Community Discussions

I thought I was so bad at English for a second 😂
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Guys, can someone explain why the answer to this is "may" and not "could"?
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From a native speaker: please don't use ChatGPT to learn English.
I don't make rant posts often, but I wanted to get this out there because it's an active issue I've noticed. I've seen a lot of posts here in the past month asking if a sentence ChatGPT suggested is correct. As a native English speaker and professional writer, I just have to say...please, please, please do not use GPT as an educational tool. It is *not* a reliable source for how English grammar and vocabulary works. In fact, it usually makes things up that aren't true. There are lots of courses, apps, books, exercises, and so on that you can use to learn English. You can also learn by consuming English-language media like tv shows and podcasts...and of course by visiting this sub as well :) As much as possible, try to focus on learning English from resources provided by real people who know the language, not from data-scraping bots that throw together random "advice." Alright, have a nice day, everyone, and good luck with your language-learning journey.

Is it true that using "thanks" is passive aggressive in emails? Does writing "thanks in advance" also sound bad?
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Is a "native speaker" level achievable?
As an active English learner, quite often I see posts on Instagram about how you either can speak/use the language like a native speaker, or cannot at all because you were not born in the language environment to begin with. First thing first, I understand that it's almost impossible to get rid of your accent, and it's not what I want to focus on in this post. On one hand, yes, natives have a huge advantage of having been born and raised in the language environment, and it's very hard to catch up with people who already had such a head start in their "language learning". On the other hand, a "native speaker" is not a level of fluency. Listening to and reading texts from natives of my first language, I understand that the gap in fluency among them can be huge. Hence, I can imagine that a well-educated and eloquent non-native can be more proficient in a language than a native who just isn't educated enough. So, do you think it's possible to use the language as well as (some) native do it, and will there always be a significant gap between those who were born with a language and those who studied it in a non-immersive environment?

Native speakers, how do you feel about this?
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What does “recess to” mean in this sentence?
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"toilet" or "restroom"
Is "restroom" formal saying of the "toilet". Where should I use which one of them?
Never assume because it makes an “ASS out of U and ME”
My dad would tell me this when I was a child and insisted it would help me remember how to spell the word assume “ass-u-me” Are there any other phrases or tricks to remember certain words in the English language?
In Tom's birthday party, Tom is the __?__ of the party.
Does such a word exist? In Mandarin and Cantonese it is the same word as protagonist, or main character, of a movie or a drama. He isn't the host of the party. He's an invitee.