Questions tagged [discussion]
The question you're asking is designed to solicit opinions or best-practices on a particular topic, with the goal of reaching community consensus.
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Providing unsolicited advice in addition to answering the question
The discussion under this question caused me to consider the policy at ELL on unsolicited advice. Consider a situation where there are errors in the examples presented in the original question, which ...
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Election check-in 2023: Who's interested in stepping up and being a moderator here?
One of our most recently elected Moderators, David Siegel, is no longer a Mod here, which leaves Laurel and me as the only active Mods, so we are thinking about holding an election to find someone to ...
gotubeMod
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Should we expand the “It’s in the dictionary” close reason to include etymological questions?
Consider the recent question Is cockroach composed of cock and roach? The post’s title says it all. @FumbleFingers and I both left quick—and perhaps overly snarky—comments illustrating how easily the ...
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Is historical English interpretation part of ELL's remit?
Since ELL is primarily aimed at English learners (not native speakers) and the guide lines state
If you have questions about the following topics, you may want to visit
other Stack Exchange sites to ...
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Is it against the rules to make ChatGPT generate a text and ask questions about how that text is grammatical or not?
I made it write poetry and sometimes, the output doesn't seem to be grammatical or correct at all. Is it ok if I base some of my questions on output generated by ChatGPT?
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Can we add a new reason to the "Close" list?
I note that one of our moderators, gotube, has started to remind OPs, who use images of text rather than copy them out, that images cannot be read by screen readers (used by the visually impaired) and ...
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Why are these questions being closed with the proofreading close reason?
As of writing, this question has four votes to close for the community-specific reason that's often referred to as "proofreading". So does this one.
While I haven't been around in a while, I'...
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Strategies for Improving Understanding of Indian English Accent
I'm currently working in a multicultural environment and I'm having difficulty understanding the Indian English accent of some of my colleagues. Their proficiency in English is good, but I often find ...
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What's a Good Grammar Textbook?
What do you guys consider to be a good grammar textbook, either for ELLs or for TESOL practitioners? Looking for one that covers advanced-level material.
I like The Grammar Book: Form, Meaning and Use ...
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Passage in Progressive Tense
I extracted this passage from 1984 because I am looking for passages written in Past Progressive Tense or Present Progressive Tense. I would think it is written in Present Progressive Tense but I'm ...
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How can I learn Indian English?
I desire learning a distinct Indian English dialect. How can I go about it? When I was learning English, I did not have much exposure to Indian English, but I feel like it has many features that are ...
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Would a community wiki/standard answer on dictionary definitions be helpful?
A look at my question history will show that what might be grouped under the umbrella of 'uncharitable close votes' is a bit of a hobby horse of mine, and I fully accept that the community as a whole ...
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Is my question an attack and a disrespect?
My post at https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/341384/what-adjective-can-be-used-to-describe-this-kind-of-behavior was closed today by moderator Laurel, who also made the following comment:
...
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Should moderators delete answers for combining terseness with comprehensiveness?
Should moderators delete answers for combining terseness with comprehensiveness?
For example, What do you call a language that doesn't use the European alphabet? asked for "a word" or "...
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Resources for learning the proper shape of the mouth and the position of the tongue in pronunciation
Could you please recommend some learning materials (books, videos, websites, etc…) that those who are learning English as a second language can use to train native pronunciation of American English?
I ...
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Can you suggest any AI based voice chat robot (such as some website) to practice spoken English?
I see these days, some text based on an AI robot, such as ChatGPT that can input English text, and respond in English, so I can practice my English writing.
But I'm not an English native speaker, and ...
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Are requests for part-of-speech tagging in example use on-topic?
We recently had a question where a usage example was given, along with an attempt at part-of-speech tagging, and a request to validate that tagging:
Knowing what grammar is used
A user then closed the ...
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Would it be helpful to have a canonical post on Tense and Aspect? [Proposal stage (incomplete)]
Status Update: Upon discussion with an experienced member of the community who is currently teaching English, I have come to the conclusion that it may not be possible to present any single system of ...
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What book do you suggest for modern grammar?
Please, if possible, introduce books on the following topics.
Modern Grammar, Syntax, Morphology
I want to use your experience. Otherwise googling is easier but useless.
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What should be the qualifications for answering questions?
There is currently an open question on ELL which has raised some completely off topic argument in the comments some of which are becoming unpleasant. One contributor is saying you shouldn't answer ...
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Re-open request
I'm a bit surprised that two mods endorse closing...
What does that mean: "my toes speak English"?
...citing "Lack of context". After failing to find the exact text in Google ...
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large general american audio archive
I'm looking for a large (at least several hours) collection of audio records accompanied by transcriptions (just text, timing is not important) narrated by one person whose accent can roughly be ...
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As English learner, it is hard for me to grasp shades of meaning between synonyms. Is there a resource available that can help me with this?
As every English learner, I come across many near-synonyms and synonyms, such as 'sad,' 'gloomy,' and 'wretched'. How can I determine which of them conveys a stronger emotional intensity? What words ...
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What should I study to learn academic English that is used for mathematics?
I am looking for material that can be used to teach non-English speakers academic English for mathematics. I meant it might be some basic vocabulary. Any help will be appreciated.
00GB
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Duplicates: why not be able to choose more than one?
When you opt to close a question due to its being a duplicate, the program automatically churns up examples and you have to choose one.
Often, more than one applies, yet there is only one choice ...
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Object complement - good sources
Where can I find a list of the verbs that need an object complement, listed according to whether the object complement is a noun or adjective or both?
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Online collocation dictionaries and English corpus search resources
Correct prepositions and collocations in general do not come naturally to a non-native speaker. I had been using www.just-the-word.com to check for right combinations, until it went offline some time ...
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Backing up i.imgur.com images that may be at risk due to their new ToS
Now, you should be using the "add picture" feature in the editor to get an i.stack.imgur.com address for your images in your posts. That is hosting that SE pays for and images there won't ...
LaurelMod
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Is ChatGPT good for fixing grammar errors compared other tools like Grammarly?
Did anyone use both? And your opinion? How often do they make mistakes?
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Which is it? People don't really take the time to understand the questions or I worded them so badly that they are unintelligible?
I don't mind the downvotes. I am here to ask questions and get answers not to score points. But what seems strange to me is how what I intended in some recent questions failed to get across. And I'm ...
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Are answers written by AI Chatbots suitable for the site?
Relevant question and answer
What is the grammar point that we changed the structure "S + V and V" into the structure "S + V, Ving"?
Is an answer written by an AI chatbot, such as ...
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Where can I find a good phrasal verbs dictionary?
Where can I find a good phrasal verbs dictionary, and can someone help me out? Does anyone have the Cambridge Phrasal Verbs Dictionary or a similar resource they could recommend?
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Does this site have different rules about answering in comments?
On most SE sites, giving answers as comments is generally frowned upon.
But here, it seems to be a very common practice.
I realize that this site is different in that most questions are quick one-offs,...
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Tag description that is possibly unsuitable for an English language site
The description for our (main site's) third most popular tag meaning reads:
This tag is for questions which a dictionary cannot answer about what a word means.
This sentence seems ..off to me, if ...
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Why was my "rude or abusive" flag declined?
Recently a new user insisted on commenting on the downvoting that happened on their question (a duplicate was posted on ELU, where the exact same comment was added).
I cannot fully recall the exact ...
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What sort of English should I use on Stack Exchange websites, British or American?
What kind of language should I learn to properly ask and answer here?
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Are possibly rude comments allowed?
Someone made a comment on my answer saying:
Very poor answer tbh of a new contributor bounty hunting.
Would this be allowed? I don't think this is the purpose for commenting, so I flagged it.
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Telling people not to advertise in an answer
An advertisement was posted on the site. I posted an answer:
Please do not advertise here, this is a place for asking questions and answering them.
Would this be allowed? (To protect my reputation ...
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The IELTS academic exam [closed]
I want to prepare for the IELTS academic exam, and I am so confused about the best resources. Do you have any suggestion for me?
And in your opinion, which is better Collins or Cambridge books for ...
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Book that covers less obvious rules for using 'a/an' and 'the' articles
Could you suggest a comprehensive textbook or academic research study that covers all the cases of using articles (a/an and the) in English? I'm having trouble finding a detailed and well-reasoned ...
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Happy 10th, English Language Learners!
It’s been 10 years since this site was proposed in Area 51, so we’re celebrating ELL’s 10th anniversary!
In the beginning, this site was started by users of English Language and Usage (EL&U), as a ...
LaurelMod
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"You can’t post new questions right now"
While trying to post, I'm receiving:
Sorry, we are no longer accepting questions from your account because
most of your questions need improvement or are out of scope for this
site. See the Help ...
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Resources for learning academic/formal writing?
Referring to this Amazon review of a book,
The writing style is extremely poor ... The grammatical style is horrendous: incorrect usage, nonparallel structure, misplaced commas, run-on sentences, etc....
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What famous formal literature or writing has used "still more" as a conjunction?
I have a question about my English Language Learners Stack Exchange post: What famous formal literature or writing has used "still more" as a conjunction?
How can we improve or salvage What ...
user167971
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Is it on topic to ask about English advice given by ChatGPT?
This question
Can "neither do I" apply to both disagreement with positive statement and agreement with negative statement?
asks whether the advice given by ChatGPT (we can use 'Neither do I' ...
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2022: a year in moderation
As we say goodbye to the old year and welcome the new one, we have a tradition of sharing moderation stats for the preceding calendar year.
As most of you here are aware, sites on the Stack Exchange ...
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EL&U.SE vs ELL.SE
I'm a monolinguist but have had a bad experience on English Language & Usage (EL&U).
Might I break any (site-specific) rule for asking questions here instead of EL&U?
Sure I could get ...
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Can I submit a video here for feedback on my pronunciation?
I am trying to improve my pronunciation of English words. For these purposes, I make short videos. That is, I want to know not about a specific word, but in general how understandable my speech is.
My ...
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How to further improve English listening?
I can easily understand the conversation from Twitch or Live Youtuber shows. However, when I watch shows on Netflix or Amazon Prime videos, I cannot understand their talks... It looks like I listen ...
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Short rhymed English texts for memorization
I'm searching for short English texts to memorize. Provided that it has: rhyme and assonance easy to repeat (Like:If— by Rudyard Kipling).My experience in learning my mother tongue Arabic in addition ...
