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It's a reference to the idiom "stranger things have happened." It means that anything is possible.

More information: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/stranger-things-have-happened

Will is used to form the future tense but it is also one of the modal verbs of English. Modality is a grammatical feature that allows a speaker to indicate their personal attitudes or opinions about what they are saying. For example take the sentences, "Kevin is the killer" and "Kevin must be the killer". The word "must" in the second sentence doesn't simply mean that Kevin is obligated to be the killer as it would suggest if you just looked up must in the dictionary. It expresses a degree of certainty on the speaker's part. On the other hand, the first sentence is a simple declaration of a fact.

Similarly, will has a modal quality when used in this way to express a degree of willingness, choice, or consent on behalf of the speaker. "I admit that I have..." is therefore a simple statement admitting what follows while "I will admit that I have..." emphasizes the speaker's willingness to make the admission. While it doesn't change the overall meaning much, the distinction is important.

For more on modal verbs, I'd suggest the Cambridge grammar page which also has further links discussing the ways that each modal verb is used. For example, this is the page on will

>How do people pronounce "almond"? I heard a lot of people say "al-mond", but when I use the dictionary app, it reads "o-mond".

I would pronounce it "al-mond," though I suppose there may be accents that would pronounce it closer to "o-mond" or "ol-mond".

>"Didn't", my school teaches "di dent", and I heard some people say "dint". Which is correct?

I would pronounce it more like "did-ent" but "di-dent" and "dint" would probably be acceptable as well.

>A lot of people in my country pronounce "flour" as "flar". But, when I check, it is same sound as "flower".

>And "won", this, a lot of people pronounce it "w -oh- n", but actually it's same sound as "one".

Correct.

Also, if you're not aware of the site, Forvo is a great site when you're not sure how a word is pronounced. It has tons of native speakers pronouncing individual words and the speakers are from all over so you can hear US, British, Canadian, Australian, and other accents for the word.

Generally, yes, but if the name of the app is "Huawei mobile services", then the message should read the same.

And it wouldn't be the first app to be named like that. For example, note that the last word isn't capitalized in Google Play services.

A certificate is what you would receive for completing a course without completing a full degree program. Trade schools also grant certificates.

Sure, technically the actual paper is the diploma and the degree is the qualification, but I've certainly seen degree used to refer to the actual paper itself. For example, here's a frame for certificates, diplomas, and degrees. I suppose this could be considered a form of metonymy.

Thank you, I'm really pleased you found it useful. I try to post them occasionally here, but they're all available along with illustrations in the Naked Idioms book on Amazon. If you are a member of Kindle Unlimited, you can download it for free. I also have some free vocabulary games (idioms, adjectives and phrasal verbs) on my website which I think you'll enjoy :)

I prefer ebooks on my phone. I created an app for that. You can copy unknown word and the app's floating icon will be created on screen. You can tap on it, the app will translate the word, find usage example and add it to your vocabulary. Later you can study it using spaced repetition system.

The app is here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.vobr.astronaut.vobrapp

rail verb (2) railed; railing; rails

Definition of rail (Entry 4 of 4)

intransitive verb

: to revile or scold in harsh, insolent, or abusive language

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rail

rail verb [ I + prep ] uk ​ /reɪl/ us ​ /reɪl/ formal ​ to complain angrily: He railed against/at the injustices of the system

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/rail

Ah, well Indian English is pretty much a dialect in itself so perhaps that is considered a legitimate pronunciation there, although it would confuse most anyone else. Or your teacher is indeed confused.

For proof, check dictionaries for pronunciation guides. Here's one that gives both UK and US pronunciations with audio:

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/access

In general, the doublet 'cc' when followed by an 'e' or 'i' is pronounced 'ks', and when followed by anything else they are pronounced 'k', but there are exceptions (mostly loan words). And then there's "flaccid" witch is pronounced "flassid".

This is not correct. "To a man" means "without exception" or "every person in a group."

Ex: "Those soldiers are all bastards, to a man" means "every single one of those soldiers is a bastard."

Source from the Cambridge dictionary.

Edit: added a missing quotation mark

That's a huge, complicated topic, but languages do change based on their native speakers. If most native speakers are "used to speaking wrong", then whatever they're doing "wrong" eventually enters the dictionary and becomes "right".

In this particular case, woman as an adjective is in the dictionary, so it's technically grammatically correct, AND correct because it's commonly used.

There is a strict order to use adjectives together.

We don't just put whatever adjective we want first or second and so on.

See this link for further explanation.

​

I haven’t thought about this until I read your post. So I did some digging, I understand when to use each, but not the exact reason. I’ll copy something I read that to me makes sense:

“I observe that most uses of north as an adjective corresponds to a (presumedly) static location: north pole, north face, north side, a direct reference to the north as an orientation or a place.

Northern seems to be used as a direction, a movement relative to something else, a comparative. I note that northern is quite old and is attested as soon as the 12th, it could have an additional literary glow.

In the example given by phenry, Northern Illinois University, the northern is clearly used to distinguish this institution from other ones, using the relative situation as a badge. This strategy seems to have succeeded.

To me north can be used as an adjective but only in restricted situations, mostly conventional, meteorological.”

That is a comment on this site (https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/27584/when-is-the-use-of-north-more-appropriate-than-northern-and-vice-versa)

My explanation now It seems that the base version of each is used mostly as a noun and rarely as an adjective.

The latter version (northern, eastern, southern) are used as adjectives to describe a portion of a specific territory.

For example I can say: The northern part of the North Pole. While referring to the portion of the North Pole that is to the North.

(https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/east-or-eastern-north-or-northern)

English is my second language, so maybe someone could explain this better.

I hope this answer helps.

It probably looks funny because it's a postpositive adjective (it comes after the noun that it modifies, instead of before it). These are a bit rare in English.

In the case of proper, it will have a somewhat different meaning depending on its location. According to Cambridge Dictionary, proper before a noun means "suitable, correct, or according to socially accepted standards;" after a noun, it means "being in the central or main part or place." This last definition is the one that applies to your example.

using "score" instead of "get" gives the impression that the veggies will be gotten illicitly, like an illegal drug. this makes the given sentence sound comedic

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/score

> to get illegal drugs

There is a much easier way for this and you can always use it yourself.

Your search term for this is called corpus. You can search any word in a corpus to see that word used in thousands of sentences.

Here is an example of a corpus website.

Also look for other corpuses. There are much better ones.

You and your speaking partners are welcome to use the free app I developed to help people like yourself practice conversation for free. I would appreciate any feedback on what you like or dislike about the App as the App went live yesterday on Google play, it is free and it took 3 years to finish it. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.english_alps.EnglishQuiz

The Cambridge Dictionary online features the IPA for both British and American pronunciation, as well as recordings of a native speaker saying each word. It also features translations of the words into various major languages.

For most of my students, the biggest problem is not knowing what mistakes they make. To fix this, you need to have a teacher or native speaker tell you what you are doing wrong. Then you can see the most common mistakes you are making and really concentrate on those while you are practicing.

If you can afford it, a private teacher is the best way: http://www.italki.com. If you can't afford that, then http://lang-8.com/ is a free resource. You don't have the same person correcting your writing every time so you will have to pay attention to the mistakes that keep coming up.

Stephen King's entire collection is easy to read, a great example of written English dialogue, and they are all interesting books.

Your question is pretty broad, so my answer will have to be the same. Unfortunately, there isn't a simple answer. The best tip is simply lots and lots of practice. Any language is much more than simply knowing the definitions of the words; you have to also understand the associations/connotations those words have and the culture that the words are tied to so that you can understand all the metaphors and references that people use. That comes from lots of reading, lots of conversation, and lots of cultural experience.

As for your specific example, I'm not sure what the question is because it appears pretty straight forward to me. In this case, the word 'present' is being used to mean 'show', 'portray' or 'depict', so the question is simply asking how the author describes the character or how he shows what the character is like.

EDIT: Wait. Are you a native speaker? I would have assumed you were an ESL student in this sub, but you mean English literature, don't you? In that case, the answer is still pretty similar: read, read, read. Choose books, tv, movies, and conversation partners that will make you think. Read writers who are known for using language well (in any genre or style) rather than simply telling a good story. I found The Things They Carried to be an amazing book when I was your age so that might be a good one to see solid but simple writing. That will help in your own creative writing composition as well. For that, I'd also recommend good old On Writing Well. It a surprisingly interesting read and does wonders for you writing skill.

Could you have look at this link and give your opinion about how native speakers follow those rules on a daily basis or common talk?

​

^(Pointing out my grammar/style/poorly chosen word errors is welcome!)

If you're not using it already, try Grammarly. Not only does it check spelling, but it can also detect more complex grammar errors like subject-verb agreement, preposition usage, article usage, and punctuation. You have to make an account, but it's free to use.

For vocabulary, try using a thesaurus. I always use Thesaurus.com when I feel like my vocabulary is too weak or repetitive. Of course, you have to be careful that the word you choose still conveys the same meaning.

Of course, nothing beats having an actual person look over your work. See if you can find any native English speakers to review your work and give suggestions, whether it be in person or over the internet.

Yes, there is a difference.

Both Cambridge online and Merriam-Webster online will play the sound of the words being spoken.

Cambridge online has IPA pronunciations, which might make it easier to find an equivalent sound in your native language.

Note that British and American pronunciations can vary significantly. "Bird" is actually a good example of that. Americans pronounce that "r" much harder than (most) Brits do.

I second Cambridge dictionary!

And if you're looking for dictionaries specifically for learning English as a 2nd language try "learner's dictionaries" like the Cambridge Learner's dictionary: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/learner-english/

I also like yourdictionary.com and ldoceonline.com (Longman) for learner's dictionaries.

What's the opposite of 'Sit down!'? → 'Don't sit down!'

What's the opposite of 'Be quiet!'? → 'Don't be quiet!'

It's the imperative, which expresses an order to a single person (you) or a group of people (also you).

It sounds like he misspoke and meant to say would've nuzzled manes, something like this.

I also hear would've muzzled manes, but that doesn't make any sense.

If you know the name of the book, you can look it up on libgen.is. It will give you links to other sites that have PDF copies of the book for free, and you can choose to download from whichever site you want.

You can just say "citizens of the country". "citizens of the state of the country" Would sound weird and the phrase "state of the country" usually uses a different meaning of state, the first definition if you look the word up in the cambridge dictionary here https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/state.

As for your second question, yes.

It's a variation of the phrase: 'firing on all cylinders' The phrase means to be operating as powerfully and effectively as possible. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/be-firing-on-all-cylinders

A 'crank' is a part of a machine that would help turn cylinders.

And yes, season 4 had some of the best episodes of the Simpsons. ;)

a scheme is a sneaky* plan which is born from bad intentions (in this context)

"pull" means "do something dishonest" Cambridge

> she pulled the ultimate scheme

she carried out the most dishonest and unlikely plan.

edit: sneaky

> The question is how can I tell others that I can't explain it when they ask me to explain something like these?

You could tell them "It's hard to explain. It depends on the context."

Then ask for an example in context and explain what it means in that context, if you can.

Or just tell them to look it up on http://www.wordreference.com...

Some people have success with flashcards. A lot of language learners use Anki for making flashcards, but there are also sites like Memrise that do basically the same thing.

I've personally never found flashcards to be all that helpful with learning vocabulary, but they could be helpful if you're in a class where you have to remember specific vocabulary. For me, I tend to learn vocabulary through exposure by reading in the language I'm learning which, in my case, is Spanish. Common words and phrases will show up over and over again so you'll learn them just by seeing them so often. Unusual or uncommon words that might show up only a handful of times in several books can easily be looked up when you need to but otherwise forgotten since they're so rare that they aren't worth the effort to try to memorize them. In addition to reading, watching TV or movies or listening to podcasts will help to reinforce the most important vocabulary since you'll not only read it a lot in books but also hear those same words and phrases over and over. Eventually, even the more rare words will start to stick in your memory. They just take longer to do so than the more common ones that you read/hear all the time.

The New York Times quiz was:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/02/15/upshot/british-irish-dialect-quiz.html?mtrref=duckduckgo.com&gwh=80583D694DDBF3FFE928B3177185D75C&gwt=pay&assetType=PAYWALL

I also found an app:on Android:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ch.uk_regional&hl=en_US&gl=US

Not sure if it's available on other devices.

I know, I know.

But it’s a common idiom.

“Is anyone up for pizza tonight?”

“Are you up for visiting my sister?”

It’s not a lot more illogical that being “into” something as meaning you are open to doing it.

Some examples

As an English learner, I found the following sites useful to help my pronunciation: http://www.howjsay.com http://dictionary.cambridge.org www.forvo.com Also you can type the word you want to check out its pronunciation on YouTube by doing like this "example pronunciation". Hope they would be helpful!

We actually have many words for these people! Here's a few with examples:

Pretentious - Having or showing the quality of someone who wants to be regarded as more important than they actually are
>She's so pretentious when she runs around acting like everybody's best friend.

Pompous - Being full of one's self
>The pompous buffoon has no idea nobody likes her.

Conceited - Self-centered, nihilistic, thinking you're "all that"
>She's so conceited.

Vain - Same thing as conceited
>You're so vain; you probably think this comments about you.

There's plenty more and you can find plenty of synonyms here. But, if you want to get all 'ghetto American' on her you can loudly exclaim: "Bitch why you always feelin' yourself?" (However 'Bitch' is a profanity). Just another fun little way to call someone out.

Apart from other resources I use "English Grammar in Use" mostly to practice tenses.

You can either get a book or the app.

I've said this in more posts, but these are the best tips for practicing your English:

• When you search for things on the Internet, search only in English. This will force you to practice your writing and reading skills. Do not search in your own language. Do that only when you are looking for a local business or you want to buy something from your country. Otherwise, if you have school work, or are trying to learn something new, only study in English.
• Make friends who do not speak your language or cannot speak it very well. That way, you will be forced to socialize with them in a common language. And the most common, worldwide language is English. This way you will practice your speaking and listening skills.
• Practice your vocabulary with fun apps. I found one that is really nice and entertaining (also free and with regular updates): Ultimate English Vocabulary Game - Apps on Google Play.
• When you watch your favorite movies or shows, watch them only in English and without subtitles in your own language. That way, if you do not understand a word, you may be able to make correlations with the images on the screen. Or you will simply be more interested to search for that word on your own.

I hope this helped!

This is a good place to meet other English learners and English teachers.

I also recommend free online tools like Duolingo to help explain sentence structure and vocabulary. You should also play games, read and watch things in English.

Shakespeare's works, at times, are difficult even for native speakers to understand, especially because he uses a lot of words, register and grammar that we don't use anymore. If you are up for a challenge, I'd recommend downloading some of his works from libgen.is, see whether you like them, and then take a call if you want to buy a copy.

With most of his works, there are many versions by many different publishers, and some of them have minute differences. Since you are just reading by yourself, it shouldn't be a problem. You should also be able to find copies that let you see the old English text and its translation to modern English side-by-side.

As for which ones you might like, I personally enjoyed 'The Merchant of Venice' and 'Macbeth'. So you could give those a try, maybe you'll like them too.

Hmm well I looked it up and the google books copy doesn't seem to have the comma. Regardless it would not be considered correct today.

It's from the "Education: Roast and Toast" book, where it is dated 1872.

It's the same as any difference between the simple present perfect and the present perfect continuous.

Here's an article about it.

In this particular case the meanings are very close.

You 'put your nose to the grindstone' - this one would work. The bootstraps one doesn't.

> I went to a volounteer camp for a week where as a team we had to renovate a medieval castle. Long story short, we had to keep our noses to the grindstone working a shovel every day. Although it was a nice experience, it was backbreaking work especially for a teenager unused to so much physical labour.

"Freer" somehow looks wrong to me (American), but some quick dictionary searches give it as the appropriate comparative.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/free

OP should definitely bring that up with their instructor.

"according to Merriam Webster"? I find it hard to believe that Merriam webster specifically states that things on tshirts are not designs.

Here is definition 7 directly from merriam webster. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/design?utm_campaign=sd&utm_medium=serp&utm_source=jsonld

7: a decorative pattern : a floral design

I also find memorization very hard. I highly recommend a technique called SuperMemo or "spaced repetition". I have used software called Anki for this.

The key to this method is that it is very smart about figuring out how often to quiz you about different pieces of information. It tracks your right and wrong answers, and it customizes the schedule for each individual piece of information based on how well it "sticks" in your mind.

That might not sound amazing, but for me it made a huge difference. For one thing, it eliminates wasted effort, and that makes the process less frustrating. It's also very good at getting you to review pieces of information before you've waited too long.

In fact, it's so good at reviewing things at the right time, that it feels like hard work to use it. You don't get many easy questions. Instead, most of the questions can be answered but only if you think hard. But the work is rewarding because of the results you get.

Vocabulary.com was great the last time I’ve used it. Sometimes I use Anki for a DIY approach.

Though, as stated by another comment, it can’t be emphasised enough that it is important to see words used in the wild. If there’s a word you fancy, try to find a way to use it in whatever communication form available to you.

Ahah true. It sure is different with French. I lived in Canada for a while so my understanding of French Canadian and Québecois is okay. But some French people absolutely need CC to understand non standard French. The vocabulary and the accent differ too much ! As for English, the difference is only minor in term of vocabulary ( and even when it’s different, words are somehow self explanatory or close enough to be understandable ). The main thing is the accent ^^

ÉDIT: an exemple here: http://imgbox.com/kZ2xxmzk

It's used in sports as well:

>draft verb [ T ] (CHOOSE PEOPLE)
>
>- ​to order a person to become a member of the armed forces
>
>​- In sports, to draft is to choose someone, esp. someone in a college or university to become available as a player for a team that pays its players:
>
>The Cleveland Cavaliers drafted him in the first round.

Source: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/draft

At, because you arrive at a place. This link is also useful: r/https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/common-verbs/arrive

You appear in court.

A lawyer represents you in court.

To court, in your example, sounds weird. However, if you take someone to court, you are suing him.

I found this article regarding "look forward to" on the Cambridge Dictionary web site: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/verb-patterns/look-forward-to

> Look forward to something means to be pleased or excited that it is going to happen. The ‘to’ in look forward to is a preposition, so we must follow it by a noun phrase or a verb in the -ing form:

> I’m looking forward to the holidays.

I also agree with /u/Minion_of_Cthulhu that "We look forward to celebrate with you" sounds distinctly foreign.

You can go to Librivox and get audiobook versions of public domain stories. They're all read by volunteers, so sometimes the audio quality may not be great or they may not be very interesting to listen to, but the content is free.

Once you've found a book that you want to listen to, go to The Gutenberg Project and try to find the book's text. This site is an archive of 59,000 public domain books, and many Libri Vox readers find things to record from Project Gutenberg, so you'll probably find the book here.

Once you have the audio and the text, you can just stream the audio or download it and play it whenever you want to while reading the ebook.

Tell them to read books that they enjoyed in their own language that have been translated into English. If they don't exist, then find out what genre they like and find books for them. You can buy the books recommended here, but if they find them boring, weird, or uninteresting then they won't learn.

Also, if you search for "graded readers" you can find many classic books that have been scaled to the level of the reader.

Lastly, the Gutenburg Project has many free books, including audio books.

You've gotten some good answers already, so I'll just mention Forvo. You can type in the word you want to hear pronounced and hear native speakers pronounce it for you so that you can have a better idea of how a word sounds.

>For you guys, does the flap t in "better/whatever" (sounds like spanish r to me) sounds like the flap t in anxiety/reliability/graduated..." etc??

It may depend on the regional accent. For example, where I'm from, in the Midwest of the US, the t in water often sounds closer to a d which isn't the case in most places. The t in related/anxiety/graduated is pronounced as a more obvious t sound. In whatever, the t is pretty clearly a t as well. In better/butter and other double-t words it is very close to a soft Spanish r sound. In fact, I've heard that saying such words over and over very quickly can help train native English speakers to approximate the Spanish r sound since we often have trouble with it.

>Like the T sound in 'graduating' is the same as the one in 'whatever', which for me is not really true.

For me, the two t sounds are very close but not exactly the same. I pronounce both as a t sound, but the t in whatever has a slight emphasis to it so it sounds more like a t than the t in graduated which, if I just say the word without thinking about it too much, has a sound slightly closer to a d.

As I mentioned above, this might change a bit depending on where in the US someone grew up or where they've lived the longest. There are slight regional variations in pronunciation. Another example is the words cot and caught. In some places, these two words are pronounced nearly identically. You might want to check out Forvo and type in some words and listen to different people say them. It might help you pick up subtle differences in how people pronounce the same word.

>Please, correct my mistakes! :D

Your only mistake was in the sentence, "Are there any trick?" This should be, "Are there any tricks?" or you could say, "Is there a trick?"

To answer that question, no. There aren't any tricks that I'm aware of to learn or remember the phonetics in English which, admittedly, are quite confusing since English likes to borrow vocabulary from many languages so you get an odd mix of spelling and pronunciation. For the most part, you'll just have to make a mental note of the pronunciation of a word when you learn it and try to recall it the next time you see it. If you're not sure how a word is actually pronounced, you could try the site Forvo. Type in the word and you'll usually find an audio clip of a native speaker saying the word. Often, you'll have several choices of audio clips so you can hear how different people say the word to get a better feel for the pronunciation. If the word you're looking for isn't available (which is probably not likely) you can also request the word and someone will probably make an audio clip and upload it to the site.

But "a pen, a paper and a bag" is the subject of the sentence, with "there" used as a dummy subject.

You wouldn't say "A pen, a paper and a bag is."

Then how come "below" has no adjective definition in the Oxford English dictionary or in the Cambridge English dictionary? Both of them list only adverbial and prepositional definitions. I guess "images below" can still make sense if I think it is a contraction of "images which are (verb) below (adverb)".

Not according to Oxford or Cambridge. I don't dispute that's how it is pronounced in the UK but the spelling always has a third E.

Also just a fun show in its own right if you’re not an English learner. I was sometimes yelling the answer at them in my head though, like the one where they took three hints to get “bootlegging” or the one about license plates. I was rooting for the train people.

Future: be going to from English Grammar Today

“Going to” is used for things that are intended. You’ve made up your mind. “Going to” also suggests more action. Somethings not just going to happen; something’s going to make it happen. “Going to” is used for predictions that seem certain to us with the information we have. “Will” is used for things which are certain. Using “will” emphasizes the future, while using “going to” emphasizes the present.

The other main difference is tense and subject verb agreement.

Will: I will You will He will; she will; it will They will

Going to: I am going to You are going to He is going to; she is going to; it is going to They are going to

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/packet

/u/Cylar12 seems to be familiar with #1, and especially 1d. I assume you mean #2. /u/Plasma_eel is referring to #5.

The example sentences at the bottom of the page have "packet" used both before and after what is contained.

I suggest watching videos with subtitles on. Try YouTube or Netflix or whatever you have available. Let us know which streaming platform you have and we can provide recommendations.

Eventually you'll need the subtitles less and less and can listen to faster speech, but first start with full subtitles and pause frequently.

Edit: On a related note, when you see something you don't understand, here is a great translator to use. You can hover over the words to learn more about each, so it's better than Google Translate for comprehension:

https://www.deepl.com/translator

I learned this word when I was young from a story in an Arthur C. Clarke anthology. Basically a man's wife talked so much they started counting how many words they each said every day. She cheated to win and 'mysteriously' winds up defenestrated. No one can prove it was the husband but...

Hi mind-sailor! Interest is the most important thing which force us to do something on regular basis.
I would like to suggest please find interesting stories considering your level of English, and read/listen them again and again. You can also visualize the story in your mind during reading/listening. These two techniques would be helpful for you to use new vocab words naturally. I would like to suggest this site- https://librivox.org/

Where are you from? I'm from California.

I hear things like "we went out last evening"

https://ludwig.guru/s/last+evening. (a couple of these are different form though)

Both are correct.
It just means to put something in the limelight, make everyone focus on something.
See some examples here: https://ludwig.guru/s/put+attention+on+something

The whole sentence is describing something that happened in the past. They already chose the factory at some point in the past, and when they chose it they believed that it was very important to make sure they had access to a skilled workforce.

"Weigh heavily on" is much more common, and I think it makes more sense as a metaphor. If something is very important to you, then it's a heavy weight on you. Some people use "with" instead, though.

Sure thing. As a American, the first things that come to mind when the word "utensil" is used are all very small. Pencils, pens, spoons, forks, etc. Things that I am physically picking up and using towards a specific goal. I would consider a broom more of a utensil than I would consider a trash can or dustpan a utensil (probably since the trash can/dustpan sit on the floor). A receptacle, on the other hand, is always some kind of container that things are put into, usually for storage of some sort.

"Much" is only used in comparisons (except for "so much", I suppose). Something like "a lot of" would be fine grammatically, but it's not really needed here because yes, the context doesn't really warrant it.

As for the word order, it's not really something I can explain. "Cool" comes before "compact" because of adjective order, but I'm not sure about "cozier" and "more orderly". It may very well be because of the "more", but I can't be certain. It definitely reads and sounds better, though.

For reading articles online I find this tool very useful: http://readlang.com/

You can hover over a word you don't understand to see a translation, so it saves going to look in a separate dictionary. Of course, some words have more than one meaning so I don't know if it's always accurate but it's definitely helpful.

As someone said, reading is a great way to improve vocabulary. I think it's much better than vocabulary apps that teach you random words out of context.

Do you know http://readlang.com ? That's a great tool for acquiring vocab through reading.

One thing that's REALLY IMPORTANT if you're learning vocab through reading - you also need to learn the pronunciation for every new word. Don't guess pronunciation from the spelling because it's very likely you will guess wrong. Go to an online dictionary that has audio and listen to the pronunciation.

If you're not shy and like talking to strangers or random people for a few minutes then the app HelloTalk might be useful. Essentially, it will help you find someone who speaks English and who also wants to learn your native language. You can then call one another (for free, through the app) and voice chat for a few minutes or for as long as you'd like about anything you want to talk about.

> Should I stop translating them and try to learn from the context?

That would be the best thing to do. Of course, when you first see the word you'll have to look it up most of the time just to make sure that you know what it means. After that, you'll probably recognize the word but you may not remember it so you can try to figure it out from the context of the sentence which will eventually help you to memorize it.

Don't be afraid to look a word up several times when you see it. In fact, you could put it on a flashcard. A lot of language learners like Anki. It has a lot of options, but you don't have to worry about them. Just create a flashcard deck and put words into it as you find them. You don't have to do it with every word, but if you've seen the same word several times then it's probably important enough to remember it so it can go into the Anki deck. You can also put words in it that you find yourself wanting to use but you just can't remember them or don't know them. This way the Anki deck will be more personalized to your own needs and the words will be easier to learn since they're words that you're seeing a lot when reading or words that you just personally want to know because you find them useful. Once you have an Anki deck set up, spend 10 - 20 minutes a day on it. Go through it once per day and you'll quickly start to remember the words in it which will help you when you're reading and writing.

Anki is a great tool for expanding vocabulary. Other than that, you should just practice your English a lot. Read, listen, watch movies. Learning a language is a natural function of the human brain, but you have to supply data.

This site is designed for people who are writing creatively in English, but it might be what you're looking for.

As a native English speaker, I can proofread your sentence and show you how I'd phrase it:

> Hi everyone,

> I am currently learning English, and I'm having a problem.

> I need to check whether my sentences are grammatically correct or incorrect so I can continue to learn grammar.

> I tried Grammerly, and other similar apps and sites, and so far they haven't worked for me.

> How can I check my sentences for grammar errors?

I hope this helps D: I use Hemingway (the website I linked to) to check my own writing, and I'm always surprised by what I miss!

I've tried many apps to improve my English with short videos and this app and (voscreen) are the only apps that I'm still using.

I'm learning now with some history, I really like Anne's history because it is very funny and interesting.

https://www.amazon.com/-/pt/dp/0553609416/ref=sr_1_2?__mk_pt_BR=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&crid=2PISNYDTY8HAN&dchild=1&keywords=anne+of+green+gables&qid=1610799578&sprefix=anne+of%2Caps%2C278&sr=8-2

These are tips which I applied for mastering English. and which I believe everyone would benefit from:

• When you search for things on the Internet, search only in English. This will force you to practice your writing and reading skills. Do not search in your own language. Do that only when you are looking for a local business or you want to buy something from your country. Otherwise, if you have school work, or are trying to learn something new, only study in English.
• Make friends who do not speak your language or cannot speak it very well. That way, you will be forced to socialize with them in a common language. And the most common, worldwide language is English. This way you will practice your speaking and listening skills.
• Practice your vocabulary with fun apps. Here is one that is really nice and entertaining (also free and has regular updates): Ultimate English Vocabulary Game - Apps on Google Play.
• When you watch your favorite movies or shows, watch them only in English and without subtitles in your own language. That way, if you do not understand a word, you may be able to make correlations with the images on the screen. Or you will simply be more interested to search for that word on your own.

I hope this helped!

You can fallow these simple steps to Improve English Speaking-

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1- Learn Most Common Grammatical Mistakes

2- Learn Most Common Incorrectly Used Words

3- Do Individual Learning

4- Do Group Learning

5- Watch English Movies and Songs

6- Make handy paper slips

7- Took Help from best friend/relative

8- Use Speaking Tongue Twisters

9- Pronunciation Tips

10- Do not translate - Think in English only

11- Practice, Practice and Practice

12- Use gestures: These include gestures with your hands and face. Make your whole body talk.

12- Speak in front of mirror

13- Participate in English conversations: Listen, talk and learn

14- Make eye contact with the person with whom you are talking

​

You can Download Android Application in Google Play for Improve English Speaking - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.brain2016.speaking

My Word List: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fortylove.mywordlist.free

It comes with a dictionary with example sentences - helps you save your words and learn new vocabulary.

In addition to reading good books as others suggested, I recommend On Writing Well by William Zinsser. Rather than worrying to much about grammar or rules, he talks about how to craft (and edit!) your language well. The advice he gives could work in any language really.

The easiest way for you @Yucares to interpret this would be like this; a) The world is (nothing) but a treat, and b) The enemy is (nothing) but a mountain. The second one is harder to interpret, and therefore the context of the sentence is important. In this case, it means the enemy is like a mountain, i.e. hard to defeat. Cheers... IF you are interested, Android app to learn peculiarities like this: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.upen.learnenglish

I think it has more to do with the binding than with the size. A spiral bound notebook would almost always be a notebook. Something with a more definite cover like this or this could be called a book more easily

There are a ton of different types of notebooks. I may casually call this a book, but I'd probably always call this a notebook.

Either way, calling a notebook a book wouldn't be wrong, especially if it was quick and casual, like if I saw someone drop one and wasn't immediately sure exactly what it was.

For spoken English, Practice with Feedback works best. Just speaking with a friend and asking him to give honest feedback on your speech rate, nervousness, or pronunciation can help you improve a lot. Alternatively record yourself & try to rate yourself while listening it

You can also take help of apps for that. For ex- This is an app we are working on in college, can be helpful for recorded practice, check it out here - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.stimuler

Wish you all the best!!

You lie yourself down (lying). You lay something else down.

I am lying on the bed. The cat lies on the floor.

I’m laying my clothes on the dresser top.

Unfortunately the past tense is tricky. Lies > lay but lays > laid.

http://www.britannica.com/story/lay-lie-lied-lain-when-do-we-use-which

'take decisive action.'

decisive: make a judgment quickly on how to act.

You are not looking for a single word, but 'act decisively' fits perfectly.

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/decisive

For ESL learners reading this one: This is a southern US insult often said with a sarcastic tone. It's an euphemism to say "you're an idiot". Most commonly said directly to the person you're calling an idiot, thus, the possessive your being the most frequent. Other possessives, such as "bless his heart", "bless their heart", etc., are seldom used.

It's a pretty well-known thing that the present perfect is more common in British English than American English. That doesn't mean we don't ever use it, but it's one option among several for us, whereas Britons use it nearly always. And as you pointed out, it does show up here in catchphrases like "I've made a terrible mistake."

That's not supported by Cambridge Dictionary, and Google Ngrams says "had forgotten" is over 25 times as popular as "had forgot" in British English.

“Getting an agent to listen” here functions as a noun of sorts — it means something like the act of “convincing an agent to listen” or “making an agent listen to you” is difficult.

As a side note, “you better...” is technically incorrect in formal English. The complete phrase should be, “you had better do this,” etc. In everyday speech you’ll hear us say, “You’d better do this or that,” and if you say it fast enough, you’ll hear people drop the “d” and say “you better do this,” but just know that although that’s probably ok colloquially, you’d get criticized for it in written formal English.

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/es/gramatica/gramatica-britanica/modals-and-modality/had-better

Ahh, I just realised these are complete different things.

sign off

sign of on (something)

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Links: Cambridge Dict.

That's the way it's slurred in Britain, just like it's slurred in the US, but the "correct" pronunciation for both dialects is to pronounce all the letters.

If you're doing formal academic writing, I wouldn't use a contraction at all. Fully writing out "there are" would be best.

In any other context, abbreviating it is fine, and I believe "there's" is much more common than "there're," even for plurals. Personally, I always use "there's." Seeing "there're" written out looks weird to me.

If you're speaking, either way is fine since "there're" is going to sound pretty much the same as "there are" anyway.

Here's two more sources on the matter:

Cambridge Dictionary (This is British, but I can confirm that the same is true in the US):

> There are is the plural form of there is and there’s:

> There are two new buildings next to the school. They are both science buildings.

> In speaking and in some informal writing, we use there’s even when it refers to more than one. This use could be considered incorrect in formal writing or in an examination:

> There’s three other people who are still to come.

> There’s lots of cars in the car park.

The Stackexchange forums:

> There're is common in speech, at least in certain dialects, but you'll rarely see it written. If I were being pedantic, I'd advise you to use there are in your example, because there is is definitely wrong, so there's could be considered wrong as well. But a huge number of English speakers, even those that are well-educated, use there's universally, regardless of the number of the noun in question, so you will probably not receive any odd looks for saying or writing there's, and if you do, just cite the fact that it can't be incorrect if a majority of people use it. As for me (a native New Englander), I use both, but may use there's in place of there're if I'm speaking quickly.

If you don't want to use translations when you write words down, you can always look up their definitions in English, which is even more helpful and allows you to understand their meaning and rules of usage (how, when, in which context they're used) better. Your English is good, so this shouldn't be difficult for you, though sometimes, when a definition doesn't explain much or is too complicated you can write out a translation too. That shouldn't have any negative consequences, don't worry :). Cambridge dictionary is a good place to search for definitions. They also provide British and American pronunciation you can listen to and example sentences.

Yes, although it's not very common. There are two meanings of outrage. The first and most common meaning is "shock or anger", and that meaning you can't make into a plural. The second meaning is "a shocking or morally unacceptable action," and that version you can make into a plural. It's a very strong word and usually only used when talking about things like wars, terrorist attacks, and major political crises.

Take a look at definition 2 here and the example they give. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/outrage

If you are looking specifically for translation, I would recommend Lingvo Dictionary

It provides basic Russian-English and English-Russian dictionaries for free. This dictionaries contain transcriptions, pronunciation and usage examples. They have ~33000 words and available for downloading and offline usage. Additional dictionaries also available and may contain entries for rare tools and equipment, but they are not free and may be overkill for the beginner.

If I'm not mistaken, they also provide website with similar functionality, if you are looking only for on-line solutions, but this site was blocked here in Ukraine, so I can't provide a link to it.

I'm a programmer. Instead of recommending a book for a particular language or framework, which might be more directly useful but could also be totally irrelevant, I just wanted to suggest Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software. It's a fascinating book that kind of builds up from simple information theory, talking about Morse code and Braille, and then simple electricity and circuits, to higher level things like operating systems.

The language level is probably "intermediate" (not very advanced) but with some specific jargon in the later sections (registers, signals, programming constructs) that might be useful.