Questions tagged [non-native-english]
The non-native-english tag has no usage guidance.
87
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Which of the following sentences is the correct one?
Which's the correct form of writing the following sentence?
"Whose fault is it when you're someone's broken promise?"
"The person who made it or the person about whom it was made?"...
1
vote
0
answers
135
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Why would someone use their native regional accent instead of BBC English at an international conference? [closed]
Anecdote. A friend of mine works at the Chemistry department of a university in the Netherlands. My friend went to a scientific conference in continental Europe. The participants from continental ...
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1
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89
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What could expender mean in the following context? [closed]
I recently encountered the following text in a web page specification sheet:
Most tables have expenders in each line
and
There should be new tree named Item that is expended above type of
Items
...
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17
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5
answers
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Does "until now" always imply that the action is finished?
Neither my wife nor I have English as our mother tongue, but we use English to communicate to each other, which sometimes causes confusion.
My wife often uses the expression "until now" to ...
- 404
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2
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235
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What is a "stone core"?
In a book I'm reading, I found this:
Of course, even the most primitive tools of Home erectus (flaked stone cores called 'hand-axes') are far more sophisticaed than anything used by chimpanzees, […]
...
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3
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196
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Is "can be able to" idiomatic among native speakers at all? If not, what's its origin?
I've heard the expression can be able to consistently from a couple of folks from India, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. Here are a couple of paraphrased examples:
By signing up to our service,...
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1
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462
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Does Mia Khalifa speak English with an accent?
She immigrated to America at age 7 (other sources say ten) she seems quite fluent to me.
From Wikipedia
Khalifa attended a French-language private school in Beirut, where she also learned to speak ...
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1
answer
44
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Is there any better way to express this "I had to mouth these words"?
Please watch this video from 2:46.
I had to mouth these words also in the middle of the song. And, I sat up two nights. When I went on the sets, I had to do it between 10 to 20 elephants. They were ...
- 301
0
votes
4
answers
211
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What is the word when you admire someone and you do whatever he does in his life [duplicate]
The person you follow can be a famous person or simply one of your family members who influences on you. The influence can be good or bad. I don't know how to call that person. He is my model?! Not ...
3
votes
1
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What are the differences between Indian English and other (native) varieties?
From my observation, I can identify some differences.
Indian speakers use some Hindi words which are not found among native speakers.
Indian speakers pronounce 'w' and 'v' interchangeably.
Indian ...
- 301
2
votes
1
answer
224
views
Do most native speakers understand most idioms? [closed]
I wrote to a friend, who is a native speaker of English about visiting her father. I wrote
Should I give him a ring before visiting?
Here giving someone a ring is an English idiom which means ...
- 307
1
vote
1
answer
172
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Why do depictions of foreigners in English media compulsively insert foreign words from their mother tongue?
There is something that has been bugging me about depiction of foreigners in various English media (that doesn't occur, say, in Polish media).
The "foreigner" characters keep replacing common English ...
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1
vote
4
answers
227
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Dilemma of pronunciation [closed]
As a non-native speaker of English, I am often confused about pronouncing words. Is there any standard of pronunciation in the English language? As in, if I give a completely new word to some random ...
- 27
1
vote
2
answers
99
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Can we use "next of kin" for things as a metaphor?
Wheat has been man's next of kin.
Does this sentence make sense to native English speakers??
It's supposed to be a simile, meaning wheat is like family to humans.
It's a translated sentence from a ...
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5
votes
1
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378
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Is the expression "a first for my kind" idiomatic in this usage?
I ended up being dragged in a very heated debate with a (self-proclaimed) native speaker after a friend posted the following comment on the internet:
"... At last, I've been approved for something. ...
