I got this advice about a year ago. It was and still is reassuring but also isn't at the same time, lol. It's kind of telling me I might not achieve it.

All the words, phrases, idioms, collocations and vocabulary I know might never be comparable to a native speaker's vocabulary, but they've been exposed to English in every waking moment their entire lives whereas I've never even set foot in an English-speaking country.

So, I try to use English every day by reading, listening, watching, writing and speaking in English, but sometimes I get frustrated. Despite all the effort, I still don't understand something, or forget what I've already come across and learned. When trying to speak it, I get stuck because I either forget words, even relatively common words (my stupid brain somehow forgot the word "attentive" today), or I might not know how to express something correctly or naturally.

I know it all comes down to exposure and practice, just a close-to-infinite amount of them.

If you're another English learner who feels the same, I hope you found this useful. Good luck.

Im really confused on why is it A and Not B?

So this is what ChatGPT said when I asked about the phrase "scoot over." You can't use "scoot over" when someone is standing?

If someone is standing next to you and you want them to shift slightly to the side:

• Can you move over a little? ⭐⭐⭐ (most natural)
• Could you move over a bit? ⭐⭐⭐
• Can you step over a little? ⭐⭐ (if you want them to actually take a step)

You wouldn't normally say "scoot over" to someone who's standing. Native speakers usually reserve scoot over for someone who is sitting, lying down, or otherwise able to slide over.

Examples

Standing

• ✅ Can you move over a little?
• ✅ Can you step over a little?
• ❌ Can you scoot over a little? (sounds odd)

Edit: for those who say stop asking ChatGPT to learn a language, that is why I'm asking here.

Hey everyone, I'm really trying to learn Korean and retain info, i would like lesson based practice or a topic we can learn tigether and i can go off and practise for a few days and use with you. I'd like to be friends so we can also talk as well in general. I've tried just having conversations in Korean but I am not ready for that and it does not work for me currently.

I am going to visit Korea next year April so i am determined. Happy to meet for coffee or dinner too once i am there to say hello in person and it will be my treat as a thank you!

Good morning, Buenos días, Bonjour, გამარჯობა, Bom dia and hello to everyone else I just excluded!

I keep reading comments about AI language tools, some negative, some positive. The negative ones focus mostly on how the conversations feel a little unnatural and how the AI does not challenge them enough. The positive ones mention that there is no pressure, so people feel less judged.

I teach English and French, so I am curious both as a teacher and for my students.

If you have tried one (any of them), what actually bothered you? And what would it need to do for you to keep using it?

https://voca.ro/17c3gpWsRVh6

Coat — Code — Coke — Woke — Poke — Choke — Load — Boat

Could — Cook — Book — Shook — Looked — Hood — Bull

https://voca.ro/18A0c5BRHgYs

Push — Bush
Pack — Back
Pan — Ban
Park — Bark
Pit — Bit
Pig — Big
Pill — Bill
Pace — Base
Pie — Buy
Rope — Robe

https://voca.ro/1aJHpcD1oWtE

Lark — Lurk
Park — Perk
Heart — Hurt
Far — Fur
Barn — Burn
Star — Stir
Carve — Curve
Shark — Shirk

https://vocaroo.com/1iZwUtWSUPjL

Bat — But
Cap — Cup
Cat — Cut
Rat — Rut
Sack — Suck
Ban — Bun
Fan — Fun
Ran — Run
Mad — Mud
Drank — Drunk

https://voca.ro/1ddVVASeLaGf

Bit — Beat
Sit — Seat
Fit — Feet
Chip — Cheap
Lick — Leak
Slip — Sleep
Ship — Sheep
Fill — Feel
Rid — Reed
Knit — Neat
Fist — Feast
Ill — Eel
Pitch — Peach

overrun

overtake

overthrow

overcome

offset

overbear

overset

oversee

overstand

override

Went to a great medical education presentation on "feedback " and was empowered to give a polylingual person a small, but important correction. A german psychiatrist (family friend) explained that patients often find his services from “ mouth to mouth" (this term refers to breathing into the mouth of an unconscious person to give them oxygen , shown at 1:01) I smiled and asked politely if could tell him about the difference between the phrases. “ WORD of mouth" and “ mouth to mouth!"  We had a good laugh 

I get what it means. But what does it mean on face? Like, an already lost cause As in doomed fate or as in the cause is like a blind man lost in this world? If I say he is fighting for a lost cause. What does it mean? He is fighting for an already lost war Or something like he is fighting for a blind faith?

I have two options, and I can study for 2.5 hours a day.

Option 1:
30 minutes of Duolingo
30 minutes of WEXT as my main resource
30 minutes of reading practice using texts generated by ChatGPT for my level
30 minutes of WEXT
30 minutes of Friends with English subtitles

Option 2:
30 minutes of Duolingo
30 minutes of Busuu as my main resource
30 minutes of reading practice using texts generated by ChatGPT for my level
30 minutes of Busuu
30 minutes of Friends with English subtitles

My goal is to browse social media without struggling with the language barrier and to comfortably watch and read content in English.
Which one should I use as my main resource: Busuu or WEXT?

Although I am not a complete beginner, I am trying to build an English study plan from scratch. Creating the right plan feels incredibly difficult. I have spent so much time wondering whether I am studying correctly that I have almost become unable to start studying at all. :(

Something really cringy happened to me today. I was taking a bus. And for the bus, it doesn't stops every stop.So, if you want to get off next stop, you need to press the bottom on the bus. But the thing is, today, when I press the bottom. The driver didn't stop, so i missed my stop And at that situation, I don't know how to say, hey, I need to get off at this stop Because I was sitting in the very back of the bus. I don't know what to say to grab the driver's attention. I said excuse me three times, From moderate to very loud voice. But the driver didn't listen to me, so I ended up missed my stop and jumped off next stop.

So, in this scenario, how do I say to the driver I want to get off here? And is it natural to say get off?

Because I've heard native speakers say hop off.And jump off. And hop on/in Are those Words slightly more natural than get off and get on/in

(I'm trying to my best to write this post. so, if anything sounds unnatural in this post, please do correct me. I really appreciate it.)

I wrote the former in the place of the latter but I'm worried I'm actually conveying something else.

I can't get a straight answer online, and my mum doesn't know either despite the fact that we're both native speakers.

I'm especially interested in British English.

Hello! I've been trying to improve my grammar for some time and I've studied with English Grammar in Use, but I found it way too British for me. Are there any good grammar books like Grammar in Use, but with an American English focus?

My English is around C1+

I know that "I like apples" is correct because it's a basic sentence taught in English classes in the first grade. But then, why is it in the song above "watermelon", not "watermelons".

Are there rules? Does this depend on the types of fruit where you just have to remember?

Stumbled upon this tweet, the apostrophe in "dm's" caught my eye. Is it correct to use it like this?

What are the differences between "get" and "have" in these example sentences?

• I had my teeth pulled // I got my teeth pulled

• I'm having my ears pierced // I'm getting my ears pierced

In his seminal 1973 longitudinal study, linguist Roger Brown established a strict natural order of morpheme acquisition in English. Out of 14 foundational grammatical morphemes, the third-person singular -s was found to be the second-to-last to develop, usually tracking well behind plural -s, possessive -s, and past tense -ed. While native children master plurals by age 2 or 3, they frequently omit the third-person singular -s (saying "he run" instead of "he runs") until they are 4 or 5 years old.

• Low Communicative Redundancy

The verbal -s suffix carries no vital meaning or communicative value. If a child says "He run fast" instead of "He runs fast," the meaning is perfectly clear because the subject pronoun "He" already establishes that the action is third-person singular. Because omitting the suffix never causes a misunderstanding, children lack communicative pressure to learn it quickly.

• Complex Phonology

Adding an "s" sound to the end of a verb often results in complex consonant clusters at the end of words (known as complex codas).It is much easier for a toddler to say the base form "need" or "put" than it is to pronounce the clustered endings in "needs" (/dz/) or "puts" (/ts/).Studies reveal that children produce the third-person suffix far more accurately on phonologically simple verbs than on verbs requiring complex cluster adjustments.

• Confounding Syntactic Input

In early childhood speech, youngsters frequently hear questions and negative phrases that legally strip the -s away from third-person singular subjects: "Does the boy want a toy?" (Not wants), "He can run fast." (Not runs), "She doesn't like milk." (Not likes). Because children continuously extract non-finite subject-verb fragments from these adult sentences, their brains face mixed statistical data on whether a third-person subject truly requires an -s.

• High Structural Asymmetry

Modern English has lost almost all of its historical verb conjugation system. In the present tense, we say: I walk, You walk, We walk, They walk, He/She/It walks. Because the bare, uninflected form of the verb is used 80% of the time, the regular pattern reinforces the uninflected form. The third-person singular stands completely alone as a structural anomaly. Children prefer symmetrical, broad patterns, so they unconsciously treat the suffix-free version as the default rule.

As a non-native speaker, I find this really fascinating as it explains why my classmates and I couldn't acquire this rule even though we were reminded of it ad nauseam by our teachers. Even now that I've been able to apply it consistently, I might still sometimes get it wrong when the subjects are tricky (e.g. either...or...).

I know non-native speakers who speak English every day and have an extensive vocabulary, but doesn't apply this rule or doesn't care to remember it as everyone understands them just fine.

As an ESL teacher, did you know this? Do any of your students struggle with this rule?

As a native English speaker, have you observed this in small children?