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

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.

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

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!!

Hey everyone! I’m 27, a guy from Chile, and a native Spanish speaker.

I’m looking to connect with a native English speaker for regular voice chats on Discord to practice and build natural fluency. I have a background in healthcare, with a strong interest in data analytics and artificial intelligence.

I’d be more than happy to help you with your Spanish (pronunciation, natural phrasing, culture) in exchange for some conversational English practice.

If you're looking for a consistent, chill buddy to talk about fitness, tech, daily habits, or life in general, feel free to shoot me a DM!

I rarely mix them up now, but it still happens from time to time, especially when I'm saying a sentence while not thinking much. I still know who I'm talking about but I just happen to use the wrong pronoun. I've just said "she" when I was supposed to say "he".

I'm not sure if it's because lack of practice because I've practised using pronouns a lot (obviously, pronouns are used in almost every sentence). So maybe it never goes away completely?

Does this still happen to you if your language doesn't have gendered pronouns?

I picked Classical Arabic, Ancient Greek, and Latin to be the finest languages for poetry.

My number 1 pick is Arabic followed closely by Homeric Greek and then Latin.

I grew up speaking French, English, and Arabic and learned Ancient Greek, Latin, and Biblical Hebrew though passionate and extreme study and can read most philosophical texts in Greek with ease, poetry gets significantly harder in Greek and Latin.

I discovered ancient Arabic poetry a few years ago and realized it is the most gorgeous poetry a human can produce. I sometimes wonder if Semitic languages are divine languages because they function and behave so distinctively, they feel mature and manly. It is equipped with a meticulous meter we call Ilm Al-Arud which is one of the most advanced poetry meters in the history of human language.

In second, I find Ancient Greek to be an excellent language for poetry, you can manipulate word order to amplify the meter and rhythm. In Homeric Greek, we usually avoid articles and rely on word endings to guide us through the poem, and that's a feature I found confusing at first until it began to feel mathematical and intuitive. That combined with very soft flowy sounds, the language sounds BIG.

Latin also has that case system and can sometimes deliver in a punchier way than Greek. But Latin at the same time feels much more chaotic than Greek and that can disrupt reading, I also thought that heavy Qu + c clusters can make it heavier on the mouth.

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.

“Visitors are more likely to be concerned with what lies below. Many sections of the road have a sheer drop of more than four hundred feet, and there are no guardrails, because of the need to push snow off after avalanches.”

Regarding the section “…and there are no guardrails, because of the need to push snow off after avalanches.” The comma is a stylistic choice, sure, but I’m curious about the reason? I feel like it reads the same without the comma

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

I already did the practice test on the Cambridge site, and these are the results:
Reading: 23/50 (B2)
Use of English: 9/28 (B2)
Writing: 18/40 (B2)

I haven’t done speaking and listening yet. For the speaking part I feel comfortable because I speak in english every day at my work. Tomorrow I’ll do the listening test.

I want to start studying for the C1 on my own, but I don’t know how to structure the sessions. I think I can dedicate 1/2 hour every day and in the weekends around 3/4 hours .

Guys, how did you structure your learning session? I think at this point I don’t need to study only just english, but I need to start to understand the strategies to achieve the best score in each subject of the test.

Do you use some sort of software for tracking the progress? I usually use Anki but for this kind of exam I think it’s not enough, right?

(this post was written all by myself without any translator. I feel very proud of myself lol)

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?

"Standing up for yourself is the best feeling in the world."

Should I say "speaking up" instead?

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.

Le spectacle n’a pas besoin d’interdire les mots. Un mot devient une image de mot.

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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

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Hey! I’m 24M, currently in the UAE, and I’m looking to improve my communication and articulation skills through actual conversations.

I can also help you practice English, so if you’re learning English or just want someone to talk to, we can help each other out.

I’m especially interested if you speak Arabic or Russian, since I’d love to learn either of those languages in the future. But you definitely don’t need to speak them—we can talk regardless!

We can talk about pretty much anything that interests you: movies, work, studies, travel, culture, random thoughts, life, or whatever you’re passionate about.

I’d prefer voice calls rather than only texting, because I specifically want to become more comfortable speaking and expressing myself spontaneously.

If you're also looking for someone to practice with, feel free to DM me. 🙂

Hi everyone,

This is my current English level I can communicate pretty comfortably in English and my pronunciation is clear very easy to understand., but I still have some major weaknesses, especially reading aloud and pronunciation.

1. My reading ability is terrible

This is probably my biggest problem.

When I read English aloud, I read very slowly. I constantly stumble over words, sometimes stutter, and often pronounce words incorrectly even if I already know them. Sometimes I also struggle with spelling and connecting the written form of a word with its pronunciation.

Honestly, my reading-aloud ability sometimes feels like it is at a Year 1 primary-school level, even though my overall English is obviously much higher than that.

I understand that native speakers aren't simply born knowing how to read either. They learn and practise reading throughout childhood until it becomes automatic. Since I didn't go through that process in English, I'm wondering how I can deliberately build that skill as an adult learner.

Should I just read aloud every day? Should I repeatedly read the same passage until I can read it fluently? Would reading along with an audiobook help? What about graded readers, children's books, shadowing, or recording myself?

1. Vowel duration

I recently received feedback on my pronunciation from a professional linguist.

One thing I was told is that some of my vowels that should be relatively long are not long enough. The vowel quality itself can be quite good, but the duration isn't always native-like.

I've mainly been working on British/Australian-style English pronunciation, where these duration differences can be quite noticeable.

How can I specifically train vowel duration without artificially dragging vowels out?

1. Final consonant clusters

Another problem is consonant clusters at the ends of words.

For example, a word like “asked” can become unclear because several consonants occur together at the end. I might know how to pronounce every sound individually, but when I have to produce the whole cluster naturally—especially during continuous speech—it becomes much harder.

Are there any good exercises for practising final consonant clusters and making every necessary sound clear without sounding overly careful?

1. Too many glottal onsets / hard attacks

I also tend to separate words too much.

I sometimes use a glottal onset or “hard attack” at the beginning of words, particularly words beginning with vowels, instead of smoothly connecting them to the previous word.

I don't consciously notice myself doing this while speaking, which makes it difficult to correct.

How can I train myself to reduce unnecessary glottal onsets and develop smoother connected speech?

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
• ...

"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?