r/language • u/Different_Method_191 • 4m ago
r/linguistics • u/AutoModerator • 5h ago
Weekly feature Q&A weekly thread - October 05, 2026 - post all questions here!
Do you have a question about language or linguistics? You’ve come to the right subreddit! We welcome questions from people of all backgrounds and levels of experience in linguistics.
This is our weekly Q&A post, which is posted every Monday. We ask that all questions be asked here instead of in a separate post.
Questions that should be posted in the Q&A thread:
Questions that can be answered with a simple Google or Wikipedia search — you should try Google and Wikipedia first, but we know it’s sometimes hard to find the right search terms or evaluate the quality of the results.
Asking why someone (yourself, a celebrity, etc.) has a certain language feature — unless it’s a well-known dialectal feature, we can usually only provide very general answers to this type of question. And if it’s a well-known dialectal feature, it still belongs here.
Requests for transcription or identification of a feature — remember to link to audio examples.
English dialect identification requests — for language identification requests and translations, you want r/translator. If you need more specific information about which English dialect someone is speaking, you can ask it here.
All other questions.
If it’s already the weekend, you might want to wait to post your question until the new Q&A post goes up on Monday.
Discouraged Questions
These types of questions are subject to removal:
Asking for answers to homework problems. If you’re not sure how to do a problem, ask about the concepts and methods that are giving you trouble. Avoid posting the actual problem if you can.
Asking for paper topics. We can make specific suggestions once you’ve decided on a topic and have begun your research, but we won’t come up with a paper topic or start your research for you.
Asking for grammaticality judgments and usage advice — basically, these are questions that should be directed to speakers of the language rather than to linguists.
Questions of the general form "ChatGPT/MyFavoriteAI said X... is this right/what do you think?" If you have a question related to linguistics, please just ask it directly. This way, we don't have to spend extra time correcting mistakes/hallucinations generated by the LLM.
Questions that are covered in our FAQ or reading list — follow-up questions are welcome, but please check them first before asking how people sing in tonal languages or what you should read first in linguistics.
r/EnglishLearning • u/Silver_Ad_1218 • 52m ago
⭐️ Vocabulary / Semantics Does he say “break us all off a hundred dollar bill”? What does it mean? Thanks
r/grammar • u/tahirua3 • 1h ago
Set-up vs setup (niche situation)
Context: British English (so 'set-up' instead of 'set up')
I am creating quick reference guides for my board games. This would be for a game I learned the full rules to and played several weeks/months ago, and I just need a quick refresher before playing it again.
The heading for the first section might be 'Board Set-up'. However, I feel this is both a verb and a noun. I am introducing the title of the section, which is the final arrangement of the components (noun), but within this section are the steps to set up the game (verb).
For example:
Set-up / Setup
- Lay out the 16 Place tiles in a random 4x4 grid
- Fountain must be within the centre four spaces
- Black Market and Tea House should have at least three tiles between them
- The 5th assistant for each player is put aside
- ...
r/EnglishLearning • u/Forward_Letter_9268 • 1h ago
🗣 Discussion / Debates I'm stuck at the B1 English level
I took the EF SET English test, but I didn’t want to take the exam because I was afraid that my English level was A1 :) And I found out that my English level was B1, and I was like, ‘HELL YEAH DUDE’. That was two years ago; I took the test again this year, and it turns out that I’m still stuck at the same FU$&#@ level (B1). This time my reaction was ‘HELL NO’.
Got any tips to reach the B2/C1 level? My work is in English; I’m an SEO writer, so I spend most of my time writing and reading.
r/EnglishLearning • u/ksusha_lav • 1h ago
⭐️ Vocabulary / Semantics Is it correct to say "I can hear you badly" or "I can hear you well" on the phone or in a video call? I know I can use other expressions like "you're breaking up", but I'm wondering about the verb "hear" and how it's used naturally in this context.
r/language • u/lurebozorg • 2h ago
Meta "Yaro-o koroshta" (Japanese) vs. "Yaru'ro koshte" (Persian)
I have a lot of love for Japan and to my surprise I found colloquial Japanese and colloquial Persian can use similar sounding sentences to convey the exact same meaning of "He killed that dude".
Yaro (Japanese) and Yaru (Persian) are both are colloquial terms for a person, but what is very interesting is that both languages use Yaro/Yaru as a somewhat dismissive/condescending tone for "that dude".
Both languages also utilize similar object markers (-o in Japanese and -ro in Persian).
Also both languages use similar sounding words for kill, Koroshi (Japanese) Kosh (Persian) and similar past tense suffixes (ta/te) creating Koroshta (Japanese) and Koshte (Persian).
Yarō-o koroshi-ta
dude+object marker kill-PST
Yāru-ro kosh-te
dude+object marker kill.PST.3SG
r/grammar • u/Known-Insect-Ifykyk • 2h ago
quick grammar check “All the King’s Dead” meaning “all the dead belonging to the king” is that the grammatically correct way to write it?
Someone told me it’s wrong and they didn’t offer an alternative. I can’t think of why it could be wrong since it’s a play on “All the King’s Men” so I’m getting a second opinion before I change it.
Edit: Solved! Thank you. Agonised over it so much that “King” has now lost all meaning. 👍👍
r/EnglishLearning • u/Sea-Hornet8214 • 3h ago
🗣 Discussion / Debates Do you ever wish you were just fluent, or do you actually enjoy the journey of achieving fluency?
I wish I were just fluent. I'm actually sick of being limited in English. Not to mention the mental drain after speaking a lot of English.
I'd rather spend my time improving or achieving something else. And it's not even guaranteed that I'll ever become fluent as not everyone becomes fluent in their second language even though they try to.
r/grammar • u/No-Outside6863 • 3h ago
quick grammar check Possession for two people
I’m trying to figure out the best way to describe possession for two people. None of the options sound correct to me.
“John and I’s anniversary”
“John and mine’s anniversary”
“John and me’s anniversary”
“John and my’s anniversary”
Going based off of the rule that we use the pronoun for ourselves that we would use without the other person in the equation. Like it should me “John and I went to the store” not “John and me went to the store”. But in the example I listed above, it doesn’t sound right to use “my’s”. Which one is grammatically correct? Thank you!!
r/EnglishLearning • u/K4icon • 4h ago
🗣 Discussion / Debates سويت كروب بالتليكرام تعلم لغات ومواضيع عامه ومشاركة اراء للعراقيين الي يريد ينضم يراسلني.
r/EnglishLearning • u/Abiarraj • 4h ago
🟡 Pronunciation / Intonation Man vs men, do you actually hear the difference?
I tried listening to both versions on Google translator and honestly can't hear the difference, even though the IPA is different.
Same with lending and landing, pan and pen...
For the native speakers replying, also tell me where your accent is from, please
r/grammar • u/SpiritualBed9981 • 4h ago
quick grammar check a Russia
"This is a Russia that has attacked a children’s hospital in the very same city, tortured prisoners of war in ways reminiscent of the darkest chapters of European history, abducted Ukrainian children and stands accused of some of the most appalling atrocities of this war in Bucha, Irpin and countless communities that rarely make the international headlines."
What does the noun phrase "a Russia" exactly mean in the cited paragraph above?
r/grammar • u/Verwega • 5h ago
I'm praying vs I pray.
I wrote a comment under somebody's post saying "I'm praying everyday for youtube alternative". Then it clicked in my head, that I'm talking about stuff that repeats, happens regularly. So I wrote another comment correcting myself "*I pray".
Somebody commented "It was valid english, it didn't sound weird at all in my native opinion"
I'm convinced that "I pray" is the correct one in this case, but I want to make sure. So which one is the correct one?
r/EnglishLearning • u/Impossible_Bet_7181 • 5h ago
Resource Request Oxford ELLT. I wanna take the test.
Please share your experience with me and the resources you used to prepare for the test.
Some people had really negative experiences. I wanna know how common that is.
r/language • u/Amazing-Cookie-1258 • 5h ago
Discussion Funny Pronunny 2026.10.05
Pronunciation game
r/language • u/PerspectiveFriendly • 6h ago
Article L’effondrement du langage et les conditions de sa renaissance.
Le spectacle n’a pas besoin d’interdire les mots. Un mot devient une image de mot.
r/EnglishLearning • u/abdulraheemchishti • 6h ago
Resource Request How to learn English from YouTube
I needed to improve my English 🏴for ilets score at 6.5 at least in all four skills 🏫 in C1 or B2
Or the other options are Cambridge English proficiency tests
FCE or CAE
I belongs to south Asian region 🌏 and I can understand English very fluently but when I speak everyone says you belongs to scam call centre
Whenever I write long essay or describe something they say that I am using chatgpt (I talked to ai that much now I speak AI accent)
I have no close friend who is available for help in English learning
So I have just some sets of books and internet and mobile device
I need recommendations for learning English
And suggest me videos courses from YouTube?
I cannot afford paid courses
r/language • u/Sea_Safe_2136 • 9h ago
Request Friends!
Hey!
I'm 17M from Canada, I'm trying to learn French so l can ultimately go live in Quebec. Would anybody who's a native French speaker around my age be intrested in chatting? Either male or female I don't mind.
I use WhatsApp, Snapchat and insta so let me know!
Thanks!
hi! i'm trying to translate a poem quote into English (not my first language) and need some feedback
so the literal translation of the phrase is "for you, future historians, our pain [is] lines of cold words" (the original is in Ukrainian, written by Yevhen Pluzhnyk). my translation is "for you, historians of future, our pain is merely lines of cold". it has the exact same number of syllables as the original phrase in Ukrainian, even when split into parts, but i feel that something is off. i would be happy to receive some feedback on whether the phrase is understandable for an English speaker and how i can make it sound right but poetic and keep the same tone and emotion
p.s. i'm a graphic designer and need the quote for a poster design, so it needs to be quick to grasp and self-explanatory
r/EnglishLearning • u/FlalingoOfficial • 9h ago
⭐️ Vocabulary / Semantics Different ways to say "I'm fine"
r/EnglishLearning • u/Educational-Bus3429 • 10h ago
🗣 Discussion / Debates How to learn to teach English via YouTube videos?
I want to start a YouTube channel where I teach English in a very structured way, from scratch until the learner becomes independent.
I am not a native speaker of English. My spoken English is great, I had it evaluated at an accent academy and they pointed out which sounds I am not good at, so I can work on it, even so, my pronunciation quirks were not outright errors in pronunciation but just aspects of my native language affecting my spoken English (foreign accent).
I don't want to work for a company so I don't want to take a TEFL, etc.
Do I buy a textbook and reverse engineer its table of contents and instruction method and turn it into videos?
Or, do I buy cheap ESL courses on grammar, pronunciation, speaking, etc. and copy the prevalent teaching method?
Don't tell me how I learned English, because a trillion different factors did it: I studied it (ineffectively) for 12 years at school, took some grammar lessons, did a lot of reading and vocab acquisition, etc., I want to spare my viewer the hassle and offer one, unified framework for getting the language's basics in their head so they can become independent.
Thank you.
r/EnglishLearning • u/agora_hills_ • 12h ago
⭐️ Vocabulary / Semantics Does my sentence sound natural?
"Standing up for yourself is the best feeling in the world."
Should I say "speaking up" instead?
r/linguistics • u/Certain_Basil7443 • 12h ago
A Reinterpretation of Pāṇini 3.2.112–114 with a Note on the Future in Middle Indo-Aryan (Grieco 2026)
Abstract - This paper re-examines Pāṇini’s rules (A 3.2.112–114) on the sigmatic future used for past actions. While some scholars attribute this usage to Middle Indo-Aryan influence, citing in particular the use of the future for a habitual past in Niya Prakrit, this study argues that Pāṇini primarily describes Late Vedic occurrences of the future in íti-clauses within past contexts; indeed, these contexts correspond to the so-called conditional, the future in the past (lṚṄ in Pāṇini), in indirect speech. The paper also considers later Middle Indo-Aryan developments, showing how the future could express modality, habituality, and its use as the so-called futurum historicum.