Question for all the native speakers of English.?
I'm translating a movie - the situation is as follows. A woman is sitting alone at the table, a guy comes and starts hitting on her. She politely tells him to leave. He gets the hint and says: "Excuse me while I go wipe the egg of my face". Is there some other phrase, or can you explain what he is saying. (Of course, there's no egg on his face). Thanks.
Survey question for non-native English speakers: how hard is it to pronounce the English brand name "SportExchange" from the perspective of speakers of your native tongue?
From the Finnish perspective, exchange is a bit difficult. The xch cluster is hard. Although Finnish doesn't have the ch sound, it is not hard to pronounce for us, but combining it with x makes it too big a cluster to pronounce easily. I think that exchange is not that difficult alone but sport before it confuses a bit. When I say it aloud, the result sounds like sport echange or sport ekshange if I don't strongly concentrate on it.
Question to English native speakers! What is the difference between these 2 words?
The ribbon is the actual item made of cloth material. The bow is the tied shape formed by the ribbon in the hair. If it helps, to clarify: You can have a ribbon that is not tied into a bow shape. You can form a bow shape from other materials besides ribbon (ex: shoelaces). Therefore, the two are not the same.
I need help from native English speakers?
http://www.livemocha.com http://www.sharedtalk.com/index.aspx http://www.language-sky.com/ http://language.derekr.com/ http://www.europa-pages.com/ http://www.polyglot-learn-language.com/ http://www.interpals.net/ http://www.xlingo.com/ http://www.tpn.info/ http://www.penpalworld.com/ http://www.japan-guide.com/local/
Native speakers of English, I need your help?
I need to translate a questionnaire about history and I am not sure if my wording of this question/statement sounds good as I'm not an English speaker. Do you think I need to change something to make it more understandable? What were parcels of allotment gardens usually used for during Soviet occupation? a) For cultivating fruits and vegetables for one’s needs as well as for sale. b) For leisure and relaxation. c) As a hiding place for keeping banned literature.
Can a native English speaker easily notice when a Quora question is answered by a non-native speaker? If so, what's the most common mistake made by a non-native speaker?
No. Not usually, whenever the non-native speaker is a very skilled english communicator.I agree with the comments here of G. Tomkins and W. Kasmer, but I also really notice missing punctuation (esp. missing question marks and semicolons), using commas or dashes instead of periods, using the wrong preposition for a category of words, and using the wrong synonym in a place where 1 or 2 or 3 other synonyms are better suited, and always tend to be used in a particular context, instead. Sometimes the exact bad word choice (i.e., “we went by shop” instead of “…to the shop”) will help me guess country of origin. E.g., see What are some grammatical mistakes that non-native English speakers from Korea commonly make?Asking someone to give a quick glance at something you've written, for possible edits, and/or, to take the time to correct you, when you've spoken awkwardly, is the best way to learn the thousands of typical word pairings and “better phrasings” that college-educated native speakers take for granted.No one knows all of the idioms used in English over the last 50 years, but native speakers will have a knack for noticing when your literary Trope, Figure of speech, Catch-phrase, Idiom, Bromide (platitude), or another Archetype is used in a way that suggests unintended irony, unintended criticism of, or insincerity in, the actions of the subject, or some lack of context to the rest of your written paragraph.See the answers to these Quora Q's for more:What are the most common mistakes that non-native English speakers make?What are some words that a 10-year-old native speaker of English knows but an advanced non-native English speaker does not?
Why do so many english native speakers claim that english is the hardest language to learn?
English is one of the easiest languages that there is, I guess. I've studied German for seven years and English for ten years and German is much more difficult to learn. English is very easy compared with German and the slang is easy too, because you hear it on the tv and on the radio etc.. Ad yes, it would be strange to claim that it is confusing or whatsoever to have a conversation with a British person if you're American. I'm neither and I can understand both perfectly fine. There are some different words in Br english and Am english (bonnet - hood, garbage bin - rubbish bin ..etc), but that isn't a problem. Also most English accents are comprehensible (unlike German!), but I admit that Scottish english/ Scottish Gaelic(?), for example, sounds pretty ufo to me. My mother tongue is Finnish and I can assure you, it would be harder to learn Finnish than English. There are 15 grammatical cases in Finnish, but none in English. Also Finnish words are long, because there aren't many prepositions in the language, so everything is just added in the word: Talossa: in the house Talosta: from the house Taloon: to the house Taloosiko?: to your house? Taloihimmekin: to our houses too istua "to sit down" istun "I sit down" / istahtaa "to sit down for a while" istahdan "I sit down for a while" istahtaisin "I would sit down for a while" istahtaisinko "should I sit down for a while?" istahtaisinkohan "I wonder if I should sit down for a while" (By the way, yhdeksänkymmentä = 90, päivänjatkoa = have a good day päivä = a day)