By Whom, Pronunciation

Speaking as an American teenager:Girls will say "I went out with my girlfriends" (meaning friends who are girls), "I went out with my boyfriend" (meaning a boy whom they are dating), or, at least with teenagers, "I went out with my guy friend" (referring to a boy who...

Hello, another English teacher here. I have been teaching English in China for about 2 and a half years now and also speak fluent French, decent Spanish and am learning Chinese (not as hard as you may think once you get the hang of those tones, easy grammar). Now I'll start off by saying that...

Milky wrote: CalifJim wrote:A native tells me that it does occur in such as the second example. The native must have misunderstood the question. Does it No., and if it does, why? And is it widespread? No."gonna" has to be followed by a verb. London isn't a verb!I'm gonna London is totally...

Anonymous wrote:It really bugs me the way Americans say a 'British' accent because more than one country makes up Britain, there is England, Scotland, and Wales, all of which have very different accents. Then of course all three countries have many regional accents which are again very...

I don't think there is a hard and fast rule here. However: If you have a two syllable word that ends with an 'a', it's typical that the vowel in the first is short. Like 'dada', 'feta', etc. This is not a rule so much as a pattern that should be observed. Following it, the 'da' in 'data' should...

Anonymous wrote:yo guys! i've read all your comments...and i gotta say i've lost any hope to learn english...reading or hearing how others talk kinda depresses me cos i realize that i'm very bad at it, that i can't speak at all. nobody can understand me, some people make fun of me when i speak-...

Mjcbrown wrote:Unlike as in Germany, regional accents have been retained by the working classes and now are still distinctive of the working class and as such bear a "working class" stigma.Presumably this means "retained only by the working classes", otherwise it could be interpreted as...

I'm not a native but that's also something I wondered about a while ago.My american colleagues with whom I speak over the phone would all stress the first syllable.However my Harrap's dictionary tells me both are acceptable, meaning the stressed syllable can be either the first one or the second...

Hello Sanz The contraction "Mrs" relates to "mistress" in the now obsolete sense of the female head of a household (cf. master). "Mrs" was also used as a courtesy title for unmarried women in the 17th and 18th centuries. The pronunciation "missis" presumably distinguishes "Mrs" from "mistress"...

Who the charity help? -- Wrong Whom the charity help? -- Wrong Who does the charity help? -- OK, but considered informal. Whom does the charity help? -- OK and formallly correct. The only word with more than one syllable here is charity. The stress falls on the first syllable: /...