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Gk TrendingBegginer
Asked: 7 years agoIn:
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(Why I darest say, they darest not get offended when they so indeed have examples that violate their own use and nomenclature!) IE: pudding as a specific dessert, puddings as a general term for desserts. Calling something a Yorkshire pudding ...

britishenglish
  1. Martin Hope

    They might be as confused as to why you keep calling pudding “biscuits”. Step out of your own cultural context for a minute. You do not own English, and there is no reason that the way it is used elsewhere should be understandable to you, or vice versa. If anyone had rights to the language, for thatRead more

    They might be as confused as to why you keep calling pudding “biscuits”.

    Step out of your own cultural context for a minute. You do not own English, and there is no reason that the way it is used elsewhere should be understandable to you, or vice versa. If anyone had rights to the language, for that matter, it sort of makes sense that it would be English people, right?

    But that doesn’t really matter. English is the first language of millions of people around the globe, and the second language of maybe billions. Not only each disparate group out there using it, but actually each person within each group uses it differently. This is the nature of language–it is dynamic. It grows, evolves, regionalizes, incorporates words from other languages, and changes to meet unique cultural context.

    It is not the role of English people to account to you for their use and understanding of their own language.

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Gk TrendingBegginer
Asked: 7 years agoIn:
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I know this means “one must learn to walk before running”, but is there a less literal translation that is perhaps more appealing to an English-speaking audience?

frenchlanguage
  1. Marko Smith

    We use the same! “Learn to walk before you run” / “you can’t run before you can walk” / “you can’t learn to run before you learn to walk” or even “don’t try to run before you can walk” – all of these and many other close variations are in widespread use amongst English speakers, will be understood aRead more

    We use the same!

    “Learn to walk before you run” / “you can’t run before you can walk” / “you can’t learn to run before you learn to walk” or even “don’t try to run before you can walk” – all of these and many other close variations are in widespread use amongst English speakers, will be understood and are all considered idiomatic. We don’t have a single set phrase, as long as you get across the same idea 🙂

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Gk TrendingBegginer
Asked: 7 years agoIn:
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I’m a 19-year-old student from Malaysia. I’ve been introduced to the language at a very young age and I’m capable of conducting any type of conversation. However, some of my English-speaking friends on the internet didn’t take too long to ...

english
  1. James Wane

    Because non-native speakers use English differently as compared to native speakers. It’s… it’s as simple as that. I can also usually tell within the first few moments of talking to somebody on the internet whether they are from a native English-speaking country or not. They’ll use slightly differentRead more

    Because non-native speakers use English differently as compared to native speakers. It’s… it’s as simple as that.

    I can also usually tell within the first few moments of talking to somebody on the internet whether they are from a native English-speaking country or not. They’ll use slightly different phrasing. Use of idioms is also a dead giveaway.

    I dunno. It’s usually patently obvious. This doesn’t make a non-native English speaker’s English bad by any stretch; just different.

    I can also generally tell where native English speakers are from as well, at least in a general sense. Canadians tend to sound like Americans (even in writing) but spell more like the Brits. British persons obviously use British English and will use British colloquiums and the word ‘whilst’ often will pop up. Australians lean heavy on the word ‘mate’ a lot of the time. Americans use American spellings and sound like Americans.

    And so on.

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