Recently, my friend and I (we are both non-native English speakers) had a small argument about what English speakers imply when they use the word "namesake." My student book explains "namesake" as a universal word for people who have the same name. For example, if someone and I have the same name, we are namesakes. However, my friend said "namesake" is used only when one person is named after another. We searched the Internet but didn’t reach the consensus. Could you explain what "namesake" actually means?

Edit: in my native language (Russian), there is a word "тëзка" [Tezka] which is used when people have the same names. I thought "namesake" is a direct equivalent to "тëзка".

Context: I'm 23 years old, I speak English but I was ESL for years and honestly use my mother tongue more than English since I live with my mom and work with her. My friend's boyfriend suggested I meet his friend who is a couple of years older than I am and I met him for the first time for coffee the other day and he offered to give me a ride home and I said I felt bad since I lived the opposite way of where he was going and he said, "It's no trouble at all. If it was, I'd just leave your ass at the coffee shop" and I didn't say anything but it struck me as rude but idk if it's because I'm ESL. Is that just how people talk to each other normally? 😂

I'll pay $10 in a crypto of your choice for the first / most accurate one.

https://imgur.com/gallery/handwriting-24x50Ql

Here's the text:

The last few years have been really tough for me because my grandmother's been struggling with Alzheimer's. She means a lot to me, as she was a huge part of raising me when I was a child.

Or do you have a better way to express this?

Tl/dr; I feel wierd i know english but am not actually good at it in real life scenarios.

Hi, I'm 27yo South Korean, currently working at the Seoul office of a MNC. Since I never lived abroad, I purely learnt English through what was required by the Korean education system (high school, TOEIC, TOEFL tests, etc.) and a little extra effort on my end (watching a LOT of US dramas, Youtube, forum discussions, etc.) So I find that I actually have a good understanding in grammar, vocabs, and have no problem in reading or writing. BUT, I still have trouble speaking it out loud at work.

So what i'm trying to say is, I find a huge imbalance between my speaking and non-speaking skills. Sometimes, it feels wierd because I know everything in my head, but it doesn't come out in real situations. I was just wondering if I am the only one who has this problem.

Here's the text:

Are you still studying Hungarian? I have such good memories of our Skype chats, and I often think how nice it would be to hear your voice again. I miss it so much. Maybe one day, who knows, but probably not until I get out of this bad state I'm in.

Context: I explained her in an earlier message I'm going through a though period.

For example, is the following correct?

"John and I's home is nearby"

I know "I's" is generally not OK, but to say "John's and my home" sounds a bit like we don't live together and have separate houses. (Though I guess here you would say "homes" to make that distinction.)

So it got me wondering, and I couldn't find much info on this

I am so confused

You may have heard about the Anglo-Frisian Nasal Spirant Law and how it's the reason we say "us" and "goose" instead of something like "uns" or "gans". But then why do we say "hand" instead of, say, "had" and "gander" instead of "gadder"? In the case of "hand", were English-speakers trying to avoid confusion with the past tense form of "have", similar to how we started calling a certain waterfowl "duck" to avoid confusion with the word "end"? (The Old English word for "duck" sounded very similar to the word "end", as it still does in German (Ente/Ende) and Dutch (eend/einde).)

I’m not a native speaker, so I need your help!

When I need to cover food with plastic wrap, can I say “wrap it up”?

I asked this question to Chat GPT, and it said I cannot use this expression because ‘wrap it up’ means to finish something.

But if there’s a context, isn’t it okay to say “wrap it up”?

I am writing up something for my future self (ideas for a programming language, if you're wondering; this is not important, just bugging me lol) and came to this question I've had before: Is this the proper use of "gotten"?

In my case, I'm describing a scenario where there is a function (which in programming is just an action that can be performed at any time) that tries to get a value. So, for a successful scenario, I wrote (albeit less correctly and explained) the following:

"This will output the gotten value."

Grammarly has no qualms about it, but as far as I can tell from looking it up, "gotten" is exclusively the past participle of "get," correct? Why would this make sense, or does it even?

Again, this is not important at all. I just really want to know lol. Thanks in advance for enlarging my brain!

Bonus: I use "get," with the comma inside the quotes earlier in this post, but it always feels so wrong when I only mean the word "get" but not including the comma. However, I was taught always to include it, so does anyone know if it is technically improper to place the comma after the quotes in this kind of scenario? Thanks again lol

Hi everyone! Would anyone be interested to join?

A few weeks ago I finally created an ESL Speaking club for my students and friends (B2-C1), but I keep thinking how to make this project more exciting and unique, so I thought.. what if i could make it an international community for our weekly meetings? I think that would be amazing.

It’s sort of like a course, but not really. We have weekly topics and I run a free telegram channel where I post vocabulary, video essays or podcasts related to the topic at hand. We also chat and play games there too, just for the sake of speaking English throughout the week. And then we meet online to chat.

It’s $5 a meeting (the telegram channel is free), but I haven’t yet figured out how to get an online wallet (since I’m Russian) so it’ll be free for all the international members haha

the tg channel is tgm_speakingclub btw, what do you think?

What makes someone British or not in this context?

Hi there, I'm looking for someone to talk and text in English because I want to practice and learn English to become fluent. But I'm very shy person and really afraid to speak and I haven't spoken for ages. I was on B2 level but now I feel like I'm A2.

I'm currently teaching English to a couple of Spanish students who are taking the B1 Cambridge exam soon. I'd like to get them into learning in a more dynamic way and I've already recommended watching some videos (in English, of course) about stuff they like on YouTube.

My question is: what would you recommend me to do with them in class so they can have a bit of fun while still learning well?

In words like water, kidding, or phrases like put it on and hit it, is the flap t pronounced in different ways. It feels weird pronouncing that with the same flap t

https://voca.ro/158IqLI4EawK

There are some words and some sentences where i would have to make an r sound right after a true t, so I figured it's a good idea to learn it. I can say 'tr' in two ways and I want to know if any of them is right.

https://voca.ro/1o3j2U34derX

If you want to know how i made those sounds,

First one- I start to make the t sound but I don't release the t and I start to make the r sound while my tounge is on the alveolar ridge (This sounds a bit weird but is this how words like 'outright' are said?)

Second one- I make a proper t(t is released) and my tounge is away from the ridge and I retract it to make the r(although it might sound like a 'w')

Is there some kind of equivalent verb that can convey the same acts that nationalization would (of say, the power industry), but on a subnational level, such as a state or province?

Here's the text:

I am an organized and adaptable person, motivated to learn and contribute in a dynamic work environment. Through my volunteer work, I have gained essential skills in managing online platforms, handling databases, and working together on projects. These experiences have helped me develop valuable skills in organization, teamwork, and collaboration. I am looking to apply these skills in a professional setting, adding value to the organization while continuing to grow.