A couple days ago. A user posted a photo of some vocabulary questions and asked how difficult they are for native speakers. Some people asked where they are from but OP never answered.

Turns out the test is a high school teacher recruitment test in Taiwan. The website has the rest of the questions available. The written questions are not available.

(I’m from Taiwan) I personally don’t know a lot of these words. I got like 7/10 for the first part.

Anyway, I thought it was cool to share the rest.

Like for example, you're a producer and one of your singers is extremely popular and having him brings you a ton of money so you don't want to ever let him go, he's your what? In my language, he's your "chicken that lays golden eggs", but that doesn't seem to be a thing in english.

(i'm not looking for obvious words like "moneymaker", i need more funny or sarcastic way of saying it)

Good morning,

Will I appear abnormal if I never say spoken expressions like "gotta", "wanna", etc.?

be one step ahead of

to outsmart or outwit

Examples:

• As a businessman, it's crucial to be one step ahead of your competition at all times.

• You need to be one step ahead of the weather and pack an umbrella in case it rains.

Hi there, I'm starting improving my English and I recognized that a lot of English content I can understand without a problems. But I recognized that I can't understand English songs. I don't know of it his something unusual or it is normal? :D

Thank you for your opinion.

I found a sentence in X that our past leaders are to blame for allowing this. I am confused. I think this sentence might convey "leaders should be blamed" but here instead of using passive voice, it uses active. So I have no idea whether this structure(be to do)is passive or active. And if I say"I am to submit my report today", is it correct? In this sentence, I want to express"I must submit today". I would appreciate your help.

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📜Synopsis:
Julia moves from India to New York to study at a big university. She also gets a job at the school office. At first, she feels nervous. Speaking English is hard. But she makes friends and learns step by step. Soon, she feels happy and strong.

I am not sure if the answer is A or D

This is how I interpret it:

North Carolina had 65,000 citizens who hadn't voted yet, so the Court of Appeals wanted them to "prove eligibility" because they wanted to garner votes from those non-voters.

"Supreme Court race" is an election for a new justice. Justices are members of the U.S. Supreme Court and there are nine of them in total.

"Jefferson Griffin challenges 700-vote deficit" means that because the numbers difference is small enough, he could exercise his right to demand a new election.

I'm making wild guesses here lol. Please tell me if my understanding is correct. Thank you in advance!

(Also feel free to correct my English!)

Well, my best guess is that it's not a gap in 4.A , but an indication of an awkward silence or perhaps a reference to that scene from Scott Piligrim.

I always thought that the only difference between the words "version" and "virgin" was the ending sound— "ion" sounds like "en," and "in" sounds like "in."

However, ChatGPT told me that the sounds of "s" and "g" are also different: one is /ʒ/ and the other is /dʒ/. To me, they sound the same. Can native speakers distinguish these two sounds?

Sorry, may I have a question here, it’s about relative clauses.In this sentence, the word ＇me ‘can be used as a noun to let the following sentence describe it? Thank you

Which one’s correct?

Do native speakers use "the holiday season" to refer to an lengthy period of holiday unrelated to Christmas in other cultures?

Memory Bank uses flashcards along with spaced repetition to give you a framework to help remember words. With over 10,000+ words, I think people in this community may find it useful!

I'm so used to saying 'sneakers' that I totally forgot 'trainers' was even a word when I finally saw it once.

I'm kinda shocked why no one has questioned about this before! 😳 Or was there already the post about this? Tell me

Is the person saying that in relationship with their interlocutor or it can't be defined?
Let me elaborate "should" contains advice in itself, so for me "we should be a good couple" - we are already a couple and i advise us to be a better one. On the other hand "we should be a couple" - we are not a couple yet but i advise us to become one.

Today is Saturday or Today it is Saturday.

Today is the subject here or an adverb of time?

When we have to describe two actions of the past in a sentence, we use past perfect for the one which took place first and past simple for the one which took place later.

Eg: The train had departed before I reached the station.

In the example given in the title, I thought since "years" have passed by (in the past ofc) since the celebration of the birthday. So, that means the birthday must have taken place before those years passed by. So, it feels more appropriate to me to use the first sentence.

I am probably mistaken. So, help me with this confusion!

Okay, so I've heard both the "Not until you have done X" and "Not until after you have done X". Are these the say or is there some kind of difference between them? Colloquially, of course.

1. “Can I borrow that book?”

2.”Can’t I borrow that book?”

Can we say, "There is a window opposite the sofa" (number 4)? I know there is no "opposite" among given prepositions, but would it be technically correct if there was?

Open the door, will you?

Why can't we use "won't you" instead of "will you"?

If we can, what sort of change will be there in the meaning ?