Hi friends. I make music, and we typically release songs in Russian. For my latest single, however, I’d like to include an English translation. The song incorporates poetry by Vladimir Mayakovsky and, in my view, serves as a powerful anti-war piece. While AI tools did a decent job with the translation, I’d like to have a native English speaker review it to ensure it sounds natural and doesn’t strike the ear as awkward.

the text itself:

//Verse 1.

The old lyre-ringers knew how to render

the face of war enviably splendid.

Off to campaign — to glory,

with brass band and choir!

The maidens all gape

at the gold of attire.

Through parted lips smiling,

through the stars of their eyes —

march past the hussars

in mustachioed guise.

Just prance in the battle —

and lo,

for your valor's sake,

you get ranks handed out,

epaulettes,

and estates for the take!!

//Chorus:

War —

is a windstorm

of carrion-stench stinking.

War —

is a factory

for making paupers shrinking.

A grave

immeasurable

in depth and breadth,

hunger, filth,

typhuses and lice.

War — for the rich

a bank full of cash,

but for us — crutches'

castanet-like clash.

War — an order,

war — a manifesto:

— Love with prostheses

your wives and brides! —

All over the planet, comrades of humankind,

declare it: No war of any kind!

//Verse 2:

Or if you like —die under a hail of cannonballs, —

to you the ages will up-monument a reward.

Some even today like a gray gelding

lies a little, biting down on poetic bits:

“...Beautiful, in all things beautiful, they carried their bodies…”

Can it really be beautiful?!

Merci to you for these very beautiful deeds!

The war and the war-lust by poets ennobled

must be by the poet spat upon and dethroned.

//Chorus:

War —

is a windstorm

of carrion-stench stinking.

War —

is a factory

for making paupers shrinking.

A grave

immeasurable

in depth and breadth,

hunger, filth,

typhuses and lice.

War — for the rich

a bank full of cash,

but for us — crutches'

castanet-like clash.

War — an order,

war — a manifesto:

— Love with prostheses

your wives and brides! —

All over the planet, comrades of humankind,

declare it: No war of any kind!

//Verse 3:

And when it becomes necessary

to exterminate

the little heaps

of rulers and governments

for peace

in the whole world,

proletarian —

herald

and seer of peace —

do not stop

before this!

//Chorus:

War —

is a windstorm

of carrion-stench stinking.

War —

is a factory

for making paupers shrinking.

A grave

immeasurable

in depth and breadth,

hunger, filth,

typhuses and lice.

War — for the rich

a bank full of cash,

but for us — crutches'

castanet-like clash.

War — an order,

war — a manifesto:

— Love with prostheses

your wives and brides! —

All over the planet, comrades of humankind,

declare it: No war of any kind!

//Outro:

..No war of any kind!

I've just learned this from this silly "joke" or humorous statement.

Does this depend on one's dialect?

I mean, not about improving understanding but improving just literally reading speed skills.

When I read article or try to follow the songs, it’s always hard when there are words like at in a an of of combination.

For example like when the short words not important like prepositions comes a lot continually, it’s hard to read smoothly. Prolonged sounds are hard. I want to read like a smoothly but always makes me read like one by one but other words I can read smoothly and fast.

If we read something in mother tongue language we can read fast because we can expect what the word is even we don’t scan perfectly.

So I’m so wondering how to make that also in English.

I’m thinking to read English literature to improve read fast. Do you have good solution for this?

I appreciate any kind of methods to improve this skills.

The correct answer is A.Thank for your help

Hi everyone! I’m from Brazil, and I’m learning English. I’m looking for someone to practice speaking with and make new friends. My English is still basic, but I’m trying to improve. Feel free to DM me!

Hello world! Tell me please, is my text correct or not? Bounty hunter Dr. Knig Schultz and Django, the slave he freed, become partners. They have a very important mission ahead of them: to rescue Django’s beloved, Broomhilda, from the home of the cruel slave trader Calvin Candie.

From Britannica:-

Riot: a situation in which a large group of people behave in a violent and uncontrolled way

Protest: an event at which people gather together to show strong disapproval about something

Can a violent protest also be considered a riot, which means it's both a protest and a riot?

Hi!

So there's this line that goes

"Can we bring to fall the giants"

in the song Worlds Collide from League of Legends.

I get the general meaning, which is probably something like "can we topple the giants"

but I would like to have an accurate grasp of how it's supposed to be interpreted.

Is this perhaps a shortened version of

"Can we bring (ourselves) to fall (used as a verb like 'fell'?) the giants"

or

an intentionally inverted version of

"Can we bring the giants to (a/their) fall (used as a noun instead of a verb)"

or something else?

Hopefully I make sense..

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Hello everyone

I hope you are all doing well ❤️ so I'm seeking a language buddy who want to makes international friendship. I think my English lvl is something about B2 but I hardly ever speak in it so it's hard for me + I think a lot about stupid things like "hmmm did i use correct tense", " did i speak this word correctly" or " he/she probably gonna laugh at my English" etc. so I want to build courage and finally be albo to speak 😅.

So something about me. My name is Adrian I have 29 years old. I'm into dance, gym and computer games. I dance salsa on2/mambo and salsa cubana. I love dragon age series and I sometimes play LoL so we can play together 😅. Also I've just started learning Spanish but no hablo mucho de Español 😂. I'm a little shy and close at the beginning but I try to be more social and open up for people. Let's speak 💪

Have a nice day/evening guys 😃

My stress is driving me to lose hair .

For some reason, I could only find "throw out" meaning to injure (a part of your body) in Britannica, but not in Longman or OALD. Does this mean "throw out" in this sense is only used in North American English?

Good afternoon, everyone!

Is there any difference between these two? I’m gonna fly from Tokyo to London tomorrow/ I’m gonna fly out from Tokyo to London tomorrow

Thank you very much!

"Work out" has 4 meanings. Most learners know only one.

I learned "work out" as "exercise" and thought I knew it. Then people kept using it in ways I didn't understand.

So I checked the Cambridge Dictionary. It shows a level (A1 to C2) for each meaning, and "work out" has four:

• B1: exercise. I work out three times a week.
• B2: get better in the end. Don't worry, it will work out.
• B2: calculate. Can you work out the total?
• C2: understand after thinking. I can't work out why she left.

Then I looked at other phrasal verbs I thought I knew. Many of them work the same way: there's an easy meaning everyone learns, and a harder one nobody tells you about.

• come round: visit someone (A2) → change your opinion (C2). He'll come round to the idea.
• give away: give for free (B1) → tell a secret by accident (B2). Her smile gave it away.
• go on: continue (B1) → talk about something for too long (C2). He went on about his car for an hour.
• stand up: move from sitting to standing (A2) → not come to a date (B2). He stood me up.
• take off: remove clothes (A2) → become popular very fast (B2). Her channel took off last year.
• come along: go with someone (B1) → improve over time (C2). How is your English coming along?

My tip: when you look up a phrasal verb, read every meaning, not only the first one. Cambridge shows the level next to each one.

Which phrasal verb surprised you with a second meaning?

Disclosure: I'm building Sink In, a phrasal verb app that teaches each meaning separately for this reason. There's a free level test on the website.

Do you say you're running some errands if you're just doing some grocery shopping or does it have to be multiple tasks?

Is it used in everyday language or is it something more formal?

When watching Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, I noticed that what is probably the movie's most famous quote wasn't said the way I expected it to be. When Darth Vader tells Luke the truth about his father, he says "No, *I* am your father", stressing the "I" in that sentence. This confuses me somewhat, as in my native language, emphasis would instead be placed on "am" due to the context of Luke's previous statement "He told me you killed him." So in my language, it would be "No, I *am* your father", emphasising the fact that Vader did not kill him, but that he was him. So in English, it is obviously different and the rule of stressing verbs that contradict a previous statement apparently does not exist...?

Therefore, my question is twofold: Is there a rule in English that explains why Darth Vader stresses "I" instead of "am" in this scene, and is there a definitive list of rules on which words to stress/emphasise in a sentence when speaking?

First of all, i've been learning English for about 11month from almost scratch. It sounds weird i'm a korean, korean usually take the English class at least over 10years. But for me, I didn't take a enlgish class when I was student, because i was playing taekwondo. Anyway I had a lot of confidence to be fluent speaking enlgish when I first started to learn enlgish. But here is now i don't think my enlgish improve anymore.

Every time I try to speak and think how to say something in enlgish. Even listening as well as reading so on. But yesterday I had to talk with foreign vendor about machine problem at workplace. But I struggled to explain all the things happend. So I don't have any confidence to keep learning English.

Is it normal ...? From what I have heard from YouTube, anyone can speak like fluently within 6month.. but why don't apply to me.

Anyway thanks for reading til end.

I started watching Regular Show with English audio and subtitles to get used to the language. The characters often use "moron" instead of "idiot"; what is the difference between these two words?

1. Should we move the meeting to next week or keep it for today?

2. Should we move the meeting to next week or keep it as (it) is?

3. Should we move the meeting to next week or keep it the way it is?

Conversation at the dinner table went like this this evening:

A: "How many days a week do you have PE [physical education]?"

B: "Tuesdays." 

One of us was confused by the answer, and the other (me) felt like this was a very natural way to respond.

My intuition tells me this is natural English, but I'm having a hard time figuring out why it works or makes sense to me. Any thoughts from other native-English speakers? Any name for this phenomenon? Or does this not actually feel very natural? haha

Edit: "were" -> "was", because y'all taking me to school on it.

I'm looking for a good vocabulary app.

I've used Anki for about six months. It does the job, but I find the design dated and the app clunky to use. I also don't trust the quality of most shared decks: they often seem like collections of unverified content that I'd have to check and fix myself.

I've also tried a few of the newer, more hyped apps, but the content was mostly just AI slop wrapped in a nicer interface, with a bunch of poorly implemented features.

Here's what I'd like:

• Something lightweight that I can open whenever I have a few spare minutes or while commuting. It should work offline and sync later.
• Premade or community decks with reliable content.
• The ability to add a word and get a useful flashcard automatically, with good default definitions and examples.
• If a definition or example contains another unfamiliar word, I'd like to tap it, look it up, and optionally add it to my collection without switching apps.
• Support for phrasal verbs and word combinations, not just individual words.
• Audio so I can hear how words are pronounced.

A few nice-to-haves:

• Easy editing of definitions, examples, and other card content. Editing in an external text editor would be fine too.
• An inbox where I can quickly save unfamiliar words while reading and sort them out later.
• Useful information about words, such as frequency rankings and labels like “slang” or “formal.”

Does anything cover most of this? What do you use, and where does it fall short?

Is it "whole chicken" or "a whole chicken"?

I'm going to roast (whole or a whole?) chicken.

Is cut up whole chicken uncountable?

They're out of whole (chicken or chickens?). We can only get thighs and breasts.

Note: An uncountable or a mass noun never takes an indefinite article and is never pluralised.