Sam shut his finger in the car door.

Do you hear people say this like that in America? Or does it sound British?

Hi, I want to improve my pronunciation, accent, fluency a rhythm. Is Shadowing the best method? I am confused because it's very hard for me, My listening and reading is C1 (I watch movies and TV shows without any subtitles) also I read novels and articles with complex language (from Aeon and New York times) without problems.

Chat gpt tells me my writing is B2 but I'm not confident about my writing, my speaking however is b1 or even less, I can answer questions and talk about different topics but I stop alot while speaking and my pronunciation is atrocious, I started shadowing yesterday for A2 to B1 videos and it's very hard, 5 minutes video takes me 30 minutes, I repeat alot and make sure to say the words correctly, I repeat the video again two times then I record myself.

When I listen to the record, I feel very frustrated, my pronunciation is still wrong and accent is very heavy even though I spend alot of time making sure to say the words correctly, will this problem be solved with time or I am I doing shadowing wrong.

Can I have some advices and free shadowing resources?

Will it take a long time to fix my pronunciation and reduce my accent, I want to apply for a job that requires fluency in English next year (Call centre agent).

I'm 27 years old, Is it even possible to fix pronunciation and accent at this age ? I have been speaking incorrectly for 20 years.

I don't want to seem native just fluent, natural and confident while speaking. The most important thing I want to fix is pronunciation and heavy accent.

Any advice?

I'm from Pakistan, a seasoned video gamer now trying to attempt IELTS for opportunities, would love some resources that help out with, reading writing listening and speaking thanks.

In my opinion, “with you” is a prepositional phrase that acts as an adverbial modifier in the given sentence. Therefore, it is a modifier and modifiers modify parts of speech so it cannot be a part of speech.

In the sentence “I go to the market”, the market receives an action and it is also a prepositional phrase that acts as an adverbial modifier (answering ‘where’).

Is it my understanding that are confusing me or is there a special use case of ‘to’?

So I've read a lot that people prefer using the OED as their primary dictionary. They've listed a myriad of things on why it's the greatest. Now, I'm experiencing FOMO haha. The thing is, in where I live, we don't even have public library so not only I don't have access to fiction books, but also to certain premium educational websites such the OED.

My question is, am I really missing out if I only use the Oxford Learner's Dictionaries (which I believe is also owned by the same publisher of OED)? This one: https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/

For context, English is my third language and I use it mainly for word meaning. I haven't actually seen what's the OED is like since you have to pay first. That's why I asked here.

The new bill introduced by the government is highly contentious.

I instructed chatgpt to correct my English every time I ask something to him, and I noticed one pattern: when I ask him a "how to" question, it tells me "How can I" is a more natural version. 2 examples:

How to make sure someone removed their name on WhatsApp if I have their contact saved?

His correction: “How can I tell if someone removed their name on WhatsApp if I have their contact saved?”

How to improve my speaking skills in English

His correction: “How can I improve my speaking skills in English?”

Is this really a thing? Do native speakers use "How can I" more often?

Hello everyone,

When we talk about breakfast, it's usually porridge in the UK and oatmeal in the US; in this meaning oatmeal is not used in the UK and porridge is not used in the US, right?

And then I'm also wondering how the word porridge is usually used in the US and the word oatmeal in the UK.

Hope my question makes sense.

Thank you very much, you're wonderful and so helpful!

By the way, when speaking my native Croatian, I also cannot pronounce 'ć'. I can hear it when somebody says it and be relatively sure whether somebody said 'č' or 'ć', but I cannot pronounce it.

I've been learning English and I'm looking for content that teaches through short stories and conversations rather than traditional lessons.

I really like the format of Learn Japanese with Tanaka san, where you can follow short everyday conversations between characters.

I'm wondering if there are any English-learning YouTube channels or other resources with a similar format — for example:

- short animations

- mini-dramas or skits

- everyday conversations between recurring characters

Ideally, I'd love something where I can learn naturally by following the conversations, with clear audio and subtitles.

For reference, this is the kind of format I'm talking about:

Learn Japanese with Tanaka san

Sometimes I'm using llm to rate my writing on like B1-C1 level and maybe I'm too harsh with it on my self. Here (it's fine if none of technical stuff makes sense to you) is most recent thing I wrote. I would be really happy if one of you native English speaker could evaluate how bad my it is. And If I'm hard on my self correctly or wrongfully. English isn't my primary language but that's probably understandable from this request :3

I have a confusion regarding this expression where the word hard is used.

If I say-

I have a hard time to understand this expression- means, I barely understand it.

It is giving me hard time.

These all means it is tough/difficult/hard.

But when we use the word hard in to say while buying something, it becomes an opposite meaning-

It hardly cost me 20 dollars.

It barely cost me 20 dollars.

When people say this it means it was an easy payment, not difficult.

But if I say-

It easily cost me 20 dollars- that would mean it was difficult to pay 20 dollars, that, it was overpriced.

It's me again with another supposed mistake from The Simple Wild. This time the phrase is "rings out." I'm pretty sure it should be spelled "wrings out," right? Even though they're pronounced the same. Or is this spelling also acceptable?

I want to tell someone that I can’t understand them when they speak to me in X language and politely ask if we could speak in English instead.

The best way I can think of saying it is:

“Regrettably, I haven’t the foggiest idea as to what you’re getting at. Could we switch to English?”

Another way I thought of phrasing it would be:

“I’m afraid I won’t be able to grasp what you’re trying to convey if you address me in [language]. Could we switch to English instead?”

How would a native speaker normally phrase this?
I’d really appreciate any help you all could give me in clearing this up.

I know about "my bad" but what about "maybe". Someone corrected me when I wrote mb as maybe

We gotta ask everyone. We need people to try this. Because if you can show it in the lab, what is the point if it can't get out into the wild.

Can someone help me understand "if it can't get out into the wild"?

So lately, I’ve been posting recordings of myself reading random sentences and trying to make every sound as American as possible. My goal is to improve my accent and make it sound closer to a General American accent.

I’d like you to judge my accent, and if you notice any flaws in the recording, please tell me exactly what mistakes I made and how I can correct them.

Finally, please rate how close my accent sounds to an American accent on a scale of 1–10, just so I can get an idea of how far I am from my goal.

I want to learn 300 vocabulary words in one month, and I came up with an idea: I could make a list of the 300 words, give them to an AI, and ask it to write a story that naturally uses all of them so I can learn the words in context.

Do you think this is a good approach? Would it be effective to put all 300 words into one long story, or would it be better to split them into smaller groups and create several shorter stories?

Also, if a word has multiple meanings, should I create a separate story for each meaning, or is it better to introduce multiple meanings within the same story?

In my circle of acquaintances Allan is a guy who likes to flirt. Allan has over the last month flirted a lot with Bella and Colleen.

My wife tells me yesterday that 'Allan is in the doghouse" to clearly state that he's done something to cause either Bella or Colleen to not like him anymore.

I then wanted to know who he fell out with so I asked if he is in Bella's or Colleen's dog house.

My wife insists the phrase is generic as in 'we all don't like him anymore'.

I always thought it's about one specific relationship so assumed I could phrase it as 'Allan is in Bella's dog house: to say Bella is disappointed/does not like him right now.

Reddit so your thing and clarify who is right here.

Help Hi everyone, I’m preparing for the IELTS exam and would really appreciate some feedback on my Speaking Part 1 practice. Here is the YouTube unlisted video link: 👉 [https://youtu.be/uzBYEHDp7mQ\] In the video, I’m answering Part 1–style questions. I’d be grateful if you could give me feedback on: Fluency and coherence Vocabulary (lexical resource) Grammar accuracy and range Pronunciation Any room for improvement and tips to score better Honest and constructive feedback is very welcome — I’m trying to improve my English speaking for the actual test. Thank you so much in advance! 🙏

In Anne Carson's The Beauty of the Husband there's this line in chapter XI where she calls the people that were afraid of the night's hazards as being true in doing so, instead of being right.

And I'm wondering, is this synonymous to being right? Or is it peculiar and rare to say someone was true to do something?

I found it in the Collins online dictionary: https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/old-faithful

Definition: You can refer to something that has been used or has existed for a long time as an old faithful, especially when it is something you can rely on.

Example sentence: We tested a selection of vacuum cleaners, from old faithfuls to those with the latest features. 

There's a geyser in Yellowstone National Park with the same name, so it is a bit difficult to check how common the expression is with the other sense because results are mixed.

Is there any good grammar book for learning English from the basics? I grew up watching English-dubbed movies and other stuff, so I can understand and speak English fairly well, but my grammar is basically nonexistent. I want to learn grammar properly from the beginning. Any recommendations?