All Questions
370
questions
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Resources for learning English
This is a specifically created Community Wiki which gathers resources for learning English and it has been approved by the Community itself.
It should be clear that the resources are not written by ...
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answers
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Please, everyone ... details. Please!
I've seen a lot of questions crop up recently, where individuals are giving a very brief snippet of English, and asking questions like these:
Is this correct?
What does this mean?
What is the ...
J.R.Mod
- 109k
54
votes
2
answers
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Not so fast! (When should I accept an answer?)
So, someone has answered your question, and you haven't even waited a full hour yet. That's great! As you might already know, the Stack Exchange model encourages you to accept an answer from those ...
J.R.Mod
- 109k
16
votes
4
answers
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Commenting vs. Answering
I'm new to StackExchange, and trying to get a good feel for the difference between commenting and answering, but there are a few points still confusing me and I'd appreciate feedback from the ...
- 1,208
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votes
16
answers
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Contributor's Guide to English Language Learners
I thought it would be nice if we had a community maintained guide to ELL written in easy-to-understand language and arranged to make the most important things to know easy to find. The help center has ...
15
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2
answers
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Is it really pointless to edit questions to use correct English on ELL?
I would have thought that, on a site aimed at language learners, it would be helpful to edit questions so they at least use correct English.
The following edits have had rejections when they ...
- 125
66
votes
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answer
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DO NOT FEED THE BEARS
A question was just asked on ELL, and it needs a lot of work.
Here's a screen shot. There are two problems with this question: first, the way the initial question was asked; second, the way a follow-...
J.R.Mod
- 109k
51
votes
3
answers
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Alternative websites for proofreading
What websites are available where people can practice writing English, and have their written work corrected by native speakers?
(It'll be useful to point people to this question if they've asked a "...
- 5,777
33
votes
6
answers
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Submitting Answers that merely answer the question
Lately I've noticed quite a few answers that provide an answer to the O.P.'s question, but provide no supporting information.
Sometimes, comments are left, asking for more information; other times, ...
J.R.Mod
- 109k
38
votes
1
answer
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So, you found a sentence or phrase... (Why you should cite your source)
So, you found a sentence or phrase that confuses you, and now you want to know what it means.
If your confusion stems from the fact that you are an English novice, then ELL is a good place to ask.
...
J.R.Mod
- 109k
28
votes
4
answers
726
views
How can I write a better title for my ELL question?
I have an ELL question; but the Stack Exchange format obliges me to write a title not shorter than 15 characters and not longer than 150 characters.
So, how do I write a good title?
Link to the main ...
- 7,341
58
votes
6
answers
881
views
How do I determine whether a question fits on English Language & Usage or on English Language Learners?
It's been less than ten minutes since I've been on this page and already I have a dire need:
A checklist on: how do I determine whether a question fits on English Language & Usage or on English ...
- 4,677
9
votes
2
answers
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Should proofreading questions be closed as offtopic?
I saw this question (https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/1291/what-incorrect-usages-are-found-in-my-sentence) which is fundamentally a question of the form:
Here is some text. Please tell me ...
- 11.7k
20
votes
7
answers
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How helpful is it to add "Hope this is helpful!" to an ELL answer?
Google tells me there are about 70 instances of Hope this is helpful on English Language Learners.
I don't like to come across as a grumpy ole git, but it seems to me this level of "chattiness" isn't ...
- 64.6k
13
votes
5
answers
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Is This Tag Useful? Episode 1 - The Big Boss (grammar)
I guess one of the best ways to get your message across is putting a TL;DR in the beginning. If you agree with the sentiments of the TL;DR the rest might not be necessary to read but if grammar has ...
- 7,341
7
votes
1
answer
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When should I correct an ELL's grammar?
Let's say "Bob", a hypothetical ELL, comes to this site and posts this question.
Which of this sentences is grammatically correct?
How is you feel today?
or
How are you feel today?
(...
- 4,700
57
votes
3
answers
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views
Have we forgotten our mission?
I unilaterally reopened a question today. Here's my paraphrase of the original question:
In this phrase, which preposition(s) would be correct:
Put the pen ..................... the book?
I'm ...
J.R.Mod
- 109k
15
votes
2
answers
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views
What is the difference between the "English Language & Usage" and "English Language Learners"?
What is the difference between the "English Language & Usage" and "English Language Learners"?
Could anyone clarify the differences?
Which questions should I ask here, and which ones should I ask ...
- 777
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votes
8
answers
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Requests for native speakers to answer questions
I have been seeing a somewhat increasing trend lately of questions which end with a variation of this sentence:
I would like to hear a native speaker's opinion, please.
Though I am sure that the ...
- 14.5k
16
votes
3
answers
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Policy for questions that are entirely answerable with a dictionary
I've asked this question to garner consensus about what we should do with questions that are completely answered by a dictionary definition. This question, for example. (Reproduced here because the ...
- 14.5k
24
votes
4
answers
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How much editing is too much editing?
Many of our users will not have extensive written English skills. We can't give a lot of feedback about the edits we make in the description box, but those edits might make it difficult for the OP to ...
- 1,006
16
votes
3
answers
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Wait a few minutes before closing new users' questions?
Summary for those lacking time to read the Great Wall of Text:
We need to treat questions posted by new users differently than those by veteran users, and be a little less trigger-happy with the ...
- 14.5k
20
votes
2
answers
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Ask even if the answer exists online
Should one ask a question here even if the answer can be found googling the internet?
I asked myself for instance what the meaning of rain check is and where it came from. There can be found several ...
- 955
19
votes
2
answers
522
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Stop throwing "Proofreading" close reason at questions that are clearly limited to a single point of concern
We have a handy close reason for questions that are basically just "find any problems in this chunk of text". That's fine, because those are terrible questions. They haven't actually gotten to the ...
- 9,443
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votes
3
answers
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As a learner, how do I choose which answer to accept?
After reading some meta questions, it seems there are a lot of unanswered questions, and also that it's not necessarily a problem. I'd still want to know on what criteria I should accept an answer.
...
- 1,444
16
votes
2
answers
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So many answers in comments
I can see previous meta discussions on what should be a comment and what should be an answer, but what I'm wondering is, why are so many users posting answers, sometimes quite in-depth (if compact) ...
- 22.5k
15
votes
3
answers
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Handling scant "What does this mean" questions
We have recently seen a number of questions in this basic format:
What does this mean?
The magic words are squeamish ossifrage.
I don't understand this quote.
When encountering ...
J.R.Mod
- 109k
10
votes
2
answers
131
views
Meaning of Up/Down votes against ELL Meta questions
From comments here it seems that not all SO sites adopt the same convention regarding up/downvotes questions on Meta.
I'm mainly familiar with ELU Meta, where as this question illustrates, a downvote ...
- 64.6k
10
votes
1
answer
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Searches for finding questions that need attention
This post is intended to be a place to collect queries to help find questions that could use some attention. Maybe they need another answer, maybe the answers need to be voted on, or maybe the ...
- 11.9k
8
votes
1
answer
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Questions with no answers but are answered in comments
I'm pretty new to this site. I was wondering what the accepted practice was with questions like this where OP has been answered in comments but there are no answers to 'accept'.
What does the ...
- 976
8
votes
2
answers
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Abolish off-topic tags [etymology] and [resources]
There are about 20 questions tagged etymology, and 8 questions tagged resources. Both are clearly off-topic according to the Help Center.
Of the existing questions, they are either improperly tagged,...
- 8,073
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votes
11
answers
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UPDATED: Site design for English Language Learners community
UPDATE 22 Feb. 2016
Looking at your comments, it seems like we need to tweak a few things:
Capitalize the word "Learners"
The bookmark should start "inside" the books and not below
A colored ...
- 101
26
votes
2
answers
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Robo-reviewers on ELL
Occasionally, Stack Exchange receives suggested edits that replace a valid answer with spam. One particular answer on ELL has received this treatment fifty-two times (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 ...
user230
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votes
12
answers
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Formatting Sandbox – Please test stuff here
What the title says.
Use this for testing stuff and gosh I can't believe we didn't have this till now.
20
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3
answers
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What we need are good answers. It doesn't matter who writes them.
This has come up before, but I think it's worth making the point again.
What we need here on ELL is for people to write good answers. It doesn't matter whether they're written by native speakers.
...
user230
18
votes
1
answer
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Minor recurring formatting errors (and how to avoid them)
Many of my edits fall into a few general areas; this seems to be true for edits made by other people as well. If people who ask questions on ELL would simply heed a few simple guidelines, the site ...
J.R.Mod
- 109k
15
votes
1
answer
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ELL policy re. salutations and thank-you's in questions
When I come across things like "Hello everyone!" or "My English no good sorry!" or "Thank you for all you help!!!" I routinely edit them out. More than once, though, these edits have been rolled back ...
14
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2
answers
165
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Should backticks be used or quotation marks while formatting?
I had a suggested edit on one of my posts, that suggested changing the back-tick formatting to simple quotes. I am unsure of what to do in this case. So I figured it would be wise to ask this here.
...
- 833
14
votes
6
answers
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What should our FAQ contain?
Much of the FAQ will be somewhat boilerplate: “be nice,” “how to create an account,” “how to ask questions” — it’s all pretty static. Even the sections about “what kind of questions should I (not) ask ...
- 834
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5
answers
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Lack of Accepted Answers
This is my first time participating in a public beta, so I apologize if this question has an obvious answer or if the behavior I mention is the norm.
What I seem to be noticing, as I page through our ...
- 14.5k
11
votes
3
answers
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A proposed solution to the "grammar" dilemma -- Please contribute your answers to the "what is grammar" post
This is the follow-up of Is This Tag Useful? Episode 1 - The Big Boss (grammar). (i.e. intended to be the community decision on the matter, if people agree with the sentiments of this meta post)
TL;DR
...
- 7,341
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votes
3
answers
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How to salvage/improve questions: a guide by example
TL;DR: let's make a catalog of "How to salvage your question" examples.
There are a handful of reasons that a lot of our questions on our main site, ELL, get closed on. Except for "duplicate of ...", ...
- 27k
9
votes
13
answers
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2015 Moderator Election Q&A - Question Collection
In connection with the moderator elections, we will be holding a Q&A with the candidates. This will be an opportunity for members of the community to pose questions to the candidates on the topic ...
- 101
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2
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Policy for Research Effort in Questions, and its Strictness
I think we need to start talking about what level of research effort we actually require to keep questions open. We say that sharing your research is requisite, and when questions are straight ...
- 14.5k
8
votes
1
answer
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What does OP mean?
Obviously, it means the person asking the question, but what does the acronym actually stand for?
And, I apologize for not being able to find the answer. If there is something I should have read ...
- 653
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2
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Memorandum of Formatting
Inspired by this question, I would like to find a comprehensive list of formatting elements recommended for use when asking and answering here.
In fact, I would like to have two lists:
For each ...
- 7,935
2
votes
3
answers
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Tag cluster: [grammar], [grammaticality], [grammaticality-in-context], [grammatical]
In my opinion, the tags clustered around grammar and grammaticality have gotten out of hand. All these tags: grammar, grammaticality, grammaticality-in-context, grammatical mean basically the same ...
- 8,073
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2
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What questions of etymology can be asked here?
I apologise for any inconvenience and consulted What should we do with questions about etymology?, and want to confirm if any questions about etymology are allowed here? ELL can attend, help and ...
user8712
1
vote
3
answers
251
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What should we do with questions about etymology?
I've noticed over the past few weeks that there are occasionally questions that pop up about the etymology of words such as What is the origin of the word "ell"? and What does "You are ...
- 11.7k
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3
answers
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Let's bring down the number of unanswered questions
There are currently almost three thousand unanswered questions (questions with no upvoted or accepted answers) on this site. If I recall correctly, some sites actively try to bring this number down to ...
user61774