By American English, Conversations

Frankly, I prefer British English rather than American English. In my point of view, the former one is formal and traditional. The latter one contains lots of proverb that has enormous local color. Besides, I don’t like the conversation speed either, it is too fast. Therefore, I would choose...

These are all acceptable ways of phrasing these sentences in colloquial American English. In more formal, careful English the use of "like" and "how" as subordinate conjunctions (Do it how I told you. Do it like I told you. And so forth) would not be as acceptable--meaning that the other...

The following remarks are for American English. may and might are equivalent when they mean that something is possible. It may rain today. / It might rain today. Both mean It is possible that it will rain today. Susan may be late for the meeting. / Susan might be late for the...

Hi Anon,what Jim said makes a lot of sense, and we discussed it a little in another thread, I think.The point was that teaching completely descriptively is impossible. The teacher would have to say: Mr X says this, Mr Y says that, and Mr Z says another thing. Now learn what they say and then...

I am trying to formulate guidelines for learners of English as a foreign language with regards the use of may/might/could to express possibility. It seems to me that you can use these three modals (almost) interchangeably when expressing possibility. For example, 'Where's Mary?' 'I'm not sure....

"You knew your brother did a bad thing, did you?" "You knew your brother did a bad thing, did you?" Is the difference between those two an accent matter, or a pronunciation matter? Neither. The intonation is the key. You have used an intonation stress to emphasise those...

You can talk to your dog, to plants, or to deceased relatives. The conversation is imaginary, of course, but you're allowed to have an imagination, even in English! The distinction between can and may described by your teacher is really no longer valid. Nearly 100 years ago...

Hi,I'm a newbie, and have found this topic interesting, so I'd like to put in my 2 cents. I know that in American English, especially in California, L.A. I heard people use "That" - for "who" or "which" in daily conversation.As for me, I don't mind using "that" for most of the time, but in...

Even on the pages of this forum you will find different opinions about the usage of may and might. The following are my personal feelings on the subject. Note that these are from the point of view of American English, and you may want to wait for further comments regarding British...

From my experience, the form "and" is used most naturally in North American English, however, many people have the form without the "and" in their idiolect, because math books caution against its used. Most math books insist that one should only use "and" when refering to a decimal point, and...