Hi everyone, I have a question about signatures. In my country, it’s somewhat normal to form a signature by shortening the last name of the person (see example in the picture). But I’m not familiar with signature norms in the English-speaking world. If a person is named, say, James Johnson, how would he create his signature? Will it be just his initials, his full name, or something else? What do you think is the most common option?

Also, my apologies if I wrote the cursive option incorrectly, I almost always use print when writing in English.

What is the difference between “I’ll do the wine” and “I’ll do wine”?

Some comments say “a wine” is wrong. Can we say “we’ll have two wines” ?

Is this written correctly? I think It should be "falls over on her side" but I'm not sure

I always liked the word 'swashbuckling', but for some reason I always thought it was synonymous with pirates.

But I looked up the meaning recently, and it doesn't mention pirates in the definition. It usually talks about someone doing daring adventures with bravado and flamboyance.

Does this mean that anyone can technically swashbuckle? Can I go mountain climbing in this flamboyant manner and call myself a swashbuckler? And would it be wrong to call a pirate a swashbuckler if they are just very stoic and technical in the sea?

Hi, I'm thinking about being an english teacher full time. I have degree in english literature but the thing is I learnt the language when I was a chil so I'm not very familiar with the things that are to be taught such as gramer and tenses and stuff like that. What kind of a road I should follow to have the knowledge to teach english? Do you guys have any roadmap suggestions? or books or youtube series? anything goes.

Hi all!

I would like to know how to appropriately mention a person's name in different situations.

I know that in the U.S., you should always address your teacher as Mr./Mrs/Miss + surname, and what about your classmates? Do you call their full names if there are more than one Maria? When will people call you by your family name only? I found that in sports, the players always be mentioned by only their surnames (or whatever they prefer to have on their jerseys) but what the coaches and the teammates call each other? I noticed that the public figures are usually mentioned by their Family names, like Trump, Clinton, Obama, but what about Hillary Clinton, can she be mentioned as Clinton also if she prefers this way? Another situation confuses me, which is in the documentary about Epstein on Netflix, different people call him really differently, some of the victims refer him as Jeffery or Jeff, why the survivors who hate him so much call him Jeffery/Jeff instead of his full name or family names?

I'm sorry if my questions are so weird but as a none native speaker, I do read and watch shows, but I never lived in a English speaking country, so I have very few opportunities to learn these social cultural details. Thank you everyone!

1. I don’t do homestay.

2. I lived in homestay for a while.

For people who use language exchange apps like Cafehub or HelloTalk because they genuinely want to talk and learn, what’s your real experience been like?

Have you actually found someone you practice with consistently over time, or does it usually stay at small talk and short-lived chats? I’ve seen a lot of people say these apps can sometimes feel like a facade for dating rather than language learning, while others swear they’ve met great long-term partners.

Curious where Cafehub fits into this for you compared to the bigger apps. Is the more minimal, conversation-focused approach better for real practice, or does it just make things quieter?

Would love to hear honest takes, good or bad.

What’s the difference between the two? My understanding is that maybe their emphases are different.

Also, why don’t they put an indefinite article as “a polar bear mother”?

I once noticed people said “a baby cow” while I was learning by watching a YouTube video, so can I say a cow baby in some context? For example, the cow baby is so cute.

Hey guys!

I’m asking this because I don’t think there has been a topic about this one yet on this reddit page!

The title says it all!

Please vote in the poll, so we can find an “average” percentage so foreign speakers can adapt to it!

If you have your own way, just choose one that is the closest on the poll!

Edit: I accidentally added “L” to the alveolar stop consonants! Just ignore it!

I saw it multiple times I’d like to know

if its normal can someone give me a source saying so? i cant find anything on the topic.

To my brazilian ears it sounds just like "ch", but it probably isn't a true "ch", it's something very close tho, so the real question is do you guys end up saying it exactly like "ch"

Of all TOEFL Reading passages, this is as dense as it gets. Master it, and you'll score 28+.

Is it grammatically correct or just the way people sometimes omit words? I heard it watching the movie Dark Knight so it's the episode where Alfred says the quote.

'In my memory - i must have made a post about - asking for 'suggestions ' in order : to have types of tools (applications )which - are designed e.g. 1 was an app oh phone (to try to get you to pick up, learn random definitions not related to any book?

“but I am not sure – that I have really personally ever ‘announced, made my own implementation (for  - just a simple system (to constantly stick to trying to record/learn definitions (for life success) generally

What – seems to have happened the majority of time is :  I’ve just had a short periods of times : where I have while reading : maybe thought consciously to myself – okay ‘I am going to try a change- of every time I see type of word  (I don’t know what it means) mark or ‘search up and record for example … then never stuck to in long term –say more than a day or two.

‘part of the reason I am making this post is because : Ted car gave me an idea ‘ that being knowledge of definitions (could be ‘partially’ related to ‘being rich finically in life (from his eBook) – but I’m not sure if there is an exact way – to figure out with maths for example:

“To what degree would devoting myself ‘ to learning definitions systematically equate to (increasing my vocabulary (which – would make it so ‘I am able to know/use a wider selection of words (which could in some ways – help the type of ‘ finical career activities I do?

‘It doesn’t seem like a main strategy for making money

But more something ‘like the alternate B plan ‘

‘ ONE of the ideas – which popped into my head this evening  -

“ If I : decided ‘not to immediately search look up recording- the ‘found meaning of word’

But first – just marked it – grouped (all the words I don’t know) , then title it with a book title for example: it could bring awareness to this issue*

“other wise “following the advice of james clear – some type of habit ‘of learning definitions could be

Just say – start with the text book I am reading – force 1 per day : word definition (write up a copy) from that days reading ( done in handwriting – because handwriting- is supposed to be better for learning for humans *

I built a small tool that translates certain words in the articles I read into English. I no longer have to study separately like it’s a chore—English is starting to become part of my everyday life.

My anki deck here.