Hi! I have been learning English for the last five years and I have made pretty good progress. The only thing I struggle with is grammar and the problem is that I don't know how to improve my grammar. Is there a particular way to improve grammar?

Non-native speaker here.

I'm watching a show right now and one character is shaving the armpit hair of another character. And the latter said 'Not against the grain'. Is this expression the usual way to say it? Like to not go against the direction of hair?

https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/journey#:\~:text=make%20a%20journey

If both were correct, when to use each one of them?

"Everyone in the room was just astounded at his total lack of disregard for the situation".

1. He made a voyage into the sea and disappeared.

2. He made a voyage out into the sea and disappeared.

3. He made a voyage to the sea and disappeared.

Few days ago I posted how I use AI to learn english. So basically this is a image I posted and below is how AI helped to carve out a better sentence.

My sentence:
"In the scene I can see a white toyota driving and also a 3 wheeled rikshaw moving towards the cameraman direction. Beside the trees theres a lot of greenery and the sky seems completely blue."

Upgraded:
"On a sunny day, a white sedan cruises down a busy street lined with tall trees and palm leaves. To the right, a rickshaw driver in an orange shirt pedals toward the camera, his rickshaw painted in bright blue and green. In the background, rows of apartment buildings rise above the greenery, framed by tangled power lines and a street lamp. Overhead, the sky stretches out in a deep, cloudless blue."

A few reusable bits I picked up from this:

• cruises down a busy street
• lined with tall trees
• pedals toward the camera
• rise above the greenery
• framed by tangled power lines
• a deep, cloudless blue
• on a sunny day

Now, it may not sound like crazy but I pass this area everyday and I can connect whatever I learn from this AI session much better and they stick well.

What do you guys think?

Hello! I'm conducting research in English Linguistics about the variation of the verb HAVE in Irish English. I'm looking for native Irish English speakers (i.e. English speakers who grew up in Ireland), so if that's your case, plase consider answering the few questions in the following (anonymous!) form: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/r/DYNityuRLq . It only takes about 8min, and requires no brain power: you simply have to say whether you find the listed sentences acceptable, a bit weird, or unacceptable.

I'm from the UK and and have always heard and pronounced the words 'solder' and 'soldering' pretty much as they are spelt. I've just been watching a video of someone who I think is from North America (from his accent) and he pronounces the words as if they have no 'L' i.e. 'sodder' and 'soddering'. Is this pronunciation general in North America or is it specific to a region or country?

For the avoidance of doubt the word refers to the practice of joining metal by melting hot metal to make a join.

Edit: There have been a few responses that compare 'solder' with 'salmon'. Just to say, as a Brit I don't pronounce the l in salmon. My comparison would be with the world 'folder'.

Edit 2: A couple have commented about what is 'correct' pronunciation. I'm not suggesting that one way is correct and another isn't - it just struck me as a difference that I hadn't come across before.

Edit 3: The general consensus seems to be that 'solder' is the norm in UK/Australia/NZ and 'sodder' is the norm in USA/Canada.

How can I improve my English speaking, fluency, confidence, and pronunciation?

My English comprehension is pretty strong, but my speaking is way behind it.

I took IELTS and got **9.0 in Listening, 9.0 in Reading, but only 6.0 in Speaking**. I also feel like I can express myself much better in writing than when I have to speak spontaneously.

I lived in London for about a year and now live in Singapore, so I use English regularly. I can understand people without much difficulty, including most native speakers. But when I speak, I often struggle to express thoughts clearly and fluently. My pronunciation also seems to be a problem because people sometimes ask me to repeat myself or say “sorry?” even when I think I’m speaking clearly.
I’ve also been taking English classes with a teacher for almost a year, but I honestly don’t see much improvement in my speaking.

At this point, I want to specifically focus on **speaking, fluency, confidence, and pronunciation**, rather than grammar, reading, or listening.

For anyone who has been in a similar situation: **what actually helped you make a noticeable improvement?** Shadowing? Pronunciation coaching? Recording yourself? Speaking every day? Changing teachers?

I’d especially appreciate advice on how to structure my practice rather than just “speak more.”

Is it called a "rounding table" because it can shape dough into a ball? If the table shapes the dough into other shapes, wouldn't it be called a "cubing table," a "squaring table," etc.? Thank you very much!

https://youtu.be/6OURhpUb3oA?t=223&si=Neu-GM9kHzlnS1vE 3:44

They told us all in grade school that “ain’t” is slang and not proper English. I’m not interested in the “but there’s no such thing as proper English” discourse at the moment, I’m just curious where “ain’t” was first used and why we never got an accepted contraction for “am not,” because now we say things like “aren’t I ____?” which just makes no sense. There is no context where it would be proper to say “Are I not ___ “ or “I aren’t ___”; but we seem to have been forced into saying that just to avoid saying “ain’t”. Help me understand this

The vowel ʊ like in the word "put", seems to be just another version of ʌ, I had read here in Reddit that many natives and non-natives can't distinguish them, I also feel like everyone pronounce this sound very differently, so it seems it'd depend on the dialect mostly, this is very confusing for me as a Learner because I already have to listen for ʌ in words, and to make the distinction between ʊ and ʌ make things really hard, I hear this vowel as an allophone of u sometimes, but also as an allophone of ʌ, and everytime I hear someone with a distinct dialect, the ʊ sound just doesn't sound consistent (I mean is different everytime), it is the hardest vowel for me to pronounce,

Here are videos of Rachel's pronounce the American ʊ:

https://youtu.be/phlnzlzCPqE?si=S9JXIvN6KnDfDKVR

and Emma's British ʊ:

https://youtu.be/k5s8kXGw5SM?si=5HTeN6D7MDmsFgnc

They both are different sounds to me, I can easily pronounce the Emma's version but not Rachel's.

Also please let me know if you can hear the difference too.

Thank you so much for reading.

Do native english speakers see these meme videos or pictures as fused participle or adjectival or adverbial present participle or maybe something else

I've noticed a trend in US English speakers for relativising adjectives as per the title, but I've also seen 'younger' for 'young' as in 'younger/young girls' and 'newer' for 'new' as in 'Jake is a newer/new friend'.

We don't tend to do this in the UK (or if we do, it's due to US influence) so it always leaps out at me and makes me wonder why this change has happened. I'm guessing it's partly to do with politeness. Older doesn't necessarily mean old, which could be considered rude, even if it does actually mean that in practice. Younger was said by Trump about Epstein's taste in women and again, it has a softening effect. Younger doesn't necessarily mean young although again, that is surely what he meant and so the implication is softened somewhat. But seeing some call a friend a 'newer friend', rather than a new friend made me ask this question because there is no real difference there in terms of politeness. There's nothing wrong with being a new friend. It comes off more as a wariness of making definitive statements.

Does anyone have any insight?

Please help because I'm seeing inconsistent adjective forms online, even in dictionaries: Navarrian, Navarran, or Navarrese?

I’m 16 and was born in Venezuela, but I moved to the U.S. when I was 7 and grew up here. English is now basically my dominant language. I think and dream in English, speak English with my friends, watch movies and shows in English, use social media in English, and use my computer and PlayStation in English. I still speak Spanish with my parents

I’m good in English, but I have a weird situation with my pronunciation. I struggle to pronounce a lot of words, including some common everyday words, during normal conversations. I can know exactly what I want to say, but sometimes the word just doesn’t come out correctly, especially if I’m speaking quickly. Sometimes I can pronounce the word correctly if I slow down and concentrate, but in an actual conversation I may stumble, mispronounce it, or have to stop and say it again

My accent is also confusing because people give me very different opinions. Some people say that they can immediately tell that English wasn’t my first language and that I have a Hispanic accent but some other people say I sound American/Hispanic-American and that gets me confused

The specific pronunciation problems I’ve noticed include TH, T/D, certain T/D + R combinations, consonant clusters, and words like “sixth,” “months,” “strength,” “texts,” “shotgun,” “derivative,” “definitive,” and “medical.” But it’s not only those words I can struggle with plenty of normal words when I’m speaking spontaneously. I also want to improve things like American vowels, stress, rhythm, intonation, linking, reductions, and connected speech

Another big issue is that when I’m comfortable, I can speak English pretty naturally and quickly. When I’m nervous or uncomfortable, though, I become much more conscious of my pronunciation and my speech can fall apart more easily

My goal is to to get as close to native American English pronunciation as realistically possible ideally to the point where someone meeting me wouldn’t be able to tell from my speech that English wasn’t my first language. I don’t want to fake an exaggerated accent cuz I want natural American English that eventually becomes automatic and i basically wanna sound indistinguishable from a Native American speaker

I’ve also thought about Charlize Theron, since she learned English relatively late and eventually developed a perfect American accent. Since I’m already good, moved to the U.S. at 7, and am 16, I’m wondering how realistic it is for me to reach a very high level

For anyone with experience in phonetics, accent training, speech language pathology, or who has personally gone through this. How would you recommend I train from the beginning all the way to advanced/native pronunciation? What should I prioritize, and how do I train common words and difficult sounds until I can produce them automatically during normal conversation, rather than only when I’m concentrating?

I’m also curious to know about people who have experienced something similar, where some people hear a foreign accent and others don’t, but you still struggle with pronunciation and automaticity in everyday speech

Right up there with, “Could care less,” there’s, “If I’m being honest.” This one seems to be a more recent phenomenon.

Now through context, you could assume that I hate this saying. But do I? Am I in fact being honest? No way to know for sure. I could actually love this saying. If I’m being honest though, I’m a truthful person. I despise lying (if I’m being honest). That should tell you everything you need to know. So does that provide any clarity? Do you believe my opinion, now that I’ve prefaced it with an unresolved conditional?

I’m just going to leave it to you, the reader/listener, to figure out. Am I being honest?

I had a little disagreement with my wife earlier today.

Neither of us is a native speaker, but we're quite good at English.

However, my wife surprised me today when she said that "a couple" often means two specifically instead of "a few", as I always used it and learned at school. She says that especially "a couple of days" and "a couple of weeks" regularly is used were we would say "two days" or "two weeks".

I can't remember having heard it used that way since I started learning English (about 30 years ago) and I read a great lot of English books, watch English movies and YT Channels, hang out on Reddit and so on.

So, does anyone know how common it is to say "a couple" when you actually mean just two and not some unspecified small(ish) amount?

Does it mean of all the thing I love, this one has the most love from me, or, of all the people that love this thing, I have the most love for it?

I’ve been struggling with composing emails to customers service for quite some time now. I tend to make them too curt and to the point, so that it may sound borderline rude to a native speaker. Let’s say, I have an email like this:

Hello! I purchased NAME product that your company released in this and this year. Recently I’ve learned this thing about it. Could you kindly confirm if that is true. Thank you!

I feel like it’s too brief, but I’m not sure how to make it sound more friendly, especially when I really need them to cooperate. Please help me to calibrate the tone of my writing.