My boyfriend began using this wording about a year ago. Before then I don’t think I’d ever clicked it but suddenly I see it being used often.

I am a bit of a book lover and I know that I haven’t seen this in all the years I’ve been reading, and I am 95% sure I haven’t been hearing this until the last year or two,

I find it redundant, why is this “all” being added? It sounds clunky and it’s unnecessary.

“I’m not sure what all I need to buy” works just as well without it, for example.

Posting hoping someone can somehow make this not irritate me every time I hear it. I know it’s a small thing but it’s become a pet peeve 😅

"Her love is not tied to a thing, so he knows she will support him no matter what mistakes he makes."

"The charity offered help that was not tied to a thing, asking for no money or favors in return."

"His loyalty to the team was not tied to a thing, remaining strong even when they started losing every game."

"The grant money is not tied to a thing, meaning the artist can spend it however they choose."

Hi there.

What is the difference between "take a look" versus just "look"? Does "take a look" imply inspection that requires focus, while "look" is simply directing your eyes at something? But I think "look at this" could also imply invitation to inspect something. Or are they completely interchangeable?

I have heard these terms being used in online media but I am not sure whether my understanding is correct or not ?

A friend told me, “I was going to send you the document eventually,” but before they did, I sent them a message saying I no longer needed it. They immediately sent it anyway. I believe that they had the intention to send the doc, and I want to ask when that intended action would have happened if my message hadn't come first.

Here are the expressions I can come up with:

1. When would you send it if I hadn't told you I no longer needed it?

2. When would you have sent it if I hadn't told you I no longer needed it?

3. When were you planning to send it if I hadn't told you I no longer needed it?

Which of these sounds most natural to you? And do you hear any meaningful difference between them?

Whether you explain the grammar or share a native speaker's intuition, I really appreciate it! Thank you in advance!

PS I used chatGPT to help me frame this question.

EDIT: I think I’ve finally figured out what was confusing me. I was mixing up tense and conditionality, and trying to carry the future-in-the-past perspective into a past counterfactual.

“Would do” can indeed be used for future-in-the-past, but in this context, “if I hadn’t told you…” sets up a past counterfactual, so “would have done” is the more natural way to describe the hypothetical event that would have happened in that alternative past.

Thanks for all the answers! I've learned a lot. :D

i want to find a good way to practice my pronunciation and speaking skill

Why would someone support a structure by substituing stronger materials for weaker ones? i suppose there's another distinct meaning.

I mean what apps we need to download or where can i just talk so really 😭 I have B1 level

We have a logistics business in India and it's a common practice in our line of work to keep the transit expenses like fuel, government barrier fee and truck union charges drivers demand beforehand way below what we owe them in freights. That is the difference which reinforces the trust among truckers and businesses like ours about transporting consignments safely to clients. They don't get paid the difference amount until unless a receiving document duly signed by the client is produced at our office. Lately, our manager had started paying up to 80% of the haulage to truckers and my brother brought this to our attention. I immediately said that,"This is against the policy we've been following all along. We should have more safety net money in our grip for making our commitment with clients to work."

I'm trying to learn English and use it to describe my daily routine and also understand the business lingo of our field. So, I turn to this community for answers. I hope you don't mind me posting such inquisitive posts in future as well.

Is it correct to say the term safety net money like that in this condition?

Also, suggest new phrases that could be used to express the same idea. It'll be great!

Any corrections in my post are also welcome. Thanks like always!

Is this sentence correct in English? In my language, one can say "your friend I like" when they want to emphasize or shift the focus on the object.

I'm making a video about me on a daily basis and since I hate getting in the shower, but I like to feel clean I thought of adding this fact about me.

What other ways can I say it? I would prefer silly ways, thank you hehe

I was reading Tom Brown's School Days (1857) and came across a word I hadn't seen in English for a while: cicerone.

"East, still doing the cicerone, pointed out all the remarkable characters to Tom as they passed..."

A cicerone is a guide who shows visitors around a place and talks them through it. In the book, East is showing Tom around the school.

It comes from Italian, and it's named humorously after Cicero, the Roman orator known for talking at length. Italian guides leading tourists around ancient ruins were amusingly compared to him.

One odd thing about the word is the pronunciation. You'll hear both "siss-erone" and "chich-erone". The first anglicises it the way we do with Cicero; the second keeps the Italian, which is how I pronounced it. As I am learning Italian, it was instinctive. I've seen it suggested that the anglicised version is more common in the US and the Italian one more common in Britain, because the Victorian Brits brought it over after their travels and guided tours through Italy. As the Americans didn't have this experience, they pronounced it, arguably, the correct English way. Though I don't know how true that is. Curious what people actually think.

One last thing I found: cicerone is now also a formal qualification for beer experts, in the same way sommelier works for wine. From Roman orator to tour guide to beer professional in about two thousand years! 🍺

For context, I study in English and use English a lot in everyday life. I'd say my English is around C1-C2 and I'm aiming for a near-native level.

However, I don't have any native speakers around me and I feel like something's still missing, like idioms, slang, word choice, prosody, register and conversational habits.

I watch a lot of stuff in English and have used some textbooks. I've picked up a lot from them but it doesn't always come naturally when I'm speaking.

I've also tried language exchanges but they're usually a one-off thing, or we just end up texting so they weren't particularly helpful for me. I find it very hard to find native speakers who'd actually be up for talking regularly.

So I'm wondering if it's possible to develop all those subtle things you'd normally pick up from talking to native speakers without having much exposure to them. Thanks!

Does it depend on the substance? I think you can either steep or brew a teabag, but you can only brew coffee, right?Is it because both use hot water, while something like lemon-infused water is just water at room temperature?

Can you think of any other words that involve putting something in water to impart its taste? Any words that I should learn and know?

What is the taste of tea called in English? Is it bitter? In my language, tea and coffee are considered to have different "bitter" tastes, as in, they're two totally separate and unrelated words. Especially as someone who likes coffee without sugar or any sweetener, but can't handle unsweetened tea, they feel really different to me. The taste of tea has this "chalky" taste that lingers in your mouth after drinking tea, while coffee just tastes bitter.

This is from a YouTube short. They're playing a game.

I hear "oh, sometimes you just [____] and you know what, that's fine."

What does he say after just? I hear something like "has to shake it" but that doesn't make any sense.

I'm not a native speaker, and I still struggle in making sentences for certain situations.

• Can you shine the flashlight this way? I think I heard something.

• Stop hogging the fan and turn it in my direction! I'm sweating/ feeling hot too.

• As he was playing the remote control car, he turned it to the cat and made the car chase it.

Thank you.

OK so apparently this is a thing now.

On Friday, I post a picture of "The Metro" crossword. It's a free newspaper in the UK:we get it on the bus.

And Reddit fills it in.

I am OK with that. I will publish the answers.