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I want to know the difference between the two Stack Exchange sites 'English Language & Usage' and 'English Language Learners' (this site).

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    I'll also note that none of the questions I remember you asking on EL&U were actually suitable there, and for the ones that were well-considered and well-formed enough to answer, should have been asked in the first instance here on ELL. I got the sense, with many of them, that you simply asked on EL&U because either your question wasn't well received on ELL (downvoted, closed), or you didn't get answers which satisfied you here. You should not do that. EL&U is not your "ELL backup plan", as Glorfindel's answer on this Q and the other answers on the exact dupe demonstrate.
    – Dan Bron
    Commented Mar 11, 2017 at 18:07

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This question, originally posted on the main site, really belongs on Meta and has now been migrated. This question asks whether to post a question on ELL or EL&U and is a near-duplicate of this one.

The difference between the sites is explained in detail here, but basically it boils down to the following: this site is meant

for speakers of other languages learning English

(from the Tour)

so it focuses on basic questions about grammar, word/phrase meanings, etc., which would be 'obvious' to native speakers (though this does certainly not mean they all would be able to answer them; English can be very confusing at times for no apparent reason).

On the other hand,

English Language & Usage Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for linguists, etymologists, and serious English language enthusiasts.

(from the EL&U Tour)

While we do have a lot of questions here which would be interesting/not too basic for native/fluent English speakers (e.g. this one), those would fit on EL&U as well.

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    Worth pointing out that the example question you used for "suitable for EL&U" wasn't asked by someone trying to learn English as foreign language in the sense that most members here are. I believe Reg'a native language is indeed Russian, but he's so fluent in English he might as well be a native speaker. Maybe pick a more representative example? I will say while most of the questions I see on ELL "would never occur to me to ask" as a native speaker, I do sometimes learn a good deal from some of the answers here, particularly from the more academic & linguistically trained members (eg Stoney)
    – Dan Bron
    Commented Mar 11, 2017 at 11:50
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    @DanBron Thanks for the kudos; but I have to tell you that my academic training is in theatre, and my linguistic 'training' is two undergraduate courses in historical linguistics followed fifty years later by binge-reading John Lawler's answers on ELU.
    – StoneyB on hiatus
    Commented Mar 14, 2017 at 22:55

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