calling all English majors!)

Last Answer : answer:I think a period still follows the sentence like this ”...destination?”. And, all the questions start with a capital letter.

Description : English Question: Difference between these sentences.

Last Answer : answer:* “those days are gone”—> here, “go” is being used as a past participle adjective. The phrasal verb “go out” is not commonly used in this way, so “He is gone out” strikes me as strange. It’s not grammatically incorrect, just odd.

Description : Is "how to" informal? What is the difference between these two? A) How to start a pc? B) How do we start a pc?

Last Answer : Generally speaking, not as a question. "How to start a PC" would be a title or something you'd say before or in relation to providing instruction on how to start a PC.

Description : English speakers of Reddit, how do you pronounce the word “route“? Do you say it like “root”or “shout“?

Last Answer : Depends on context. Typically I rhyme it with "Shout". Though I tend to rhyme with "root" when talking about specific road names. i.e: "GPS says that I-80 is the best route" = shout "Take a left on route 44" = root

Description : Do speakers of other languages play with their words the way English speakers do?

Last Answer : I know the Japanese enjoy puns and double-entendre jokes in their own language as much as we do in ours. Does that count?

Description : What are examples of language sounds that English speakers do not routinely, if ever, make? What are they called?

Last Answer : answer:The French “r” and the Italian and Spanish “r.” The Spanish “v” and “b.” The French “u” as in “sur.” Most of the Hebrew consonants (lots of throat clearing there). The African click languages. The tonality and pitch sounds in some of the languages of the far east.

Description : For English speakers...Did they change the pronunciation of the name of the planet Uranus? Did they do it to avoid awkwardness during astronomy lectures?

Last Answer : As I am German, I never had that problem.

Description : When did English speakers start using "baby" as a form of endearment?

Last Answer : answer:“Chou” means “cabbage.” Affectionate diminutives can be almost anything. My first husband called me “petunia pea pod.” We split after 9 years. Here’s the Wikipedia article on the history of english Terms of Endearment.

Description : What is the most difficult language for English speakers to learn?

Last Answer : Inflectional languages, such as Chinese and Japanese, are often very difficult for English-speaking people to learn. Perhaps that is because English is not inflectional, but I’m not really sure.

Description : What is the origin of the accents in American English speakers?

Last Answer : answer:A manner of speaking for a specific country is called an ACCENT, such as a British Accent, or a an Italian Accent. Within a specific country, there are regional DIALECTS, such as the Southern ... , but I'm quoting him from his own writings. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Welk

Description : Why don't English speakers refer to a foreign nation, with the same name as their citizens do?

Last Answer : It’s not just English speakers. Depending on who I’m talking to, I might refer to Germany as Týskland, Tyskland or Germany…..if I’m talking about Greece, it’d be Grikkaland or Grækenland…..and so on…UK in French is Royaume-Uni….

Description : Which foreign language would likely be the easiest for a native English speaker to learn?

Last Answer : answer:Four skills needed; Reading, writing, listening and speaking. Spanish gets my vote. All of the Romance languages have the same grammar but Spanish is by far the easiest to pronounce. Speaking French well is a real challenge. German grammar is formidable as is their three-gender noun system

Description : I am not a native english speaker.I am going to apply a job.Could anyone help to check my cover letter,please?

Last Answer : answer:Dear Sir/Madam, APPLICATION FOR THE POSITION OF SUPERVISOR. In response to your advertisement in the Classified Post this week, I would like to apply for the position of Supervisor ... into consideration. I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience. Yours faithfully,

Description : Engineers who speak another language (other to English if non English native) How has it favored you with job opportunities and salaries? which country are you from and which language?

Last Answer : Need Answer.

Description : What are some good ways to improve English grammar and writing abilities for a non-native speaker?

Last Answer : For improving your writing you need to practice different stylesof writing, academic writing, recounts, for and against arguments,letters etc. You need to have someone to correct your writing andassess your ... .Writing is good to help with grammar as long as you have someonewho can correct you.

Description : What is a comparison about Spanish and English policies toward native American people?

Last Answer : Feel Free to Answer

Description : Is it not high time for the english language to replace the pronoun "you", with separate words for informal and formal contexts?

Last Answer : Why? As a native English speaker, the difference seems unnecessary and overly complicated. And now that you mention it, classist.

Description : How do you pronounce an English name and the name of a book?

Last Answer : I’ve never heard Maurice pronounced any other way than as Morris. I would pronounce the title of the book the same way as it is the name of a character in the book.

Description : Can you make the shortest sentence, that would be the first time written in English, ever?

Last Answer : I killed myself.

Description : When do you use "Anglophone", and when "English speaking"?

Last Answer : I only use the latter, because I operate under the axiom that my opposite has no idea what the former means, and believes I am talking about some sort of obscure musical instrument.

Description : Is there a software library for an English language dictionary or word list?

Last Answer : I'm pretty sure it's easy to find an English dictionary file as a CSV. Of course you'd have to write the code to pull it into a list and then run operations on that list. With about 200k ... and then iterated through it to find all of the palindromes and didn't recall it taking very long to run.

Description : What is the English translation of "patrouille" in context of infrastructure?

Last Answer : Small detachment of soldiers, of people to whom one entrusts a mission of surveillance, of liaison. If you suspect a different meaning is being used, you need to provide the context. I have no idea what you mean by “context of infrastructure.”

Description : Can you please find me an English to Spanish translator?

Last Answer : Here you go

Description : What score would an English speaker as a first language score on the TOEFL exam?

Last Answer : The question, to me, is how the TOEFL grading takes into account current English slang and common usage, and how much does it follow the grammar rules that we learned and forgot 40 years ago ... test reflect some theoretical and obsolete way of speaking and writing, or does it reflect common usage?

Description : How many English dialects exist?

Last Answer : There are hundreds, if not thousands of English dialects in the UK and throughout the world.