Title says it all but I'm watching a British TV show and just came across an expression called "food for thought." Is it also commonly used in the US?

Exercises from Advanced English Grammar in Use suggest that we can use the present continuous as well as the present simple with some state verbs. For example:

Simon's new song is sounding (or sounds) quite good, but he doesn't think he's ready yet to perform it in public.

If they are both grammatically correct, which one seems more natural to use?

Also, are they "state verbs" or "stative verbs"? I bet I saw the term "stative verbs" somewhere, but this book uses only "state verbs"...

In the dictionaries I use, "flush" is followed by "with". Is "flush to" acceptable too?

So, I did some research. Apparently, this is called "do-support". I used to think this was just a feature of European languages. I'm not sure, maybe it is a European thing, but it's rare and doesn't exist in Spanish or German.

• You woke up early.

• You did not wake up early.

• Did you wake up early?

It took me a while and some practice to get it right and I still occasionally say something like "I didn't woke up".

In my head, it's going from wake to woke because it's past tense (my language is tenseless), but then back to wake because it's negative, even though it's still past tense.

I'm wondering if this also took you a while to get used to. I mean learners and non-native speakers, of course.

Hi everyone,

I am a native Japanese speaker applying for the ALLEX Teaching Assistant Program (a fellowship to teach Japanese at a US university while pursuing a master's degree).

The essay prompt has a strict 500-word ceiling, but my current draft is at 540 words. I need to cut about 50 words.

A few important points:

- The program strictly prohibits AI writing, and I have an English interview later.

- I deliberately do NOT want fancy academic/GRE words—I want to keep my natural, authentic speaking voice.

- Please don't completely rewrite it; I want to know what to cut or fix myself!

Could native speakers please point out:

1. Which sentences or phrases feel repetitive/unnecessary and can be cut?
2. Are there any specific lines that sound clearly awkward or confusing?

Also, here's the actual essay prompt: 'explaining

(1) why you are interested in this program, and
(2) how this program fits into your career plans. The essay must be typed, and must be your own work. Do not use AI for assistance, e.g. ChatGPT.'

Here is my draft (473 words): I'm editing this.

I interviewed the University's President for my university documentary project. I thought he might be a formal person because he was wearing a suit and glasses. However, he was very gentle and was humorous. I learned that only a title and appearance cannot explain to students what he actually was. I filmed this interview and screened it at the university festival. I was enchanted that I could portray someone deeply through video. Later, I learned that there is a big difference between explaining and changing the information so that people can understand it well. I’d like to study these techniques both through the communication major and teaching Japanese.

While attending UCSD Extension's Communication and Culture program,  I taught Japanese to students and had my university studies simultaneously. Since returning to Japan, I've been volunteer teaching Japanese at the local city hall. At first, my beginner student and I just enjoyed beginner conversations. However, the Japanese government changed the immigration rules, and it completely changed our situation. He won’t be able to live in Japan unless he passes a Japanese language test. Since then, Japanese became a necessity for him, so I tried to teach him grammar and vocabulary more seriously and logically, however, I barely taught him very fundamental knowledge, such as the difference between は and が and the correct order of sentences. All I could do was just look at the textbook, work together, and sometimes teach him useful Japanese phrases. We could communicate through English, but I realized that I did not know enough about Japanese grammar or how to organize and explain information for a learner.

 Enjoying classes wasn't enough. Through the ALLEX summer program, I could learn the clear, logical teaching skills I lacked. Also, creating well-planned strategies by thinking backwards from the goal is essential to lead students to their goals effectively. Furthermore, I can study communication while teaching Japanese as an instructor. Having my own class allows me to discover problems I could not see from a student's perspective, and I can fix them in the next class by myself. This cycle of practice and study is the most important environment.

After finishing ALLEX, I’d like to keep teaching Japanese at an American university. Meanwhile, I'd like to utilize both the abilities I learned from my communication major and my media skills to create interesting and understandable materials for Japanese learners. I’d like to film a person who exists in reality and record their daily life. For example, I’d like to capture someone who moved to Tokyo for work and struggles with dialects and standard language. Through his dialogue, we could learn Japanese grammar and the issues that he and Japan have. I'd like to teach about Japan through these very personal experiences, just as I conveyed what kind of person my university's president was.

Thank you so much for your help!

When someone is examining a product for its ingredients, country of origin and other information, can you say they scrutinize the product?

Or when someone keeps checking some documents over and over to really make sure no mistakes have been made, are they scrutinizing?

Would you use "scrutinize" in everyday language?

Hey guys, I'm 18 years old. I hope there's still hope to change my Slavic accent to something more American or Australian because accent plays a huge role in my life, and I want it to change. If you have any resources for this, let me know

Lately, I have been experiencing a problem during conversations where I forget basic words that I know well. If anyone has experienced the same issue, how did you solve it

Forgiveness can only happen when an apology comes first.

Does this sound natural? Is there a more natural way to say this?

Does it depend on the things like forks, antlers, etc?

Just got my results from the C1 Advanced exam I took about a week ago. I’m definitely happy with them, although I admit I’m a bit disappointed with my Speaking score. My only excuse is that it was held early in the morning and I had to take all parts on the same day… My question, though, is since I achieved C2 level performance, what will it look like on my certificate? As far as I know, it doesn’t replace an actual C2 Proficiency certificate, so I’m wondering whether it will still be accepted as proof of C2-level proficiency somewhere. If anyone knows, please let me know!

There is a song in my playlist with words

"Shut the gate and keep it shut"

But the word Gate (ворота) is plural in russian and i keep singing it alone like "keep them shut"

Does such mistake exist in your head?

I was on Amazon looking at containers and there was a 4 piece set, two containers and two lids. while annoying, I know why it says 4 pieces. BUT on a different picture it said “four pack” and for that, it sounds more like it’s 4 containers and 4 lids.

Anyone else? or just me

Are all correct? Which one is preferred?

Do you know these situations? You read an English word. Your brain thinks: "this makes sense, it should be pronounced like this".

A day passes and you happen to hear someone pronounce it. And then you say... NO WAY!

For me, "colonel" is still weird. Where does kernel come between??

I think pronunciation is one of the hardest parts for me in English. Even though my pronunciation score on praktika went from 22/100 to 69/100 (very proud), I still feel like I don't sound native enough.

But English still surprises me every day. I think I'm going to be able to pronounce it, but no, it's actually pronounced totally differently.

What word made you go like: "WHAT? That's not how I pronounced it!"

Noticing all the time that many students are struggling to learn new words. And using a dictionary wastes time to understand millions of definitions that not relate to what you read

And you need to understand from the specific context

So you paste the whole sentence to AI, ask,

"What is the word {word} meaning in the sentence.

You look at the 300-word essay that AI just generated for you to explain the word....

And you have 20+ words like this that you don't understand....

SO

I made an app that makes the process easier and smoother, and it does two things

1) Look up the word in context,

its read the whole text, not only the one you selected ( no screenshot saved or sent). It's OCR, which only sends text to AI )

2) Save the word and the context in your personal vocab

while the AI is telling you the meaning in the context, its save the word and where it's from (ex. Safari) and the whole sentence you were reading.

SO LATER, you never need to worry about what the word was that I looked up yesterday... bro

Anyway, the Link will be in the comments (free)

SORRYY I DON'T LIKE SAYING A LOT IN THE APP DESCRIPTION, BUT it is not AI-generated. <3