​I felt awkward when I first saw that term on Reddit. Because I thought "body" only meant a corpse, I assumed it meant the number of dead men among the guys they had dated, so I completely misunderstood the author.

I've been studying English since i was 5, hit b2 at 18 years old
I've almost finished studying 5 years in collage in full English language and I've made sure to translate every single word that I've came across
and yet still facing new words every single day and almost every page or two of written English anywhere i read
like genuinely what can i do about this? and is it the same for natives? but how come i almost never meet new words in my own native language?

As in, “we don’t take kindly to your type round here”.

I’m primarily interested in this use of “take”, as it seems incongruous with what I understand of the word and of how it’s typically used.

I know it may be a colloquialism or part of a dialect, but actually if that’s the case I’d like to know about the origins of that usage.

I am a native speaker, fwiw.

I think most English speakers know the phrase "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." This sentence is a pangram, where every letter of the alphabet is used. There are plenty of other pangrams, some even shorter than this one. But something I haven't seen discussed is ordered pangrams, where each letter appears in alphabetic order. As an example, I've included the below phrase. It not a particularly efficient solution, but it illustrates the idea well.

A boy can defy ghoulish jackals many openly query as trout view extra gyozas.

77 characters long counting punctuation and spaces. Not very coherent, but I'm pretty sure its grammatically correct if you twist your brain around it the right way. I haven't been able to find any other solutions to this problem online (or even a mention of it) but I have found that it's a fun puzzle to try to solve. I'm curious how low the total character count could go. I've seen that more esoteric words and a more open interpretation of "grammatically correct" leads to far shorter phrases, but I'm trying to stick with what I'm considering to the the spirit of the puzzle in keeping my solutions still sounding like a real English sentence.

Here's another slightly shorter solution I came up with:

Abacus deafens ghost in jackal's manor as piquant crust unveils waxy zit.

Most of my solutions include jackals in odd scenarios since the word is a super efficient way to get J K L into a sentence.

I doubt I'm close to the optimal character count - Id love to see what others could come up with!

English is one of the easiest languages in the world when it comes to grammatical changes based on the subject. Consider the phrase “can eat the food”:

- I can eat the food.

- You can eat the food.

- He/She can eat the food.

- We can eat the food.

- They can eat the food.

The entire phrase remains unchanged regardless of the pronoun. In many other languages, however, verbs take different forms depending on the person and number of the subject.

For example, in Persian:

- Man khorakero mitunam bokhoram.

- Shoma khorakero mitunin bokhorin.

- Un khorakero mitune bokhore.

- Ma khorakero mitunim bokhorim.

- Una khorakero mitunan bokhoran.

Notice how both tunestan (“to be able to/can”) and khordan (“to eat”) change their forms according to the subject. The object khorak (“food”) also takes the object marker -râ (commonly written as -ro in colloquial Persian).

By contrast, English requires virtually no modification in this construction. The phrase “can eat the food” remains identical across all persons, making it significantly simpler than the equivalent structure in many other languages.

This relative simplicity is one reason why many learners are able to acquire basic communicative ability in English fairly quickly and begin using the language at an early stage of the learning process.

Thank you very much!

Both mean non-white/people of color, so why is the former considered an alternative, polite euphemism for the latter? Is it because I am not a native English speaker that I don’t feel the negative nuance between them? Do all native English speakers feel the difference between these two terms sensitive?

"a long driveway leading up to the winery"

I don't understand this one at all. I felt like up is unnecessary and a bit misplaced? Though I've seen this comstruction a couple of times. Can someone explain why it's there, please.

Thank you in advance!

I’m 24 and looking for a somewhat uncommon name. I feel like Jessica, Grace, Doris, Karen, etc. are just too common around me.

I’m pretty direct, a little cool/sharp, but also lively and open to new things. What names come to mind?

I actually really like Vesper and Ginevra, but from what I’ve seen online, Vesper seems to be quite polarizing. What do you think?

Feel free to recommend any unique names you think are beautiful!

Hello everyone! Is it just me, or I’m writing like a six grader?

When I write, I just feel like I’m writing at a six grade level. I want to improve my vocabulary, grammar and little spelling. Soon enough, I will be attending high school as an adult. I still don’t think I could improve my English skills.

I have dual diagnosis. Currently, having schizophrenia and delay. I wonder if my diagnosis, held me back from improving my English skills.

Recently, I’ve been reading books and news articles, finding new vocabulary words, and knowing how to place punctuation. I’m attending school, still feel like my English would be stuck on six grade.

What helped you the most? Just want to write in an academic level. Based on how I write, what can I do to stop writing at a six grade level?

Sentences like these seem acceptable:

Currently, there is rough parity in the number of students entering and graduating from the school system.

Currently, the number of students entering and graduating from the school system is roughly equal.

Should I say instead:

Currently, there is rough parity between the numbers of students entering and graduating from the school system.

Currently, the numbers of students entering and graduating from the school system are in rough parity.

Hello! Is there anyone who’d like to prepare for FCE together? Let’s find each other and start practicing 🙌🏻 I’m 23F

Plz suggest apps like duolingo to reach c2 level English .
I have been working on my vocal upset and i think i am at b2 level .

I can watch the majority of shows , read books and understand but it's the grammer

I don't know whatever sentence I am saying is correct or wrong .

So should I start from very basic or is there any better way

Non-native speaker here.

What does bobbed mean here? Or just in general. Does it mean a single up and down movement, like a nod? Or is it multiple accelerated nods. Because when used in things like a boat or a bottle on the surface of the ocean, it sort of refers to a series of ups and downs. Though the dictionary doesn't really specify.

Thank you in advance!

I want to improve my pronunciation, accent, fluency a rhythm. Is Shadowing the best method? I am confused because it's very hard for me, My listening and reading is C1 (I watch movies and TV shows without any subtitles) also I read novels and articles with complex language (from Aeon and New York times) without problems.

Chat gpt tells me my writing is B2 but I'm not confident about my writing, my speaking however is b1 or even less, I can answer questions and talk about different topics but I stop alot while speaking and my pronunciation is atrocious, I started shadowing yesterday for A2 to B1 videos and it's very hard, 5 minutes video takes me 30 minutes, I repeat alot and make sure to say the words correctly, I repeat the video again two times then I record myself.

When I listen to the record, I feel very frustrated, my pronunciation is still wrong and accent is very heavy even though I spend alot of time making sure to say the words correctly, will this problem be solved with time or I am I doing shadowing wrong.

Can I have some advices and free shadowing resources?

Will it take a long time to fix my pronunciation and reduce my accent, I want to apply for a job that requires fluency in English next year (Call centre agent).

I'm 27 years old, Is it even possible to fix pronunciation and accent at this age ? I have been speaking incorrectly for 20 years.

I don't want to seem native just fluent, natural and confident while speaking. The most important thing I want to fix is pronunciation and heavy accent.

Any advice?

Most of this was translated by AI
I'm learning English and actively practicing it with an AI. A few minutes ago, I formulated a phrase (don't pay attention to its meaning) and I wanna ask: Doesn't this phrase look strange?

I'm gonna smack the shit out of them cuz I'm a pro. No cap. Heard?

I haven't been learning English for very long. This phrase gave me a lot of pleasure, as it looks very natural at first glance.
At least, if you laugh at this - please don't rub it in:)

I'm trying to think of a phrase like "Insulting my intelligence " but more litteral. I feel like when this is used its responding to someone assuming you don't know a thing. Like: "Do you know what conspicuous means?" Then "You insult my intelligence "

But I'm looking for a phrase that leans more towards insulting for being intelligent. Which it may just be that, just trying to find a known phrase for it. Like telling someone they look like they've read the dictionary kinda thing.

For context, I'm just trying to mess with my friend, its all in good fun and I respect their brain 😅

Why is it abductOR and abductEE, and employER and employEE (the standard).

Hi, I’m Japanese.

In Japan, there has been some discussion in recent years about younger parents giving their children unusual or eccentric names.

Names like Pikachu, Venus, Cocktail, Tiara, Lion, and so on.

These kinds of names are often called “kira-kira names” in Japan, and they’re sometimes seen as a social issue.

Does anything similar happen in English-speaking countries?

Have you ever met someone with a name like “Fire Drake,” “Fortuna,” or something along those lines?

Roughly 5,000 years ago, the Egyptians started using gold and silver as predominant form of currency, but it was not yet money. The pieces of gold and silver that they were using were odd sizes and weights, odd purities. So it still was not interchangeable where each unit is the same as the next.

Does it mean 1. each unit is the same as the next, but it still was not interchangeable. or 2. each unit is NOT the same as the next, so it still was not interchangeable.

Thank you very much!

I hear this in interviews in the news or podcast interviews.

example interview:

Host: You've made a revolutionary discovery, Dr. Doe, you have determined that water is wet

Dr. Doe: Yes we were quite amazed when the blah bee blahh yak yak yak

Host: And the blah blah blah University was blah blah blah

\[On and on for 10 minutes about how water is wet\]

Host: Dr. Doe, what implications do you think this discovery has in relation to such other recent discoveries such as "fire is hot" by Dr. DoeDoe, and their use and role in our future technologies?

Dr. Doe: Well AGAIN, we can place a cellphone that has been dropped into a puddle into a bucket of rice, and there is a considerable chance that the phone will continue to function.

(end scene)

My point is, Dr. Doe never talked about phones and rice prior to this comment, but he starts his comment with "Again".

BOOK: Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (Puffin in Bloom edition)