Community Discussions
Does this name sound weird to you?
Hey guys, im not a native but need to have an english name because im gonna work for multinational corp. Normally, they would take some common names like "cherry, philip, mike,..." but to me these are pretty boring and i wanna a cooler, less familiar name. Im thinking of "Maybe". This name sounds cool to me but im worrying natives might be confusing So how weird sound weird to you. In real life i have seen some other strange names such as "Drinkwater, Booty,..."
Does “social butterfly” have negative connotation?
My friend just told me that this phrase usually conveys disapproval. Is this true? I’ve got mixed results when consulting Google

Why is there no "an" in front of "English Writer" here?
https://i.redd.it/9thjxr58gepe1.jpeg
Does "amount of drinks" sound stupid in English?
Hi all, I recently submitted a video assignment for my masters. It was a counseling session with a fake client presenting with an alcohol use problem. Before submitting, I noticed that I kept repeating " reduce the amount of drinks". I included this quote in my essay, and Word highlighted it as a mistake, suggesting a "number of drinks" instead. Is it considered to be a really stupid mistake in English?

Is the "to" in the title deletable?
https://i.redd.it/fnuzel4dgoke1.jpeg
Lyrics - Should we own this mistake? How bad is it?
Hi everyone. I have a band and none of us are native speakers. We recorded this song which we really like and just 1 week ahead of its release we realised we've made a english mistake. We mixed two phrases "Going to end" and "coming to an end" and the result was: "It seems like this is going to an end Going to and end Going to and end" Again, for us, no native English speakers it sounded correct but of course we failed since we did not double check. Lesson learned! Unfortunately we can not re-record this part or the song with the singer anymore for multiple reasons. We need to release it as it is. The only thing I could do is to write "coming to an end" in the lyrics regardless what he says in the record. But I don't think this will convince people (the part is scream vocals tho so it could work...) But tell me. How bad is it for a native speaker? Thank you!!

Shouldn't the outlined text be written in Past Perfect?
I.e. "They didn't see another person until they HAD reached..." Source/Book shown in the screenshot: "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"
Are there any idioms to say “secretly support someone or something “?
For example, 1. He is an American citizen but he secretly supports Russia’s intelligence agencies. 2. She said she is a swiftie but it turns out she secretly supports the work of Kanye by streaming his songs. Are there any better idioms to say these sentences? They sound so robotic and boring. Thanks to my limited knowledge, I don’t know any alternatives and I don’t know anywhere I can look it up. Native speakers please help me, thanks!

Please explain why is there no “to” before “guide” in this sentence
And why is “need” before “only”
Water off a ducks back and fall on deaf ears? Interchangeable or no?
I've been working really hard to get better at using idioms. But I often come across idioms that are very similar and that's when I get confused. The title being an example. Another would be "slip of the tongue and let the cat out of the bag". Really curious to know how natives use idioms so naturally.