A question for native English speakers?
Can I say "slender physique" or "slender stature"? Do these sound naturally considering that I'm translating a literary text from my language into English?
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.
What question could you ask a native English speaker and be able to discern where they are from from their answer?
You could simply listen to their accent, as you engage them in conversation.Usually, a native English speaker’s accent alone is enough to guess the country of origin. Of course there are people who have mixed accents because they have lived in various countries, but generally accent is still a good guide to find out where someone is from. Obviously, I assume that the asker would know what these different accents sound like. If not then the only recourse would probably be to ask them where they are from.
What are some questions that a non native English speaker could answer on Quora?
I agree with Mark Harrison and Miguel Paraz. Any of them is really the right answer to this question. If you are not very confident about expressing yourself in English, it might be easy to start with questions that deal with things you have good knowledge of. Many non native speakers fumble when it comes to everyday conversation but are well versed in the technical terms of their field. For instance, if you have a degree/work experience related to chemistry, you can start by answering questions in Chemistry. Another avenue is topics like Movies, Life and Living, etc. that have many questions that ask for personal experiences or opinions. There are many questions in Movies, especially, that can be answered with captioned images or bullet lists.But really, the only criterion to choose is to find questions that make you want to write. If you see a question that makes you think " I know the answer to that!" or " Hmm...some nice answers here but no one seems to have explored X angle." or simply "I have a story to tell!" that's all that's needed.You will find great writing to learn from here on Quora and plenty of users who will happily suggest edits to your content should you make any grammatical mistakes. So go ahead and write :)
Is it difficult for non native English speakers to learn how question words work in English?
Yes. It takes four steps to transform a statement to a question and if you get one wrong, the result is ungrammatical. How many people can do a four step process in their head that involves switching the order of unfamiliar things and get it right every time?Here is a previous answer that works through an example.Mark Jones's answer to Why do learners of English as a second language have difficulty with why + verb questions (ex “Why did you do that?” becomes “Why you did that?”)?Thanks for the A2A.
Hypothetical question, what do native English speakers think about a non-native speaker who quotes the Bible frequently?
Frequently? I would find it tiresome.
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/
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?
Native English speakers, could you please help me with these issues?
a) "I feel gripped for this books." "Grip" in this context is a verb meaning "intensely interested". Therefore use "gripped by" not "gripped for" "This" is singular, "books" is plural. Use either "this book" or "these books" b) "This books really grips me." "This" is singular, "books" is plural. Use "This book really grips me." or "These books really grip me." c) "This book is gripping." It's technically OK though nobody really speaks like that, but I'll give you a pass because I feel merciful today.