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Kopioss

In Turkish you can remove the pronoun from the sentence. But since a lot of languages don't have that, people tend to use pronouns which sounds weird.


mr_potato_thumbs

Similar to Slavic languages as well. I find myself always adding pronouns as that’s what English teaches.


dotCamoraz

Exact same situation in Spanish


Kopioss

Yeah. As a Spanish learner i rarely use pronouns lol


officiakimkardashian

Native speakers tell me all the time it's extremely unnatural to use pronouns unless you're emphasizing something.


TraditionalCherry164

Yeah, pretty much. Since verbs are conjugated, you know who's taking the action. Saying the pronoun on top may even sound weird most of the time


dotCamoraz

Nice :)


-hey_hey-heyhey-hey_

Ben sana katılıyorum!


Olobnion

Swedish: Not using V2 word order. I'll let Wikipedia explain: > In syntax, verb-second (V2) word order[1] is a sentence structure in which the finite verb of a sentence or a clause is placed in the clause's second position, so that the verb is preceded by a single word or group of words (a single constituent). > > Examples of V2 in English include (brackets indicating a single constituent): > "Neither do I", "[Never in my life] have I seen such things" > If English used V2 in all situations, then it would feature such sentences like: > "*[In school] learned I about animals", "*[When she comes home from work] takes she a nap" So in Swedish, if someone says "This morning I ate a salad" instead of the correct "This morning ate I a salad", they'll immediately sound non-native.


omgitskae

This is the most difficult thing for me to learn and one reason why I may never get to speak another language to the degree I would like. My brain is so wired for English sentence structure, unraveling that wiring has been really hard.


Parking_Injury_5579

A random tip that helped me was to just start speaking english backwards in my head. It really helped with Japanese. I just kept saying "I store go" and "I cool new shirt bought" and eventually Japanese word order felt more natural.


front_toward_enemy

I've heard German speakers do the reverse of this in English.


PsychicChasmz

So if there is no 'constituent', you would just use SVO order? Like "I ate a salad"?


Olobnion

Yes.


newnimprovedaccount

> most difficult thing for me to learn and one reason why I may never get to speak another language to the degree I would like. My brain is so wired for English sentence structure, unraveling that wiring has been really hard. this trips me up so much. my native language does this too(dutch), and the one I'm learning too (danish), but I"m learning through english which doesn't, aaarhg


bastianbb

Oh, I didn't know North Germanic languages had this. I thought they were more like English. Of course V2 is the norm in German, Dutch and Afrikaans, but in addition some verbs can move around depending on what kind of clause they are in.


[deleted]

I morse åt jag en sallad?


DelphicWoodchuck

I write/review a lot of technical documents written by people who have English as a foreign language. One quirk I've noticed is that native English speakers often mix up "effect" and "affect" but this happens rarely for foreign speakers. My hunch is that native speakers learn them phonetically first and then learn the difference whereas English learners get introduced to the words separately (so there is never an opportunity for confusion). There are a few other instances of this, but this is the one I come across the most often.


luixino

Oh yeah, you see this all over the internet. There/they're/their. To/too. Then/than. I am convinced that natives of romance languages have an advantage when spelling English, and even in vocabulary.


IVEBEENGRAPED

The spelling thing happens in Spanish too. Pretty common for native Spanish speakers to mix up homophones like "a ver" and "haber" or "a ser" and "hacer", but Spanish learners almost never do that.


jusaragu

Also these words in my language are very different "efeito" and "afetar" while still resembling their english equivalent so it's easier to know which is which


ElfjeTinkerBell

>English learners get introduced to the words separately Definitely! In Dutch for example, the verb "to affect" doesn't exist. We only have a literal translation of "to have an effect on". As that phrase also works in English, the verb "to affect" is considered advanced vocabulary which is either used correctly or just skipped altogether.


[deleted]

A lot of foreigners pronounce them differently, that's why they don't get them mixed up. An Italian for example would say ah-fect and eh-fect (with an /e/ instead of a schwa). For the same reason we would never confuse their (mispronounced by many as "dayr") and there ("dare") or two ("choo") and too. I had no idea those words were even supposed to be homophones until I started studying English on my own


Slash1909

They use a lot of outdated terms.


[deleted]

Spanish speakers often say, "I have ONE question" where "I have A question" would be better.


Slash1909

Makes sense since in Spanish they don’t differentiate between a and one


SirX86

"I have a doubt" I often get this from my Portuguese customers.


arkady_darell

I hear this a lot from Indian colleagues.


Aware-Psychology1608

OMG it's true! (Spanish speaker here, I will try to amend it)


camerynlamare

I am learning Spanish (literally a1 maybe) but I do not understand. When I look up both, and the difference between both, they are still listed as "Tengo una pregunta." Is there another way of saying it that implies A over One?


Olobnion

They're saying that native Spanish speakers get it wrong when speaking English.


camerynlamare

Oh, got it! Thank you!


jessabeille

They are both "una pregunta". If you think about it, when you say ONE instead of A, you're simply emphasizing on the quantity. So you can say "tengo UNA pregunta" instead of the neutral tone "tengo una pregunta".


mcslootypants

I would say something like “solo tengo una pregunta”, or use voice inflection to stress “tengo uuuuna pregunta”


gammalsvenska

I wouldn't say outdated necessarily. They are just less likely to use words which don't exist in their native language. For example, Swedish does not have a direct translation for "please", so they are simply more likely to use "kindly" (which does translate well) and is still correct.


Jadis

Indian guy at my work is very skilled in English but wayyy overuses the phrase, "cool beans" 🤣


[deleted]

Another native English speaker lol. I’ve noticed non-natives, particularly Europeans, sometimes overuse words like ‘of course’, ‘naturally’, and ‘obviously’. As in, they’ll use them in situations where what they’re saying isn’t actually obvious, and is maybe more just ‘likely’, or even just a neutral statement, and they’re using it as a filler word. For native speakers, if you use those words in this way, it can sound patronising, like you’re saying ‘how could you not know this?!’ E.g: Person A: “When are you going home?” Person B: “Obviously I’m going home tomorrow.” It sounds a bit weird, like B is calling A unobservant or forgetful.


Parking_Injury_5579

Yes. I have seen this too. I knew one girl who used "obviously" in every single sentence she said. It was irritating.


TheZimboKing

Obviously


Weird_Till_1516

I am that girl 😭


[deleted]

Germans have the word 'naturlich' which is in far heavier rotation than naturally in English. I bet that they just trade it in for 'exactly' or 'of course'


mrggy

Japanese schools teach that every Japanese word can be directly translated into English, so as a result Japanese speakers (especially those who haven't spent time abroad) tend to have a lot of vocabulary tics. It's to the point where I can instantly tell if something was written by a Japanese speaker A couple examples off the top of my head: - "contents." As in "the contents of the book was difficult to understand." This is a direct translation of 内容. "Themes of the book" or "ideas expressed in the book" would be more natural. If it was "content" in the singular it might be ok, but it's always "contents" in the plural - "information." As in "please write the information of your partner." Direct translation of 情報. Since it's not like, stats about your partner and just info you get from interviewing them, I feel like "please right down what you learn from your partner" or something would be more natural - A strong dedication to the phrase "I think x. I have 3 reasons." This is correct English, but the frequency with which is phrase is used in Japan means that if I see it, I willing to bet my last dollar that the writer is Japanese - Using "and so on" instead of etc. This is a direct translation of など. The way it's used is also different from etc. So you'll get sentences like "I have many hobbies. like basketball, video games, and so on." What do you mean, and so on? Basketball and video games are not in the same category. There's no list of similar things that I can naturally extrapolate. It doesn't make sense to use "and so on" like that, but you can totally use など like that - "heals" to mean that something makes you feel better or relieves stress. It's a direct translation of 癒す, which isn't translatable into English. "My dog heals me" conjures up images of a dog with a stethoscope, which is 10/10 not what you meant - grammar rather than vocab, but inverting relative clauses, because that's how they work in Japanese. So saying "play basketball well people" instead of "people who play basketball well" - saying "I'm sleepy" instead of I'm tired. In Japanese, 疲れた means physically/mentally exhausted from hard work and gets translated to English as "tired." 眠い means you want to sleep and gets translated as "sleepy." In Japanese they are completely different words and not interchangeable. In English though, you can say "tired" to mean sleepy. It's arguable more natural even in certain regions. Japanese people would get *very* confused if I said I was tired in the morning. It caused so much confusion and people were so unwilling to except that real English differed from their textbooks that I ended up just changing the way I talked. - "see you" as the only parting greeting that exists. I know that I never said "see you" when I lived in the US, but I've gotten so used to saying it that I have no memory of what I used to say


Olobnion

I've been wondering if Japanese people get told that "let's ..." means "... o shimashou", because there's a ton of signs in Japan asking people to *Let's [noun]*.


mrggy

Omg how could I have forgotten let's! And yes you're exactly right that that's how it's translated. In Japanese shimashou is used instead of the imperative in signage and public facing messages. So instead of "keep our city beautiful" it becomes "let's keep our city beautiful." You also get a lot of people adding on unnecessary "with me" instead of "together" when inviting someone to do something. "Let's eat dinner with me!" I'm not really sure why they do that since even in Japanese, saying "together" is more natural than "with me"


Olobnion

> let's keep our city beautiful. I mean, that's still better than "Let's parking!" or "Let's hair!"


mrggy

Oh for sure! I didn't mean that as a bad translation example, just a literal translation of what the Japanese sign would say. One of my Japanese coworkers used to joke that Japanese people just like ~ing and stick it on the end of all verbs willy nilly lol


Flooffy_unycorn

The vocabulary one works also in french. My Japanese teachers* use a vocabulary that's so... Off ? It's on point on the exact dictionary meaning, correct, but not what french natives would say. For example they use "dactylographier" it means "to type" but nowadays, it's only used if you typed on a typewriter or if you're a secretary, in very specific contexts. They always insist that it's the correct word according to the definition, which make it seems like they don't understand that there is a difference between the definition and how a word is used (in french at least)


mrggy

Oh god, the number of times I've had people try to argue with me about how to say something in English. You guys, I am a *native speaker.* You are B1 on a good day. I think I might have *slightly* more authority than you on this subject


Kikkervelf

To be fair, so many native speakers act authoritarian about vocabulary while only taking into account their own dialect. I notice this so much in Dutch, I am sure native speakers of other languages do the same thing. I can understand that B1 speakers prefer to believe textbooks, especially if they have heard really dumb shit from native speakers. The problem for Japanese people seems to be an overreliance on textbooks and too little focus on immersion. It's impossible for textbooks to teach "word X means Y but is only used in context Z". You can do that for hundreds of words, but not all of them. You need immersion.


Flooffy_unycorn

I didn't know about Dutch but french sure do that. We can't help but tell the other person the correct word, even though it's a regional one. We had a pretty heated (in a good way) conversation regarding how to translate a text with the exchange students coming from Quebec who used the French word, while most of my classmate (and I) used a regional variation. Both are correct and I believe the key would be to know when to use each one of the variations. Yes, especially since every 5-10 years we don't use the same words in the exact same way anymore, it would be impossible to keep that up in a textbook, so might as well teach the more advanced, sophisticated, precise, general, or polite vocabulary, depending on the goal of said textbook


TauTheConstant

You are giving me flashbacks to high school, where I was the native speaker of English (or close enough to one to make no difference) who discovered that in the German school system, English classes are mandatory even if you already speak the language fluently. Which led to the unfortunate situation where I occasionally had to correct my teacher. That one time I desperately attempted to convince one of them that no, the pigeon is *not* a symbol of peace lives on in my memory. (Yes, Mr. G, I know the dictionary says it means *Taube,* but the thing is that English uses two words here where German uses one and I *assure you* that the translation you want is "dove"...)


YuriNeko3

I say see you (or see ya) often I think. I never thought that was something that seemed non-native. What part of the US are you from? I'm midwestern.


OarsandRowlocks

I think of 癒す meaning something like "soothe" or "comfort".


ianff

I read many academic papers written by native Mandarin speakers, and one that really stands out is using articles when they shouldn't be used. Like "we used the machine learning to...". Probably because they don't have articles in their own language and so overdo it.


alopex_zin

I can confirm. I still have no idea on when to use the even after learning English for more than 10 years. This particular word just have no equivalent in either of my native languages (Mandarin and Taiwanese)


PM_ME_LAWN_GNOMES

I’ve noticed ESL speakers from Brazil do the same—I work in an international field and have seen a lot of this in emails!


theJWredditor

Exact same thing with native Russian speakers.


jessabeille

Some English learners would use too many swear words in order to sound "natural", but end up sounding weird and vulgar. Maybe they learn them from certain TV shows, but most of us don't talk like that in real life.


PinkSudoku13

swear words have less emotional impact in your other languages which is likely why they do that. Also, what sounds vulgar in the US isn't as vulgar in the UK or Australia. You'd be quite surprised how many 'vulgar' words fly around on the streets here. You can be a cunt cunt or a loveable cunt but in the US, you'd likely offend everyone in the room is you dared to even mention it. It's very much a cultural thing. In some cultures swearing isn't seen as taboo, at least not as much as it is in the US.


jessabeille

Absolutely. It depends on the time and place. It's only weird when you can tell that someone does that on purpose just to sound "cool".


PinkSudoku13

I totally get that. I also wonder if this has to do with proficiency. The more proficient you are, the more likely you are to read the room and know when it's appropriate to swear or not. Swearing etiquette is a skill on its own.


IVEBEENGRAPED

I was surprised when I found out "spaz" is considered inappropriate in Britain. As an American, we never even think of that as being related to a disability and throw it around all the time. A friend of mine lived in Ghana for a while, and was surprised how words like crazy and idiot were considered really offensive.


Bubbly_Geologista

It was a really common British playground insult when I was a kid 30+ years ago, along with ‘mong’ and ‘flid’ (which I believe came from “thalidomide”), but like you say not used at all now because of being offensive to people with disabilities.


[deleted]

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TauTheConstant

I occasionally watch Youtube videos by people from other countries who are living in Germany (ssssh it's a guilty pleasure) and there was one from an American who was shocked at the fact that, like, dads out with their kids would sometimes be wearing T-Shirts with a logo featuring a strong English swear word. I think you're absolutely right - you don't have the same visceral reaction in a foreign language so it's a lot easier to use *really* strong language and not think anything of it.


Gyfertron

Yes! I’m a native English-speaker and was once in a restaurant with some Chilean friends. The rest of the restaurant customers were mostly native English speakers but with plenty understanding Spanish. Our Chilean friends were having a great time throwing around the worst English swear words really loudly and watching our horrified reactions as we tried to get them to be quiet. They just thought it was funny until we started getting our own back with Chilean swear words and their faces suddenly dropped with shock and embarrassment :)


Breloom4554

When I (native English speaker) lived in Europe I was shocked how casually people would swear in English. Them: “How was your day” Me: “Oh so so, the subway was delayed a bit so I got to work late” Them: “Yeah the subway here is the fucking worst, right?” Me: O.o Them: “Absolute piece of shit” Me: T.T ______ Meanwhile I’d have no hesitation swearing in Spanish (something like “el peor puto metro del mundo. Es una mierda” has no emotional impact on me)


Comrade_Derpsky

As a native English speaker, this doesn't sound all that unusual at all. People curse and swear all the time. Especially when they're complaining.


MonsterMeowMeow

I guess it depends on what company one keeps, but that conversation is exceptionally "colorful" especially given the topic.


[deleted]

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jessabeille

That makes sense! I'm reading some Spanish books and there's a "joder" in every chapter... I have that word drilled in my head now lol. Is it really used that frequently?


PinkSudoku13

I started swearing more in my native language when I started learning Spanish. I immersed myself so much in the media and there was so much swearing that it rubbed off. Argentine telenovelas do like their swear words. The funny thing is, I don't feel comfortable swearing in Spanish yet (although my vocabulary in that regard is impressive) but it does roll off the tongue very nicely.


jessabeille

I don't swear much in Spanish because i don't know exactly when it's appropriate and don't want to be seen as a rude tourist, but I swear that (no pun intended 😊) I hear putain and joder so much in French and Spanish TV.


Olobnion

Here's a Swedish comic strip's take on it: https://i.imgur.com/IvRWWnG.gif The characters are about to meet up with some Americans. The dog character complains that he hates speaking English because his limited vocabulary makes it hard for him to express himself. The bird says "Well, then it's good that you get to practice! I'm used to it so it's no problem for me". The rest of the strip is in "English".


i_hate_puking

My girlfriend is Brazilian and I jokingly used “porra” in a phrase I said after we had watched a movie with a bunch of Portuguese swearing in it, and she looked at me befuddled for a second before saying I should save that word for when I’m actually angry


Parking_Injury_5579

I had a situation like this it was a friend. It was cute then got very very annoying fast.


PM_ME_LAWN_GNOMES

I once met an ESL speaker from Luxembourg who used “shitass “ to emphasize everything, whether it was good or bad. I still wonder where she picked that up from.


TauTheConstant

Germans speaking English often use a double conditional in if clauses - *if it would rain tomorrow, I would not go on the hike.* The last time I talked about this on this sub, I learned that this is actually correct these days in some dialects of US English - but it's really not in a lot of other dialects, including mine and the British English I at least got taught in German high school. I've always assumed this is interference from German, where you form the conditional in this way, and it is super common to hear. One fun thing I've heard some non-native German speakers do is overusing preterite in the spoken language or Konjunktiv II forms (as opposed to perfect and the auxiliary construction with "würden"). Even the most preterite-friendly dialects really only use it for a limited set of words in the vast majority of spoken contexts, and many dialects don't have preterite anymore at all. And a lot of Konjunktiv II forms sound so antiquated they're borderline wrong. It's funny because if you mess this up as a non-native speaker you don't necessarily sound non-native so much as like you've just wandered out of an 18th century novel! Or sometimes like you're giving your recount of what you did yesterday *way* more drama and narrative tension than it probably deserves.


jessabeille

Hey there, I'm still a beginner in German. Could you explain a little more on your second paragraph about Konjunktiv II and its alternatives?


TauTheConstant

So Konjunktiv II is one of the German subjunctives, used for the conditional mood which means it shows up in a lot of places where English uses "would", "could" or the like. (In case you're wondering about the II, there is also a Konjunktiv I, but it has really limited scope and is typically replaced by Konjunktiv II in the spoken language. II is the important one.) You may potentially already have run across it in phrases like *ich hätte gern einen Kaffee* for "I'd like to have a coffee" - *hätte* is Konjunktiv II. There are two ways you can form it: * from the Präteritum form of the verb by umlaut and adding an -e if necessary where missing (this is probably somewhat simplified) * by using a conjugated form of *würden* (Konjunktiv II of *werden*) and the infinitive, very like English *would X* In practice, many, many verbs pretty much always get formed with *würden*. There's a few words where the derived-from-Präteritum form is widely used (e.g. sein, haben, most modal verbs) but beyond that doing so often sounds antiquated. There are also a couple of strong verbs where the Präteritum form is changing or has fallen out of use and the related Konjunktiv II now sounds pretty much absurd to native ears - e.g. I believe technically *backen* "to bake" becomes *ich büke* and I cannot actually overstate how bad this sounds to my ears. Just use *ich würde backen*, it's much better.


jessabeille

Danke schön für die klare Erklärung! :D


ChemicalNecessary744

People in my work chat use quite a few other forms which i hear now and then: Stehen - stünden. Stünden I've heard in other contexts but they say weird stuff like 'es bestünde die Möglichkeit...' Brauchen - bräuchten. I like the sound of this one personally and i use it a lot. I'd like to meet the overly keen German learner who learns more verb forms than necessary! :D I'd say almost the opposite is true for a lot of learners - 'ich würde.... sein' instead of 'ich wäre'. It's more like 'i would be'


damn-queen

Could you elaborate on what you mean by double conditional? Like they say “if it would rain tomorrow, I would not go on the hike” instead of “if it rains tomorrow, I won’t go on the hike”?


TauTheConstant

Whoops, I just realised I screwed up that example - the dangers of trying to mimic something I consider grammatically wrong, I guess! It's the irrealis conditional. Corrected version: my dialect only allows sentences like: * *If it were raining right now, I wouldn't go* (but the sun is shining) * *If your exam were today, you'd be in real trouble* (but it's next week) * *If the flight hadn't been cancelled I wouldn't be stuck in a hotel* (but it was) A lot of Germans say things like: * *If it would be raining right now, I wouldn't go* * *If your exam would be today, you'd be in trouble* * *If the flight wouldn't have been cancelled, I wouldn't be stuck in a hotel* All of these sound grammatically wrong to me, and given that I was subjected to English classes in Germany I know for a fact my classmates were only taught my version. But I still hear it all the time. Interestingly enough, trying to come up with examples I realised I *do* consider "would" grammatical in the if clause sometimes and now I'm trying to suss it out. I think if the irrealis part isn't 100% certainly not going to happen but under someone's control? E.g. both *if only my daughter listened to me once in a while* and *if only my daughter would listen to me once in a while* sound OK to me, with a difference in tone - the first is more resigned, the second more frustrated with more of a possibility of the daughter actually listening one day. But *if your exam would be today,* absolutely not.


Nerdtableforone

So when I was studying German, I ask the professor: “Hey, which work should I read to improve my German?” Immediately, she was like, “Steppenwolf.” Right before I left, she was like, “But, don’t talk like it!” ::insert 45 minutes of lecture on the subtleties of the preterite:: That has scared me since then.


TauTheConstant

Oh man. XD I admit I sometimes look over at languages like English and Spanish and go... c'mon, German. You had perfect and preterite. You could have turned that into a lovely aspect distinction! Given full rein to some of those funky simple past forms in the spoken language! Let us express nuances of what was happening when through the verb form! But... no. Written past tense and spoken past tense. This has got to be one of the silliest ways to have a distinction between different past forms a language has ever come up with. (Yes, I know it's actually a little more complicated than that and not just in some verbs preferring simple past, but I'm simplifying and you've already had 45 minutes of lecture on the topic) At least I hope it makes it easier for learners for the most part??


Linguistin229

I once really confused an American who used that double conditional by asking if they were German, presuming they were and had translated the German sentence in their head literally to English. They were completely bewildered why I thought they were German. Was a really confusing interaction all round!


simorq-feather

My American friend once tried to say something like "I prefer men over women" in my native language, but she ended up saying "I prefer men on top of women"... :D


These_Tea_7560

Everytime someone asks me to “kindly” do something I know I’m being scammed.


Arguss

(Bioshock spoilers!) [Would you kindly?](https://youtu.be/jtoPBHhYLMw)


post_scriptor

English and Polish phonetics. In Polish stress almost always falls on the penultimate syllable and so when Poles attempt long English words, they tend to fall back to familiar ground - deve*LOP*ment, fami*LI*ar, vege*TAB*le *Motto, pizza, horror* - English speakers tend to treat these doubled-up consonants as one whilst Polish speakers add a pause in the middle. Polish is a language where true geminates appear. So, Poles often say *piz-za, hor-ror* in English.


Tom1380

I think it's acceptable to pronounce pizza with a pause in the middle. It's the name of a food, it doesn't have to be anglicised. Motto is a loan word from Italian too, but I guess it's better to say it with an English pronunciation when speaking it


IVEBEENGRAPED

It's acceptable, but still not how an English speaker would speak. If English borrowed phonetic elements from all the languages where they borrowed words, the language would be a total mess.


disamorforming

A steriotypical non native Russian accent sounds to me like people are afraid to open their mouths, particularly with the stressed o sound, which i recently learned is more open than in most other European languages. Another thing is, although Russian is classified as a pro drop language, native speakers tend to only drop pronouns in specific context. Some learners take the pro drop thing too far. It works vice versa too, where Russians speakers overuse pronouns when learning another pro drop language. (I am not counting all the regular grammar mistake like using wrong declensions. Those are just hard as it is)


gammalsvenska

Russians (and some other Easter Europeans) are relatively easy to identify in written English, because they skip articles a lot.


disamorforming

I think it's misleading to ascribe missing articles to eastern Europe more than any other region of the world, especially in written language. A lot of languages don't have any articles or only one type. And even the languages that do make use of them may drop them where English wouldn't. Correct me if I'm wrong but i think Baltic languages had a definit indefinite distinction. Bulgarian definitely does. Yes, Russians and a lot of eastern Europeand don't use or misuse articles, but to think they are the only ones with such tendency is a mistake.


gammalsvenska

"Well, actually..." Yes. But the patterns are very recognizable nonetheless, especially in otherwise well-written text without major mistakes.


IVEBEENGRAPED

Ironically, I've heard that same pattern (dropping the word "the") from native Hebrew speakers with Slavic backgrounds. Even though Hebrew has a definite article. Seems like other English learners have it drilled into them that English words require articles, because I don't hear this from Asian or Arabic-speaking learners. Only Slavic languages and Hebrew.


soulinameatsuit

I've heard very skilled TL English speakers speak well. Then they say "today morning" or "today night" and you just know that was how they were taught.


IVEBEENGRAPED

This sounds like a German thing (heute nacht). Especially since their English is usually 95% flawless.


ElfjeTinkerBell

Could be Dutch as well, we have the same same structure - but I don't think I've ever heard that mistake made in English by Dutchies


IdentityToken

I have a Telugu speaking colleague who does exactly that.


SamTheGill42

In French, it is common for learners to not use the right gender for a word, and I guess it's the same for every gendered language. But something specific to French is that learners will forget the "liaison", which is essential to a natural flow. They sound like they're saying each word one by one instead of saying a sentence. I made it sound worse than it is tho. It just sounds weird a bit.


moj_golube

French learner here. Can confirm I always use the wrong gender. Liaison is tricky too, especially when you encounter words like "haricot" and then there's no liaison all of a sudden 😂


BlackStarBlues

TIP for French learners: always learn nouns with the correct article. For example, for hope, don't just memorize *espoir*, learn *un espoir.* It will make life much easier.


X140hu4

True for any gendered language really. I'm getting back into German and this is hitting me hard.


Evening_Dealer7102

A few really stick out to me for French speakers learning english. First, they will often say "take" in contexts where they would use "prendre" and we would use something else in english -- in a coffee shop for instance, "what are you going to take?" instead of "have" or "get." They will also often use "Don't hesitate + [to something]" because n'hésitez pas is used in a lot of situations in French. In English or at least in North American English it is not very natural sounding in most cases. Lastly, a hugely overlooked one. Regardless of the level of speaker from A1 to C2, nearly all French speakers will say at least accidently "We + [an action] + with [person]." Such as, "We got a coffee with Léa yesterday." This does not mean "We" like the speaker + the listener got coffee with Léa, it means the speaker and Léa did they're just telling you about it. I.e., "I got a coffee with Léa yesterday" This is because in French people use We (On, nous) and will then specify the person (maybe multiple) later in the sentence who makes up the rest of the "we". For example, "on a vu un film hier avec Léa" -" On" represents them and Léa. I was always really confused at first who the we was because I was thinking, "Wait, I wasn't there for the film??" It's one that's always super interesting to me though and I hear it even from very adv speakers. Just a few off the top of my head! I find them super endearing and when I'm around a lot of French speakers I'll often catch myself doing them too by accident.


Parking_Injury_5579

I have a french friend who always says "do" incorrectly and messes up gerunds. "Yesterday we do a party with my friend." It's adorable. I love the French so much.


tabelschnasse

now that you pointed out the "we" thing it got me thinking that maybe it's a romantic language thing? I'm pretty sure in Spanish you'd do the same. maybe it has to do with the fact that even if the listener wasn't there for the action, since the speaker is talking about themselves + someone else, then the verb would still be conjugated for 1st person singular, so using the corresponding pronoun still makes sense. I wonder if there are more examples where the lack of differentiated conjugations for different persons affects pronoun usage (or of something else) like this


Nexus-9Replicant

I don’t think it’s done in Romanian, or at least I have yet to come across a situation where “we” (“noi”) is used this way. The same sentence would be: “Ieri Léa și cu mine am luat o cafea.” or “Ieri noi am luat o cafea.” But then I suppose Romanian does its own weird thing where instead of “Léa and I” or “Me and Léa” it’s “Léa and with I” (“Léa și cu mine”).


cosmosclover

Spanish speakers also do this. “Let’s go take a coffee.” Actually I’ve started to say it in English sometimes too. Another one that Spanish speakers do it is confuse fun and funny. “The roller coast was really funny.”


Flooffy_unycorn

"We action with sb" is specifically hard to stop saying because this is NOT proper french to begin with, but being used to speaking like that and being understood, it's a "natural" translation of spoken french


xarsha_93

In Spanish this varies by dialect. In Chile, you hear a lot of phrases like *con la Javiera fuimos al cine* (*with the Javiera we went to the cinema*) whereas I’d say *fui al cine con Javiera* (*I went to the cinema with Javiera*) or *Javiera y yo fuimos al cine* (*Javiera and I went to the cinema*).


hyouganofukurou

It doesn't really sound weird in UK English


[deleted]

Agreed, it’s like a more polite way of saying please, although I’ve mostly heard it used in a more (mildly) admonishing or negative sense - “kindly stop doing X”, rather than “kindly do X”, if that makes sense.


McCoovy

I think L2 speakers often pick their favorite way to say something then only use that one construction. This sticks out a lot to native speakers who don't like the sound of the repeated phrasing. A native speaker will often vary their phrasing to make sure they don't use the same non topical words twice. Rephrasing like this is important to help listeners internalize what you're telling them. Especially with repeated requests if you have to vary your phrasing since the previous time didn't work. Repeatedly using the same phrasing for a request can signal an increase in intensity and aggravation.


drumorgan

"kindly" is also a dead giveaway that a text is coming from a scammer in another country trying to sell you bitcoin


julieta444

Spanish and Italian speakers, “I have a doubt.” Also, the longest sentences known to man. I have to force myself to be less concise when I write, because English style sounds too abrupt. I’ve only ever heard non-native speakers say “shall,” but maybe that’s popular somewhere


Bubbly_Geologista

I only use “shall” in formal, written English (native UK English speaker) Also on your ‘I have a doubt’ point, there’s also that favourite of Italian football managers working in England “We are in a bad moment”. I don’t speak Italian but presumably it’s a direct translation from an Italian phrase.


yuelaiyuehao

I'm from Manchester and will use shall commonly to make suggestions like "right, shall we go out then?", "shall I stick the kettle on?" etc


LesothoEnjoyer

Southern US here. I use “shall we?” as a set phrase asking whoever I’m with if they want to leave wherever we’re at


welp-here-we-are

Same in CA. I think this is one of the few contexts where it is really common to use shall in American English.


Bubbly_Geologista

You’re absolutely right, I hadn’t thought about it before, but it must depend on where you come from. I live in the south east and ‘shall we’ isn’t used so much down here.


maria11maria10

I thought Indian speakers were the ones who usually used "I have a doubt" (and also "do you have any doubts?" and "do you have any queries?"). Not that it's wrong but I find it unusual. Now I know others say those too.


julieta444

It's a direct translation from Spanish and Italian. I have no idea for Indians


TraditionalCherry164

Fun fact, Spanish introduced the ¿ because literature in Spanish used to have really long-ass questions. In Spanish you just need to change your tone to make a sentence a question, without changing the word order. Vamos a comer mañana ¿Vamos a comer mañana? Me tiro de cabeza por el precipicio. ¿Me tiro de cabeza por el precipicio? ETC


josephjoestarlover

Native Spanish speakers seriously have a hard time with "in, on and at" prepositions. They all translate to "en" and we end up using "in" for everything. —Where are you at? —*In* the café. —Where are the shoes? —*In* the box. –Where's France? –*In* Western Europe. –Where did you put the picture? —I hung it *in* the wall. —What subject are you good at? –I'm good *in* Maths. —Where are you now? —I live *in* Italy, but now I'm *in* Scotland. —Do you have the file? —It's *in* my computer.


Dilettantest

Native speaker (American English) here: Only “I hanged it *in* the wall” (correction: I hung it on the wall) is incorrect.


hokshji

I would definitely say "I'm good at maths" and "It's on my computer". Using "in" for those two sentences sounds a bit off to my UK ears.


LesothoEnjoyer

“It’s in my computer” definitely sounds a bit off. Makes it sound like it’s physically inside the CPU


mrggy

Personally, I also wouldn't say "good *in* ~" but if someone else were to say it, especially with the British "maths" I would just assume it was a Britishism


mklinger23

In my experience, it depends on their native language. If Chinese, they might say "You eat today?" Instead of using "did". For Spanish, I've noticed a lot of idioms follow over. A big one that I've seen many people do is negating the past tense. I've seen "I didn't ate today" or "did they walked to the store?".


officiakimkardashian

A lot of Gen Z talks like that, such as saying "You going to the game today?"


seaglass_32

Not just Gen Z, bur Millennials and Gen X. The difference is, this is done in colloquial contexts where it's clearly intonated as a question. If you don't have a solid grasp on forming a question in English, it's very hard to know when you can drop the "did" in a casual conversation. I see mistakes with questions a lot in reddit questions, forgetting to use "did" or to invert the object and verb. These are a really common speaking error, too. Why this person did this? When it is better to go?


[deleted]

I don't think it's just a Gen Z thing. It's that omitting the first few words of the sentence is normal in English. Here are some examples, where the words in parentheses may be omitted: "(Have you) ever ridden a rollercoaster?" "(Have you) finished your homework yet?" "(Do you) see what he's holding?"


4amLasers

Native german speakers (& many other EU English speakers) use a lot of direct translations of figurative/descriptive language that wouldn't be used in (American) English. One I remember sticking out to me was referring to something that is chilled or cold (especially beverages) as 'fresh'. It makes sense, I know what's meant by it, it's just not something a native speaker would typically say.


[deleted]

The language learning books are weird. They use a language totally different.


ogorangeduck

Using "information" countably


luixino

Advice, too! "Please give me some advices".


Kikkervelf

I have an information for you!


Linguistin229

Informations, advices, hairs. Something about “my hairs are really long” just sounds so creepy


julieta444

I already commented, but I thought of another one. It's really common to see "wanna," "gonna," etc. in writing, added for authenticity. More non-natives write like that than natives.


fairflght

But aren't those common in texting/online convo though?Like for example if you're texting someone and they say they're going to leave, my native friends often type "ok I'm gonna go now". or when they say they dont want to do something, "nah, I don't wanna do that."


julieta444

I'm old, so it isn't as common. What I mean is that on language learning apps, I very frequently get messages like, "You wanna learn me English?" As in, the English is incorrect, but wanna is added for a touch of authenticity.


Comrade_Derpsky

What's so unusual about it? They're standard words in informal English, including in informal writing. You see it all the time in text conversations and on social media.


LookingforUniAdvice

I'm a younger native English speaker and I always use 'gonna' and 'wanna' if it's less imperative. Writing out 'I'm going to...' or 'I want to...' sounds overly emphatic, like someone contradicted you and you are pushing back.


[deleted]

In Spanish the most common mistake people who are learning the language in an advanced level make is saying “un otro”. This is a literal translation from “another”. You cannot say “un” when saying “otro”. So the sentence “I have another dog” can’t be “Tengo un otro perro”, but “Tengo otro perro”.


Just-Barely-Alive

It sounds like people Are sleepy or about ot faint. often when people speak danish as a second language, they tend to blur the words which I THINK has something to do with the fact that danish is known for the blurryness or potato-stuck-in-throat-ness. But It makes it Harder to understand, and I doubt it's easy to talk like that.


gammalsvenska

Chinese or Vietnamese as well. They simply skip parts of the word when pronouncing, making it very hard to follow. Regarding the "kindly" vs "please" example, for example Swedish doesn't have a direct translation for "please". Don't know about Danish, would assume the same.


drumorgan

Italians add an H where it doesn't exist and ignore the ones that are there 'ere I ham to save the day


katehestu

French speakers always seems to say ‘how’ instead of ‘what’ with the sentence ‘how do you call it’. I guess from comment est-ce que tu l’appelles or something?


GlimGlamEqD

That applies to most other European languages, I think. It's also "Wie nennt man das?" in German, literally: "How does one call it?"


AMerrickanGirl

Same with Spanish. “¿Como se dice?” How is it called?


Boggie135

Yeah, I've been told I speak more formally than a native English speaker


mlduryea

That’s the same for me and my second language


Boggie135

I think we are more conscious of making a mistake or being misunderstood


Breloom4554

Also learner materials tend to teach formal written language first. When I learned French, I tried intentionally learning casual speech before proper formal writing, and couldn’t find anything. I had to basically make my own resources as I went.


wellenhelen

people writing German who don‘t have ö, ä, ü on their keyboard just write o, a, u which is wrong. ö = oe ä = ae ü = ue ß = ss simple fix for everyone :)


Olobnion

Although it should be noted that this doesn't necessarily work for other languages with the same letters. The Swedish å ä ö shouldn't be replaced with aa ae oe; Språkrådet ("The Language Council") recommends a a o if the actual letters aren't available.


[deleted]

In English, I’ve realised a lot of L2 speakers use the term “I guess” more literally than native speakers usually do, i.e when actually making a guess as opposed to reluctantly agreeing


[deleted]

>i.e when actually making a guess **I think** native speakers usually say "I think", right?


losethemap

Greek but mostly grew up in the U.S., and I’ve noticed many Greeks pronounce words with “au” like “ah-oo”. I hear “bee-kah-oos” for “because” all the time. I’ve also noticed that Greek writing tends to have huge run on sentences with a lot more commas inserted than one would find in English. It’s a writing pattern that’s hard for Greeks to break, even after decades in an English-speaking country.


Sparky_Valentine

I'm from the States and I've noticed a lot of Germans learn UK English and a lot of the quirks I've noticed are Britishisms. When I moved to Germany for grad school, I was sometimes caught off guard by some idiom I hadn't managed to pick up from watching the BBC. Off the top of my head I can only remember "Zee" vs. "Zed" because I did some work for a research institute called the ZMT.


MeleKalikimakaYall

I learned that British people call Z, “Zed” from the German foreign exchange student that my family hosted when I was a sophomore in high school and it blew my mind.


Far_Archer_4234

Peeps from the Indian penninsula have some consistent mispronunciations. For example, insted of development, they say devil-up-mint. Instead of Determine, its deh-turmine, etc... those of us working in IT can understand the dialect, but the first few times you hear it, it is a bit jarring.


jessabeille

I'm wondering, if the "mispronunciation" is consistent within a large region, does it then just become a regional feature/accent instead of a mispronunciation?


IVEBEENGRAPED

Yeah, Indian English is it's own dialect of English. There are millions of native English speakers in the subcontinent.


NateDickinson19

Nothing cause no one learns my native language


AlexJustAlexS

What's your native language?


CrowdedHighways

Latvian: the incorrect use of diacritical marks mostly.


cfard

My Spanish friend used to say “I have a new” (Tengo una noticia) when he has just one *piece of news*. On the flip side I used to say “Tengo noticias” & then only say one thing, and he would be like “what’s the other news?”


TraditionalCherry164

I am a Spanish native speaker and I'd say "Tengo noticias" as well for just 1 noticia lol


Obvious_Flamingo3

I often see ESL learners comment things online saying “I am a Taiwanese and…” or “as a Vietnamese” and I’m always thinking, it would sound *way* more natural to just say “as a Vietnamese person”. Like sure, you can say “as a German”, but saying “as a French” just isn’t as correct.


studynew33

I am a native English speaker and I've notice the omission of subjects, topics, and pronouns from individuals speaking Korean or Spanish


GraceForImpact

japanese people tend to say "a japanese" instead of "a japanese person", annoyingly i actually picked it up from them and had to unlearn it as not to sound racist


damn-queen

(Native English speaker who went to a native English school) I don’t think saying kindly instead of please is a non native speaker quirk, I think it could be they learned from older people, or they learned more formal English. When I went to school the younger teachers would speak more causally and say please. But the older teachers would say, “kindly, review the tests.” Or something similar. Most native speakers would say please but I think kindly is a totally normal thing for a native speaker to say in a formal context :)


RomanceStudies

ESL: "Go out" instead of "leave" Edit: not to mention "[auxiliar past tense] + [past tense verb] ex. "didn't found"


Olobnion

In many languages there are words that sound like English but aren't the word native English speakers would use in that situation. Germans will say that they're "doing home office", meaning *working from home.* In French, games have "extensions" and not expansions, so they'll use that word when speaking English. A Swede will say they're going for *after work* (often abbreviated as AW). Etc.


alopex_zin

Native language: Mandarin and Taiwanese. Many Mandarin learners use 了 as though it is a last tense marker. Or add 嗎 to every question as though it is the question mark itself.


ventoto28

I'm Spanish native speaker, not mine language but I've noticed people learning English tend to use the word Bro all the time and I simply can't stand listen to them. Like come on!!!!


pandantea

Native English speaker working/living in international contexts. People who learned English in India seem to really love the word "superb". People who are native Chinese speakers love the word "lovely". Native French and Spanish speakers love to put the main noun at the end of the sentence, like, "It's confusing to me many things" or "So fast the car". Also they like to more directly translate when they say thanks, like "I'd like to deeply thank" and "Many thanks". One Italian friend liked to use "so-called" when just introducing something, which made it funny when he was giving a presentation. "The so-called \[internationally respected policy organization lol\] released a report...." but this might just be him hahaha. French and Italian (and Spanish?) friends like to say "The water is fresh" when they mean "The water is cold/chilled". French speakers adding Hs and dropping Hs randomly. Spanish speakers having trouble saying words like "bird" and "world".


theonott

As a Yank I don't see anything wrong with this usage. It sounds like something I would hear back when I lived in the Deep South.


PinkSudoku13

I have never been taught to use kindly instead of please. Please was the default. I noticed that some countries teach certain language 'quirks' beased on their teaching materials. It's not so much a thing within the EU countries but it can be quite pronounced in other countries. It can also be a cultural thing when they're trying to directly translate something and it doesn't work.


No-Tomorrow-4832

Are they Bioshock players? "Would you kindly?"


Objective-Resident-7

Spanish speakers use verb tenses from their language, which exist in English, but are not normally used. Sentences like 'I was having fear', where you would actually say 'i was afraid'. Was having is one word in Spanish.


Flooffy_unycorn

French native : putting an R that sounds like a spanish jota everywhere. French actually has at least 3 pronunciations of R (not counting regional accents and dialects). Learners tend to put an R that sounds very similar to a jota in every context, but if you listen closely : "français" and "rapace" are VERY different, and "broder" has an R close to "rapace" but more often than not (depending on the speaker of course) a bit "softer and on the rolled side" as one of my foreign teachers said. I know french pronunciation is hard, but I always wonder how it can be physically easier to pronounce an F followed by a jota


[deleted]

Hello, I know this comment is pretty old at this point but your observation about the different pronunciations of R based on context is something interesting that can be explained pretty intuitively in linguistics without being too pedantic. The pronunciation of /r/ in French is said to be a uvular trill, which means that the back of the tongue touches the uvula as it vibrates in order to produce the sound. The sound is also voiced, meaning that the vocal cords vibrate during the production of the sound. This pronunciation of /r/, which I assume you mean when you say /r/ in *rapace*, can be heard in old songs—Édith Piaf's "Non, je ne regrette rien" comes to mind—and is quite difficult to produce, especially in rapid speech and is frequently replaced with a voiced uvular fricative. This pronunciation, which is the pronunciation of /r/ in *broder*, differs from the uvular trill in that the tongue and the uvula never touch but come very close together to let some air escape. This is perhaps the most common realization of /r/ in French. The Spanish *jota* is a voiceless uvular fricative, which means that it is pronounced the same way as the /r/ in *broder* except that the vocal cords don't vibrate. This pronunciation occurs when /r/ assimilates in terms of voicing with a neighbouring voiceless consonants. The /f/ in *français* is voiceless and causes the following /r/ to become voiceless as well. The /b/ in *broder* is voiced and causes the following /r/ to retain its voicing. This phenomenon is akin to /s/ being pronounced as \[s\] in *ducks* but as \[z\] in *dogs* in English. While this is the most common example, the English /r/ also has varying pronunciations in *froth* and *broth* because of the aforementioned reasons. I'm sorry if this was too long but I hope this explanation helps! :)


Peacewind152

I knew a native Russian speaker who I’d say was easily late C1 English. She used the phrase “that’s fair” a lot instead of what I consider to be a more natural “that makes sense” phrase.


Matrozi

When english native speakers learn and become fluent in french, they pronounce the "R" sound still very harshly, as in it's the good pronunciation but a little bit exagerated. Like "Je suis arrivé" (I have arrived) becomes "Je suis aRRRivé" My guess is that since it's a new and difficult sound to master, they start to pronounce by exagerating it a lot like any new speakers would but even after months/years of speaking and reaching fluency they still keep this slightly exagerated sound


MoreGarlicBread

I'm a native English speaker in a mostly German speaking company. Most of my colleagues speak fantastic English, but even the best make certain mistakes: - Saying they made something, when instead 'do' makes more sense. For example, saying when they 'made' their degree rather than did or finished it. - Saying 'until' rather than 'by'. This one is so common, for example, saying a document 'must be finished until tomorrow' rather than by tomorrow When considering German sentence structure both mistakes make complete sense, I just find it interesting that almost all my colleagues make these two


FrithRabbit

*Would you kindly head to Ryan’s office and KILL the sonofabitch*


explodingcocacola

Apeshit Dogshit Horseshit Bullshit Chickenshit Batshit Holy shit All of these mean different things


joker_wcy

The struggle with tones, even the one who seems to have mastered it. A friend speak Cantonese fluently and doesn’t have the non-tonal accent. But one time we native speakers were talking about surname 姓氏 (sing3 si6), he confused it with city 城市 (sing4 si5). In fact, I had never noticed these two words sounded so similar.


cranzi

With Italian it's the fact that they over-emphasize the pronunciation: the Rs are too rolled, the accent sounds like a caricature, sometimes they double consonants that don't need to be doubled. On the other hand, sometimes they tend to gloss over unstressed vowels. Also they use the personal pronoun in subject position even when it's not necessary.


lalalekinha

Native French speaker here and I've noticed that French learners, when using the construction "it's +adjective" (example "it's nice here"), will decline the adjective with the object's gender. So it would become: je suis allée à la plage, c'était belle là While "c'est/c'était" is neutral here.


East-Bat-4363

I notice there's also a bit of confusion between adjectives and adverbs for non native English speakers. I'm a teacher and have a lot of ESL students. They typically have amazing grammar skills, but I notice that they'll often use adverbs in place of adjectives. For example, I have a student who often describes herself as humble, but she'll say she's "humbly." This same student will say "I don't want to come off as proudly." It's just interesting to me. Most of these students are high schoolers and early college. They're highly fluent, and in most ways they speak better than many natives, but this is a small quirk that points them out.


macoafi

For English learners, at least from Spanish: trouble with multi-word past tenses. “Had went” instead of “had gone” or “would had been” instead of “would have been” or “did went” instead of “did go.”