Improve English: Tips for Slang, Grammar & Movies

[En_lizard]

how can i improve my en? you used so much slang in your conversations. i have trouble with grammar. and whenever i watch a en movie, i just get a few sentences of it. do your actors really talk en? what can i do?

 

[JasonRox]

When don't use much slang on here, so it's not that bad.

You can't criticize our language for using slang because the entire world uses slang.

 

[Entropy]

Yeah, english is a pretty crazy language. That's why I think America should change their offical language to binary.

 

[En_lizard]

Jason:

try to expand your horizone. I'm not talking about here, dear. although you use lots of slang here while you even don't notice it. but my main question is how i can learn your language and get the meaning of your slangs? one has to watch american popular movies and tv shows, know a lot about your history and culture to understand a en native speaker. i know that's the same for any culture. i just want to know how i can improve my listening skills and stuff like that.

 

[Math Is Hard]

You could start by calling it English, unless what you really want to discuss is a problem using en and em dashes. If that's the case, read here:
http://www.getitwriteonline.com/archive/091502.htm

The en dash is slightly longer than the hyphen but not as long as the em dash. (It is, in fact, the width of a typesetter's letter "N," whereas the em dash is the width of the letter "M"—thus their names.) The en dash means, quite simply, "through." We use it most commonly to indicate inclusive dates and numbers: July 9–August 17; pp. 37–59.

 

[En_lizard]

what's McDonald? as far as i know it's the name of a famous company or store. but i don't know what you mean by that?

You could start by calling it English, unless what you really want to discuss is a problem using en and em dashes. If that's the case, read here:
http://www.getitwriteonline.com/archive/091502.htm

 

[Evo]

What is en?

 

[En_lizard]

En mean English!

 

[Pengwuino]

how can i improve my en? you used so much slang in your conversations. i have trouble with grammar. and whenever i watch a en movie, i just get a few sentences of it. do your actors really talk en? what can i do?

haha no they don't. Its funny, the more english you learn, the less you would be able to understand of the conversations that occur on the street in the United States (this sentence is rather questionable in of itself!).

 

[Evo]

En mean English!

So French is Fr?

 

[En_lizard]

you mean you've never heard of it?

 

[Ouabache]

Here's a place you can learn quite a few English http://humanities.byu.edu/elc/student/idioms/idiomsmain.html
Examples:
I believe you and I are in the same boat
how often does that happen? once in a blue moon
that speaker was something, she brought down the house
what's the matter, did you get up on the wrong side of the bed?
Was out carousing again last night, well tomorrow I'm turning over a new leaf

 

[mattmns]

Look up slang words on www.urbandictionary.com

 

[Math Is Hard]

I have not heard of English being abbreviated as "en". When you are communicating in a foreign language it's best not to invent new abbreviations and slang. People have trouble understanding you. The word en has a specific meaning to me, and it is not "English".

 

[En_lizard]

i though it was popular. you know it was easy to guess anyway. i said 'your awful language'. now you can understand poor people like me. i usually have to guess what others are telling me in English.

 

[scott1]

Yeah, english is a pretty crazy language. That's why I think America should change their offical language to binary.

America's offical languange isn't english it's American

 

[Pengwuino]

Amrica's offical languange isn't english it's American

"Amrica"? LEARN YOUR DAMN AMERICAN!

 

[Evo]

i though it was popular. you know it was easy to guess anyway. i said 'your awful language'. now you can understand poor people like me. i usually have to guess what others are telling me in English.

Slang and colloquialisms abound in English, as an American, I sometimes have trouble understanding a person from the United Kingdom. I've never heard of English being called en.

 

[Ouabache]

I have not heard of English being abbreviated as "en". When you are communicating in a foreign language it's best not to invent new abbreviations and slang. People have trouble understanding you. The word en has a specific meaning to me, and it is not "English".

It's web-geek thing.. as part of a URL you will find
example:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ (en - page in English)
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/ (fr - page in French)
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/ (ru - page in Russian)

 

[Evo]

It's web-geek thing.. as part of a URL you will find
example:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ (en - page in English)
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/ (fr - page in French)
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/ (ru - page in Russian)

But they say nothing about anything being called en or fr or ru, it's just an abbreviation in the url. Nice try though.

 

[JamesU]

America's offical languange isn't english it's American

That reminds me, there was a law in some state, (Illinois, I think) that said that nobody could speak english in that state, only "american".

 

[Ouabache]

But they say nothing about anything being called en or fr or ru, it's just an abbreviation in the url. Nice try though.

You have golden mouse ears??
I must have missed something. Must be a reason why folks are teasing En_Lizard

 

[Evo]

You have golden mouse ears??

A much cherished gift from ZapperZ. :!)

I must have missed something. Must be a reason why folks are teasing En_Lizard

Not teasing, just informing. It's worse to let someone go on thinking something wrong than to correct them.

 

[En_lizard]

But they say nothing about anything being called en or fr or ru, it's just an abbreviation in the url. Nice try though.

when did i say fr or ru?

 

[Ouabache]

I was thinking we ought to post a glossary of forum abbreviations somewhere.. I'm not very good at figuring those out. I wind up having to look them up.. LOL, IMHO, BTW, OP. I'm always finding new ones I hadn't seen before.
Forum abbreviations continue to evolve (just like real languages). En_Lizard may be leading the way on this one

By the way, En_Lizard, have you taken a look at the idiom's reference I gave? What d'ya think?

 

[Danger]

With the haverin' a right score o' these bozos spew, El, ye've done gone and opened a whole new can o' worms for yerself.

And whatever you do, don't take spelling lessons from Hypatia.

 

[Moonbear]

Okay, now that we've cleared up what "en" means, the best way to learn what an idiomatic phrase or slang word means is simply to ask the person who used it.

 

[JamesU]

You could start by calling it English, unless what you really want to discuss is a problem using en and em dashes. If that's the case, read here:
http://www.getitwriteonline.com/archive/091502.htm

Grrr...I actually read that

where's that groan smiley when you need it?

 

[Jameson]

En_lizard - I know how you feel. I've been trying to learn French for the past, let's say 6 years and I still can barely make out what my teacher says. Sometimes I feel like I'm becoming fluent, but then I watch a French movie and I can't understand a word of it. Just keep practicing.

 

[neurocomp2003]

move to an english speaking country or city and then everytime you here slang that you don't understand ask what it means...

its like westerners moving over to asia and learning to speak the asian languages to a tee...i've never met a westerner who spoke perfect chinese(accent, tonation) till I was about 18-20, who told my family that he lived in taiwan for two+ years with his girlfriend and that's where he picked it up..

Some people find it funny the way asian people speak english but i find it funnier when a westerner tries to speak chinese...and since meeting that person I've had a new respect for those westerners willing to learn the language.

 

[Math Is Hard]

Grrr...I actually read that

I know. Somehow I knew you would.

 

[neurocomp2003]

"en" is a standard computer term for english for people using multilingual settings.

 

[zoobyshoe]

For me it's how you pronounce this letter: N

 

[Gale]

You could start by calling it English, unless what you really want to discuss is a problem using en and em dashes. If that's the case, read here:
http://www.getitwriteonline.com/archive/091502.htm

i thought that was kind of interesting. I always used a hyphen instead of the em dash, but after reading that, i won't make that mistake again.

anyrate, when i was learning spanish, my favorite thing to do was to listen to spanish music. lyrics are probably the hardest thing to understand, even when you know the language. so i'd have my spanish friends write the lyrics down in spanish and english, and i'd sing along, and it helped my verbal and listening skills a lot.

 

[tribdog]

i thought that was kind of interesting. I always used a hyphen instead of the em dash, but after reading that, i won't make that mistake again.
anyrate, when i was learning spanish, my favorite thing to do was to listen to spanish music. lyrics are probably the hardest thing to understand, even when you know the language. so i'd have my spanish friends write the lyrics down in spanish and english, and i'd sing along, and it helped my verbal and listening skills a lot.

yeah, but how many times do you use "la bamba" in conversation?

 

[Gale]

yeah, but how many times do you use "la bamba" in conversation?

para bailar la bamba se necessita uno poca de gracia.

the insight I've gained from that sentence is so great, how could i not use it in every substantial convo? why, didn't we mention the la bamba the other day when i called? yeah our convo was like "whats up" "just contemplating whether I'm graceful enough to dance the bamba and the philosophical consequences it would have on my life, you?" "nothin"

 

[tribdog]

really I thought our conversation was more like:
you: "I'm tired of driving and I'll crash if someone doesn't talk to me, you aren't busy are you?"
me: "well, actually I was just about to...'
you: "good. here I am drving past a big catapult. they shoot pumpkins out of it. isn't that neat"
me "yeah, neat. Listen I've really got to.."
you: "I'm driving a truck, my car has bad shocks (ramble ramble)
45 minutes later
you "okay I'm pulling into my driveway now. Thanks for talking to me and keeping me awake."
me: "my pleasure. I had nothing better to do anyway."

 

[moose]

Yeah, english is a pretty crazy language. That's why I think America should change their offical language to binary.

lol

English is a pretty crazy language, we should change it to a mixture of russian and chinese, you know, to make it easier

Hehe, English is one of the easiest languages ever O.O I remember when I moved to the U.S. when I was in third grade, I learned how to speak fluently within a month

 

[tribdog]

lol, it must have taken a bit longer to learn how to count. there is no way you became fluent in a month.

 

[neurocomp2003]

thats like me saying i learned chinese by being born without ever living in the eastern world.

 

[tribdog]

I shouldn't say you are lying. I suppose you could become fluent a month after moving to the U.S.. If you moved here from Australia

 

[Gale]

i became fluent in pig latin in like two weeks- tops. jibberish took even less time. I'm way super good with languages.

 

[tribdog]

emay ootay, alegay.

 

[moose]

lol, it must have taken a bit longer to learn how to count. there is no way you became fluent in a month.

Have you ever tried to learn a language when you were young? It was extremely easy back then. My first language was Polish, and then I learned French because I lived in Montreal. After that I moved to Arizona and was placed into a normal classroom without speaking a word. Within a month i was talking to everyone. No lies here. Maybe it's because I was used to learning new languages, hell I don't know. I also did very well in my German class last year, maybe I just pwn at languages. that ORRRR I guarantee that if you were to move to some country, like France or something, and you were forced to be around french people all the time and forced to try to communicate with them, that you would do just fine within a month.

 

[BobG]

Here's a place you can learn quite a few English http://humanities.byu.edu/elc/student/idioms/idiomsmain.html
Examples:
I believe you and I are in the same boat
how often does that happen? once in a blue moon
that speaker was something, she brought down the house
what's the matter, did you get up on the wrong side of the bed?
Was out carousing again last night, well tomorrow I'm turning over a new leaf

Those are easy.

I believe you and I are in the same boat means "are your pants wet, too?" - i.e. things aren't going very good for us, are they?

how often does that happen? once in a blue moon means it happens about once every three years. Well, except for the three or four times a century when you get two blue moons in one year. Uh it means it doesn't happen very often.

that speaker was something, she brought down the house is a twist on the old idiom "those who live in glass houses shouldn't sing opera".

what's the matter, did you get up on the wrong side of the bed? A subtle way of telling your friend that their face looks like it did a rapid transit from pillow to wall (i.e. - their face is red and lumpy with odd patterns embedded in their skin)

Was out carousing again last night, well tomorrow I'm turning over a new leaf means your hangover is so bad that you're going to put off raking the leaves. It's a lame excuse used by habitual procrastinators who tend to develop alcohol dependency problems in the fall, especially during football season.