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Native English speaker vs. English native speaker

General English Grammar & Vocabulary,... » ESL General English Grammar Questions

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Latest post Tue, Sep 1 2009 3:46 PM by Clive. 6 replies.
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Seraphin  +  589081 Tue, 18 Nov 08 11:49 PM
I sincerely apologize for posting this question. I believe this has been posted before, but somehow the forum does not seem to support keyword-searching anymore.
I googled the two terms, and found that both are used in books. I recalled back in school one expression was considered "wrong" or "chinglish", but now I do not know which is which. Can anyone help break down the analysis of which is correct and why the other is wrong ? Thanks a ton.
Seraphin
Joined on Sat, Feb 9 2008
Full Member 151
CalifJim  +  589084 Tue, 18 Nov 08 11:52 PM
 You want native English speaker, not English native speaker.

CJ 
CalifJim
Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004
California
Veteran Member 22,447
"There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche
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AlpheccaStars  +  589095 Wed, 19 Nov 08 12:36 AM
 Yes! You want native English speaker, not English native speaker.

Here is the reason:

A person who speaks English is an English speaker.

The person (the English speaker) is speaking English in a native manner.

Native modifies "English" and not the person (speaker). A native person is someone who is living in the place where they were born, or the original inhabitants of a country (native Americans were called Indians)

Thus, the correct sequence is native (which modifies) English (which modifies) speaker.


AlpheccaStars
Joined on Sun, Oct 12 2008
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Seraphin  +  589568 Wed, 19 Nov 08 11:43 PM
Thanks for the explanation. But isn't it also common to say "are you a native speaker? who is a native speaker? I am a native speaker" in all of which "native" modifies "speaker".
Seraphin
AlpheccaStars  +  589630 Thu, 20 Nov 08 02:19 AM
 Yes, you are right. I was only explaining the order in the example.  The person's language language can be omitted. In that case, we assume that the language is the one which is spoken where the speaker is living.

You can also specify the language this way::

Are you a native speaker of Chinese?

AlpheccaStars
Anonymous, 85 days ago
I'd say you can use either, but "native English speaker" is marginally more logical and definitely more commonly used, so I'd go for that... however, since "native speaker of English" is also correct (as has been pointed out), "English native speaker" is not wrong.


- Dave

Clive  +  882648 Tue, 01 Sep 09 03:46 PM
Hi,

 

I'm a Canadian native speaker of English.

 

Clive
Clive
Joined on Thu, Oct 28 2004
Canada
Veteran Member 29,657
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