Post your questions regarding English. I'm a TEFL UK based private tutor who focuses on conversational English and teaching slang, phrases, idioms and other stuff that helps people integrate.
>obviousshill
I also have a youtube channel where I teach people casual British English. Check out the videos out if you are planning to move/visit the UK as there are a huge amount of things I teach that are not in your standard grammar textbooks.
If you have any content you'd like to see/be interested in let me know.
Or any questions right now regarding English.
Noah Howard
&^(^&UYUUT^&*^&????
Cameron Thompson
What can I do daily to improve my English? I want to go from B1 to C1.
I've been reading books but I'm stagnated; I may learn new words everyday but that's it. pls help
Hunter Cox
I have a Masters degree in English Language and Literature from Oxford Univerty.
I now work in gaming.
Jaxon Williams
Watch movies and read books.
Ian Brown
Listen to audiobooks and follow along while reading the ebook version of the same book at the same time.
John Cox
italki.com - Find a cheap English tutor if you can. If you do not have money for a tutor there are many people who will be happy to language exchange.
For example offer someone 30mins Portuguese for 30mins English. Find 2 or 3 partners and try speak for one hour to someone every day.
Attempt to pick subjects which are difficult to talk about. Such as politics, culture and philosophy. It will be very very difficult at first but after about 2-4 weeks your English ability will improve. Regular speaking practice is pretty much the most important thing when it comes to learning a language.
Noah Barnes
Your video needs to be louder you faggy quid.
Isaiah Davis
>plsnobully
Will increase volume in future Obewembe
Ethan Perry
This method is decent however I seriously think it would be a lot more productive to just find a language exchange partner. People really underestimate how powerful it is just to speak 3-4 times a week.
Michael Gonzalez
>lisp
Jose Perry
Peng ting
Daniel Price
cheeky
Ayden Edwards
I'm not planning on visiting the UK soon and couldn't care less about ever going there, but this is a very interesting thread OP. Nice vids btw
Christopher Johnson
i like when you guys say cheeky
Noah Williams
I like it when you guys honor your free trade agreements and don't fall for populist agriculture protectionism
Sebastian Murphy
bless senpai she is calm still
Cheers mate! I know it isn't for everyone but was hoping at least a few people would be able to learn a thing or two.
Caleb Parker
teach me how to get excepted in /brit/
Daniel Jones
*accepted
Connor Peterson
You should get a louder mic or speak louder.
Isaac Ortiz
Convert to islam or spend your days complaining about how Maggie Thatcher ruined the North
Asher Cox
Thanks I'm sorry about that. I actually have a really good mic but I must have kept the volume down while recording. I'll keep that in mind as it's something a few people have mentioned.
Nicholas Barnes
I like it when I get to live through a global reactionary movement and am still relatively assured we will emerge on the other side STILL not talking about labor rights
Xavier Russell
Don't know if you're still around, but soon I'll be sitting my Cambridge proficiency exam and right now my main worry is that my vocabulary is lackluster at best for such a task, although I got praised even by my teacher for having a very diverse...vocabulary.
I really don't know if it's really all in my head and my issue lies in the amount of confidence I don't actually possess, or I really have a lackluster lexicon; what do you think I am supposed to do? I mean I've tried to do previous subjects and I were doing just fine, it's just that I don't see myself prepared for this exam.
Thanks in advance to whoever may answer.
Cameron Johnson
Are there any complete guides on: 1. Tenses and verbal forms 2. Sentence structure and punctuation 3. Articles
Jayden Roberts
I am still here. First of all good luck with your exam. I have coached almost a hundred students through IETLS or similar exams and the number one issue is confidence (similar to what you are suffering from a lack of now).
Do you language exchange with strangers and practice speaking daily? If you're sitting such a difficult exam I recommend you do. People really do underestimate how important it is to keep speaking every single day if you have an exam coming soon. It helps you build confidence and become comfortable with the language. Go on italki or a similar exchange website and find someone interested in having difficult conversations in English. It doesn't have to be a native but that does help.
Aside from that try Memrise for flash cards. There are hundreds of great vocab flash card programs.
Even if you're planning on taking a written exam I would still recommend finding a language buddy and speaking/listening with them. You can even practice writing essays with them.
9/10 it is all in your mind and you will be fine. However if you think you will slip up, or are doubting your abilities utilise the internet and the millions of people willing to practice (instead of fapping to trap threads all day).
Hope this helped mate
Colton Barnes
Not right now as my specific focus was on the less grammar specific sides to English. More colloquialisms and what not.
However if that is something you would like to see I can write it down on my list of videos to make. I'm planning on producing between 3-4 a week so I'd get round to it soon.
Jacob Hughes
Fuck the paid tutors.
Any cool people out there that want to improve their spoken English can feel free to add me on Skype at no cost. All I ask is that you keep me entertained and tell me about your country and lifestyle :^) I'm interested in meeting new people from around the world.
Any takers out there can respond to this post for more info I guess
Josiah King
I don't really talk to any natives whatsoever. I think this is where my misguided bad confidence shines through, as I am pretty sure I have a rather fluent command of the language while speaking. I do however talk a lot in English and try to immerse myself in as much material as possible, literally devouring any media I come across.
I think this is all due to my shyness and being really afraid not to slip up in front of a native...or I might as well be an overconfident little brat, I'm not sure.
Another thing I do on a regular basis is read English authors in, well, English. Hopefully this might help as well.
All in all, thank you very much, I too hope I'll do well. Another thing, excuse my stifness and my rigid writing style, I guess mimicking formal style isn't as easy as it seems at first glance.
Isaac Carter
If people say ''one billion'' how can I tell if wether they mean 1 000 000 000 or 1 000 000 000 000 if I don't know the context and the nationality of the guy who said it is, say, Georgian?
Evan Sullivan
No problem mate you sound like a very articulate bloke. I'm sure you'll smash your exam.
One thing though...get that speaking practice in! I know you hate the prospect of speaking to a native now, but trust me when I say you seriously need to fuck up with a random dude on the internet before your exam. It's similar to dating. Once you get rejected a few times you're sort of immune to that anxiety you get before you speak to a woman. It works like that with languages too. Once you get over the initial mess of your first few conversations you'll be confident and at easy talking about anything.
Btw I'm in Cluj in two weeks. Can you recommend anywhere good to eat and drink for a bunch of young Brits? (not typical loud Brits)
Anthony King
In English billion means 1,000,000,000
We don't say milliard or billiard, etc
Sebastian Butler
I see, thanks for your kind remarks!
To be quite honest, I'm not from Cluj and don't study there either so I really can't. I might ask some friends if you really need to, but tomorrow morning. That is if this thread will be alive up until then and you will still be interested.
Kevin Nguyen
It's OK mate I've got google so all good. Thanks for the offer anyways.
Carson Lopez
>Georgian Considering that both Georgia and the anglo coutries use the short scale (except there's no "billion" in the Soviet system) and that numbers over 10^11 are rarely used, it's very likely he doesn't even know that such thing as "the long scale" exists.
Aaron Hernandez
Hello there friend! How's the serial killing going? :)
Lincoln Jackson
So how much is trillion? What about billion?
Carson Long
Ok, replace ''Georgian'' with ''Indonesian''. What about now?
Matthew Cook
Hi there :) It's going great, thanks for asking.
I've actually met a lot of people from Sup Forums over the years and still keep up with them to this day. I just thoroughly enjoy learning about the world and having international contacts. Usually for other reasons but I've decided to give this a try.
I don't yet know anyone from Azerbaijan so you could always be my first ;^^^)
Eli Davis
Explain me perfect tenses. I asked this probably a dozen persons but it's still very difficult topic for me. WHen you speak, how do you understand that you have to or can use perfect tense instead of simple or etc? Is there some logic or trick that would help?
Brayden Jenkins
One 1 Ten 10 Hundred 100 Thousand 1,000 Ten thousand 10,000 Hundred thousand 100,000 Million 1,000,000 Ten million 10,000,000 Hundred Million 100,000,000 Billion 1,000,000,000 Ten billion 10,000,000,000 Hundred billion 100,000,000,000 Trillion 1,000,000,000,000 Ten trillion 10,000,000,000,000 Hundred trillion 100,000,000,000,000 Quadrillion 1,000,000,000,000,000 Etc...
Nicholas Garcia
Indonesia uses the short scale too , so the answer is the same :^)
Benjamin Edwards
:(
Jayden Mitchell
Perfect tenses are mainly used for expressing that an action is taking place from a specified point in the past up to the now of the tense. Example: the difference between "I have taken lessons" and it's present counterpart "I take lessons" is that the former implies I started to take lessons and still haven't finished doing it yet, all the while the latter implies a general truth. On the other hand, "I took lessons" implies that it happened in the past and now it is no longer going on. Compared to past perfect which implies the same thing but, from what I can recall, during a specified interval or at least known one.
On a temporal axis perfect tenses are between their corresponding simple tenses.
Past simple - past perfect - present perfect - present simple with the continuous tenses added to the mix.
Hope I was of any help, user.
Jose Collins
Why is this a question?
I thought 1 billion was 1,000,000,000 everywhere
Adam Diaz
Still, take what I said with a grain of salt user because the use of the right tense kinda got into my habits and I mostly forgot about most grammar rules. Plus, there are other uses to the perfect tenses which I haven't mentioned.
Logan Cooper
>he had to "learn" English
Lol
Sebastian Bennett
Funny, not even in Romania is a billion the same as in Britain. Here we call it a "miliard" and it corresponds to 1 000 000 000. We don't actually have the word "bilion", but from what I can recall there is in English a word "milliard" designated for a much higher number though.
Ethan Young
If you've completed an action/will complete it, use the perfect tense
Blake Richardson
Because many countries and languages use milliard and billiard to progress numbers. Some countries such as Pakistan or India also number their numbers differently.
I know in German it goes million, milliard, billion, billiard, and so on. Because of this, many Germans would tend to say milliard when meaning billion and would say billion when meaning trillion. This applies to many other languages too.
Aaron Morales
I see, it makes sense I'll try to reflect on that. Thank you! Also what's temporal axis?
Kevin Nguyen
An axis of the tenses in chronological order, duh. Starting from the furthest in the past to the furthest in the future. I had this drawn all the time when I was in general school in the English class.
Isaiah Lopez
If you use short scale: 10^6 = million 10^9 = billion 10^12 = trillion 10^15 = quadrillion
If you use long scale: 10^6 = million 10^9 = milliard* 10^12 = billion 10^15 = billiard
*unless you go full potato and call it "thousand millions".
Both are correct but they're not interchangeable right? Their difference would be, I don't know honestly. Like i completed it i went to the place in both sentence but the one with perfect will imply I did it on specific time, I guess? I imagine even asking this sounds very starnge to native speakers but I just can't grasp on the concept behind it.
Ayden Nelson
Ooh very interesting I heard about it but we never used it. Not even when I took lessons from private teacher.
Alexander Kelly
>That lisp though
Ethan Cooper
"Had gone" is the pluperfect. It implies something happened on the past and influenced past events, kinda like "the past of the past".
Nicholas Nelson
Well I guess it's not all that popular, in highschool our teacher didn't use it like ever, although she at one point mentioned it. It's not all that interesting though... Plus, I don't really know if it's called "temporal axis", I just made up this terminology in order for the example to be as obvious as possible.
Daniel Mitchell
Oh, btw, I messed up my "temporal axis", it starts with past perfect and continues up from there. My bad user.
Dylan James
>the past of the past Aaah this sounds very interesting
So all in all it looks like "I had gone to the grocery" is not complete thought, there should be more to it, it implies that it happened even before some event. I think it gets clearer to me.
Wyatt White
No worries mate
Mason Reyes
Yup. Stating simply "I went to the grocery" works fine, but for the pluperfect you'd need something like "I had gone to the grocery, that's why I wasn't home". Note how it "chained" another past event.
But this is something the native speakers rarely notice.
Carson Sullivan
I had gone to the grocery and bought a handful of potatoes.
I first went to the grocery and only after that action was completed I bought a handful of potatoes.
Well if you plan on writing stories in English this small but essential difference is pretty important, since it links past events in a chronological order rather than just spewing actions at the reader.
Jayden Murphy
Good Lord this is like the moment of illumination, I havent had it for like several years. Cheers for helping mate!
Gavin Hughes
I am planning to move London one day. Could you please teach me some quick conversation sentences in Urdu language?
Ethan Barnes
Conversational Urdu is pretty much the same thing as Hindi.
Grayson Cox
Yeah, the concept is getting more clearer to me thanks for help mate!
Jace Rodriguez
Actually this is a question of my own. Is "more clearer" viable informal talk or is it just a mistake? I've actually encountered it a few times in songs and it just sounds off...
Elijah Cox
technically it's either "more clear" or "clearer." If someone said "more clearer" to me I wouldn't think twice, although I would correct myself if I said it accidentally, so take that for what you will.
I'm a native english speaker btw
Christopher Cruz
You're welcome. Also, the temporal axis mentioned is incredibly helpful to visualize this stuff; if you have trouble with tenses, I do suggest you make one for the tenses you find difficult.
It should look something like this, pic related.
It also helps a lot with the style - you can use cleaner sentences, without so many connectors, but with the sequence of events still quite clear.
Kayden Sullivan
"More clearer" sounds like baby talk.
I can't think of any situation where it wouldn't be better to say either "more clear" or just "clearer."
Jacob Sanders
Both "more clear" and "clearer" are acceptable Clearer is twice as common as more clear
More clearer is wrong I made a mistake.
Jack Flores
Funny, in English class we were taught if the adjective in question is more than bisyllabic you can't use "-er", but if it is shorter you can't use "more", and now I find out you can use "more clear"...hmm, breakthrough.
Noah Fisher
fair play lad
btw did your mum get blacked lmao
Juan Long
I see, well, didn't know you could use "more clear"...guess this is a novelty for me. Thanks user!
Ayden Sullivan
I think "more clear" is an exception to the rule. For example "more happy" doesn't sound as good as "happier". I'd use "clearer" to avoid people whining though.
Logan Cruz
Indeed, I guess you are right, especially with my luck in English teachers I'd rather stick to whatever they say when talking to them. On a sidenote, "it is of no importance" does make sense right? And "it's no use" and "it's of no use" are the same, right?
Oh, btw, thanks!
Evan Allen
ofc mate
Church set them up
>eventhechurchistakingpartinwhitegenocide
Gabriel Reyes
It's more fun. You see? Another exception.
Gavin Hughes
m8
Jacob Gomez
Indeed, but here isn't "fun" a noun? In which case it is implied you have to use "more fun". On the other hand if you say "it's funnier to eat alone" funnier determines the artificial noun-like structure "to eat alone". While if you say "it's more fun to eat alone" fun is the noun. I guess...
Jordan Reed
"It's no use" sounds strange for me. I'd rather use "it's of no use", but I can't explain why. Ditto for "it's of no importance", it looks correct for me.
Ryan Price
eyyyyyy
First time I've seen that
Let me have a look at it though thanks
Anthony Phillips
"It's no use trying to escape, hahahaha!". My highschool teacher scolded me for telling her "of no use" means the same as "no use" and that "it's of no importance" acrually exists. When I showed her the dictionary she played the teacher card telling me the dictionary is wrong and I should stop interrupting the class. I'm still pissed off about that. And it wasn't even the first argument the likes of which we've gotten into... once she told me draught and draft are not the same word but different spellings till I showed her the dictionary.
Joseph Perry
>if the adjective in question is more than bisyllabic you can't use "-er" This isn't really a rule, it's more like a note on common usage. Polysyllabic adjectives tend to have endings that don't naturally change into "-er." But you'd never say "famouser" even though "famous" has two syllables! You'd always say "more famous." Similarly you can construct polysyllabic comparatives like "unwieldier." It's interesting that that is the first example that came to mind, because it gets its extra syllable from the prefix "un-," despite "wieldy" alone not being a word in standard usage.
A lot of learning English as a second (or third, fourth, etc.) language is about learning to avoid constructions that mark you as a non-native speaker. With that in mind, I'd disagree with I don't think anyone would ever complain about "more clear" not being optimal usage. "More happy" doesn't sound like anything anyone would say, but with the exception of certain constructions that you need to avoid because the sound unnatural ("more happy" or "funner" being examples), you usually have a choice. Using the word "more" can be useful when you want to emphasize the increase itself rather than the quality being increased. I might say something like "this conversation is making me feel even more sad" if I wanted to emphasize the change.
Funnier is a completely different word. You would definitely never say "it is funner to eat alone" (you would say "more fun"), although "funner" is actually a recognized word. The only example I can think of where someone would use the word "funner" would be to describe making something more fun, like "I wanted the song to be...funner, somehow."
Blake Myers
This is actually really interesting. I swear I've never seen or hear the word "funner" used. It's so...bizarre. Well, thanks for taking the time to respond.
Now that I think of it I can actually see "more clear" being used...although it still sounds a tad off at first glance.
Hudson Gomez
>it's of no importance Always correct. You'd never say "it's no importance." That doesn't even make sense.
>It's no use This one is a bit of an Americanism I think. People say it because "no use" has become a fixed phrase meaning hopeless. "It's of no use" would be the more grammatically correct and consistent way to phrase it. In writing where a formal voice is expected, you would always want to phrase it that way.
I know that feeling. It's happened to me so many times. But it is worth realizing that sometimes the dictionary can't help you, especially if your goal is to talk like a native speaker.
"Draught" and "draft" are pronounced the same way, and when it comes to describing beer that comes out of a tap or cold air that comes into a room, either is more or less equally appropriate. But you'd never write "this is the first draught of my paper," or describe the desk an architect uses to draw as a "draughting table."
Easton Wood
Basically a native speaker would say "more clear" in a sentence where the word "clear" could have been replaced with another word. If you are speaking the sentence but still holding both "clear" and "understandable" (or something) in your head, you might say "more" before you settle on using the word clear. It could also come up as a parallel structure if you were listing a bunch of attributes that there are "more" of. For instance "you might find this example a little more clear, a little more helpful." Note that example can't be formal usage because it includes a comma splice.
The appropriate usage of "funner" is similar. You could say "I designed the game to be faster, funner, and happier" if using "more fun" would've broken the flow of your sentence or made it sound awkward.
Xavier Johnson
Presumption and assumption, Nonetheless, in spite of, despite of, notwithstanding Assuming, presuming
Can you give explanation and elaborate on these ones if you have a time, please?
Adrian Evans
Yeah, I knew that bit about draught and draft, I was solely talking about draught and draft as a current of air.
You'd think that as a teacher you'd be inclined to learn things yourself too, but some teachers nowadays are so proud and all in all egocentrical persons it makes me wanna learn everything by myself.
John Jackson
Yeah it's teachers' illness, it happens. One should be careful to not fall into that trap.
Liam Bailey
Wanted to write myself but found this.
Zachary Mitchell
>in spite of One guy told me that "in spite of" is a gay version of "despite of" and if you'll use it you may be consedered a gay. Dunno if that's true.
Cameron Mitchell
Awesome thanks, think I got it.
Josiah Butler
You don't say despite of, you either say in spite of or despite, they're interchangeable. Nonetheless means the same as nevertheless. I've never encountered the word notwithstanding though...it seems pretty clear I think...