What is a dead giveaway, language-wise, that someone was not born in the US?

Posted by stevie855@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 954 comments

My friend and I have acquired English since our childhood, incorporating common American phrasal verbs and idioms. Although my friend boasts impeccable pronunciation, Americans often discern that he isn't a native speaker. What could be the reason for this?

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DiligerentJewl@reddit

How it looks like

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stephanonymous@reddit

Okay I agree that this one sounds unnatural but I’ve started to see it crop up even among native speakers and it’s making me wonder if it’s regional? Like I’ve seen it a lot on TikTok recently in the “What I would look like in the 70s” filter trend except the caption is almost always “How I would look like in the 70s”. I wonder if the original trend was made by a non-native speaker and others just copied the wording?

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SS_from_1990s@reddit

Also: Did he do it on purpose? No, he did it on accident. I’ve seen this so much now I hardly notice.

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stephanonymous@reddit

Wait sorry I don’t get this one

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polarander@reddit

A normal response would be " he did it by accident" rather than "on accident" cause of the "on purpose"

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JesusStarbox@reddit

I think that is AAVE.

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CinemaSideBySides@reddit

I wonder if it's more of a symptom of constantly being online. Like, non-native speakers constantly use this incorrectly, so then young folks online see it over and over and incorporate it into their language as well. The same way British slang/words bleed into American English online (e.g., if you keep seeing people say 'whinging' without the associated British accent, you may not realize it's particular to a certain region)

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VIDCAs17@reddit

I happen to watch a lot of British YouTubers and there’s a few terms/phrases I’ve started to adopt, like “feeling peckish”.

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NJBarFly@reddit

Like others are saying, it's word choice. I asked a friend from Sri Lanka if he wanted to do something after work. A native speaker might have said, "Sure, let's grab a beer." Instead he said, "Shall we make it a beer occasion?" Grammatically correct, but not something a native speaker would say.

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missxnoelle@reddit

Ngl I kinda love that :p

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SGDFish@reddit

Yea, but I'm also gonna use that in the future. "Beer occasion" is great

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Wooden_Door_9923@reddit

I can’t think of a better occasion for a nice cold breaks, than a beer occasion. I don’t know that guy but, if he is ever in Kansas, I am buying him a beer for the beer occasion!

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Top_File_8547@reddit

Saying phrases that are grammatically correct but a native speaker would never use. I can’t think of an example right now.

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therealjerseytom@reddit

> I can’t think of an example right now How about "My friend and I have acquired English since our childhood"

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weesteve123@reddit

Also I've noticed that specifically the way we talk about a point in the past relative to the present is potentially a way of noticing if someone is a native English speaker or not. A native English speaker would usually say something like "I have been a doctor *for* twenty years." Lots of non native speakers trip up and say "I have been a doctor *since* twenty years", because that's how such a phrase is said in their native language.

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AdjectiveMcNoun@reddit

I hear a lot of Arabic speakers say close the light, instead of turn off the light. Or to say "get down" from the car instead of getting out, same with many Spanish speakers. It's just how one would translate it from their native language.

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Ornery-Wasabi-473@reddit

I know someone born and raised in Long Island, and he says "close the light", too.

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missxnoelle@reddit

I have a habit of saying "close the light" instead of "turn off the lights" which my partner rips on me for all the time (they're from Ireland) I was raised around Italian immigrant family and I know it's definitely a saying stemming from there. I think some people use "chiudere" - to close, to shut, to turn off and perhaps for Italians leaning English, chiudere sounds similar to the word close, so it gets used in that kind of sentence.

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procrastimom@reddit

There are some mid-westerners (US) who say that, too. My dad was an engineer, and would always correct that; “closing” the light (circuit) turns it on, “opening” the light (circuit) would turn it off. *Technically* true, but pedantic. I was also raised to say “monofilament” (fishing line) and “rheostat” (dimmer). My eye-rolling & heavy sighing muscles were very well developed as a kid.

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AdjectiveMcNoun@reddit

That's interesting. I wonder if it's because there are a lot of immigrants there and the phrase has become common in that area?

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Ornery-Wasabi-473@reddit

I have no idea.

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ellicottvilleny@reddit

Close the light also is heared frequently from Francophones. Fermez (close) is used for lights in French.

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weesteve123@reddit

Yes that's a good example, I worked with a Bengali lady once (born and raised in London but both parents came over from India), she obviously spoke Bengali and English fluently. Even then, presumably due to the fact that she lived in a Bengali community within London and thus was raised speaking English with that influence, I noticed she would say things like "Put the light" instead of "turn on/off the light." The thing I found interesting is that in English obviously if we want someone to switch the light, we usually clarify whether we want it switched on or off (not always, to be fair -"get the lights/flick the light switch" etc - but usually). But she would always just say "put the light". And it was obvious, in a way, because if the light was on, she was telling me to switch it off; if the light was off, she was telling me to switch it on.

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AdjectiveMcNoun@reddit

My husband is from Egypt and speak English fluently but there are a few things he will say like this which gives him away, lol. He also says "pant" instead of "pants" sometimes because it's just one object and he doesn't understand why it's a pair. Then he once called my bra a pair of bras and I had no good explanation about why it's a pair of pants and just a single bra. He can't always remember which is the correct one though. Poor man, lol. I'm trying to learn Arabic right now and he insists it's easier than English but I'm not believing him so far.

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voidcritter@reddit

That's because everyone thinks their native language is the easiest. Most native English speakers don't realize that English is actually pretty difficult if it's not your first language.

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AdjectiveMcNoun@reddit

That's understandable. I think English would be terribly difficult to learn. There are so many words that are spelled differently but pronounced the same or vice versa. Read, reed, read, red. Pair, pare pear. There is no standard for making words plural, like mouse is mice but house is houses. There is no uniform pronunciation for certain letter combinations, like "oo". Boot vs foot, for example. There are so many more examples of things that basically have to be memorized because there are no real rules that aren't broken frequently.

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Top_File_8547@reddit

The script seems like it would be hard to learn because to me the characters look very similar

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AdjectiveMcNoun@reddit

It is very difficult in my opinion. I'm getting there but I have to practice every day. I can write my name and I can have very basic conversations, like ordering food or greetings, like a toddler, haha. But it's progress.

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ReluctantChimera@reddit

Each pant leg used to be separate, so you wore "a pair of pants." Bras were never two separate articles, so you just end up with a singular bra.

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AdjectiveMcNoun@reddit

Interesting. Thanks for that. I'll have to tell my husband that is is a reason.

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JarlOfPickles@reddit

This doesn't feel like a real fact

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ReluctantChimera@reddit

🤷 Look it up.

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peteroh9@reddit

>According to some, the phrase “pair of pants” harkens back to the days when what constituted pants—or pantaloons, as they were originally known—consisted of two separate items, one for each leg. They were put on one at a time and then secured around the waist. Calling them a pair of pantaloons, or pants, as they were eventually known, made sense when there were two components. The phrasing was retained even after pants were made into one complete garment. ***However, there doesn’t seem to be much evidence in reference sources to support this theory.*** https://www.britannica.com/story/why-do-we-say-a-pair-of-pants

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Addictd2Justice@reddit

Single pant legs are only a good idea if you need quick access to your crotch like a fuck boi

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weesteve123@reddit

I can imagine the pair of pants/single bra thing would be difficult when there's not really any obvious reason. But I must say, good luck with the Arabic. I believe Arabic is widely designated as one of the most difficult languages for native English speakers to learn from scratch. And I've also read that the wildly varying dialects of Arabic add an extra aspect to the difficulty when you actually go to use it in person with a native speaker.

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AdjectiveMcNoun@reddit

Thank you! I would believe it most difficult. I know Spanish and it was fairly easy to learn because we share the same alphabet (with only minor changes) and the sounds are quite similar. I can make the sounds. I'm lucky I can roll my R's. With Arabic it a whole different bowl of wax. I don't know how to read the letters or pronounce them. There are sounds I have trouble making. I can have very simple conversations with my in-laws and can order at restaurants and things like that so I'm making some progress even though it's very slow. You are correct about the dialect too. Luckily the Egyptian dialect is the most widely understood of all the dialects because their media is popular, similar to how everyone recognizes the American accent from watching American movies and stuff. People seem confused about why a very white woman is speaking Egyptian Arabic though. It has thrown some people off a bit, lol.

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iamnotamangosteen@reddit

I had someone asked me once if I could “plug out” the laptop. When I thought about it, why should the opposite of “plug in” be “unplug”? Sometimes the ESL way of saying something is way more logical

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Kalzone4@reddit

I’m a native English speaker but grew up with Albanian parents in the US and sometimes even I say things like close the light just because I’ve heard it said like that in Albanian so often.

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AdjectiveMcNoun@reddit

It most definitely catches on. I have caught myself saying it just because I hear my husband so often.

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BigBlueMountainStar@reddit

A Canadian couple (definitely multi generation Canadian) I met years ago used to “close the lights” too.

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DukeCummings@reddit

“Get down” is also a Southern thing and can be found regionally among native English speakers.

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MemphisAmaze@reddit

It's like that in Cajun Louisiana

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The_Real_Scrotus@reddit

I've noticed something similar. I work for a German company and European English speakers tend to use "until" instead of "by" when talking about a deadline. As in "please get this to me until the end of the day" instead of "please get this to me by the end of the day".

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Less-Country-2767@reddit

Germans will also say something like, "I have been in the US since three years" because they're directly translating the English, "since" from the German, "seit". It's close enough that most people will understand what's meant but it isn't technically correct and sounds odd

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LemonSkye@reddit

There are pockets of the US that were historically German-speaking where you'll run into things like this from native English speakers. "The car needs washed" and "the chips are all" are two phrases there that come to mind.

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Zeiserl@reddit

That... doesn't make much sense. It'd be "the car needs being washed" ("das Auto muss gewaschen *werden*"). But another classic mistake for a German would be "The car is already washed" instead of "has already been washed"

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LemonSkye@reddit

For modern German, sure. Would it have been the same for the German spoken 300 years ago? Because that's the form it'd be based on.

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Competitive_Hippo_17@reddit

"I have been in zhe US since zhree years"

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muehsam@reddit

The reverse is true as well. English natives will say things like "ich habe für drei Jahre in Deutschland gelebt", which is correct German, but it means "I used to live in Germany, for a (predetermined) total of three years". When what they meant is "I've been living in Germany for three years". In a way that is worse than what German natives do in English, because it's actually not an odd sentence to say at all, and it has a clear and obvious meaning. It's just a very different meaning than the one they were going for. There are two "mistakes" in there. 1. German has no equivalent of English present perfect continuous, and uses present tense. So in your example, the Germans you're talking about actually learned their English grammar relatively well since they said "I have been in the US" rather than "I am in the US". Conversely, the Americans in my example picked a tense that is a plain past tense in German, for things that are over. 2. "Für" with a duration is for predetermined time frames, like going on vacation "for one week". You know in advance how long it will be in total.

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anamorphicmistake@reddit

You are right, and about your specific example, I can write for Italian but I think it is the same for the other romance languages too. We don't use the equivalent of "I have been" for that. If we use the equivalent of "I have been", then the sentences mean a different thing: "sono stato un dottore per quarant'anni" means that I *had* been a doctor for forty years. Now I am not a doctor anymore. So we "need" to use *since* because it implies an action that is still going on, so the sentence sounds less weird for us.

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Remote-Bug4396@reddit

This is not always true. Some native speakers still borrow things from their ethnic ancestors. On her podcast, Mayim Bialik will often say use the present tense of a verb when a past perfect tense is more appropriate. This is more common in the Northeast, I think.

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stephanonymous@reddit

Like when telling a story? For example “I was hungry yesterday, so I go to the grocery store…” I think that’s pretty common everywhere.

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Fit-Ad985@reddit

you would say “so i went to the grocery store” bc you’re talking abt yesterday and that’s past tense

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kmmontandon@reddit

> you would say “so i went to the grocery store” bc you’re talking abt yesterday and that’s past tense. A lot of people tell personal stories in the present tense. It's not a grammatical mistake.

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sewiv@reddit

Yeah it is. You should use the tense applicable to the time the event occurred. Some locations accept it anyway, but that doesn't make it right.

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weesteve123@reddit

I don't think it's unacceptable to tell a story, that happened in the past, in the present tense. Whether written or spoken, this mode of story telling is used for a very specific purpose - it makes the listener/reader feel more like they are part of a story that is still unfolding, it makes the receiver of the information feel more involved and it builds tension or suspense: "You'll never believe what happened to me yesterday. So I walk down to the shop, right, and there's this guy standing there. He must be like, sixty years old, and he's completely naked. So immediately, I think to myself, 'What the fuck is going on here?'. He then starts pointing and shouting at me, calling me a liar, all this sort of stuff, right, bear in mind I don't know this guy from Adam. Then outta nowhere he runs at me, tackles me to the ground and starts trying to steal my clothes..." etc etc etc This is just a stupid example, but I'm trying to show that there's a very good reason for telling past stories in the present tense. It's a descriptive device, it's seen in literature sometimes. And on top of that, it can add colour and life to language. Now I'm not suggesting people should speak gobbledygook and we would just accept that, but present tense story telling is an accepted linguistic device, and the idea that we should bin it just because it's not completely correct in a prescriptive sense is daft. You might want to avoid it in an extremely formal setting, job interviews, things like that - but it absolutely has its place in our language.

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sewiv@reddit

It only even slightly works if you specifically lay out the time frame that the events actually happened first. Even then, it makes the speaker sound uneducated.

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weesteve123@reddit

Agree to disagree.

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CrownStarr@reddit

It’s called the “historical present” and it’s a thing in English as well as in many other languages. Wikipedia cites this from a book called “The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language”: > In linguistics and rhetoric, the historical present or historic present, also called dramatic present or narrative present, is the employment of the present tense when narrating past events. > […] > In English, it is used above all in historical chronicles (listing a series of events). It is also used in fiction, for "hot news" (as in headlines), and in everyday conversation.

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sewiv@reddit

In everyday conversation, unless you specifically lay out that the events retold actually occurred in the past, it makes you sound uneducated. Just so you know.

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Alexandur@reddit

>Some locations accept it anyway, but that doesn't make it right. Actually I've got some bad news for you regarding the nature of English

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sewiv@reddit

Let me know when it's documented in a standard guide to English grammar as acceptable usage. Also, I thought about it some more (see, past tense), and the times I've heard (see, past tense) someone use present tense that way, they usually added a time-defining clause or word. "So yesterday, I go to the store, right? And Martha's there, so I say to her, I say 'Hi'." They still sounded like idiots, but at least the time of the occurrence had been defined.

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Alexandur@reddit

There is no such thing as an authoritative "standard guide to English grammar"

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Fit-Ad985@reddit

just bc ppl make mistakes doesn’t make it grammatically correct 😭

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EdgeCityRed@reddit

I get you, but if a person is telling a story about what happened yesterday and tells it in the present tense like, "So then he says 'bla bla bla" and I then I say, "but bla bla!" it's a common quirk, and though it's technically wrong, it wouldn't indicate that someone isn't a native speaker.

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Fit-Ad985@reddit

that’s why i said i wouldn’t assume they weren’t a native speaker. I do it too sometimes when being dramatic with my friends but usually it’s “and i said.. and than he said…”

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weesteve123@reddit

Are you talking about when a person is telling a story, something that happened in the past, and they use the present tense to relate the story? If so, surely that's pretty common in English? I certainly wouldn't question if someone was a native speaker or not for using this type of speech. In any case, I don't think I've ever heard a native English speaker mix up the "for/since" issue that I was talking about.

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Remote-Bug4396@reddit

Mayim would say, "I have been doing... since I'm young," or something similar.

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weesteve123@reddit

That is interesting, yes I suppose the grammatically correct version would be "since I was young". I think in that case you'd have to extrapolate the fact that by her accent, she's clearly a native speaker, and I suppose if you also knew her ethnic background you could put 2+2 together and infer that it must be something that comes from her heritage. But again, it doesn't actually relate to my original point. In English, we use "for" when talking about a countable period of time; "I have been a doctor *for* 20 years/I have been sitting here *for* 3 hours." Whereas we use "since" when relating back to a specific event/time/date/period: "I have been working as a doctor *since* I graduated/I have been sitting here *since* 2 o'clock". So the point is that non native speakers often use "since" when they should be using "for", which is an observed linguistic fact.

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Remote-Bug4396@reddit

I wasn't really focusing on your point, but yes, you are correct in that area. We automatically know this without being taught specifically. The same can be said for adjective order.

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harlemjd@reddit

Right, which would be correct because there’s no specific number of years. I’ve been working since I finished school. I’ve been working for 24 years. It’s like less/fewer.

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Remote-Bug4396@reddit

Except you used the past tense "finished," rather than the present tense "am" like Mayim did.

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mikejarrell@reddit

I’m not sure where she’s from but I think this might be a regional thing. I know someone from Long Island, NY who says things like, “I’ve known him since I’m 6 years old.”

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Remote-Bug4396@reddit

She's Jewish, so I'm guessing it might be a remnant of her family speaking Yiddish. Just speculating, though, as I don't know specifics.

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harlemjd@reddit

Ahhh, got you. Yeah, that is weird.

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AshTheGoddamnRobot@reddit

These are called "calques." Common in Miami, too We have a few in the Midwest, too. "Come with"

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neverdoneneverready@reddit

This a great point. Or if you ask how old they are they say, "I have twenty five years" because that's how they say it in their native language. A native English speaker would say, "I'm 25 years old."

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tunafishsandwichh@reddit

In Spanish that’s how you articulate age. “Tengo treinta años” Technically translates to “I have 30 years”. Another thing I notice is people saying “are you mad with me” instead of “are you mad at me”.

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DoinIt989@reddit

Interestingly, certain other features from German are still normal in certain US dialects due to historical immigration (though it's mostly older people). For instance, in Cincinnati, some people will say "Please?" (like "Bitte" in German) when most English speakers would say "Huh?" or "What?". In a lot of the Midwest, people will use the word "yet" in ways similar to "jetzt" in German, like where most English speakers would say "still" (affirmative statements like "I'm at work yet")

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weesteve123@reddit

Very interesting. Here in the UK we *sometimes* use "yet" in a similar way. You often hear things like "there's life in that old dog yet" (there's still life in that old dog) or "we can win this game yet" (we can still win this game/we still have a chance to win this game). It's maybe not exactly the same as the example you gave but it strikes me as being quite similar.

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DoinIt989@reddit

Yeah I think it's related to a combo of German immigration in the US and older Germanic language patterns in the UK (since English/Scots are related to German). Same thing with how people in Scotland use the verb "ken" as in "I ken your father" in a similar way to the German verb "kennen" (roughly "to be familiar with something").

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Sandwichinparadise@reddit

Yes- but even native English speakers in New Orleans sometimes have some French grammatical weirdness. For example, you might hear someone say “My doctors appointment is for noon” instead of “at noon” or “My grandson made three last week” instead of “turned three”. It was explained to me that it’s how you would translate it from French. I wonder if this is true in other English speaking places with a non-anglophone history.

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weesteve123@reddit

It's definitely the same in other places - we have loads of English phrases in Ireland that are basically direct translations from phrases in Gaeilge, which would make little sense to a non Irish person.

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thephoton@reddit

>they often say things like "I have been a doctor *since* twenty years", Do you know a lot of Germans? (Or maybe Dutch or Scandinavians?) This is a very typical error for people whose first language is German.

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weesteve123@reddit

I actually was going to add in my comment that this seems to be especially common with German people. My grandfather spoke German conversationally and I remember him telling me about it before he died. I've noticed it often, I've met a fair amount of Germans over the years and many of them seemed to make this same mistake. I'm also studying Spanish at uni, and in Spanish they do actually seem to make more of a distinction between "for/since" (desde hace/desde), but I've still also met Spaniards who make the mistake too.

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arielonhoarders@reddit

English isn't American or British english the world over. It's used differently. Using "since" is correct in India, that's Indian rules for English. American English isn't the Queen's english either. And British English isn't the Queen's English depending on where you live (in London).

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weesteve123@reddit

These are all very good points. I suppose I'm talking about western English. If I went to India and noticed people were using "since" in that way, I'd assume that that is correct in India. But in the UK, anyway, "since" is never used in that way by native speakers(I appreciate we're in an ask America sub, but I just the question so interesting that I head to weigh in). In the UK, the rule is: Countable amount of time (20 years, 16 months, 5 minutes) is "for" - I've been sitting here *for* ten minutes". Relating to a specific time/date/event/period is "since" - I've been sitting here *since* 3 o'clock In the UK these are adhered to pretty strictly by native speakers.

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Adventurous-Nobody@reddit

I don’t know, dude, I’m not a native speaker, but even when I was learning “grammatically correct” English, for me using the word “since” without indicating a specific start date is a mistake. So your example is unlikely to be 100% correct mark of non-native speakers. It’s just that many have not learned the rules for using since/for.

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weesteve123@reddit

It's obviously not a 100% surefire way to tell - many non native speakers will learn the rule and use it correctly. I'm just saying that people from certain countries, in whose native language "since" is used in that context, do commonly make that mistake. Enough for me to notice it, anyway.

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Adventurous-Nobody@reddit

Oh I see, thnx

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AstronautDecent4503@reddit

But a native speaker once said, "I have a particular set of skills. Skills I've *acquired* over a long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you"....

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The_Marine_Biologist@reddit

Liam Neeson wasn't born in America.

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birdsy-purplefish@reddit

His accent also slips pretty badly in that one. Pretty sure it's when he says something about it not being the time for "dick MEAS-uring".

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AstronautDecent4503@reddit

The character was American. The script probably written by an American too

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The_Marine_Biologist@reddit

Partial credit. It's a French film but one of the two screenwriters is American.

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neverdoneneverready@reddit

WHAT? It's a French film?? Since when did it acquire its Frenchness?

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The_Marine_Biologist@reddit

Haha since it was shot, directed and produced in France. You remember that like 90% of the film is set in France right?

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neverdoneneverready@reddit

Oui but where are zee subtitles?

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AstronautDecent4503@reddit

lmao ikr I didn't know either

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Remote-Bug4396@reddit

No, but they do speak English natively in Northern Ireland.

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harlemjd@reddit

Right, but the question is why OPs friend can’t pass as American.

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Remote-Bug4396@reddit

Sorry, tangent.

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AnalogNightsFM@reddit

You can acquire skills. You can acquire skills in a language. Is it more common to acquire a language or to learn a language?

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oddi_t@reddit

In addition to what others have said about the tenses involved, "I've acquired skills" sounds natural in English, but "I've acquired English" does not. A native speaker would most likely say "I've learned English" instead. That said, "I've learned skills" and "I've acquired skills" both sound natural. I'm not sure what the difference between "skills" and "English" is that makes acquired work for one and not the other.

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Practical-Ordinary-6@reddit

It also has to do with the context. In that speech by Liam Neeson, he was putting on a professional air of a highly skilled agent or government worker of some kind. He was trying to intimidate. He wasn't having a casual conversation and therefore he didn't use casual conversation style. He used more formal style with fancier words.

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9for9@reddit

Drop skills. In an actual conversation the average person would just say learn. Learn implies skill. "In school I learned reading, writing and arithmetic." To add: "I've learned the skills of reading, writing..."

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count_strahd_z@reddit

I might say I've become fluent in English or acquired proficiency with the English language or something but definitely not I've acquired English. I learned English (in school, etc.) sounds natural too.

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tr14l@reddit

But he acquired them since childhood Acquire is a perfectly acceptable English word. Acquired SINCE is a bit strange to say and hear

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deleted_by_reddit@reddit

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Gilthwixt@reddit

Honestly I've never heard a native speaker use "acquired" in the context of language in the first place - you're more likely to hear "I've been fluent in", "known", or "learning" English since childhood.

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tr14l@reddit

It wouldn't strike me as odd to hear it except for the mixing of tenses

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ShitPostGuy@reddit

This is true, native speakers typically use the word “acquire” only when referring to a tangible thing. For something immaterial like a skill the word is “learn”.

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JarlOfPickles@reddit

The exception being that we do use the phrase "acquiring a skill". However, I would only use "acquired" if I'm specifically including "skill/skills" in the sentence. So not "I've acquired carpentry" but instead "I've acquired carpentry skills". Even then it still sounds a bit weirdly formal lol.

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ShitPostGuy@reddit

You can acquire a skill because a skill is a tangible/recognizable thing, but the action of carpentry or proficiency in it is not tangible.

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ghjm@reddit

In linguistics, "language acquisition" is widely accepted jargon. I think if OP had said "I have _been acquiring_ English since childhood" we would have found it an odd phrasing, but not so much a marker of non-native speech.

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cdb03b@reddit

Use of "Acquired" is not the issue. "Acquired Since" is the oddity that is a giveaway.

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Young_KingKush@reddit

Because you can acquire skills, you can't "acquire" the English language. You would say you "learned" English

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therealjerseytom@reddit

Lol, indeed! On a serious note I think the technical language term for this is a "collocation." Like combinations of words that tend to show up *together* and sound natural. Otherwise it's easy to look up or find individual words with some meaning that you're trying to convey, but they don't necessarily fit together naturally.

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BrainFartTheFirst@reddit

Did you meet when you were both in hospital?

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BigBlueMountainStar@reddit

Me and my friend learnt English as children.

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Pleasant-Pattern7748@reddit

or “incorporating common american phrases verbs”?

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redmonicus@reddit

Thats not even grammatically correct. They should be using present perfect continuous. Also if "acquired" isnt used in this way, then its just wrong, there is no "technically correct". We almost always use it as a finished thing. For example, "i worked hard to acquire the language level that i have" sounds way way better than "I have been acquiring english". The problem is, is that all of language comes from usage, and you cant just learn a certain number of rules and words and be fine. You have to continually acquire a sense of all the various contexts of usage through long years of experience. You just have to spend an immense number of years getting the widest range of possible experience with the language as you can. Also, I bet the inability to code switch is a dead giveaway too, just to answer ops original question. I mean any educated american can code switch between their sort of local slangy style, between more standard english, as well as other varieties (academic for example), where else a lot of foreigners, even if theyre quite good, have only one variant thats not even complete, so they come off as kind of stiff.

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LordJesterTheFree@reddit

My Italian grandmother who practically raised me never told me to "brush my teeth". She always told me to "wash my teeth".

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arielonhoarders@reddit

Yes but that's not grammatically correct

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WaldoJeffers65@reddit

Or "Common American phrasal verbs and idioms"

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Vadoola@reddit

I was on a hike while travelling and one guy said: "let's take a rest and sit down in the shadows".... I mean it's not wrong, but I can't think of a native speaker that would have said shadows instead of shade.

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Wooden_Door_9923@reddit

That sounds like let’s sit down and rest where the evil is….Nope! I will stay in the sunlight.

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pusheenforchange@reddit

Kindly do the needful

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Heavy-Internal-8003@reddit

I work with native English speakers from India. That's an idiomatic phrase in the Indian dialect of English, rather than a "tell" of a non-native speaker. It would be akin to someone from England calling a car trunk a "boot" or saying "I was sat" (instead of "I was sitting").

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TheNorthC@reddit

Indians like saying that they will "revert" to you rather than respond. And I've noticed this creeping into British English too.

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ShitPostGuy@reddit

It’s a status thing. English is the lingua franca of business and money and using an expansive vocabulary is a signal that you’re more educated and thus higher class. I’ve had to have several conversations about the use of the phrase “caused by negligence” instead of “made a mistake” in official reports. Negligence being a specific level of criminal behavior…

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TheNorthC@reddit

I would buy that if it was simply being a bit pretentious and breaking Orwell's 2nd rule of writing by using a more complex word when a simpler word would do, but 'revert' is simply incorrect - it means something else. Caused by negligence does at least mean by mistake. It is using the wrong word when a more ordinary and correct word exists. It isn't quite like when people say 'moot' when they mean entirely the opposite due to confusion with 'mute', but it's a similar error.

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Remarkable_Story9843@reddit

Revert = I’ll get back to you

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TheNorthC@reddit

Revert = return to a previous state. Not "I'll get back to you". The word they are grasping for is "respond".

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keralaindia@reddit

Another definition is used in Indian English to mean reply to someone

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TheNorthC@reddit

Indeed, hence my original statement on this, and as I observed, this new (but previously erroneous) usage is now creeping into British and American English. Of course, if anything is used enough and becomes embedded in the language, it will in time be added to dictionaries, even if the original usage was a mistake.

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regiseal@reddit

Can confirm I have seen native American English speakers begin to use this as well

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muehsam@reddit

Now I'm wondering whether you're talking about native speakers of American English, or English speakers who are Native Americans.

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regiseal@reddit

Haha, I would have capitalized Native had I been referring to the latter.

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copious_cogitation@reddit

"I was sat" and "I was stood" both amuse me and set my teeth on edge! I can't help but picture in my mind a giant hand coming down out of the air and picking up the person and shoving them into a chair or propping them against a wall, like a child playing with a doll house. Sorry, I just had to get that off my chest.

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peteroh9@reddit

Yeah, when the British started using that phrase, they lost their claim to being the true form of the language. And I don't care if that phrase has been used since the 1400s or something.

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WaldoJeffers65@reddit

More telling for me is the use of "only". Indians tend to use it a lot more than native speakers of American English.

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interface2x@reddit

Kindly is always my flag. If I see an email that says to "Kindly" do something, I instantly know.

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SevenSixOne@reddit

Same. Beginning a request with "kindly" is perfectly polite in other languages (and even certain English dialects), but that kind of deference just sounds SO passive-aggressive to my American ears

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ludsmile@reddit

I'm not a native English speaker but have lived in the US for 7 years. I'm appalled and confused that "kindly" is seen as passive aggressive. People have said my emails sound passive aggressive but I really don't mean for them to???? It's like each day I peel a new layer of confusing connotation for different words in English when in my brain they have simple and straightforward meanings.

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ShitPostGuy@reddit

Replace “kindly” with “please” and you’re set. “Kindly do xyz” is an explicit instruction or order to do xyz while also specifying the mood in which to perform it. It’s not asking, it’s telling. “Please” is a short version of “If it pleases you.” So “please do xyz” is a request to do xyz because it contains an unsaid IF clause allowing the recipient to elect not to do said thing.

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ludsmile@reddit

This is helpful. I think this is not the only thing I say that is "passive aggressive" (I've been given other examples but I forget) but the whole thing is confusing. Like one time a housemate overheard me answer "oh why wasn't so and so at the dinner?" with "apparently she's sick" (I had heard she was sick from someone else) and then was angry at my for months because I was "accusing her of faking being sick" when all I meant was "I've heard she's sick". No amount of explaining it fixed the problem. (I have noticed that because I do sound native-like I do not get as much grace when I use the wrong words compared to people with strong accents)

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ShitPostGuy@reddit

Aah. Drawing emphasis to “apparently” or “allegedly” or “she claims” is a way to reinforce that something is an unproven assertion and a sarcastic way to imply that you don’t believe it. In order for it to be understood as sarcasm, it usually needs to be pronounced with the first interior vowel heavily elongated: “Appaaaarently” “Alleeedgedly” “she claaaiims”

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peteroh9@reddit

I need to start using "allegedly with everything I say, allegedly.

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JarlOfPickles@reddit

That's a little extreme on the part of your housemate. "Apparently" _can_ be used to imply that you don't believe something, but that's usually said in a very specific tone of voice. Otherwise I feel like it's perfectly reasonable to use it the way you were intending, to show that you heard the info from someone else.

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deleted_by_reddit@reddit

[removed]

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AskAnAmerican-ModTeam@reddit

Your post is removed as spam. If you have questions regarding your submission removal - please contact the moderator team via [modmail](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/AskAnAmerican).

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copious_cogitation@reddit

The only way I can explain it is that "kindly" usually comes with a command. Kindly do this, kindly do that. Giving a command seems different than making a request. Would you please do this? Would you please do that? Maybe Americans perceive commands as sort of authoritarian compared to requests, even if someone attached the word "kindly" to the command in order to soften the effect. And even if someone used the word kindly in a request, maybe sometimes we still associate it with commanding language. You have probably been here long enough to understand that Americans usually prefer a flattened hierarchy and tend to not like behaviors that would make us not seem all equal*, hence the dislike for commanding language. *Many exceptions exist

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WhatIsMyPasswordFam@reddit

That they're Fontaine in disguise?

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mikejarrell@reddit

“Kindly” “needful” and “greetings of the day” must be Indian idioms.

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thisgameisawful@reddit

That and "personal work." Any time they put in PTO requests to do something (as in, not sick, just need a day to go to the doc/have a plumber over/decompress/whatever), they always told me "I have a personal work today" and apologized PROFUSELY like using PTO would harm their careers or my perception of them. Didn't matter if they were from Kolkata, Delhi, or Mumbai, all used the exact same phrase.

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geri73@reddit

I see you speak a little Nigerian, kindly.

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deleted_by_reddit@reddit

[removed]

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AskAnAmerican-ModTeam@reddit

Your post is removed as spam. If you have questions regarding your submission removal - please contact the moderator team via [modmail](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/AskAnAmerican).

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heili@reddit

One of these is "came to know". Americans who were raised speaking American English really don't say that.

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birdsy-purplefish@reddit

We don't? What do we say?

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bloodectomy@reddit

Also "you must be knowing" instead of "as you know" eg "you must be knowing the system was down on Friday"

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peteroh9@reddit

Which reminds me of someone who used the word "musted." It's a reasonable word choice and it's a bit odd that we got rid of that form of the word. Then again, she also once told me she worked her "asshole" at the gym. Then again again, she once told me that she did it doggystyle on the floor of her gym's sauna, so maybe she did work her asshole. I'm not sure why I needed to know that part.

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bloodectomy@reddit

Maybe it was a hint 😂

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Sandwichinparadise@reddit

“Come to find out…” on the other hand is wonderfully American.

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yyouknowwho@reddit

What do you say instead

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appleparkfive@reddit

"We've come to know" maybe is a straight parallel. But even that phrase isn't an everyday phrase

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Rough_Huckleberry_37@reddit

If I'm pretending to be serious I could definitely ironically say, "I've come to understand..."

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mysteriousship@reddit

‘Learned’ or ‘figured out’ depending on context.

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EdgeCityRed@reddit

And people from the UK almost invariably say "worked out," in this context.

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heili@reddit

My non-American colleagues, especially those from India, would say "I came to know that there was a bug in the software." I would say "I found out that there was a bug in the software." or "I learned that there was a bug in the software." The phrase "came to know" is correct grammar, and I understand it, but it sounds formal and archaic in normal conversation.

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jd732@reddit

“Today morning” instead of “this morning”

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Adventurous-Nobody@reddit

Sometimes I heard “today's morning” from native speakers.

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YiffZombie@reddit

Are you sure they weren't pod people, because I have never heard a native speaker use that phrase?

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megatrope@reddit

correct usage of “whom” is always a giveaway not a native American English speaker.

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framptal_tromwibbler@reddit

[Relevant Family Guy](https://youtu.be/Zj0q2yhZCmY?si=pEi6RB6LYQDrttWF)

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KonaKathie@reddit

My favorite a friend once used: "It's as easy as cake!"

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RainyReese@reddit

I've spoken to a few people from Scandinavia who ask things starting with "Have you any (fill in item)?" instead of do you have any or would you have any?

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ninjette847@reddit

And people who learned it conversationaly don't do this, I think it's from studying it and learning from books.

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halfmexicanred@reddit

Since OP specifically mentioned the US, British/Aussie phrasing also counts. They refer to singular groups such as companies in the plural while we use the singular. I.e. "Apple *are* releasing a new iPhone" is British/Australian, "Apple *is* releasing a new iPhone" is American.

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Top_File_8547@reddit

I always felt that the British use are because they are referring to the employees of the company while Americans use is because we are referring to the company as a single entity. I could be wrong about the reason.

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ShitPostGuy@reddit

British English uses plural when referring to an institution. The most glaring example is the “Royal We” in which the monarch refers to themself as the institution of monarchy rather than a person whereas everyone else refers to them in the singular.

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mediocre_mitten@reddit

"We are, two wylde and KerAzee guyz" <for all you elder SNL watchers>

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SecretaryBubbly9411@reddit

“Do the needful”

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Exact-Truck-5248@reddit

Indian English is the most delightful and precise variety of the language. I love its creative, archaic nature.

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Fossilhund@reddit

New dance?

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bopbeepboopbeepbop@reddit

Yeah, things like "Say to me what your favorite color is" instead of "Tell me what your favorite color is" and things like that. People like that often clearly understand the language very well and can speak perfect English, but have not been immersed in English-speaking environments enough to pick up on all of the commonalities and norms like that, where the reasoning is mostly just "🤷‍♂️"

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Rumpelteazer45@reddit

Example is pronunciation reductions (which every language uses). Aka the smooshing of words. In the English language specifically the word “of” is a common reduction. Cup of tea becomes cuppa tea, kind of is pronounced kinda, sort of becomes sorta. ‘How do you’ is often pronounced ‘howdaya’ ‘Who did you’ is often pronounced ‘who-didja’ ‘Going to’ is ‘gonna’ ‘Should have or Should’ve’ is ‘shoulda’

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SunsetBain@reddit

"Where do you stay?" is a big one from Indians. They use "stay" to mean "live".

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Top_File_8547@reddit

Indians have some great words. One said prepone a meeting, i.e. move it forward instead of postpone.

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actuallyiamafish@reddit

I had a really embarassing interaction with an Indian co-worker once who kept trying to tell me that the iron stairs at his apartment building were really slippery in winter time - took me waaaay to many repeats to understand him because he kept saying "the stairs are of iron" which is a really bizarre way of phrasing that in casual English conversation. He had a very thick accent and I was used to that, but sometimes he'd just twist up a sentence in some novel way that would throw my ear completely off track.

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a_duck_in_past_life@reddit

"my friend and I have acquired English since childhood" kinda sticks out to me as the first thing I noticed.

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jil3000@reddit

Usually if it's overly formal words or phrasing.

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JacobDCRoss@reddit

"Please confirm the same."

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Atlas_Colter@reddit

My friend and I, it's incorrect but a lot of people just say me and my friends.

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neverdoneneverready@reddit

That seems like a young person error. Certain phrases have crept into our language dependent on location and age, also ethnicity. For example, when I hear "Not for nothing" (actually not for nuttin') I know the speaker is probably from Chicago and Italian, NYC or New Jersey and a real city person. They could have any advanced degree but are speaking casually to friends. I think these are called idioms. Or colloquialisms.

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kahtiel@reddit

I've been around those that use the former and those that use the latter. I think this sometimes comes down to education and socioeconomic level.

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FruitPlatter@reddit

Either are a vast improvement over "myself and my friend," the unfortunate use of *myself* becoming weirdly prolific as it has.

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RightYouAreKen1@reddit

When will you reach home?

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SicnarfRaxifras@reddit

Please do the needful.

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ianallensto@reddit

Putting “xx” at the end of sentences

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314inthe416@reddit

British terms with a North American accent: lift, trolley, pram, etc.

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eceuiuc@reddit

One giveaway that often surprises people is that pronunciation is sometimes a little too precise.

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chickpeas3@reddit

That’s how I spot the fake American in TV shows. Things will be just a touch *too* precise and my brain goes “I bet they’re Australian,” and they are.

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peteroh9@reddit

And then there's the confusing one where you don't detect any pronunciation differences but you say to yourself "...that's a Canadian..."

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chickpeas3@reddit

The Canadian’s usually give it a way with the O’s. It’s subtle and not every word with an O, so it may even take a few episodes or even a season to even notice. But every so often they’ll pronounce it *just* differently enough that I’m like “Ahhh, a Canadian” lol.

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DamageRocket@reddit

Should be more than “o”. There a number of things we pronounce differently that you may not be conscious of. The one that makes me laugh is a soft “u”. When Americans say a word like “skull” it sounds like “skoal” to Canadian ears. I have nephews who are American so I have delved into this with them. They can’t really wrap their ears around how we say it. Imagine other soft “u” containing words “cup” or “s’up”. Now add the “sk” in front and the “ll” at the end. That’s how we say it, the Aussies, Kiwis and Brits probably do to. “Orange” is another, when I hear Americans it sounds like “are-inge”. We say it with a British sounding “o”, like “ohringe” all together not broken like “oh-ringe”. Conversely we say “pasta” like “canasta” whereas Americans pronounce it with a soft “a” that sounds like the “o” in “lost”, but that varies from state to state. We similarly fuck up names like Mazda and Nirvanna in a similar way, haha.

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ellicottvilleny@reddit

Long and short o, and o-u sounds, are distinct with Canadians. Our "about" sounds like "aboot" to most Americans.

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peteroh9@reddit

But not all of them do that. I've even had a couple people who were Americans who made me think *they've gotta be Canadian.* Like Dave Coulier. How is he not Canadian? And you know the crazy thing I just learned while writing this? His mom was from Canada and he grew up around Detroit so he probably spent a lot of time in Canada.

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ellicottvilleny@reddit

Canadians do have subtle differences from Americans in vowel sounds. My american conversation partners from Alabama, Georgia, and other states in the South, instantly hear me and know I'm Canadian.

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gingergirl181@reddit

Yep. Every single word is pronounced correctly, but they're SO consistent with pronunciation of certain sounds or words that it ends up almost a little uncanny valley sounding. Like think about how various Americans would pronounce the words "your/you're/yours" and how it might shift based on context. With my accent (general Western American) I would say something closer to "yur" in a casual phrase like "your pizza is here" but "yore" if saying "that's yours". I'd also change based on emphasis and context - i.e. when teaching I'd say "Your job is..." and pronounce it "yore", same with something like "that's YOUR problem, not mine". And with "you're" I almost always say "yur", not "yore". Other American dialects will differ from me of course, but almost no one says "yore" for every one of those situations, despite that being the "technical" or "most correct" pronunciation. Most of us will shorten or slur it somehow in casual speech. But a fake American on TV will say "yore" every time in every situation. Same with other similar short words that most Americans will pronounce a bit lazier than the "correct" way. Prime example: Gugu Mbatha-Raw on "Loki". Her American accent never slips and she sounds quite natural and not wooden, but it's just a little too pristine.

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chickpeas3@reddit

British actors in generally tend to do the too perfect American accent. There’s a few who absolutely excel, and the rest kind of live in that slightly uncanny valley area. And then there’s the few like Gerard Butler who can’t seem to do any accent except his own lol. I would say Canadians obviously have it the easiest, and then Australians are the next best at it, even though I clock them all the time lol. They have very minor slip ups like the too precise or a word will randomly get a slight, almost southern sounding drawl (which is a dead giveaway), but otherwise they sound fairly normal.

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birdsy-purplefish@reddit

I would say that Canadian actors slip up the most, actually. They assume that they sound (US) American because they have a North American accent and they rest on their laurels a bit. They frequently slip up when they pronounce words like "sorry" as "sore'y" rather than "sahrry".

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pagefourseventeen@reddit

That random ass one syllabic drawl is all it takes.

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SevenSixOne@reddit

For me it's when they put emphasis on the "wrong" syllable in a word (THANKSgiving vs thanksGIVing) or word in a phrase (school BUS vs SCHOOL bus)

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pagefourseventeen@reddit

I loooove doing this. People never know if I'm legit. Cot-TAGE cheese, blue-bah-REES, vege-"TABLE", the list goes on.

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SevenSixOne@reddit

Doing it on purpose to be silly is encouraged!

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gingergirl181@reddit

Or pronouncing one word like you're from Brooklyn and the next like you're from Alabama, lol. Also the trend of British female actors who sound like 90s valley girls. Tell me more about how you learned your American accent from watching Friends and Clueless, babes...

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PracticalWallaby4325@reddit

The only one I couldn't pick up on was Melanie Lynskey, I was shocked to find out she was from New Zealand.

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chickpeas3@reddit

Her and Kate Winslet are probably the best at American accents. I’ve never once detected a slip up ever from either of them (can’t comment on the Mare of Easttown accent as I’m not from there, but have read people saying it’s borderline perfect).

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concrete_isnt_cement@reddit

Yep, a dead giveaway around here is if you enunciate the t in Seattle instead of pronouncing it “Seaddle”

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PappaBear667@reddit

I don't know that this is so much an American thing as it is a North American thing. Mt in-laws are from Canada and identify people as Canadian or not by whether they say Toronto (not) or Toronna (Canadian).

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Drew707@reddit

There's a city immediately south of San Francisco aptly named South San Francisco. If you called it that, everyone would obviously know what you meant. But since most people in the Bay Area refer to San Francisco as "the City", South San Francisco is known as South City, but in speech it's usually Sow City.

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cold_bananas_@reddit

Just said South City out loud and it’s very much Sow City hahaha. There’s a great article by Herb Caen about how San Franciscans talk and mush all our words together.

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Drew707@reddit

Herb Caen was a regional treasure.

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cold_bananas_@reddit

Oh how awesome! What was it about?

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Drew707@reddit

If I said, I would dox myself, but it was part of stupid quotes from children that were holiday themed.

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cold_bananas_@reddit

Honestly didn’t cross my mind! Sounds like a very cute article to have been a part of.

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MyDogYawns@reddit

people will also know youre a native to the bay if you call it San Fran 😁

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keralaindia@reddit

Some us do this ironically though along with calling California cali

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MyDogYawns@reddit

i didnt know that lol, my parents grew up in the bay and i lived there for a few years when i was younger, and always got a stern look when i said cali or san fran 😭

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Drew707@reddit

*it's just a joke it's just a joke it's just a joke* Frisco though, will get you some mixed reactions.

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ResidentRunner1@reddit

Frisco is a Texas thing anyway

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Drew707@reddit

They can have it.

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wiptes167@reddit

Thank you!

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Turfader@reddit

And a $25 fine under Emperor Norton I!

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Drew707@reddit

Protectorate of Mexico!

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No-BrowEntertainment@reddit

That pretty much mirrors how Constantinople (Greek for “The City of Constantine”) became Istanbul (Medieval Greek for “In the City”).

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Drew707@reddit

I thought that was nobody's business but the Turks?

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ModeMysterious3207@reddit

See-at-lee

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nauticalfiesta@reddit

Puyallup

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ellicottvilleny@reddit

Definitely. And Americans from Boston don't sound like Americans from Macon Georgia, and neither of them sound like Americans from Michigan, or New York City.

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SheZowRaisedByWolves@reddit

There’s this Swedish metal band, Dark Tranquility, that came by Texas for a show once. The vocalist tried to say “y’all” but it came out like yuh-ale.

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_chof_@reddit

>Although my friend boasts impeccable pronunciation he probably doesnt. all it takes is a very slight difference for people to guess that you're not a native american english speaker >My friend and I grew up using English -- specifically American idioms and phrasal verbs. My friend has impeccable pronunciation, but Americans can often tell that he isn't a native speaker. What gives it away? This is just one example out of many on of how to rewrite this. (Dont worry! I understand that you're asking about your friend and not yourself) also idk wtf a phrasal verb is even though i probably use them all the time also... where did you guys learn these things? from tv? from books? from other media? just curious. can you please give more detail on the types of conversations or interactions he is having?

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thatissright@reddit

Idk man, some people can pull off a very convincing American accent..to the point where nobody even suspects they're not American.

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_chof_@reddit

i agree! so many times i am shocked when an actor is actually Scottish or something because I've only ever heard them with an American accent. some actors definitely try too hard and fail for a natural sound for example Emma Watson i think her name is

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NedThomas@reddit

Phrasal verbs are action statements that use two or more words. Some examples: cheer up, get over, back up, break down, end up, find out, show off.

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_chof_@reddit

thank you! these all sound extremely confusing for a non native speaker wow.

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AnimatronicHeffalump@reddit

I think in most American schools we call them a verb phrase not a phrasal verb

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Sedewt@reddit

They’re not the same. Phrasal verbs are strictly a verb + particle. Verb phrases are the verb and the rest of the predicate arguments.

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NedThomas@reddit

The concept exits in almost every language, and learning how to use them is a way to improve your apparent fluency in a given language. For example, “finis par” is a French version of “end up” (specifically, “end up ____ing”, so things like “end up doing”, “end up going”, “end up being”, etc)

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_chof_@reddit

thank you! i really appreciate that french example

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penguin_0618@reddit

I have never ever heard any one say phrasal verbs and I’ve worked in phonics up to 12th grade ELA classrooms. That is not a more normal way to say it.

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tunafishsandwichh@reddit

I never hear anyone use the word phonics anymore lol

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penguin_0618@reddit

That’s what the class was called

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Anahata_Green@reddit

I teach English/ESL at a university; both I and my colleagues talk about phrasal verbs in our classes.

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penguin_0618@reddit

I would not consider vocabulary not introduced until college a normal way for most native speakers to say things. I don’t expect everyone to know Piaget’s stages of development despite learning them in three separate college classes.

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heili@reddit

> phrasal verbs I had to search this term the last time someone used it here. Phrasal verbs are things like: "look up", "jump to", "come up with" and "brought up".

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_chof_@reddit

i was going to leave it out, but left it because they specifically mentioned it. speaking like an american doesnt equal "never uses uncommon vocabulary". thanks for your input, though!

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Drew707@reddit

>all it takes is a very slight difference for people to guess that you're not a native american English speaker It's probably super difficult for a non-native speaker or even someone from the UK/AUS/NZ/SG, but I can usually identify a Canadian within a sentence or three.

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peteroh9@reddit

Sometimes just by looking at them.

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Drew707@reddit

Yeah, the Charles Manson esque maple leaf tattoo is a giveaway.

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SpiritOfDefeat@reddit

Yeah, no one is going to ever say “phrasal verb” in any sort of context besides maybe a classroom for a week before it becomes long forgotten. I don’t know what one is either, and I’d put money that if you polled 100 people 90-95 of them wouldn’t know. Focusing so much on grammar is what makes non-natives often seem so rigid and textbookish. We know the rules in an intuitive sense, not in the super formal sense.

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peteroh9@reddit

I know what a phrasal verb is 😏 But only because a foreigner asked me to help her learn phrasal verbs and I had to look up what the hell that meant 😎

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iamcarlgauss@reddit

Some people just really like linguistics, okay :(

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SpiritOfDefeat@reddit

I gave you guys the benefit of the doubt and gave a pretty optimistic number to assume even 5% of people might know :)

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_chof_@reddit

>Focusing so much on grammar is what makes non-natives often seem so rigid and textbookish. We know the rules in an intuitive sense, not in the super formal sense. exactly. same for other languages too

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SpiritOfDefeat@reddit

True, but some education systems abroad seem to focus a lot more on memorization and reciting material compared to ours. I think that reinforces some of these concepts too. Language learners believe they need to memorize rules and vocabulary instead of focusing on learning through conversation and context clues. As much as we shit on our education system here, it exposes students to a broad array of liberal arts and abstract concepts (such as pattern recognition, critical thinking, analysis skills, etc) that seem to develop us into much less rigid learners. This is not true of all international education systems, and I’m not accusing OP’s country of perpetuating this either. But it’s an observation that I’ve made…

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josephtrocks191@reddit

Realistically you're right, the pronunciation is probably a clue. You can often tell what region or state a native speaker is from based on how they talk, so it's essentially impossible for a non-native speaker to completely get rid of their accent.

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Loud_Insect_7119@reddit

And even if you can't tell exactly where they're from, you can usually tell something seems vaguely off. Like my favorite example of this is Hugh Laurie in *House*. He's a native English speaker, but from the UK. His American accent is very good, but I watched the show when it first aired 20 years ago (which, btw, I had to look up to make sure and indeed, it started airing in 2004...jfc I'm getting old), and I remember frequently wondering where the heck he was from because he'd occasionally say things in this weird, overly flat, clenched-jaw kind of way that just didn't ring true. It was hard to say what was wrong with it, but I'd never heard an American talk like that. Then I looked him up, realized he was British, and started really noticing it. And I notice the exact same way of speaking in a ton of British actors doing American accents now--it's a super reliable tell once you learn what to listen for. So even with really great accents, there can be these little things where you might not immediately listen and go, "Oh, that guy clearly has an \[insert country here\] accent!" but you know that *something* is off, so then when you learn that he grew up in another country and learned English as a second language, then you're like, "Oh, that makes sense."

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SevenSixOne@reddit

>all it takes is a very slight difference for people to guess that you're not a native american english speaker I'll bet most native speakers of any language can clock a non-native speaker almost immediately, no matter how fluent they are. We might not recognize where an accent is from or be able to explain exactly what sounds "off" about it, but the way a non-native speaker sounds is totally different from a the way a native speaker sounds.

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East_Veterinarian_51@reddit

Pronouncing T’s as a T rather than ‘D’ sound mid sentence

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cdj2016@reddit

It sounds like a Simpsons character speaking. I see a lot of British actors do this in films/tv.

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MArtistForLife@reddit

Sometimes (not always!!), how comfortably they transition between formal and informal ways of speaking. I’ve noticed that with some people who learned English as a second or foreign language, they are more apt to use “yes” over “yeah,” for example, maybe even titles with you (like Mr./Mrs., sir/ma’am), especially if their native language uses honorifics when addressing others. I think it comes from a place of wanting to maintain the respect, and not accidentally lose it over what could be perceived by them as a friendly, casual way of communicating, but by you (or the recipient) as offensive or abrupt. I have experienced the reverse situation over text; if I am writing to someone in another language (for example, Japanese), what used to happen was I would use polite forms of words almost constantly. It usually took the other person telling me I didn’t need to write so formally with them (as well as them writing in that informal style) for me to slowly build familiarity and grow comfortable with doing so in another language.

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air_walks@reddit

U in color

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JulieThinx@reddit

If your friend uses the same vocabulary and syntax as you - that is a dead give away. Other dead give aways - not getting the humor (that is high level comprehension of a language) Of course an accent is generally always apparent - every region has dialects

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Long-Buddy6119@reddit

Whenever someone pronounces “Arkansas” as “Ar-Kansas”

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BlackEagle0013@reddit

When someone says "in hospital" instead of "in THE hospital".

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stevie855@reddit (OP)

I heard the Brits say “in hospital “ and it was very weird

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sspyralss@reddit

As a non native english speaker, i can easily say that its not how you say it, its what you say. Suble cultural differences and nuances. Instantly highlights to everyone around you that you're a foreigner.. just not getting certain cultural references. Not responding with expected responses. Very easy to tell, super obvious. Even if your prinunciation is perfect.

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filrabat@reddit

Mispronouncing the "th" of a word, even when speaking fairly fast. Trilling the r (tongue or throat) is also a dead giveaway.

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Wxze@reddit

>My friend and I have acquired English since our childhood, incorporating common American phrasal verbs and idioms. Although my friend boasts impeccable pronunciation, Americans often discern that he isn't a native speaker. What could be the reason for this? My friend and I learned English as children and yet a lot of common idioms. My friend doesn't have an accent but Americans can tell he isn't a native speaker. What gives it away? Mostly word choice. Most Americans speak much more informally I feel like

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somanybluebonnets@reddit

This is it. Native speakers phrase things far more casually and we use smaller, simple words when we speak. It flows better. Maybe OP can watch some American TV to find the differences. OP writes a bit like an American who is trying too hard to impress everybody with their vocabulary. It’s clunky and too formal. I know all the words they used, but many of them aren’t in my daily life vocabulary bank.

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Zlement@reddit

Late to the main thread but yeah you're right. I went back to read OP's thread and immediately saw "Phrasal". I'm well read but that was a new one for me. I figured it out from context easily but still checked it with google since we're being precise - yeah that's a new for me. Nothing that breaks english rules per se but it's not common in my experience .

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ellblaek@reddit

i only remember learning about phrasal verbs in school...

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ellblaek@reddit

not quite part of your *quotidian vernacular*, eh?

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anamorphicmistake@reddit

To be honest even to a non native speaker like me what op wrote sounds strange, clunky and like they did it on purpose. I'm still not sure it isn't done on purpose. About what you said, yes absolutely. I am Italian, so a romance language speaker, and is very easy to write like you are "using big words" while what actually happened is that I slip up and used the word that sounded more familiar to me, a romance languages derivate that english tend to use for more formal situations.

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mameaddiction@reddit

This. We are taught English the "correct", formal way. And when it comes to speech or writing, a native speaker can easily understand "where we come from". I hope I have conveyed my message appropriately. 🙂

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1668553684@reddit

Yup! When I first came to America, one of the things that took by far the longest (still working on it!) is consciously speaking more casually and and using more slang. Sure, it may sound cool to use fancy words, but you're going to lose people or draw their attention away from what you're trying to say. The first rule of communication is to speak the same language, and "classroom English" isn't that.

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9for9@reddit

As a writer I love the formalities of your wording, but that just isn't how native speakers use the language.

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mameaddiction@reddit

You won't believe how much time it took us to properly form sentences or how many grammar exercises we had to do to be able to distinguish "I run" to "I am running" for example. Only to find out later that it is perfectly fine for someone to say "he don't know nothing" 😞

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9for9@reddit

🤣 I wouldn't say it's perfectly fine, but it's normal. Your language is like that too though, right? Surely your native speakers have dialects, slang, code switchers, etc...?

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mameaddiction@reddit

Of course we do. I guess every language has those elements. Including code switchers (I didn't know what that means, I had to look it up).

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Trimyr@reddit

My wife still has a really think accent. I remember once when I'd first met her (18 years ago?) she said something that was so spot on. I mean I read *a lot*. But I'd never heard anyone use something so specific in casual conversation. Her vocabulary is just out there. I can see what you mean.

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BuildNuyTheUrbanGuy@reddit

"I hope I have conveyed my message appropriately. 🙂" What are you, royalty? Lol

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Celeste_Seasoned_14@reddit

Perfect example. An American born speaker would just say something like “hope that makes sense” or “hope I got my point across”.

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mameaddiction@reddit

>“hope I got my point across And this is exactly what distinguishes us from native speakers. "Get something across" seems much more difficult to use because when I try to translate "get" and "across", it doesn't make sense to me. However, "hope that makes sense" seems more "human". Anyway, thank you for giving an example of what a native speaker would say. It's always a pleasure to interact with native speakers.

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RobertSaccamano@reddit

Educated, probably.

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turkeyisdelicious@reddit

What are ya, the Qwane a’ Angland?

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DiplomaticGoose@reddit

Mannn whadaya want from-e?

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nobletyphoon@reddit

Lol read this in exactly the same voice as the wife on Men In Black—“what is it, Egger?”

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9for9@reddit

One of the few times I've read something written phonetically and instantly understood it. Kudos to you turkey!

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turkeyisdelicious@reddit

Haha thank you!

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BuildNuyTheUrbanGuy@reddit

🤔🫤😯😂🤣

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mameaddiction@reddit

I saw it written somewhere and I liked the expression 😁😅 and I used it here to corroborate to my argument.

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MarsupialPristine677@reddit

I dig it, you chose some fantastic words & phrases!

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danhm@reddit

Yep, exactly. And at least with my own experience learning Spanish, the foreign speaker is hesitant to use "wrong" language.

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ilikedota5@reddit

Well I don't speak casually or use smaller, simple words, so why do people not think I'm a foreign speaker? I can come off a bit pretentious because I was when I was younger, but what's the difference?

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somanybluebonnets@reddit

I discern that your vocabulary is simpler, more fluent and more pleasant to the ear than a clearly well-educated but non-native speaker who acquired English as a child and is now able to incorporate common American phrasal verbs with impeccable pronunciation.

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ilikedota5@reddit

Well I'm a nerdy native born American English speaker who is struggling with college.

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somanybluebonnets@reddit

Best of luck to you.

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bulbaquil@reddit

It also probably doesn't help that second-language learners (not just for English but in general) are often told to err on the side of being too formal rather than informal, and this goes double if OP and friend are from a more formal/hierarchical culture where those distinctions are more important. It *also* doesn't help that English has a lot of words that differ only in connotation or in slight nuances of usage. "Acquired English", for instance. Yes, the field is called "language acquisition" but nobody actually talks about "acquiring" a language; we'd say "learning" or "studying". (Even "getting," the casual, down-to-earth version of "acquiring", doesn't really work in this context.)

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SeanGlobal@reddit

Damn, all I read was “Native Speakers are idiots who enjoy talking like simpletons” lmao

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ilikedota5@reddit

Well I don't speak casually or use smaller, simple words, so why do people not think I'm a foreign speaker? I can come off a bit pretentious because I was when I was younger, but what's the difference?

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ifeelallthefeels@reddit

After fighting it my whole life, I’ve given into “y’all.” “Y’all good?” vs “Is your party in need of assistance?”

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elucify@reddit

"Boasts pronunciation" is also off.

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Ace-Red@reddit

Honestly, even your fix seems kind of formal for what most people would say in daily life. I’m not sure I know anyone who regularly uses the word children.

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Wxze@reddit

True, kids is definitely a better word there

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Ace-Red@reddit

That’s what I was thinking.

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Hank_Western@reddit

True, most Americans are woefully uneducated.

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exexextentahseeown@reddit

i mean.. we’re literally talking so WE can understand each other..

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BigManMane@reddit

That has nothing to do with this. I speak English as my second language and obviously learned it the formal way. After spending a few years in England and being very active in informal places online, my daily speech has become much more informal and "simple". It does not mean I, or Americans for that matter, cannot speak formally. If anything, people who force 'big words' into their daily speech come across as condescending and elitist.

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einTier@reddit

This reads like a native speaker wrote it. You have a familiarity with the language that makes your word choices and pairings seem natural. There's a million different ways to say the same thing in English and very few of them are "wrong" -- but the ones that are wrong sound incredibly weird and it can be difficult for non-native speakers to determine what makes *all these others* just fine but *that one* to be wrong.

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ShitPostGuy@reddit

While on initial assessment it may resemble refinement, the use of erudite vernacular in common parlance is, in fact, a shibboleth for a fool’s vain striving for the affirmation of the literati.

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TehLoneWanderer101@reddit

I'm only N=1 but I have a Master's degree and I prefer to speak informally. I'm just a normal person. Why speak differently?

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Loud_Insect_7119@reddit

I'm a professional writer/editor with a focus on legal writing nowadays (worth mentioning because legal writing tends to be extremely formal and use a lot of big words, lol), and I speak extremely casually most of the time. So does everyone I know. Doesn't mean I don't know how to do things correctly and formally, just means I have friends and decent social skills.

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TelcoSucks@reddit

Did you know that the best journalism is written to be understood by a 3rd grader? Overly complex words tend towards obfuscation. Or, sure. Americans are dumb.

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Wxze@reddit

Using simple speech is good in almost all contexts imo. If you can get your point across in a simple way that's much better than using unnecessary words

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MattFlynnIsGOAT@reddit

Speaking informally is not the same as being uneducated.

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Awdayshus@reddit

Word choice is exactly it. Translation is never a 1-to-1 relationship between words. The "best" translation of a common word in one language might be a more obscure or overly formal word in another. And regional dialects will not only include different words and idioms, but also different exceptions to standard grammar rules.

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JerichoMassey@reddit

A wonderful example is Classic Doctor Who, one of the later companions to the Doctor is an American named Peri. Of course her actor is British and all the writers are British, so you get British script in an American accent, and even though her pronunciation is pretty flawless, her dialogue sounds funny to the Yank ear. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyzjKei699I

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BigBlueMountainStar@reddit

And if you want to colloquialise it more, say “me and my friend”. My friend and I is the proper way, so it’s more likely to have been formally taught as a second language, me and my friend would only ever be learnt from parents/family etc

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hivemind_MVGC@reddit

https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/8d9c8fde-25eb-418e-930e-24168b210fe8/gif

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machagogo@reddit

I just highlighted a sentence to quote and re-write making pretty much the same comment. Besides accent, one or more of word choice, misplacement of adjectives, or generally being overly formal are the best giveaways.

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xcbsmith@reddit

Probably because the pronunciation & grammar is impeccable. ;-)

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ellicottvilleny@reddit

Your question rewritten by me to sound more like a native speaker:  "My friend and I have been learning English since our childhood, and have made an effort to learn common American phrases, and idioms, and to use the same vocabulary as native speakers. Although my friend has no discernable international accent, Americans often discern that he isn't a native speaker. What could the reason be for this?". * Nobody says "acquired english". * "Phrasal verbs and idioms" is awkard.

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Different-Attorney76@reddit

I know you did mention incorporating common American phrases and idioms, for me personally, a person unable to understand or being familiar with certain phrases was a give away that English wasnt their first language. I had joked to a university classmate that they were cutting the cheese (they were actually cutting cheese), and I burst out laughing. No one else around me was laughing and they were all confused. I had to explain to them what it meant, but all 4 of those classmates (whom I later found out had moved to North America when they were younger) so although they had almost no discernible accent, their unfamiliarity with the way certain things were said made me realize they may have not been born here.

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BuffGutz@reddit

Not sure it's possible. Because once you make an assumption it needs to be fact checked..without knowing the truth it's a fruitless hypothesis.

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Steamsagoodham@reddit

Insisting on using words like WASP or other weirdly archaic terms.

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stevie855@reddit (OP)

WASP?

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Stircrazylazy@reddit

White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. It was a term used to refer to white upper class/elitist people or groups.

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Blackwyne721@reddit

No, I don't think it was only a term used for upper-class/elitist white people or groups. I learned that it was a term used to refer to white, non-Catholic Americans in general

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Stircrazylazy@reddit

They were talking about the "archaic" term. It was broadened to include wealthy non-Anglo-Saxons (Americans of Swiss/Dutch/French Huguenot origins), then wealthy non-Protestants (in response to Catholic elites like the Kennedys). The only requirement that was consistently present was wealth. The broadening of the term to the extent you're describing is a more modern interpretation. "These 'old' Americans possess, for the most part, some common characteristics. First of all, they are 'WASPs'—in the cocktail party jargon of the sociologists. That is, they are wealthy, they are Anglo-Saxon in origin, and they are Protestants (and disproportionately Episcopalian)." - Andrew Hacker, political scientist, 1957, with W standing for 'wealthy' rather than 'white' "There is a crisis in American leadership in the middle of the twentieth century that is partly due, I think, to the declining authority of an establishment which is now based on an increasingly castelike White-Anglo Saxon-Protestant (WASP) upper class." - Edward Digby Baltzell Jr., Sociologist best known for popularizing the WASP acronym. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93740408 https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/how-not-to-mourn-the-aristocracy

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Nightgazer4@reddit

It was probably something from a post he read yesterday. If so I read the same post. Don't pay it any mind, lol.

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SunStarved_Cassandra@reddit

Lol yeah the Russian WASP guy who was insistent that all white Americans were WASPs, and more troubling, wasn't terribly convinced that whatever he wanted to talk about was better asked inclusively to all Americans, not just white Americans. He seemed to struggle to understand that Anglo-Saxons aren't something most Americans identify with.

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Steamsagoodham@reddit

White Anglo Saxon Protestant. It’s not a term that’s used anymore, but foreigners sometimes use it to mean “old money” or to refer those who come from privileged families. There was a guy who came on here the other day and asked a question about WASPs. He insisted he was using the word correctly, and that it was the best word to use, when he was repeatedly told otherwise by actual Americans.

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fromwayuphigh@reddit

I find it weird that Americans thought this was a foreign-sounding term.

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tunafishsandwichh@reddit

Im born and raised in the US and I’ve only ever heard of this term on Reddit in my 33 years of life. Maybe it’s more regional? I’ve never once heard anyone use this term in person.

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FuckIPLaw@reddit

If anything it's kind of academic.

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Cavalcades11@reddit

Well maybe that’s another good point. Mixing dialects and vocabulary across different regions will make you sound odd, even if we know what a word means. If someone asked me for a “pop” I know what they *want*, but it does indicate that you’re not from around here even if you’re American.

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Tomagander@reddit

Same if someone asks me for a *soda.* lol.

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Ellecram@reddit

Sigh...the pop/soda thing has had me twisted for many years when traveling lol.

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machagogo@reddit

Shows you how antiquated and regional it was/is. I doubt either of my kids would know it or what it meant offhand, but it was a commonly heard term when I was a kid.

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Curmudgy@reddit

It was commonly used in my youth, and is still used and recognized. I hope that when you get to be a senior citizen (if you aren’t already) and get frustrated at having to learn new slang, you’ll remember that it works both ways.

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Astraltraumagarden@reddit

I'm not born here but I see WASP being used fairly commonly by people of certain states. "WASP moms" has been this whole genre of content really on my FYP.

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cohrt@reddit

i was going to say the same thing. i still hear WASP being used in the NE states

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signedupfornightmode@reddit

I’d argue its modern relevance is regional; hardly anyone uses the term outside the northeast to refer to modern people.

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penguin_0618@reddit

I thought I was going crazy with everyone saying it isn’t used anymore! I guess it’s just an NE thing in the modern day.

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DiligerentJewl@reddit

All the time

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DooDiddly96@reddit

Lmaooo caitlin reilly is my fav

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emdog927@reddit

WASPs 🤝 NIMBYs

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lezzerlee@reddit

Just change it to white affluent shitty people and it has new life!

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sapphireminds@reddit

WASP is still used, just not in every region of the US. I live out west now and many people don't know what WASP is, but on the east coast, if I say my family is very WASPy, they know what I mean

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New_Stats@reddit

>It’s not a term that’s used anymore I hear it used fairly often

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Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit

I recall hearing it a whole lot in the '80s and '90s, but it seems to have fallen out of favor. It was used a whole lot when referring to politics during the Bush 41 administration.

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sapphireminds@reddit

WASP is actually a sign they *are* american LMAO

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penguin_0618@reddit

Nah, last time I heard WASP used like this was last week

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bad-and-bluecheese@reddit

WASP is archaic? I hear it all the time

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Sad_Reindeer7860@reddit

Misusing or misunderstanding a baseball analogy

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Tomato_Basil57@reddit

good lord, why are there so many

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tr14l@reddit

And we understand almost all of them, even if we've never held a bat in our lives

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FuckIPLaw@reddit

Even if our *parents* never did. Baseball metaphors are a weird linguistic fossil of when baseball actually was the national pastime. Which it realistically hasn't been since, like, the 60s.

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OrganizationWrong724@reddit

Even if people don't care about professional sports its still a big part of the culture. Pick up games with neighborhood kids and whatnot

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FuckIPLaw@reddit

My pickup games were football and basketball. I have literally never played a baseball derivative that wasn't organized in some way, even if it was just a coach at school deciding we were playing kickball that day.

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Mysteryman64@reddit

Eh, Baseball is still the sport I find that tends to be the most popular among those who don't really watch sports. Basketball and football are the biggest for those who enjoy athletic competitions, which is a lot of people, but I'd argue is baseball is still the game that you're gonna have the most people interested and able to play. Hell, even a lot of our more casual play games are just variants of baseball. Softball and kickball leagues? Pretty much just baseball. Little League for kids? Still absolutely booming.

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FuckIPLaw@reddit

Baseball is the *least* interesting sport if you don't fully understand how it works, though. You can get some entertainment out of football just watching these 300 pound slabs of meat crash into each other. Baseball is only interesting if you understand enough about the game to understand the mind games going on between the pitcher and the batter.

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awesomeflowman@reddit

As someone who still has memory of learning the rules of both sports I can tell you that baseball is unquestionably more interesting if you don't understand either game as a whole. Watching someone take violent swings at a ball is a lot more fun than people basically staying in place pushing each other.

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FuckIPLaw@reddit

Only if they hit it, which they usually don't.

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DoinIt989@reddit

Football metaphors are pretty common too though. Even hockey metaphors in a lot of places "shots on goal".

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awesomeflowman@reddit

Moving the goalposts, punting and blitz are 100% not originally from football lol.

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JerichoMassey@reddit

I wonder if Cricket metaphors are as prevalent in UK conversation.

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praxistheory@reddit

There are a few—like “sticky wicket” and “knocked for six”

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C137-Morty@reddit

Can confirm. While I have been to a batting cage and probably played a pickup game in recess or the cul de sac, I have never once played organized baseball. Yet there was not a single term I didn't understand. Although, I'd strongly argue that "on deck" came from naval terminology.

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DoinIt989@reddit

Recreational softball, which is basically the same sport, is still common among people who might not even watch or follow baseball though.

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Wahpoash@reddit

It probably is naval terminology. But baseball is probably why you know what it means.

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C137-Morty@reddit

All hands on deck is the only reference I have to that saying

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peteroh9@reddit

You've never heard that one person is up and someone else is "on deck?"

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C137-Morty@reddit

I have heard that, but you guys are kind of missing my point. Referring to that area as "deck" was naval terminology first. As in baseball took it from sailing.

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Wahpoash@reddit

I didn’t go through the list, but I have heard on deck used to reference something being next in line or next up, which I assume is the baseball meaning. Which is different than all hands on deck, which I have also heard, in reference to a situation where every available person needs to be ready to jump into action.

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GiveYourselfAFry@reddit

Speak for yourself 😂

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tr14l@reddit

You're way off in left field here, buddy

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StealthMan375@reddit

For the same reason why there are so many football idioms in Portuguese: baseball plays a big part in the US' culture.

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1668553684@reddit

I don't know what's more disturbing - the fact that there are so many, or the fact that I know quite a few of them despite never having watched a single baseball game.

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trumpet575@reddit

There's a reason baseball is America's Pastime

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libra00@reddit

Yeah, it's because it takes so goddamned long to play a single game. :P

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RobertSaccamano@reddit

The average time in 2022 for an MLB game was 3 hours and 3 minutes. The average time for an NFL game was 3 hours and 12 minutes.

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libra00@reddit

But stuff actually happens sometimes in NFL games, so it doesn't feel nearly as long. Mind you, I don't enjoy NFL either so it feels way too long too, but that's from someone who only watches English football whose matches are 90 minutes, so.

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Mysteryman64@reddit

>But stuff actually happens sometimes in NFL games Ah yes, a bunch of people organizing themselves into a line only to proceed to make a gain of 3 feet. Exciting! Good plays in football are about as common as good plays in baseball.

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JerichoMassey@reddit

that's the best players in the world. My neighborhood took all damn summer to get through three games.

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RobertSaccamano@reddit

And the NFL players aren't either? Unless you also are saying football games are too long as well (which I would agree with).

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atthem77@reddit

It's perfect for when you want to take a nap without missing anything - whether you're watching or playing!

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odsquad64@reddit

Would you say you balked at this list?

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JerichoMassey@reddit

talk about a swing and miss

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ianmccisme@reddit

Put in some effort & you'll soon be knocking it out of the park.

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2Beer_Sillies@reddit

Because baseball is lyfe

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MRC1986@reddit

I love the use of baseball idioms in Inglourious Basterds. When Lt. Aldo Raine and crew ambushes and captures the Nazi soldiers, I believe in the second movement, Lt. Raine say "if you want to ever play catch with your boy again, you'll point your wienerschnitzel-licking finger on this map and point out where your men are hiding!" As if a German platoon leader during WWII has ever played catch with his son or knows anything about baseball lmao

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deadlyhausfrau@reddit

Wait. I know baseball is American but do folks in other countries not play catch? Like, throw a ball back and forth? I've travelled a lot but weirdly this is something I don't know.

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MRC1986@reddit

I mean, sure, in countries where baseball is popular. Japan, Dominican Republican, Mexico, several other countries in South America. WWII-era Germany? Not a chance.

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figgeritoutbud@reddit

I’m surprised to see Golf is one of the most popular sports in Germany

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Sublime99@reddit

Surprisingly quite a lot of those used in British English as well, despite it being incredibly niche there.

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danhm@reddit

A lot of them are pretty intuitive even without knowing a single thing about baseball. Closer, heavy hitter, hit or miss, off base, on deck, out of your league -- all make sense enough based on just what the words mean outside of the context of baseball. An English speaking non-baseball fan would be in the ballpark of their meaning without much thought, if you will.

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CyrillicMan@reddit

I've been using English since forever and have no problem with most of them but that's probably because they're an inalienable part of the language. They're intuitive because we've been trained on them, you since birth and me by consuming American culture for decades. "hit or miss" and "out of your league" are perfectly understandable (and could be derived from a lot of other sports). If you really think about it, ballpark, closer, heavy hitter and off base are not really straightforward at all if you're not immersed in the language. I learned what ballpark as idiom means by speaking with people before I even knew it has anything to do with baseball. My friends who understand English well might struggle with these because they're not immersed in conversational American English as much.

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Practical-Ordinary-6@reddit

It's interesting. Baseball might be the only sport where it's a good thing to hit the ball off the playing field, i.e. "out of the ballpark". In most sports, it's a penalty of some kind. So "in the ballpark" is a different meaning. Out of the ballpark = a huge success In the ballpark = close to the right number

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redcc-0099@reddit

>Baseball might be the only sport where it's a good thing to hit the ball off the playing field There's some nuance from the rules about what's fair and what's a foul, but based on what I know of baseball and other sports, that's accurate.

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Practical-Ordinary-6@reddit

Actually, it just hit me in an obvious way that it's true in cricket as well.

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DoinIt989@reddit

The UK (and most countries really) has a tiered system of "leagues" for soccer that teams get promoted/demoted from every year, so it's a pretty relatable concept outside of baseball.

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Dookiet@reddit

If lost in the pond has taught me nothing else it’s taught me the English give Americans words or phrases and then call them American. But, steal American phrases and forget where they come from.

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VIDCAs17@reddit

It never fails to amuse me that the British make fun of American’s usage of the word “soccer”, despite the fact it was coined there and it follows how they stereotypically shorten words.

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ApachePotato@reddit

Shrug There's a class explanation behind that The 'er' shortenings (e.g. rugger) was specifically an upper class Oxbridge thing So soccer was always an alien word to the working classes who actually played football, the term was not used by the vast majority of the population

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JerichoMassey@reddit

It's a very British old way of nicknaming things even. You mostly see it name now adays, like soccer players. Wayne becomes Wazza McManaman becomes Macca Gascoigne becomes Gazza as Rugby football and Association football began growing apart, you got "Socca"

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peteroh9@reddit

I feel like they would call it "soccy."

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scotchirish@reddit

That'd be the Aussies.

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WhiteyFisk53@reddit

I’m Australian and baseball is not a popular sport here but I was still familiar with almost half that list and see/hear a great many used in corporate/office environments often. More often, I would say, than (Australian football idioms). Quite remarkable how big an impact American media has.

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Pleasant-Pattern7748@reddit

this guy really home runned it out of the baseball arena!

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Practical-Ordinary-6@reddit

I really enjoyed your comment.

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Pleasant-Pattern7748@reddit

thanks!

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ShelbyDriver@reddit

They missed a few, like the sexual connotations of 1st base.

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c4ctus@reddit

What kind of list is that? FARTSLAM, TOOTBLAN, and NOBLETIGER aren't listed.

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DejaBlonde@reddit

There are so many, and there's quite a few in there I didn't realize were technically baseball.

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AppHelper@reddit

I'd argue that American football idioms are a better indicator. I work with international students, and they use baseball idioms more often than you'd expect. It's part of American culture that young people consume. There are also idioms that are relevant to other spots like cricket (e.g. "knock it out of the park").

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Fat_Head_Carl@reddit

Thats a fun read. I'm going to send it to my German colleagues, the next time I present.

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Dry_Performance_4734@reddit

Mine for every single one of my foreign friends: They use “the” way too much when naming things. -He lives in “the Chicago.” -He works at “the Amazon.” -She flew on “the Delta Airlines.” - We visited “the Times Square.” Every single one of my foreign and foreign- born friends does this.

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kefefs_v2@reddit

I wasn't born in the US and I've been "caught" when spelling my name because there's a Z in it, and I say "zed" instead of "zee".

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Jakebob70@reddit

Dead giveaway. If there weren't any other flags, I'd probably assume you were Canadian though. If you say "Sorry", that could confirm it.

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kefefs_v2@reddit

Haha, yeah Canadian. And I do say sorry after dropping a "zed" because it usually confuses Americans and they look at me like "wtf is that".

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figgeritoutbud@reddit

I’m Canadian and I’ve always said “zee” I have no idea why lol

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DoinIt989@reddit

Yup this one of the most obvious, along with calling your mother "Mum" instead of "Mom". Even Canadians say "Zed" even though they don't use other common "British-isms" like "rubbish"

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Hoosier_Jedi@reddit

Calling America “the USA.” Doubly for saying “in USA.” 🤣🤣🤣

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figgeritoutbud@reddit

I’m Canadian and myself and most people I know call USA “the states” lol

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Drunken_Economist@reddit

Honestly calling it "America" in many contexts is almost as odd (vs "The US")

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PAXICHEN@reddit

How so?

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Drunken_Economist@reddit

It's a bit hard to distill into words, tbh. In academic contexts, the country is virtually _never_ referred to as *America* or *the USA* — all our textbooks/teachers/exams/etc growing up called it *the United States* or *the US*. As a consequence, people educated in the system tend to adopt that same usage. There are still plenty of cases where *America* is used, often in populist contexts or in reference to the people as a whole ("fidget spinners took America by storm") independent of the country itself.

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SciFiJesseWardDnD@reddit

Not if your an American...

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peteroh9@reddit

Now that right there is proof of a native speaker.

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Hoosier_Jedi@reddit

Hey now, don’t start that six continents nonsense. The foreigners are just plain wrong on that one. 😤

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Fossilhund@reddit

Them foreigners

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JesusStarbox@reddit

Them, there, foreigners.

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SunStarved_Cassandra@reddit

I tend to say "the US", but also use the adjective American. I don't ever say "USA". An example: Here in the US, we have a variety of dialects, but they all come together to form the American dialect family.

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peteroh9@reddit

I think it's funny that this even extends to Google. Anytime that I Google something about the US, I type "USA" so that it doesn't read "US" as "us" and it always corrects "USA" to "US."

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Kalzone4@reddit

I’m an American living abroad and I never say “America”. It’s always “the US” for me.

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IdlthisonebIdc@reddit

Me as a non-native speaker, could think of things like using a lotta Latin based words like instead of saying let’s chat, you say let’s converse or amicable instead of friendly. Yeah these ones are perhaps pretty formal but there’re a bunch of more examples and I could say that’s a dead giveaway or how I’d say a sign that someone’s not native and maybe one of their mother language is a romantic one.

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Aggravating_Sun4435@reddit

Something i've notice is saying "one point five thousand" instead of "one and half thousand" is common for se asians.

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Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit

Not using [articles](https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/grammar/using_articles.html), such as [the title in this other post](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnAmerican/comments/18x89qu/how_many_times_you_eat_egg_weekly/). Here's a short r/linguistics discussion: [Why do Slavic languages not utilize articles?](https://www.reddit.com/r/linguistics/comments/10599m9/why_do_slavic_languages_not_utilize_articles/) For example, if someone says "I am not doctor," what does that mean? It could be: * "I am not **a** doctor." This means you are not a medical medical professional classified as a doctor. * "I am not **the** doctor." This means you are not a particular doctor.

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_strangetrails@reddit

Oh man “do the needful.” I work in international sales and I get tons of emails with this phrase in it. Always makes me feel weird for some reason.

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ghjm@reddit

This isn't the same kind of thing, though. "Do the needful" isn't something people say when they've partially learned English, like dropping or adding articles. It's an idiom used by native speakers of Indian English, which is the third largest dialect after American and British English.

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_strangetrails@reddit

Same thing as what? The question is what's a dead give away that some wasn't born in the US.

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JesusStarbox@reddit

Sounds like a dance. "Do the Needful!"

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IPreferDiamonds@reddit

I thought this too! It sounds like a dance!

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Loud_Insect_7119@reddit

I always find it really funny because I've only ever heard it from Indians, but it always makes me think of '80s and '90s California/valley type of slang. I mean, tell me you can't hear Bill and Ted being all, "Whoa, totally! Do the needful!"

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Drew707@reddit

I work in IT consulting, so I hear it all the time. The origin is British and while it isn't used in British English any longer, it has stuck in some of their past colonies. It's like India's version of soccer.

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SGDFish@reddit

I had one on a prior authorization for medication recently. Honestly, it came across as condescending, but I also fucking hate doing prior authorizations, so I can't say I was in the most stellar of moods

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anneylani@reddit

Kindly.

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TheEvilPrinceZorte@reddit

Also please pass on the informations I requested.

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Jaquestrap@reddit

On top of that, I've found some Slavs overcompensate with articles when speaking English. They learn that articles are an important part of the language and then start throwing them out willy-nilly when they aren't always necessary.

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LordofLeavesandTrees@reddit

Like the Starfire of the animated cartoon of the Teen Titans? Or different?

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Jaquestrap@reddit

Lol you did it pretty accurately, yeah

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PAXICHEN@reddit

We had friends from Spain in the USA. She would in the morning say she is taking her daughter to the school. True statement, but not the correct usage. However, she’d get annoyed when we ask her to meet us at the school.

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peteroh9@reddit

>She would in the morning say Honestly, seeing this makes me think you're not a native English speaker.

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PAXICHEN@reddit

She would in the morning say, “I am taking my daughter to the school.” Maybe your writing style is more pedestrian?

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peteroh9@reddit

I'll avoid taking that as an insult or as you bragging about your truly exciting writing style and say no, it's because that's the normal way it's worded in romance languages whereas almost all English speakers I've seen would say "in the morning, she would say..." Or if you'd prefer ChatGPT's response: >Why does it seem wrong to write "she would in the morning say..."? >>The phrase "she would in the morning say..." feels awkward because it disrupts the natural flow of the sentence. In English, adverbial phrases like "in the morning" are typically placed either at the beginning or end of a sentence for clarity and rhythm. A more fluid construction would be "In the morning, she would say..." or "She would say in the morning..." These arrangements follow the typical English sentence structure, making them easier to read and understand.

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Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit

Why did the latter annoy her?

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LtPowers@reddit

Presumably because she'd been told not to say "the" before "school".

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eastw00d86@reddit

I had a Saudi student struggling to understand things like this. Why do we get *on* a bus or plane, but *in* a car? You sit *in* a chair, but *on* a bench, and *at* the table.

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nobodyhere9860@reddit

native English speaker and I've always heard "on a chair"

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ingolde@reddit

Prepositions are crazy hard to learn in a new language. They just don't map easily from language to language. My second language is Bulgarian and even after I was relatively fluent I still struggled with prepositions. They're so little but make you sound so dumb when you get them wrong!

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ludsmile@reddit

Yes prepositions for transportation are really confusing as a non-native speaker. I kind of just memorized them but still forget and get them wrong sometimes. No logic that makes it make sense for my brain.

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Fossilhund@reddit

George Carlin once wrote about this, saying he'd much rather get *in* the plane.

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Son_Of_Baraki@reddit

> Why do we get *on* a bus or plane, but *in* a car? i heard the explanation (but i forgot)

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LtPowers@reddit

Probably something to do with mass transportation versus personal. Cargo goes "on" a truck but passengers go "in" the truck, for instance.

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Corn_Wholesaler@reddit

It can get even weirder and more confusing. If it's a group of people that attend or work at the school talking amongst themselves they would usually say, "Let's meet at school." But if it is people who currently do not attend the school and are just going there for some community function or if it is someone that attends the school talking to someone who does not, then they would say, "Let's meet at the school."

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Acoustic_eels@reddit

I think there is another distinction at play here. "School" without "the" refers to the activity/process of going to the school building and attending classes during the normal academic period, as an enrolled student. "The school" refers to the building/campus only. We say "going to school" to mean going to the building that is the school, at 8am M-F for regularly scheduled classes. "Going to *the* school" would be going to the building that is the school, for some extracurricular activity. So the mom is taking her kid "to school" in the morning because the child is going for normal classes. But the parents are meeting "at *the* school" because they are picking their kids up, or volunteering, or w/e. In that sense, the parent can never "go to school" (their kid's school), they can only "go to *the* school". When an adult says they are "going to school", my first thought is they are getting a Master's degree somewhere.

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vanpersic@reddit

As a native Spanish speaker, I have to remove most of the articles I'd use in English. I think the excess of articles is a giveaway for native Spanish speakers.

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iamcarlgauss@reddit

Lots of languages beyond Spanish. Pretty much all the Romance and Germanic languages do it too.

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JerichoMassey@reddit

Doctor who?

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Kcb1986@reddit

“I am Ted from Amazon, please kindly do the needful and please give me your account info so we can stop a fraud.” Aaaand click.

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LikelyNotABanana@reddit

I feel in some places this is starting to become more common with native English speakers. Think of the countries that say they are going to hospital, vs going to *the* hospital, etc. I feel the US is in the minority sometimes with some of these changes and how we use our language sometimes. Since we just have so many *people* speaking English it doesn't matter how many other English speaking *places* do it differently than us though it would seem.

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Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit

> going to hospital, vs going to the hospital I can see that for native English speakers in Commonwealth countries, but you still don't hear them say "going to doctor" instead of "going to a/the doctor."

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Remarkable_Fun7662@reddit

Not just articles, determiners in general.

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Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit

Good point, I just listed one that popped instantly to mind.

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stephanonymous@reddit

I’ll add to the articles point, using them incorrectly in general, whether it’s overuse or underuse. I often see “do a research” for some reason.

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excitedllama@reddit

Enunciation. Can you rattle and roll your words around comfortably with that accent and still be coherent?

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voidcritter@reddit

Using words that technically have the same definition if you look it up in the dictionary, but connotation-wise are inappropriate for the given context.

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SiloueOfUlrin@reddit

With regards to the English speaking countries, how you pronounce water is a pretty good giveaway.

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RotiniHuman@reddit

Calling your dayplanner a "diary." In the U.S. diaries are journals kept by young girls. They're usually pink and have simple padlocks on them.

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tunafishsandwichh@reddit

I feel like journaling is pretty popular for adults too. Mostly women and especially amongst “influencers”

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PinkNinjaKitty@reddit

Unusual intonation can also be a sign that someone isn’t a native speaker. I don’t know the technical terms, but an American English accent asks questions with certain intonations/pitch? and makes statements with a different one. Sentences, also, have a typical intonation or almost musical notes or rhythm. Someone who understands this more can explain it better.

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anneylani@reddit

uptalk - the higher intonation at the end of a sentence. Sentence? Sentence. Wikipedia has the article named High Rising Terminal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_rising_terminal

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PinkNinjaKitty@reddit

Cool thank you! That’s what I’m talking about

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tunafishsandwichh@reddit

Upward infliction

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OllieOllieOxenfry@reddit

Little things, like saying "I'll take a hamburger" instead of "I'll have a hamburger". Saying something is touristic instead of touristy. Fumbling articles, like saying he hurt the foot instead of he hurt his foot, or she brushed her hairs instead of she brushed her hair. Idk how to describe it but those are common tells I see.

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tunafishsandwichh@reddit

I feel like saying “I’ll take a hamburger” is totally normal in American English

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Antioch666@reddit

Usually it's pronounciation. If that is spot on wich it usually isn't, it's phrasing and usage of local slang etc. Most if not all countries in europe teach standard British english so even though the pronounciation might be american some english words more common in britain might find itself in there.

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SKabanov@reddit

English has _insanely_ difficult phonology compared to a lot of other languages. Rhotics alone will probably be enough to signal that the person isn't a native English speaker: the alveolar approximant is quite rare, and there are complex rules about when the alveolar flap does or does not get fully realized. Plus, there are some edge cases that can trip people up like the second syllable in "comfortable" that is unvoiced. Compared to other European languages, I'd say that only Danish or Icelandic are harder to pronounce at a native level.

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BigManMane@reddit

In general I definitely consider English a difficult language. Thankfully, it was easy for me to learn since I speak Dutch, which is one of the closest languages to English. The abundance of English media, speakers and materials also helps. But I can imagine it is very difficult for someone from India or China. Especially since English often has no hard rules for pronounciations. Certain letters can sound completely different in another word for no reason.

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tunafishsandwichh@reddit

Exactly. And on top of that one word can have several different meanings

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Antioch666@reddit

I categorize that as pronounciation.

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Lovewilltearusapart0@reddit

When people say someone is a “48-years-old man.” In English, you say “48-year-old” — singular, not plural. Also when people pronounce the “S” in many plural words as an “S” rather than a “Z.” For example, saying “treess” instead of “treez.”

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stevie855@reddit (OP)

Good points but I think you can also say “ he is 48 years of age” and it would be correct

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Lovewilltearusapart0@reddit

That is correct, but it’s a different construction, not the compound adjective I was talking about. It’s also pretty formal and Americans would more likely say “he’s 48 years old” or “he’s a 48-year-old.”

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Nursebirder@reddit

Using “since” incorrectly. I see it a lot on Reddit from non-native speakers. “I have been playing guitar since 5 years.” Incorrect.

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tunafishsandwichh@reddit

If you threw in “since I was 5 years old “ it’d make perfect sense!

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JustChattin000@reddit

Maybe the "impeccable pronunciation". Most people in the US don't pronounce words impeccably, and they will have different dialects and words they use, depending on where they are from. If you talk like an English book, it may be a give away.

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DoinIt989@reddit

A native speaker would probably phrase this as "Me and my friend have been learning English since childhood, even common American sayings. My friend has a native accent, but Americans often can tell that he isn't a native speaker". * Native speakers often use "incorrect" grammar, i.e. they would say "me and my friend" rather than "My friend and I" * The "our" is redudant since most people would already "understand" that it's both of your childhood based on saying "My friend and I" * A lot of the words you use are correct but not generally used that way outside of literature. "Boast" usually means "to brag about something" when native speakers use it. "Acquired" mean things, not knowledge.

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Sasuke_uchiha2345@reddit

When they say washroom instead of restroom.

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sr603@reddit

Calling an apartment a "flat" or a room mate there "flat mate". Seen it on this sub from people talking about them being american but then they use those words (or others im forgetting). Like stop trying to pretend.

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Drew707@reddit

At the same time, I've met Americans that use British words to be chic or quirky or something.

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JesusStarbox@reddit

I have a friend who says "shedule" instead of "skedule" and I want to throw his tea in the harbor every time he does it.

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FakeNathanDrake@reddit

And yet probably about 90% of British under 40s use the American pronunciation, me included!

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Drew707@reddit

Ew. I'll meet you at the harbor.

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Emily_Postal@reddit

Using common British words or phrases like boot instead of trunk; I went to uni instead of college; etc.

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ALoungerAtTheClubs@reddit

Saying "stuffs" as a plural to "stuff"

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SevenSixOne@reddit

See also: "advices", "feedbacks", "slangs", "handwritings"

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DrGeraldBaskums@reddit

I’ve seen Europeans use the phrase “maths” when pretty much everywhere in the US we just use “math”

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Prowindowlicker@reddit

That’s apparently a very British English way to do things.

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SS_from_1990s@reddit

My friend from New Zealand said, well, they don’t say mathematic, do you? It’s mathematics! Maths.

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copious_cogitation@reddit

Then Home Ec should be Home Ecs?

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FakeNathanDrake@reddit

In fairness, it was "home eekies" when I was at school.

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peteroh9@reddit

Ask them if mathematics is or are an area of study.

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RobertSaccamano@reddit

It's sport! or is it sports? Uh...

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copious_cogitation@reddit

"Hairs", like "I have black hairs," instead of "I have black hair." Insurances. Advices.

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Stryker2279@reddit

Easy way to catch non marylander is to hear how they say "Maryland"

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stevie855@reddit (OP)

Thought there is only one way to say Maryland

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Stryker2279@reddit

It's the intonation. People not from Maryland just say it a bit different, and it gives it away every time. The way marylander say it, is pretty much like "mer'land"

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AmerikanerinTX@reddit

Hmm well if you specifically mean American and not simply "native English speaker," I'd say it's probably 2 things: (1) a lack of any dialect or "additional" accent. Or a mismatch of them. (2) cultural references (1) Yes, we do have Standard American English that most of us speak, but even so, there will be SOME regional/generational/ethnic clues. For example, a man aged 65-90 might call women "broads," but a man between 50-65 might say "babes", 35-50 might say "chick", 20-35 often say "girl." Or it could be some nerdy white engineer type using a lot of AAVE. Also non-Americans tend to pronounce locations slightly different. This is most noticable with: Los Angeles (Lōs Angelēs) Any place with San or Santa (SAN Francisco, SANta Fe) Any place with land (GreenLAND, IceLAND, IreLAND) (2) I don't mean this offensively AT ALL but many trends/technologies come to America first and then hit other countries. Some examples: the US had widespread AC in the 1950s, color TV in the 60s, shopping malls in the 70s, cable and satellite TV in the 80s, internet in the 90s, cell phones in the 2000s, smartphones by 2010. It's always interesting to me when I talk to people from other countries and these technologies/trends/developments represent a different time period for them. For many of my European friends, rap is a late 90s, early 2000s thing. Or when they reference American tv, it's always VERY specific programs like Friends, Breaking Bad, I Dream of Jeannie.

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spilledbeans44@reddit

Wtf is a phrasal verb lmao

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bulbaquil@reddit

It's a verb with a preposition attached (in, on, up, etc.) that means something completely different if you remove the preposition (*run out* vs. *run*, *shut up* vs. *shut*).

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sandbagger45@reddit

I feel ‘impeccable pronunciation’ is subjective and he probably doesn’t have it. Not trying to sound rude. And about the idioms- I knew this guy who was learning English and he’d use idioms that were generic and outdated. Things we wouldn’t use in every day speech, in other words. He probably could be doing the same. That’s just my guess. I could be wrong.

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sapphireminds@reddit

Yes, a lot of times when people think they sound "perfect", they don't. Or they have pronunciation that is not localized properly. Like, part is england english, then others american, then some southern or northern US. It doesn't "fit"

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1668553684@reddit

> Or they have pronunciation that is not localized properly. Nonsense, I am native of English-speaking country! I fill up my hot rod with petrol to drive to my local pub for a pint and a glizzy every fortnight!

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ludsmile@reddit

I have this. There's no doubt I sound "generally American", but people are often confused about where exactly, and ask me if I was a military brat or grew up abroad in international schools. (I did grow up abroad but not in international schools, just speak English as a second language).

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sandbagger45@reddit

Right, it doesn’t gel together.

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0rangeMarmalade@reddit

That or it's too impeccable. If you pronounce the word "a" like the letter A sounds and not like 'uh,' or pronounce every word the way it's written (like not changing t to d sounds in words like tomato vs tomaydo) it's going to be really obvious.

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pagefourseventeen@reddit

Button was/is a big one for me. English is my first language but my parents are immigrants and I very noticeably pronounce the "tt" in button. Or I swallow them entirely and it becomes "bu'in".

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Practical-Ordinary-6@reddit

Rhythm is also critical to sounding natural. If you pronounce words correctly but pronounce sentences with the wrong rhythm and intonation, it's going to sound off, as well.

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fromwayuphigh@reddit

English diction and syntax can be pretty flexible, but when a nonnative speaker violates the order of adjectives, it's obvious, even though most native speakers wouldn't be able to articulate the reason. The order is opinion, size, age, shape, colour, origin, material, purpose. Which is why you can't say "My Greek big fat wedding" and not get funny looks.

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AuntBec2@reddit

I love this level of grammar nuance... and dead right. I couldn't tell you why an adjective string is wrong, but by golly it's wrong :-)

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nosomogo@reddit

It can rain "cats and dogs", but it sure as hell **can't** rain "dogs and cats".

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1668553684@reddit

We order our mammalian precipitation lexicographically in this dialect!

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JerichoMassey@reddit

Yep, "Native Speaker Privilege" Mastery of language rules you aren't even aware of.

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sadhandjobs@reddit

“One-eyed one-horned flying purple people eater” basically follows that.

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DrBlowtorch@reddit

I only learned about this when my German teacher actually told us about this and how it’s only really a thing in Germanic languages.

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VIDCAs17@reddit

[Tom Scott did a video about this topic](https://youtu.be/mTm1tJYr5_M?si=03U7nFRVFqyu8C5d).

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amd2800barton@reddit

I refer back to this all the time. Sometimes a couple of adjectives just feels off, but I can't put my finger on why. Usually it's because I flipped a couple of adjectives. Here's a slightly easier to refer to list for those wondering: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/adjectives-order

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yyouknowwho@reddit

And if you put "and" between the adjectives would the word order still matter?

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drfjgjbu@reddit

Usually, yes. “The big old house” sounds more correct than “the old big house”, and that still holds true for “the big and old house” and “the old and big house”. The only rule I ever personally find myself breaking with respect to this is putting quality judgements last instead of first (“shitty little car” vs “little shitty car” isn’t that big of a difference to me).

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sewiv@reddit

yes. "That house is big and red", not "That house is red and big". "That's a big red house" would be the norm anyway.

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PinkNinjaKitty@reddit

Nope :) “And” between the adjectives makes word order irrelevant; you just need to keep word order in mind for instances when you’re not using “and.”

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cohrt@reddit

Using English words from British or Australian English. I’ve seen this a lot with Indian immigrants.

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a_random_person847@reddit

When they either do not speak English or have a foreign accent

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pepperjackman@reddit

you sound like a robot lol. I don’t know what language you speak natively, but I’m guessing you don’t use the most formal words 24/7.

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stevie855@reddit (OP)

I wanted my post to be free of grammatical mistakes lol, I guess it backfired:)

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pepperjackman@reddit

your reply is perfect. that sounds american.

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Scooterhd@reddit

Way too formal for casual conversation. *My friend and I have acquired English since our childhood, incorporating common American phrasal verbs and idioms. Although my friend boasts impeccable pronunciation, Americans often discern that he isn't a native speaker. What could be the reason for this?* Below would be a reasonable translation, but is still more formal then we would speak casually among friends. *My friend and I learned English as kids, and use common American phrases and slang. Although my friend's pronunciation is incredible, Americans can still tell that he is not a native speaker. What do you think is the main reason?* Something like this is more casual without trying too hard. *My bestie and I learned English as kids, and keep up on American slang and memes. My friends pronunciation is next level, but Americans can still that he is not legit. What gives?*

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KoRaZee@reddit

Mother bitch

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stevie855@reddit (OP)

Huh?

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KoRaZee@reddit

[https://www.reddit.com/r/engrish/s/8ZrWyro7XM](https://www.reddit.com/r/engrish/s/8ZrWyro7XM)

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stdio-lib@reddit

Adjective order. E.g. Red Five Diamonds vs. Five Red Diamonds. Americans aren't taught the correct order, it's just something you get through assimilation. But God help you if you mix up one of the nine categories of adjectives that must always be in order. Why does shape have to come before color? Because fuck you that's why.

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Fossilhund@reddit

The correct order?

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stdio-lib@reddit

* Quantity or number * Quality or opinion * Size * Age * Shape * Color * Proper adjective * Purpose or qualifier

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Fossilhund@reddit

Thanks

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MellyMelLovesMovies@reddit

When people say to throw a picture instead of take a picture.

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stevie855@reddit (OP)

Who says that?

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Yak-Fucker-5000@reddit

It's always going to be in the pronunciation. ESL people often use words in odd ways a native speaker wouldn't, but if your friend is fluent enough to have near perfect pronunciation that's probably not the issue. It's really tough to fully get rid of a foreign accent. I had a professor in college who was Dutch and moved here when he was 18 and had been here 40 years. His pronunciation was so good I thought oddities were just idiosyncratic speech rather than an accent at first. Took about five minutes of hearing him speak before I became convinced he wasn't born in America. What country is your friend from? Ime the only foreigners capable speaking without an accent without coming over here as young children are Dutch, Scandinavians and Germans. I've never encountered someone from anywhere else that could speak with a perfect American or British accent.

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stevie855@reddit (OP)

This is interesting, why though? Is it because the influence of these languages you’ve mentioned is somehow less than others ?

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got_rice_2@reddit

American English is also discernable regionally. Someone from California has different pronouncian of different idioms from someone from NY or some southern states. English acquired from American TV is likely less head turning than from an accent removal coach.

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stevie855@reddit (OP)

I didn’t know that California has a distinct accent, they sound like those people on that show “The Hills”. Unlike East coast accent, Minnesota or the Southern accent

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jojokangaroo1969@reddit

If you use this term any form of text or email correspondence: "Kindly"

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stevie855@reddit (OP)

Wait, “kindly” isn’t used by Americans even in emails?

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SubsonicPuddle@reddit

LOL no. That’s a dead giveaway.

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stevie855@reddit (OP)

What do you use in the email instead of the word “kindly” as in kindly, send the required documents at your earliest convenience?

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Typist_Sakina@reddit

I’ve only ever heard that word used in one of three contexts but it’s no longer that common. 1. The speaker is part of an older generation 2. In the South there’s the phrase, “thank you kindly” which is just another way to say “thank you”. Still mostly used by older generations. 3. When the speaker is pissed off at the other party and is trying to express something overly politely in a passive aggressive attempt to remain civil. Ex. “Kindly remove your hands from my girlfriend.” The speaker is telling the other party to back-the-fuck-off.

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KDY_ISD@reddit

I've only ever seen it used sarcastically. Normally, you'd just say "please," I think. Or more formally, "at your earliest convenience."

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jojokangaroo1969@reddit

No. I get dozens of emails a day, and never have I seen an American use "kindly"

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yungsausages@reddit

Because you probably sound like you’re reading a paragraph out of a university textbook instead of just partaking in a normal conversation. I wasn’t born in the states and English also wasn’t my first language, but nobody can ever tell bc I don’t talk like I’m in a language course lol. Don’t pronounce things exactly as they’re written, let the conversation and sentence structure flow bc speaking “blocky” (idk if that’s a good way to put it) also makes it obvious. Everyday conversation is simple, for example “my friend boasts impeccable pronunciation” should be “my friend has a really good understanding of English grammar” or even simpler just saying “my friend has really good English” lol

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Iso-LowGear@reddit

This. English is my second language. Nobody can tell, though, because I got thrown into an elementary school classroom and picked up English from my peers. Once I picked up enough, I started reading a lot of fiction, which helped me figure out language patterns (since children’s fiction is written in very casual English). I speak English better than my first language now. OP’s post is written very stiffly; nobody speaks English like that, even in formal environments. It’s likely OP’s friend also has that problem.

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yungsausages@reddit

Oh god don’t remind me, I remember when I moved to the states during elementary school, my sister and I got thrown into a Phonics course that we had to visit every morning before school until it improved lol

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Iso-LowGear@reddit

I was an ESOL student too! It helped me grasp the basics, but I think the fact I was so young (meaning I could pick up the language more easily) and completely surrounded by people that spoke no Spanish (there were three other Spanish-speaking students at the school and none of them were in my class) helped more than having to repeat words over and over. I could already read in Spanish, so I’m not sure why they made me relearn the alphabet… I do remember, on my first day of school in the U.S., I didn’t know ANYTHING. So I came home super thirsty because I couldn’t ask for water… Interesting times.

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yungsausages@reddit

Haha! Exactly! I came from Germany so I was also forced to speak English one way or another, picked it up quickly (I moved right before third grade). I remember on the first day of school they did like a pre-test thing for spelling and my sister and I both failed/came home crying bc we’d never gotten anything other than As before 😂. That first day was the worst day of school, we caught the wrong bus too bc we didn’t know the busses weren’t numbered (had symbols of animals instead lol). Got lost in a city we didn’t know while barely knowing a word of English at 8 and 10 years old rip

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josephtrocks191@reddit

"Grammar" or"English skills" don't mean the same thing as pronunciation. To keep the original meaning you would have to keep that word: "my friend has really good pronunciation" or "my friend pronounces the English language very well" both sound pretty natural to me.

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Wartz@reddit

"my friend has really good pronunciation but people can still tell he isn't native" Northeast/NY. That's how I'd say it in OP shoes.

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shiskebob@reddit

From NYC, can confirm.

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yungsausages@reddit

Sure, but it gets the same point across (his friend being good at speaking English)

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Curmudgy@reddit

That isn’t the same point. One is about accent, the other about the language in general.

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yungsausages@reddit

Pronunciation doesn’t always come from an accent, it can also come from just not knowing how to say something, or even speech impediments, which are literally caused by language disorders lol

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AnimatronicHeffalump@reddit

Yeah and none of that has to do with grammar

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yungsausages@reddit

None of it? You don’t think someone who isn’t taught correct English has anything to do with bad grammar? Lol

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AnimatronicHeffalump@reddit

What you just described pronunciation as, and what pronunciation actually is, have nothing to do with grammar. Pronunciation is exclusively the way you form works with sound. Grammar and syntax are completely different issues. This is literally the definition of the word pronunciation. Since you so boldly asserted your fluency I hate to tell you, but you’re arguing against native speakers and you’re wrong about this word. Maybe in your native language the word that you’ve learned as being the same as pronunciation covers both how you say words and grammar/syntax, but the English word pronunciation ONLY covers how your form a word with sound.

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Curmudgy@reddit

While that’s true, it’s also obviously not part of the point the OP was making by using the word “pronunciation”.

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yungsausages@reddit

OP also didn’t say anything about accent, I assumed when OP says pronunciation they’re referring to “over” pronouncing words in a block-like way rather than letting them flow, which to me would not be telling of good language skills

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Current_Poster@reddit

Grammatically flawless, but overconstructed, sentences.

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pepperjackman@reddit

Why say many word when few do trick

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SuLiaodai@reddit

Maybe word choice? For example, we wouldn't say we acquired English. Grammatically, there's nothing wrong with it, but we would never say it.

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pepperjackman@reddit

Yea, it sounds too try hardy. Like using lexicon instead of alphabet

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darkchocoIate@reddit

I’ve found Europeans specifically have trouble not saying ‘lift’ for elevator or ‘have a’ bathroom trip versus to take one.

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make_lemonade21@reddit

Isn't 'lift' meaning elevator just British? In Europe, people mostly learn British English, so their word choice could actually be correct. I'm not a native myself but Collins Dictionary says pretty much the same: https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/lift

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darkchocoIate@reddit

I think you’re correct on both counts, it’s British and euros tend to pick up British vocabulary in their English. Not exclusively but I’ve certainly seen plenty of that.

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make_lemonade21@reddit

Yeah, it's more like the whole system of teaching English is based on British English because it's "classic", so for most people British vocabulary, spelling, etc. is primary, and only then when they have a good of the language, they start consuming American content and pick up some American expressions. At least, that's how it was for me (although I am only European in the geographic sense of the word) and for many of my friends from the EU too

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Kul_dar@reddit

https://youtu.be/Q0yQbpoQ0hY?si=WT1dU9_KbRQO3mDv

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darkchocoIate@reddit

Yes. Exactly.

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CouleursCPA@reddit

Putting the dollar sign after the price

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machagogo@reddit

My favorite is when people are claiming to be American yet they write things like that, 9.000,00, and colour across a few comments.

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CinemaSideBySides@reddit

And then sign off all their comments with "xx"

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amd2800barton@reddit

Ugh I absolutely hate when cultures use a comma for the decimal separator. It's wrong. In pretty much every European language, a comma indicates a pause, and a period indicates an end of thought. But for some stupid reason, some Europeans choose to write numbers with the "end of thought" indicator in the middle of the number and the "pause to catch my breath" indicator between the end of the whole number and the start of the decimal fraction. For all the shit Europeans like to give Americans about Metric/SI vs Imperial/Customary units, and many of them use a completely backwards number writing system to how the numbers are spoken.

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peteroh9@reddit

What I hate is that I but in the tiny quantum of effort it takes to write it in whatever style is used by the natives of whatever language I'm speaking yet pointing out their confusing writing in my language is pure evil. So I often pretend to have no critical thinking skills and ask why a car costs only $40 when I would expect it to be $40,000. You get less ire directed at you when you pretend to be dumb.

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fan_of_the_pikachu@reddit

I would explain why we do this, but I have 10.000,00 other things to do.

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JerichoMassey@reddit

reverse decimals and commas.... that's a GetShotInTheBarInIngloriousBasterds level cultural give away.

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penguin_0618@reddit

All my American students do that. It’s like they’ve never seen a price. I’ve started to notice adults doing it too, to a lesser extent. “No, writing ‘20$’ actually does mean your answer is wrong because that’s not a price. ‘$20’ is a price.”

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mwcdem@reddit

My middle school students do this. It blows their mind when I explain that the dollar sign goes in front. They are not what you would call observant 🤣

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Minion_of_Cthulhu@reddit

Thank you for doing your part to correct this! I've noticed that the dollar sign after a number thing has been slowly gaining ground, at least online, for the last few years and it drives me nuts.

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SciFiJesseWardDnD@reddit

Ever since I left school, I have refused to put the $ first. It doesn't matter outside of a class room and so I make sure to do the opposite of the "correct" way.

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NickFromNewGirl@reddit

Most likely, it's because they forgot the symbol when they started typing the numbers (you *say* dollars in your head after the number) and they're too lazy to move the cursor back, hit the symbol, then move it forward again.

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arielonhoarders@reddit

you should rewrite it every time until it's a habit

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adudeguyman@reddit

I doubt that

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tomcat_tweaker@reddit

Waaaay too many Americans doing this now. It's so common, it's not a tell anymore that they may not be American. I hate it.

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mycatisanudist@reddit

Can we talk about “should/would/could of” because *my god*

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IPreferDiamonds@reddit

Oh, that drives me crazy when people use "of" instead of "have"!

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TechnologyDragon6973@reddit

That to me just indicates someone younger than 25 who doesn’t seem to know better.

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kaiidos@reddit

I know where it goes, I just think it looks stupid lmao

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morefetus@reddit

Dollars are whole numbers. The $ precedes the number to indicate this. Cents are fractions of a dollar. The proper way to write “twenty cents” is $.20, in other words, 2 tenths of a dollar. If I write $20, it’s the same as $20.00, which is 20 and zero one-hundredths of a dollar.

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WulfTheSaxon@reddit

The proper way to write “twenty cents” is 20¢, or else $0.20.

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TechnologyDragon6973@reddit

It comes from the days of paper bookkeeping so it was harder to forge entries. When I see non-Americans do that I give them a pass, but from my own countrymen it looks uneducated.

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VIDCAs17@reddit

I’m 27 and will occasionally put the dollar sign after (both in typing and writing), but will generally try to fix it since it still looks wrong to me.

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Pleasant-Pattern7748@reddit

my forty-year-old, born-and-raised american brother does this and it’s wild to me. like, we went to the same schools and all

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Mysteryman64@reddit

Lack of contractions

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alloutofbees@reddit

American TEFL teacher in Europe here, and the answer is usually elision. All English speakers elide even though many think they don't, but imo Americans love elision more than many others. American English prioritises flow. A *lot* of EFL sources and teachers do not know how to teach this or even think about it, and many actively teach *wrong* (though not necessarily *incorrect*) pronunciations. For example, saying twenty with both Ts is not incorrect or incomprehensible, but if you're trying to sound American it's wrong. It's "twenny", and this goes across nearly all accents and definitely across all education and formality levels. It's part of how American accents flow; it's speaking efficiently. Saying twen-tee will immediately make you sound non-native. There are some good teachers on YouTube who cover this specific topic. [Rachel's English](https://youtu.be/ESBx-NBXK0c?si=s8SaYhYppz8C-sQV) is one I watch sometimes as a native speaker to help me with how I listen to and teach native-sounding speech.

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Stephany232323@reddit

Who cares!

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disphugginflip@reddit

How you say the number 1100 is a huge giveaway. If you said “one thousand one hundred.” We know you’re not from here. We say “eleven hundred.”

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wrosecrans@reddit

Going to a "cold store" or to "play bowling." Being "in hospital." If they are from a language like Russian that doesn't use articles like English, "the" will be scattered in seemingly random places, as if it was only necessary to have enough of them but not to put them anywhere specific. Trying to curse, but it coming out accidentally charmingly inoffensive. Constructions with a plausible affix when we would use a noun phrase. Knowing more about Doctor Who than Star Trek. "Football" referring to a sport where you move a round ball with your feet. Calling the "Megadrive" instead of the "Genesis." "By my own" instead of "on my own," or inserting a reflexive construction that doesn't normally exist in English like "we see us next week." Always preferring the French/Latin/Romance derived word that is almost a synonym for a shorter Anglo Saxon / Germanic derived word, but sounds fancier in English.

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forgeryfund@reddit

Probably just a confusion about idioms.

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Arcaeca2@reddit

Do you have a spoken example? I'm a linguistics enjoyer, I might be able to articulate what about his speech sounds "off" if I had an example of how he speaks

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Artemis1982_@reddit

For Germans who speak English, it’s the use of the word “must,” as in, “You must do such and such.” Must has more of a commanding connotation than the German “mussen.”

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Livia85@reddit

Must is also a particularly mean false friend, when negated. *must not* has exactly the opposite meaning from *muss nicht*.

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Acoustic_eels@reddit

Good to know, thanks!!

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peteroh9@reddit

It's not exactly the opposite. Think of how we say "you must do x" but we don't say "you don't must do x." Their version is equivalent to the latter, which we phrase as "you don't have to do x." So permission to not do x vs. a requirement to not do x.

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Acoustic_eels@reddit

Ok that makes more sense.

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Plantayne@reddit

1. Not using an s on the end of a plural noun or a third-person present verb. 2. Use of "many" where "a lot" or "much" would be more natural. 3. Overuse of the future "will" instead of the more common present continuous.

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rawbface@reddit

Using "University" without an article, the way you'd refer to work, church, or school. This is an arbitrary quirk of American English, but we don't use University as a standard place. It sounds unnatural to say "when I was in University". Instead, we would say "when I was at ____ University" or more simply "when I was in college" (even if it was a 4-year institution).

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copious_cogitation@reddit

Saying Uni at all.

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peteroh9@reddit

I've been seeing Americans use the term and it makes me want to repeal the law that makes it illegal to strip someone's citizenship.

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iamcarlgauss@reddit

Same with "hospital" and "holiday".

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doyathinkasaurus@reddit

Yep in British English 'I'm going to hospital' is different to 'I'm going to the hospital' The first is a general statement referring to getting medical care - like 'going to school' means getting an education Whereas the second refers to a very specific location, describing going to a particular hospital - like 'going to **the** school' means physically going to an individual school So my husband might be in hospital (as a patient), whilst I might be in the hospital coming to see him (as a visitor)

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count_strahd_z@reddit

And maths versus math.

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GingerMarquis@reddit

The word “incorporating” would only be used by someone discussing business or by someone trying way too hard to sound smart. “Impeccable” makes you sound British. And we’d probably use “brag” in place of “boasts”. American English is weird because the language is the bastard love child of German/French/Latin/Norse but also how regionally specific it is. Your word choices read like a New England private school to me and if you don’t dress or carry yourself like someone from there it’ll give you away pretty quick.

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Bargle-Nawdle-Zouss@reddit

Overly formal language. Most Americans soften the "t" sound when in the middle or at the end of a word. [https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ZiH5iVwRnv0](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ZiH5iVwRnv0) Most Americans do not roll the "r" sound.

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mishko27@reddit

The softened T is a massive feature of the Mountain West accent - we do not pronounce Ts in the middle of our words here in Colorado. It's a straight up glottal stop, albeit one that's quite soft.

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AMajesticPotato@reddit

mountain -> moun'in

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thisisfunme@reddit

Your post is a dead give away 😂 That's not the words any native would use

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Magmagan@reddit

Wtf is a phrasal verb 🤣🤣

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anthropaedic@reddit

Shut up

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anthropaedic@reddit

Funny… getting downvoted for giving an example

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TheyMakeMeWearPants@reddit

Phrasal verbs are phrases that function as verbs, and have meanings completely independent of the words that comprise them. Easy example: we'll start with the word "put", which generally means to place something. then there's the word "up", which is a direction. and there's "with", which means together. throw them all together and you get "put up with", which means to tolerate. There's no sensical reason that those three words together have that meaning. But they do, and us native speakers don't even notice anything weird about it because we're so completely used to it.

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NotAxorb@reddit

Even as a non-american, the way he types is just too formal haha

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Au1ket@reddit

Your post is formal, *too formal*

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birdsy-purplefish@reddit

I would have to hear the way that you and your friend speak to give specific examples.

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holographicboldness@reddit

This post sounds like it was written by chat gpt When someone uses formal language like your post. I feel like American English is fairly casual

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JediKnightaa@reddit

When they pronounce the T in the middle of the word. Most Americans say Seaddle, Alanna, Hunter, and Cidy instead of SeTTle, ATlanTa, HunTer, and CiTy

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New_Stats@reddit

Proper English is whatever sounds correct when it hits a massive speaker's ear, and that varies from dialect to dialect. Non native speakers should learn English from a book, and while it's technically correct, native speakers can pick up that it's not any dialect they've heard spoken It's also why I can use the word drug and hung as the past tense of drag & hang and have it be proper English but people who don't speak my specific dialect of English think it's wrong.

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UdderSuckage@reddit

Yup, it's not wrong, it's just not something a native would do. I love the scene in Inglorious Basterds where the British spy gives himself away, both because he's nailed on his accent, which you'd expect, but also on the way he uses his fingers to count, which you wouldn't.

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greatrater@reddit

I can tell you’re not because of your word choice. Naturally I would translate your post to: Me and my friend have been learning English since we were kids, adding American verbs and idioms (?). Even though my friend has perfect pronunciation, Americans can tell he’s not a native speaker. Does anyone know why?

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Curmudgy@reddit

> Me and my friend This is interesting, albeit a digression. I was taught at a young age that “me and *some other person*” was both improper and rude. It’s still something I associate with kids, even though I know adults who use it, and it still grates on me. For that reason, I’d have trouble writing fiction using such vernacular. But while I recognize it as commonly used American English (not knowing how common it is in other English speaking countries), I’d never think that someone who says or writes “He and I” is not a native speaker.

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UdderSuckage@reddit

I mean it's also just incorrect grammar - if you remove the accessory phrase "and my friend" you're left with "Me have been learning English", so it's pretty obvious the correct grammar is "My friend and I" from a verb conjugation sense alone.

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AnimatronicHeffalump@reddit

Did you go to school? How do you not know what an idiom is??

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dajadf@reddit

The average working class person wouldn't use idiom in conversation

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AnimatronicHeffalump@reddit

If they were referring to an idiom they would. They might say “figure of speech” but I’ve heard plenty of people say “idiom” in conversation and I am by no means part of the elite

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greatrater@reddit

The question mark means I don’t know how to make that part of the sentence sound more natural or if I would’ve said it at all

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sapphireminds@reddit

idioms= sayings or figures of speech

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greatrater@reddit

I know what they are I just don’t how I could made that part of the sentence sound more natural or if I would’ve said that at all

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sapphireminds@reddit

Slang and sayings maybe? :)

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andrew_Y@reddit

Watcha doin? VS. What are you doing?

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s001196@reddit

Not flapping the tongue for the d sound in the word “ladder.”

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JerichoMassey@reddit

"Uni" Here in America, whether you went to Harvard Law or West Arkansas Community.... you went to College.

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OrangeNarwhal23@reddit

Accents of course.

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Nyxelestia@reddit

> My friend and I have acquired English since our childhood, incorporating common American phrasal verbs and idioms. Although my friend boasts impeccable pronunciation, Americans often discern that he isn't a native speaker. What could be the reason for this? So that was all incredibly correct - way more correct than most native speakers are in our day to day lives. Here's how I would probably write or say this: > Me and my friend learned English since we were kids, including a lot of American phrases and idioms. My friend pronounces everything correctly, but Americans often figure out that he isn't a native speaker. How come? There are a lot of things that make colloquial speech different from whatever you learned in class, but if I had to pick one thing I would recommend you focus on, it's to use more prepositional phrases that approximate whatever verb you're initially going for, and use less passive or compound tenses.

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ScottIsntMyName@reddit

Missing "the"s, especially from certain countries.

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cisco_squirts@reddit

5 dollars 30 or any variation thereof.

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SunStarved_Cassandra@reddit

Using "south of" and "north of", as in "He grew up in the south of England. She is visiting the north of Italy." Americans don't say that and it sounds weird to us. We would south and north into adjectives. "He grew up in southern England. She is visiting northern Italy." I don't know if Canadians do the same.

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nobodyhere9860@reddit

Because nobody says things like "acquired", "incorporating", or "impeccable". You sound like chatgpt when you do that

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Bibliospork@reddit

There are sometimes non-verbal indicators as well, if the person you’re talking to can see you. Some people from India (and maybe other South Asian places; I’ve only met Indians who do it personally) have a sideways head bobble they do when they’re responding and agreeing with you. There’s nothing _wrong_ with it, but it marks you as a non-native speaker. I’ve had foreign born coworkers who point primarily with their middle finger while talking. That’ll give you away very quickly.

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SevenSixOne@reddit

> There are sometimes non-verbal indicators as well One time I could tell an American character in a TV show wasn't played by an American actor by the way she *turned a page in a book*. Couldn't tell you what seemed off about it, but that split-second gesture (that wasn't even the focus of the shot!) was all it took.

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Bibliospork@reddit

Do you happen to remember which show/episode? I’d be really interested to see if I would have picked up on it too

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SevenSixOne@reddit

It was some generic police procedural I saw the last time I visited my parents, don't remember the show/episode/actor :(

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happy-gofuckyourself@reddit

Prepositions, usually

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kangareagle@reddit

I'd like to hear the pronunciation. Probably doesn't sound like a native. After that, of course, is word choice, word order, weird constructions.

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BayYawnSay@reddit

When someone says "he even put on his sugar jacket!" when what they mean to say is "he really sugar coated it".

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AllTheyEatIsLettuce@reddit

Intonation, phrasing, and cadence.

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Addictd2Justice@reddit

Anyone for a spot of boating?

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Jestizzo@reddit

“Can you close the light” “Did you toothbrush today” Stuff like that, usually (though sometimes I hear native speakers say the first one)

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ghostwriter85@reddit

>My friend and I have acquired English since our childhood The words "have acquired" in this sentence. Most Americans would say "learned English in our childhood". > incorporating common American phrasal verbs and idioms Really the whole thing here. >Although my friend boasts impeccable pronunciation The words "boasts impeccable pronunciation" in this sentence. >Americans often discern that he isn't a native speaker The word "discern" in this sentence. Assuming you don't have a heavy foreign accent, word choice is going to be the number one thing that gives away people who might have learned American pronunciation but without spending most of their life in America. In fact, a moderate to subtle accent really isn't a dead giveaway. Lots of children of immigrants end up speaking with a mild accent. As with any language, there are going to be things which are technically correct, but we just don't say them, or their use is highly situational. It takes a lifetime to pick up on a lot of these nuances because they're unwritten rules. Some things are just going to sound odd to us without any real explanation for why that would be the case.

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No-BrowEntertainment@reddit

For speakers from other English-speaking countries, a dead giveaway is using non-American vocabulary. For British English, saying things like “whilst” or “round the corner” (instead of “while” or “around the corner”) will give you away immediately. There are also pronunciation differences for spoken language.

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Elite_Alice@reddit

“Kindly”

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YayGilly@reddit

The use of the word queue. We say line. Its unanimous here. We say line, and we stand in line. Everywhere else, people are bright enough to take note of who was there before them, so they stay in "queue" like a number system. Which is probably the way it should be, but whateva.

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Fossilhund@reddit

Most Americans know queue=line, boot=trunk, flat= apartment and lift=elevator. I do wonder why we say go to school, go to work, etc, but go to *the* hospital, as if there's really only *one* hospital in the US and it's a secret only Americans know. Odd.

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YayGilly@reddit

Hospial is used almost like a verb, yes. I wouldnt say thats a dead giveaway that someone is not BORN in the USA. The queue thing is probably the best dead giveaway, imho. Its not a phrase that anyone would think to correct someone for using, and the notion of making a line, would have to be a cultural concept that grows on someone not born here.

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Fossilhund@reddit

Makes sense. We do say we’re going to hospitalize someone.

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YayGilly@reddit

Yeah I think "Going to hospital" or"Going IN to hospital" is like turning the word hospital into a verb.

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Earthling386@reddit

Except it you’re from the New York area, then you stand “on line”

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notreallylucy@reddit

"impeccable pronunciation" Pronunciation is different than accent. You can pronounce a word correctly and still have an accent. It requires very intensive training to completely eliminate an accent, and it's not necessary to do so in order to be proficient in English. I taught ESL in China. Over five years, I spoke English with thousands of non-native speakers, including many well qualified English language teachers at prestigious schools. In all that time, I met exactly one person who English was so good I thought he was a native speaker. Just one. My guess is that it's your friend's accent, not his word choices, that are giving him away as a non native speaker. If you want to learn more natural sounding words and phrases, my suggestion is to watch more TV and listen to podcasts--not ESL podcasts, pidcasts made for native speakers of English. Don't scrutinize these media and pick out phrases to study and practice. Just listen. Get some hours in listening to native speech.

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stevie855@reddit (OP)

So that was that person’s secret? Listening and repeating?

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notreallylucy@reddit

English language students focus too much on their accent and not enough on actual English proficiency. It's not necessary or useful to eliminate your accent, you're not trying to "pass" for a Canadian or go undercover at MI6.

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toomuchpercyjackson@reddit

Easy. If they know where their home country is on a map, they arn't American.

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theexpertgamer1@reddit

The way you wrote your post is incredibly unnatural with tons of fancy words that no one uses. That’s giveaway number 1.

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Elizabitch4848@reddit

I have a set of Italian friends. One has been fluent in English since childhood. She says things that are just off a little like “my daughter is a 7 years old”. I know what she means but it’s enough for me to know.

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ericafromspace@reddit

When they don’t know what mesothelioma is.

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Amaliatanase@reddit

Perhaps the use of swears. I have noticed that the use of "fuck" and "bitch" in particular can be huge betrayers of non-native speakers. Native US English speakers almost never say "a fuck" apart from the expression "give a fuck" or to refer to one specific sexual encounter (and even then it's kind of rare). I have heard lots of Europeans with otherwise excellent English say things like "He's such a fuck" Similarly, in US English "bitch" is an insult aimed at women, but, unless it's in the context, it has nothing to do with sexual promiscuity. It's an insult that implies that a woman is disagreeable, but it does not usually refer to sexual behavior. Once again, I have often heard Europeans refer to people as a "bitch" (in both insulting and sexual contexts) when a native US English speaker would say "slut" or "whore"

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ToLiveAndDieInICT@reddit

"Don't lets". A few decades ago, there was a Doctor Who companion who was ostensibly from the USA. In one episode, she said "Don't lets argue". I immediately discerned that neither she nor anyone from the production had ever spoken to an American.

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SevenSixOne@reddit

You *might* hear "don't let's _____" from Boomer+ Americans or in media from the 1980s or earlier (I've definitely heard it in Hanna-Barbera cartoons and [this song from 1985](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJQnZZ-Wmao)), but it's really uncommon in modern American English

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SevenSixOne@reddit

You *might* hear "don't let's _____" from Americans who are Boomers or older, or in media from the 1980s or earlier, but it's really uncommon in modern American English

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emunchkinman@reddit

I know immediately in online gaming when insults are used. People will type messages in the chat that clearly they mean to be insulting but just aren’t ever insults that would be used in American English. For example some guy kept typing that I was “fatherless.” Instantly knew that he wasn’t American lol

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Flying_Saucer_Attack@reddit

Definitely informal vs formal language. The wording on your post is so formal it reads like a dissertation haha

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liviorsomethingidk@reddit

For me if someone pronounces t's like t's instead of d's it can make me wonder if English isn't their first language because I can think of very few words where I hear Americans (at least where I live) actually enunciate the t's.

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snicoleon@reddit

Vowels are more nasal and closed, at least with my accent (the "Hollywood" American accent). Especially A, O, U, and any word with a schwa (the lazy "uh" sound), which usually comes out as more of an A/"ah" sound when pronounced by someone who's learned English as a second language. Also, some consonants where air stays in the mouth and is stopped by the tongue or lips in other languages (like P, C, or T in Spanish), push air forward out of the mouth in English instead, except at the end of the word where they're pronounced as a global stop. T at the beginning of the word is forceful and pushes air out between the teeth, whereas at the end of the word it's usually a stop of air in the throat with the mouth open (an ending with a P is the same but with the mouth closed - like "cat" vs "cap").

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snicoleon@reddit

Contractions can be part of it too. I've noticed that people who speak English as a second language often separate the words like "do not," "it is," etc. Other shorter contractions include "gonna" (going to - but only as an action you are about to take, not a location), "I'ma" (I am going to), "bouta" (about to) The letter R in English is very difficult to learn for people whose language doesn't have that sound. Most languages have a tapped R (sounds like English D), rolled R (not found in English), or back of the throat R like German and French (not found in English except as a sound of disgust like "ugh"). I think English may be the only language that has this sound assigned to R, though some languages do have this sound or similar with other letters/characters like some Chinese syllables that would be Romanized ending with -u (like a "shu" or something).

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CannabisGardener@reddit

Honestly, I just assume everyone is American when I'm living in America

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bloodectomy@reddit

"dear" used in informal contexts with strangers. Saw this a lot in tech support - the bot would introduce me as Pete, then I'd get a message from a customer like "dear pete I'm having trouble with xyz"

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SevenSixOne@reddit

On a similar note: there's a way a lot of non-native speakers *over*use "ma'am/sir" in a way that sounds like groveling to my American ears Ma'am, it's not necessary to call me ma'am in every sentence, ma'am.

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ToLiveAndDieInICT@reddit

British Foreign Secretary-turned-PM Anthony Eden used to informally call his American counterparts "dear" all the time i.e. "my dear Dean". It made them think he was a homosexual (not a good impression to give at the time!)

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snicoleon@reddit

Depends on what you mean by "impeccable pronunciation," sometimes if it's too perfect they can tell you're not a native speaker. Also depends on who's telling him that - if it's someone who has the same first language as you, or just himself, they may not be able to detect the differences that a native speaker would. For example, many English speakers learning Spanish don't realize that the Spanish "d" is closer to the English "th" than "d," and if they heard the two beside each other they still may not hear a difference.

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dankbernie@reddit

The way you worded your post is a dead giveaway, especially if that’s how you speak. There’s not a single native English speaker who always speaks that formally (except for maybe a 90 year old college professor or a thesaurus author, but even that’s a stretch).

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jastay3@reddit

That someone knows formal language but not slang.

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firecapsc@reddit

They speak English correctly.

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Acoustic_eels@reddit

"Whilst" is a big one. "Whom" in casual conversation feels wrong to me now. I know it's "technically correct" but in 2023 it is so disused (in any possible context you could think of it) that it always sticks out to me as hypercorrect. I think it will be completely gone from conversation in 50 years, and from writing in 100.

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Simpletruth2022@reddit

Mixing up he/she and changing plural to singular.

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QueeeenElsa@reddit

The way things are spelled. Color (American) vs colour (British) and the like.

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jaysprout@reddit

Speaking proper English.

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jgeoghegan89@reddit

Probably if they pronounce every T instead of pronouncing it like a D. Like we (at least where I live) wouldn't say "parTy." We would say, "parDy."

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dismantle_repair@reddit

Kindly Do the needful

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ShelterTight@reddit

Referring to paper money as a note.

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KFCNyanCat@reddit

Non-native: Gratuitous use of the word "the" (particularly common in people whose native language is an Asian language, at the very least I notice this among both native Urdu and Japanese speakers.) Ex: "Speaking the English" instead of "Speaking English." Different English-speaking country: Pronouncing the letter Z as "Zed." To me, this is the only major tell for American vs. Canadian.

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Kcb1986@reddit

It’s a dead giveaway if someone says “USA” as the noun rather than US, America, or the states. For example, if someone says “what are schools like in USA?” or “what is it like to serve in the USA Army?” I know they’re an ESL speaker.

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KFCNyanCat@reddit

I do that for ideological reasons in the face of people who are strict about calling it "the United States" instead of "America." Specifically, I believe that "The United States of America" is the title of the state (as in the government, not the US state,) and in the event that the US government is overthrown, "America" is the part that will definitely stay, not "the United States." I'm not the biggest nationalist or anything but I can't fucking stand people who think the state is the only thing that brings us together as a people. But also, I understand the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking worlds, among others, use a six continent model in which "America" is the name of a continent that, in the seven continent model used in English-speaking countries, is separated into North America and South America. So I think specifying the USA but always including the "A" is a reasonable compromise.

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Frenes@reddit

The non native speakers I know that almost sound like native speakers always fail the following two fill in the blanks that most native speakers get: 1. i before e except after ___ 2. Mean, median, and ___

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Caelarch@reddit

"Footballer" instead of "Football player."

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hopopo@reddit

In my case leaving out Articles while speaking and writing.

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410bore@reddit

Or using them wrong: definite vs indefinite for example.

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Offrostandflame@reddit

There's an order to adjectives that isn't taught but every native English speaker knows. I remember seeing something on the internet (Tumblr maybe?) About this. You would say you saw a brown big dog, but rather a big brown dog. (If anyone can find that post if they could send it to me I'd appreciate it )

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InfernalKrisp@reddit

Perhaps it's the accent?

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picturesofponies@reddit

If you call it a lift instead of an elevator

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w3woody@reddit

"Uni." I graduated from college, not from "uni."

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mrsmilestophat@reddit

It’s the same thing with textbook language learning and natural speech. It may be right, pronunciation may be subjectively good, but to any native speaker it screams “I learned this recently”

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410bore@reddit

“Take” gas for the car instead of “get” gas. My spouse, who isn’t a native speaker, does this.

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nosomogo@reddit

While literally sitting in front of someone: "Myself, Arjuun". "This is Arjuun".

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siameseslim@reddit

Socks and sandals

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Antilia-@reddit

Not specifically related to your post OP, because people have pointed out your word choice enough, but one that always gets me is "I have a doubt." "This doubt has been bothering me." Nope. The word you're looking for is question.

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GaryJM@reddit

That's a very subtle difference that I was unaware of. I just checked Collins Dictionary and it gives the noun form of *doubt* as the first meaning for British English and then the verb meanings after that but it's the reverse for American English.

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Effective-Baker-8353@reddit

It's like someone who is slightly off key. It doesn't sound like they really have full of complete familiarity with the the music. Something sounds a little "off" or inappropriatevir amateurish, even if every word is pronounced exactly right. It's like things are just a little out of place. Sometimes the usages of the idioms just don't hit quite the right note.

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BigBlueMountainStar@reddit

You say this, but my English friend was in Alabama for a summer job selling encyclopaedias door-to-door (late 90s, when that was still a thing) and more than a dozen times he was commended on how “good his English was for someone from England”

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TheFrogWife@reddit

First of all I applaud anyone who can speak conversationally in a language that isn't their first one. I've always wanted and tried many times to learn another language and have failed miserably every attempt (maybe because I'm dyslexic, idk my mother speaks 5 languages and it always seemed like it came easily to her) Being a native English speaker and having this experience I never feel like someone who makes the attempt is doing it wrong, yes the average American speaks more informally but I feel like most of us don't speak a second language at all so you and your friend, despite not speaking EXACTLY how a native speaker would speak is extremely impressive to a regular idiot like me.

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PepinoPicante@reddit

If you are not a native English speaker and not born in the US, there is almost a 100% chance people will notice, no matter how hard you try. The language is very difficult to sound "natural" in. The syntax, word choices, pronunciations, spellings, usages, misusages... there are just thousands of ways to screw up in any given sentence. It's not a big deal for most people. Really, only jerks will even point it out as a negative.

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dietcoke01@reddit

“He’s called…” instead of “his name is”

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Drew707@reddit

Spanish speakers? I've noticed nombre isn't used that much when talking about people. Not sure if this is unique to Mexican Spanish or what.

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dietcoke01@reddit

Even the Brits do it.

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Drew707@reddit

Oh, well, that's concerning.

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copious_cogitation@reddit

It's also in French. Je m'appelle Marie-Anne. I call myself Marie-Anne.

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LaneyRW@reddit

This is a difference between American and British English, my British friend always uses “called” when introducing someone. It sounds so unusual to most Americans.

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ketamineburner@reddit

Like others said, technically correct but overly stiff word choices gives it away. >My friend and I have acquired English since our childhood, incorporating common American phrasal verbs and idioms. Although my friend boasts impeccable pronunciation, Americans often discern that he isn't a native speaker. What could be the reason for this? I would say: "My friend and I have spoken English since we were kids and we use slang and popular phrases. My friend doesn't have an accent, but it's obvious he is not a native speaker. What gives it away?"

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Excellent_Potential@reddit

Most foreign speakers have trouble pronouncing "th" like in "think." Spanish and slavic language speakers (and maybe others) pronounce "v" as "b" or "w"

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NathanEmory@reddit

Word choice for sure as others have said. We're very informal in our speech, but a place like Reddit is generally a good place to see how we talk. We use lots of abbreviations and slang that we aren't aware of

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Knights_Up@reddit

People say “Kindly” waaaayyyyy too much…

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stevie855@reddit (OP)

In written or spoken language?

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Knights_Up@reddit

Both. Native speakers don’t really use that word…

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pf_burner_acct@reddit

>Maths This is improper no matter how you slice it.

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mariafroggy123@reddit

I’m originally from Norway but Ive been living in the states since I was 14 (26 now) : and I can attest to the fact that the biggest difference is : Americans speak like they are texting a friend to party vs non Americans speak like they are emailing their boss to set up an annual review.

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CrimpysWings@reddit

If you talk like you write, it's because you sound like a book.

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mikehipp@reddit

There are too many things to mention. As with any culture, if you're not swimming it in, somebody that is can tell that you're not, immediately. Besides current references, one of the biggest dead giveaways that the person is not from the US is misuse of the ed at the end of words like closed, or misused.

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HotwheelsJackOfficia@reddit

Your language in the post is very formal. We don't talk like that in normal situations.

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diegoaccord@reddit

More than likely, speaking it correctly is a dead giveaway.

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stevie855@reddit (OP)

Lol

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dajadf@reddit

I work with a lot of Indians. There's countless phrases they use that a native speaker would never. For instance when reading the number 23332. Americans would literally read it as two-three-three-three-two. Indians would say two-triple three-two. Or instead of saying I went to the grand canyon two days ago. They would say I went to the grand canyon two days back. Instead of saying two hundred thousand. They would say two lakh. Calling appetizers starters Instead of moving, Shifting Instead of killing time, timepass. "That Only". Let's say you reccomended them to try someting which they already tried when fixing a problem. They might say I already tried that only.

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Lord_Voltan@reddit

I have noticed that if someone says they're from the USA they are not. For whatever reason most people that I have spoken to say they are from the US or refer to it as that and not the USA except in few circumstances.

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Tazdingoooo@reddit

Accent and idioms I feel like

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Turbulent_Bullfrog87@reddit

Impeccable pronunciation is subjective.

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--Edog--@reddit

Over pronouncing/spacing each word in a sentence instead of sliding the words together, like a native speaker: "I am going to the gym to work out"" vs. "Um-goin'-ta-tha-gym-ta-werkout" Or like Hugh Laurie, having an accent that sounds too perfect, too forced, and doesn't have any regional quirks to it. He admits he struggles with his American accent. I personally can not listen to him speak American. It is really distracting to me. Stewart Copeland (former drummer for The Police) who grew up outside the US also has this odd "diction-perfect" American accent. They both sound like: "Hello, I am speaking with my American accent. How. are. you. today?"

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WorldsGreatestWorst@reddit

*Technically* correct terms and pronunciation can often sound wrong. Because English is a pile of different languages, exceptions, regionalisms, and unspoken rules masquerading as a single language. This article points out one big giveaway—the order of adjectives. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/13/sentence-order-adjectives-rule-elements-of-eloquence-dictionary

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sjogerst@reddit

Using commas instead of periods when writing numbers.

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ShitPostGuy@reddit

If they use “called” instead of “named.” I.e “I have this friend called Alex” is a tell that they learned British English rather than American.

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kahtiel@reddit

Usually it depends on the language they are coming from because they can make mistakes based off the differences between their language and English. I can think of forgetting to use articles (I am getting on plane now vs. I am getting on the plane now) and how some languages don't really have pronouns so that trips them up, using the incorrect tense. Then, there's issues like using the wrong tense.

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littleyellowbike@reddit

I've known a few non-native speakers who struggled with the difference between "many" and "much" (for example, we would go out for burgers and they'd be served "too much fries").

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Drew707@reddit

Fries is a weird one because it could be a dish or an individual fry. You've now had me say "too many fries" and "too much fries" too many times and now fries doesn't sound like a word.

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Tomagander@reddit

Depends on whether it's individual things or not. "The waiter served too much water." "The waiter served too many waters." Meaning glasses of water. Individual glasses.

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fedelini_@reddit

Maths Sport

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KittySnowpants@reddit

Putting an adjective after a noun is a pretty clear tell like “the party of New Year” or “the dog adorable”.

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tired_of_old_memes@reddit

My friend from the Czech Republic always trips over this one: "Where is it?" (correct) "I'm trying to figure out where it is." (correct) "I'm trying to figure out where is it." (incorrect)

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Ag-big-ballin@reddit

Zed

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RupeThereItIs@reddit

"hey, where's the washroom, eh?" "so I was in grade nine and I was so tired I feel asleep on the chesterfield still wearing my toque" Several key words & phrases in the above two sentences that would mark someone as OBVIOUSLY Canadian.

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MeetingOfTheMars@reddit

Saying “aluminium” with “ium” at the end, instead of just “um”… …you know, like so many other elements: sodium, calcium, lithium, potassium, magnesium, titanium, uranium, etc. 🤦‍♂️

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commodorecbm@reddit

I can ALWAYS tell when it’s not an American speaking. There is something about the flow and enunciation that cannot be replicated without former cultural knowledge. For e.g. I can easily tell when an actor/actress whom is not American is putting on an American accent. It always feels forced, unnatural - kind of uncanny valley.

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WildBoy-72@reddit

You remember the scene in Ghostbusters when the man at the hotel asked Peter Venkman, "What are you, some kind of cosmonaut?"? That was a dead giveaway that he wasn't born in the US. Even though his accent was on point, which I think was done to insinuate that he was a Russian spy, and he let the wrong terminology slip. So that's the giveaway. Different accents than what are found in the US and different terms for things will make you stand out.

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Whitecamry@reddit

Sometimes a foreign-born person - even a Brit - will stretch a "short i" into a "long *e*," such as "minute" pronounced as "m*ee*nute."

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Earthling386@reddit

I’m kind of amazed that nobody has mentioned how almost all foreigners butcher the “th” sound. I’ve had friends from Poland, Hungary, Germany, India and none of them really nail it right. Example: “that” becomes dat or zat

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Sparklelark@reddit

Even if the grammar and word use perfectly fit American English, I'd guess that the pronunciation still gives it away. I have some family members who were born and raised in the US but were also raised with a second native language in addition to English. I can still hear some slight pronunciation differences as a person who only speaks English, even though they are completely fluent. It's very minor, I wouldn't even say that they have an accent. I use this as an example to make the point that just about everyone who has learned English but is not a native speaker with English as their only language may have some pronunciation differences. I assume this is related to the language phonemes you learn as a baby, but that's just an educated guess.

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Evil_Weevill@reddit

Enunciating everything too clearly. Native speakers tend to roll a lot of words/sounds together. So when someone pronounces every syllable and always clearly enunciates everything, that gives the impression that English isn't natural for them. Certain word preferences are more common for non-natives. Like for some reason, people from India have a tendency to use "kindly" when making requests where I native speaker would usually say "Hand me that wrench, please" they say "Kindly hand me that wrench". Excessive formality. Americans tend to speak pretty informally in most situations.

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Tomagander@reddit

Some Americans use "kindly" like that. I've especially noticed it in emails. It drives me crazy because it feels disingenuously polite.

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Evil_Weevill@reddit

Yeah that's usually the difference. When a native speaker says kindly, it's usually a bit sarcastic. Like when an American says it, it usually sounds like: I'm being intentionally overly formal but I'm clearly annoyed at having to ask this. Whereas non-native speakers tend to use it more sincerely.

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SunsetBain@reddit

I can't say the word "kindly" without thinking of BioShock. "Would you kindly..."

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Fossilhund@reddit

"Would you like to take this here woman for your wife?"

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stevie855@reddit (OP)

This one is interesting. It’s true, some overdo it somehow and sound unnatural, albeit correct

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Evil_Weevill@reddit

Yeah. I think, especially for folks that come from more formal cultures, sounding like a native speaker of American English may just never come naturally. As long as you're being understood, that's the important part though.

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Curmudgy@reddit

Another is “I have a doubt” for “I have a question”.

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boxorags@reddit

A lot of non-native speakers of a language speak like a textbook (I am not saying this as an insult, it just sounds more "formal". It's not a bad thing and I am guilty of this when I speak other languages I'm learning too)

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TinktheChi@reddit

I'm Canadian. I have no idea what you're talking aboot.

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Hurts_My_Soul@reddit

Waste Basket. Its a damned trash can.

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BreakfastQueenLai@reddit

Waste paper basket.

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Fossilhund@reddit

Rubbish always sounds almost elegant, but in America it's garbage.

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kibblet@reddit

Funny things is a lot of these are how I can easily pick out scammers, particularly romance ones

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Rumpelteazer45@reddit

Every language has “sound patterns” which consists of tone, inflection/intonation, pauses, sounds, elision, and emphasis. Nonnative speakers use their first languages sound patterns when speaking another language. This also impacts a persons ability to hear the subtle nuances in pronunciation. Your ear again is trained for your local dialect and picks up on the above when nonnative speak. What gives it away? Literally everything above and always being grammatically correct, using the wrong incorrect grammar (yes there is a right way to use wrong grammar), word choice, not knowing the nuances of idioms and slang, etc.. The vast majority of people that speak a second, third, or fourth language don’t speak those languages perfectly to the point native speakers think they are locals. It’s impossible to understand the subtle nuances of a language and pronunciation without spending extensive time (decades) in that country/region and even then - it’s always slightly off. How slightly off: My father was an immigrant (from England) and while he had been in the US for 60+ years, anyone who met him could hear he wasn’t from America despite English being his first language. His pronunciation and intonation was ever so slightly “off”. I even heard it if I listened hard enough despite being mainly oblivious to it. A friend of mine was born and raised in Texas - yes even has a slight twang, she is also fluent in Arabic (parents immigrated). She learned Arabic as a baby before English and is considered a native speaker in both languages according to official translator tests (she is a translator). Her pronunciation of the English language is ever also slightly off, even though she’s 100% American. You can absolutely tell he was raised in the US, but you can also tell English wasn’t her true first language. It’s not glaring, you have to listen for it - but it’s there. I’m sure if a native Arabic speaker met her, they would say her Arabic pronunciation is also slightly off.

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kibblet@reddit

Calling women dear. Calling people my friend. As in how are you doing my friend. I am Joe, by name. Instead of my name is Joe.

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Warm-Set@reddit

Unnecessarily mixing dialects, slang, and accents without following a given regions way of speaking. That could be anyone moving states, but oftentimes, if english is your secondary language, it stands out twice as much. There's one girl getting dragged on tiktok for something similar now.

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Historical-Shark77@reddit

The lack of use or misuse of phrasal verbs. Americans use them all the time and us ESLs don’t seem to understand or picture them as naturally

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Ok-Beach-2214@reddit

Not using contractions in everyday speech. I’m going vs I am going. You’d better vs You better. We’d love to vs We would love to. I have meet many academically skilled English speakers, but very few use the shortened version of the language of contractions. Probably because in formal writing we do not use those. 🤷🏽‍♀️ Not using the following: can’t, won’t, should’ve, would’ve, I’ve, they’ve, we’d, he’d, it’ll, he’ll, let’s, what’s, mustn’t, etc.

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catiebug@reddit

Not getting the order of adjectives right. I had a lot of fun trying to explain to my English students why a native speaker would not only *never* say "red little car", but it would actually sound wrong to hear someone say it that way (though we wouldn't be a dick to a non-native speaker who did).

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KR1735@reddit

"*How* do you call this thing?" "I have brown *hairs* and green eyes." "She is a 25 *years* old woman." "The baggage *are* over there." (This is correct in British English, but sounds really awkward in American English.)

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Moritasgus2@reddit

“I stay in Boston” instead of “I live in Boston”. Stay is used for short visits like a hotel stay.

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count_strahd_z@reddit

I think for a short stay we'd also say, I'm staying in Boston or I'll be staying in Boston. I stay in Boston would be used as an answer to a question where it wasn't clear - so I stay in Boston versus I stay in Salem or I stay in Quincy or something.

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GaryJM@reddit

This is the normal way to phrase that in Scottish English but I don't think any other native speakers would say it that way so it's a bit of a shibboleth.

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mycatisanudist@reddit

This is a small one but “please check it.” I have a lot of non native speaker colleagues who will say stuff like “I noticed the slides in your overview are out of order. Please check it.” Instead of just “the slides here are out of order and need to be fixed” or “I noticed…please fix them.”

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beaukhnun@reddit

When you use their/there/they're, than/the, loose/lose, should have should of properly, then you're a non American. Only natives mix those up.

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apleasantpeninsula@reddit

*how do you say?* nobody born here is still practicing or wondering *how we say*, they just confidently blurt out the mistakes

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Fossilhund@reddit

And, dang it, we're proud of them!

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KiaraNarayan1997@reddit

I can tell someone is Indian if they spell maybe as may be, say the word needful where Americans would usually say necessary, say post where Americans would usually say after, call the levels at school “standards” instead of “grades” like first standard, second standard etc., use the word prepone. There are probably more things I can’t think of right now.

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ilBrunissimo@reddit

Prepositions. Americans use double prepositions in ways that the rest of the anglophone world doesn’t. So non-native speakers either use the global-correct single preposition or calque directly from the native language. E.g. “We got out of the taxi at Main Street.” “They stepped up on the kerb.”

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Kaiser8414@reddit

Accents. My Spanish teacher has lived in the US for 50 years but still has her accent.

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Fossilhund@reddit

A sales clerk once apologized to me because she had an accent. I told her everybody in this country has an accent.

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rawbface@reddit

It's either "What is it like?" or "How is it?" People who learn English as a second language love to say "How is it like?"

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count_strahd_z@reddit

A native would probably also use a contraction, What's it like?

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Godsflesh_@reddit

Sarcasm - non native speakers of English have a had time with it

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Fossilhund@reddit

Do they now?

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3kindsofsalt@reddit

"meant to" instead of "supposed to". Ex: "Of course it smoked up the house, it's meant to be cooked outside!"

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GaryJM@reddit

>"Of course it smoked up the house, it's meant to be cooked outside!" That sounds totally natural to my Scottish ears; I wouldn't have suspected it would sound wrong to Americans. Interesting!

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3kindsofsalt@reddit

Hey totally off topic but since I have your attention, how much is a regular can of Heinz Beanz where you live?

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GaryJM@reddit

£1.40 for a single 415 gram can but a twelve-pack is £10 (83p each). Tesco's own-brand beans are 28p per can, for comparison.

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Rough_Huckleberry_37@reddit

My wife's best language is English (learned it in school in the 1st grade and 100% has an "American accent") now but her first language was Spanish and her parents speak 0 English. She will still have a few phrases that catch me off guard that definitely sound funny.  Pizza is "Peek Za" "He didn't get off the car." "Are you going to take the dog a bath?"  Also there are times when she just has no idea what a particular idiom means.

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9for9@reddit

This entire paragraph is way too formal. An American English speaker would say: "Me and my best friend have been studying English since we were kids. We managed to pick up a lot of common phrases and have really worked on our accents and conversational English. My friend thinks his pronunciation is perfect, but Americans still recognize us as non-native speakers. How?" Your paragraph reads like someone trying to show off how good their English is rather than actually communicate with people in English.

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Jenny441980@reddit

They use how instead of what.

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Trouvette@reddit

It depends on the language because of how things translate. An example of an easy giveaway for me is from Indians. They use the terms “boy child” and “girl child” instead of just saying boy or girl.

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Mewse_@reddit

Americans use 'supposed' where other English used 'meant.' "Is it supposed to rain today?" Vs "Is it meant to rain today?"

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burritos0504@reddit

I had a French neighbor that said "let's go to the store side by each" instead of side by side. My family is portuguese and my uncle says "close the light"

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ToyBoxJr@reddit

If yall talke the way you type, yeah, its super obvious. Most people dont talk like that. Great use of a thesaurus tho.

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wynbns@reddit

"How does it look like?" "Do the needful."

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turkeyisdelicious@reddit

When someone says “explain me” instead of “tell me” or “explain that to me.” For some reason, that’s a tough one to grasp, but it sticks out. I’m not criticizing, English must be insane to learn as a 2nd language.

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hopopo@reddit

Much easier than you think, because the entire planet is exposed to it. I learned to speak and read English trough entertainment long before I moved to US even though I only had few years of very basic English in school. When I moved to US I could watch TV and talk to immigrants all day in English no problem, but when I hear Americans speaking at normal pace (especially NJ and NY) I could only understand some things. Interestingly enough one of my first jobs was working in a limo company (before Uber) Americans working in the office with me had a really hard time understanding drivers (mainly immigrants from all over the world), while I could talk to them without any issues.

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turkeyisdelicious@reddit

You are definitely not the first person I’ve heard say that they have learned a lot from American entertainment! My best friend (Russian) learned a lot from Friends. And I dated a Ukrainian guy who watched Twilight over and over. It really must be effective.

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hopopo@reddit

It is, very effective. When I was growing up they only used written subtitles while actors were speaking English. That helped a lot! Singing to the music helped with pronunciation. I could sing the entire Blood Sugar Sex Magic album and majority of Nirvana and Gun n' Roses catalogs by heart before I knew what any of it means :)

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Fappy_as_a_Clam@reddit

Saying something like "when I was in University"

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mcsteam98@reddit

Usually, if they speak English and spell things with a “u” like they’re British.

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Adventurous-Nobody@reddit

As a non-native myself, I can only give some hints (which are only subjective). The main one is the EXTREMELY formal style of speech. I trying to get rid of this when I talk to natives, but so far I have had no success. The point is this - when we learn English, we learn it from textbooks and consider such speech to be “standard”. Moreover, this is being pushed by various organizations - such as TOEFL or IELTS. If a person wants to go to study at an English-speaking university, or find a job in an English-speaking country (or a multinational company with a predominance of English as the working language), then he must go through these gatekeepers. For them (i.e. testing organizations), what is important is not an intuitive understanding of the rules and free use of these rules, but STRICT compliance of your speech and writing with the stated standards. The most stringent standards are IELTS, because they are in line with British grammatical norms. As a person who has been exposed mainly to American English all my life, I missed a few points on my way to C1 (by IELTS) due to grammatical americanisms.

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atthem77@reddit

My friend and I learned English when we were kids, including common verb phrases and idioms. He brags about his pronunciation, but Americans can usually tell he isn't a native speaker. What gives?

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dgillz@reddit

It doesn't have to be pronunciation or an accent, it can be word choice. Any Brit I've ever met has a number of words that are rarely used in American English. Think of "loo","telly", "fancy" (as in liking something, not something ornate or decorative) and "rubbish". We all know what they mean but I honestly have never used these words. I am sure there are more words common in British English that are rare to non-existent in American English, these were just the first 3 I thought of. It can also be spelling. Colour vs Color, Neighbour vs Neighbor, etc. The words without a "u" in them are American English.

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Tiny_Ear_61@reddit

I work for a Macedonian family. The guy who's my immediate boss is 26, came to this country as a toddler, but you can still tell English is not his first language. It's not his accent, it's his cadence. He speaks very rapidly and with what I would call an East Coast inflection – New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, etc. (We're in Detroit, where the Lower Great Lakes accent prevails.) It seems to be a common trait of southern Europeans who grew up not speaking English in the home.

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MrAnonymousTheThird@reddit

Using formal language when it's not really needed. No issue with it but you can tell

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Carl_Schmitt@reddit

Even in formal writing and speech we use a lot of contractions and inoffensive slang words.

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AnnoyingPrincessNico@reddit

Not understanding figures of speech

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bad-and-bluecheese@reddit

Using words that are correct/similar enough to the correct word, but in the context sound really out of place. Like your use of “have acquired English”, people would say “picked up English” or “learned English” I had a dutch friend that would always say “Make a picture” instead of take

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delta_nu@reddit

My in laws in KY talk about having their picture made all the time 😂

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RachelRTR@reddit

I grew up saying this in Alabama, but only in the context of getting professionally done pictures taken that were then literally "made" as in printed for you.

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6footstogie@reddit

same in Mississippi

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Ellecram@reddit

Had a Norwegian once ask if he could rent some socks (borrow) - lol.

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AuntBec2@reddit

Borrow is such an interesting one to me. I grew up in Arkansas and if someone borrowed socks, then I loaned them socks. Now live in upper Midwest and they use borrow both ways here (I borrowed him the snow blower...I borrowed his snowblower.) I'm convinced it's something leftover from relatively recent family speaking other languages routinely (esp German and Scandinavian languages). By more recently I mean late 1800s/early 1900s as immigrant families whereas Arkansas/The South has a longer history of European settlement where English has been the "native" language longer.

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Ellecram@reddit

That's fascinating! Never heard the word borrow used both ways.

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AuntBec2@reddit

Same :-) not til I moved here. It took a little getting used it.

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Material_Ad6173@reddit

Accent. Even if you're fluent, but we're not using English as a first language, since your childhood, there are high chances that you still have a strong accent. You may not hear it, but native English speakers for sure can.

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notyogrannysgrandkid@reddit

Beginning a declarative sentence with am, e.g., “Am Prince Adebayo, son of the exiled king. Am desperate for your assistance in the matter of USD7.2M.” This is because many languages drop the personal pronoun when conjugating a verb. Using USD to refer to dollars rather than $.

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LikelyNotABanana@reddit

Non-native speakers tend to use fewer contractions in spoken word, and can have trouble with spelling them when using them in written speech.

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spleenboggler@reddit

Probably the pronunciation of either vowels, or [The American R](https://magoosh.com/english-speaking/the-rhotic-r-american-r/). Even if it's subtle, I'll pick up on it and try and place exactly where it's from.

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moose702@reddit

When someone says 'Cheers' but they sound American, they're actually Canadian!

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Beautiful-Mountain73@reddit

If he uses the same vocabulary as you then it would be obvious. No native speaker would ever say they “acquired” English because that’s not really how you use that word. You can say you acquired an object but English speakers would never say they “acquired” a language. The vocabulary that you use is way more formal than native English speakers use in day to day life. Also, who says he has impeccable pronunciation? Was he told that by a native speaker or is that opinion from you? We often think our pronunciation is better than it actually is when speaking another language.

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DeathToTheFalseGods@reddit

Phrases and tenses. A lot of other languages handle future-past and past-future a lot differently. Although most Americans probably couldn’t tell you the exact difference between what they say versus what someone that is ESL is saying, we notice. Some stuff just doesn’t fit. Like, I knew a guy that would say “I need you to be going to the store.” While that is technically right? No one says it like that

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Certain_Mobile1088@reddit

It’s just obvious to a native speaker—but almost impossible to explain or teach. My formal English writing and my regular speech are similar, but not exactly the same. Word choice matters, and I use more contractions and slang in speech. Also, syntax. A native speaker knows how to string together various adjectives and adverbs, while a fluent foreign speaker tends to make slightly different choices that sound odd to a true native.

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AgentCatBot@reddit

It's like if someone wore formal clothing every day compared to someone who wears casual clothing. Not caring about the rules of the language matters as a native speaker, because they never had to know. I've seen this happen with someone who speaks Spanish and learned English, spoke almost perfectly (some errors about past tense) and he was complaining that his English is getting worse over time. I had to explain "No, you are just becoming a native speaker because you stopped caring about the rules and adapted to natural speech." Native English is bad English. The other minor examples of non American English are the use of the letter Z (zee or zed), the use of the word Yankee at all, unless you are talking about the baseball team.

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repocin@reddit

>It’s just obvious to a native speaker—but almost impossible to explain or teach. Yeah, and I feel like this goes for any language you're proficient in (at least for the most obvious mistakes). Aside from when I was forced to in school, I've never really studied grammar. Not in english, and certainly not in my native language - I've just always been able to tell when something sounds *off*.

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cherrycokeicee@reddit

we had a post the other day asking how we remember the meanings of "put up with," "put off," "look up to," "get off," "keep up with," and everyone's reaction was just, idk I just know it. there's all this shit you just absorb in your native language that feels impossible to explain to someone who's learning it. put off means delay or lose interest, & put up with means tolerate. why? literally no clue. how do I remember? no idea.

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arielonhoarders@reddit

Prepositional malapropisms

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Subvet98@reddit

Saying do the needful

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jsteele2793@reddit

Or kindly in any form, kindly do the needful

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6footstogie@reddit

I usually know if they say "maths" instead of math. I've never really heard an American pluralize it, but that may just be my limited experience

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harlemjd@reddit

No, that’s a really good tell.

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Raff102@reddit

They say Maccas.

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BM7-D7-GM7-Bb7-EbM7@reddit

> My friend and I have acquired English since our childhood, incorporating common American phrasal verbs and idioms. Although my friend boasts impeccable pronunciation, Americans often discern that he isn't a native speaker. What could be the reason for this? How an American would write this (there's a thousand ways to write this but just an example): My friend and I learned English in our childhood. We try to incorporate common American phrases. Although my friend has perfect pronunciation, Americans often figure out he isn't a native speaker. What is the reason for this?

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Fun-Spinach6910@reddit

Open the bonnet and check the oil.

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Mysterious_Force_399@reddit

You do know that America is a huge country with different cultures with different wordings.. 😂 are you in high school or something? This is just funny!!

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stevie855@reddit (OP)

No need to make fun of my question,

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IrianJaya@reddit

If someone pronounces every word distinctly in informal conversation. "I am going to go" versus "I'm gonna go". People will think they sound like a robot.

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OodalollyOodalolly@reddit

It depends. What country are you from? We can tell Canadians by one or two words or even very subtle intonation. We can hear regional accents from different states. I’ve often heard people from African or Asian countries learn British English.

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pineapple_head69@reddit

Most Americans, and I’m only using Americans as an example because I haven’t had enough conversations with native English speakers from other countries, speak informally in everyday talk. Hell, even in formal situations it’s still informal speak. For example, in your question, a native speaker would just say “My friend and I have been learning English since we were children, even using common American phrases.” That’s just a quick example.

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Vulpix_lover@reddit

>My friend and I have acquired English since our childhood, incorporating common American phrasal verbs and idioms. Although my friend boasts impeccable pronunciation, Americans often discern that he isn't a native speaker. What could be the reason for this? This, all of this. It's way too formal. Natural Americans speak in a more informal tone. While we can easily understand formal textbook speech, we don't use it much, if at all. So when we see someone doing it. Either you weren't born here, or you're trying too hard to impress people

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anthropaedic@reddit

Saying things like “phrasal verbs and idioms”

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funatical@reddit

Not using contractions.

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Leucippus1@reddit

Two things, using the metric system and continental European English has an accent. Same for Indians and Africans who have spoken English since they were small children. The only country that can reasonably fool me is Sweden, for some reason English speaking Swedes (and sometimes Danes) pickup an American dialect really easily. European English is its own dialect, we Americans often forget that English *is* a European language.

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XComThrowawayAcct@reddit

Incorrect use of definite articles — “the” — and incorrect use of helper verbs like “am” and “get.” Those are both weird features of English, especially American English, and even someone very fluent messes them up from time to time.

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Puukkot@reddit

I worked with someone who’d moved to the US from Ukraine as a child. She spoke fluently; nothing about her diction would have indicated that English was her second language. She spoke like any other grad student from the west coast. When she spoke, though, she pronounced “L” way back in her throat, and she pronounced the vowel in my one-syllable name as a diphthong that made it sound almost like two syllables, so it took me about ten seconds to realize that she spoke another language apart from English, and that it was probably Eastern European. Sometimes it’s those small things that can give you away.

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arcticsummertime@reddit

If they say “maternal language” instead of first language

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Z4mb0ni@reddit

How formal someone sounds. Not many Americans say "I've acquired French since my childhood" we say "I learned French a while back" You've learned the language, now time to break the rules and use less words. Learn slang, speak more informally.

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Alaxel_Au_Arryn@reddit

Pronouncing Maryland "Mary Land".

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AshTheGoddamnRobot@reddit

Its not about being born in the US, its about being raised here. I was not born here but I was raised here. Language-wise, no one could tell But the real giveaway is accent. Accent is what guves it away. And not always. Some immigrants who come older but still young, can easily develop an accent like a native

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FlyByPC@reddit

If you use the phrase "do the needful," you're almost certainly from India.

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SpeakerCareless@reddit

No one has mentioned yet- the rhythm/speed of speech. I speak with a lot of non-native speakers and I notice that people tend to keep the rhythm and speed of their native language. Hindi speakers tend to speak faster than English speakers in either language, and the cadence of their speech is distinct.

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Ellecram@reddit

I live in a small town with a lot of people who grew up with foreign speaking parents. Sometimes I can hear the cadence of their original language in their English. It's not an actual accent - just a rhythm.

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Kore624@reddit

The way people use "look like" Examples- "how does it look like?" "How do I look like?" It's just slightly off and always makes me think they're not native English speakers

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jepal357@reddit

Everyone has an accent, the accent is a giveaway. You’ll never hear your own accent cause it’s just how you talk. Every major city/state has its own accent, I don’t hear my own accent but I know I have a Maryland/part Baltimore accent

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d4n4scu11y__@reddit

Your post is very formal-sounding. That's a big giveaway to me, when someone speaks very good English in a way that is way too formal for the situation they're in. Native speakers would say "I learned English," not "I acquired English" and "use common American phrases," not "incorporate common american phrasal verbs" and "What's up with this?", not "What could be the reason for this?" You sound like you learned English in a classroom - which is totally fine (and a huge accomplishment!), but it makes it obvious that you did, indeed, learn English in a classroom.

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itsnotimportant2021@reddit

I didn't even get halfway through the sentence before knowing you weren't a native speaker. No native speaker that I've ever met would say they 'acquired' english. You could say you've acquired assets, or acquired a collection of things, or even a non tangible like acquired a reputation, but I'd never say I 'acquired Spanish.' "Your phrasing is stilted and formal, try being more casual. "Acquired," "boasts" "discern" are all pretty uncommon in everyday speech. It's the unwritten rules that trip you up, or people intentionally using poor phrasing like my 12 y/o does. "My friend and I have been learning English since we were kids, and have been learning American slang and sayings. Even though my friend has great pronunciation, Americans can tell he's not a native speaker. What could be the reason for this?"

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Adventurous_Eye1405@reddit

He learned English too well lol.

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Bluemonogi@reddit

The way someone is phrasing things. Like the words are not incorrect but most people wouldn’t talk like that for casual conversation. It might be using words that are more common in another English speaking country.

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Salty-Walrus-6637@reddit

thick accent

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Nottacod@reddit

That lilt at the end of a sentence

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Wolfeman0101@reddit

Saying university instead of college. Things like that.

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RandomGrasspass@reddit

How are your emotions impacting you presently?

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Curmudgy@reddit

I forget what it was that called my attention to “presently”, but I now notice its usage in mid-century science fiction as well as more modern works. It was much more commonly used to mean “soon” than to mean “now”, though both are considered correct.

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DakryaEleftherias@reddit

A hot European accent 😌

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spamified88@reddit

"I and my friend have learned English since we were kids, adding in American idioms and phrases along the way. My friend claims he's got it figured out, but Americans often pick up that he isn't a native speaker. What gives it away?" That gives it away. Phrasing, tone, and formality are often dead giveaways.

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josephtrocks191@reddit

"I and my friend" feels similarly unnatural to me. Not sure if it's a regional thing or otherwise but it would definitely be "My friend and I" for me.

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Curmudgy@reddit

I was taught in my youth that it’s respectful to put the other person first and rude to put yourself first. That was in addition to “me and my friend” usually being ungrammatical.

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Wadsworth_McStumpy@reddit

Try: My friend and I learned English when we were kids, including common American sayings and idioms. Although my friend's pronunciation is perfect, Americans can often tell that he isn't a native speaker. Really, it's probably just a matter of word choices, rather than any mistakes. Also, we tend to use different words when speaking than we'd use when typing on Reddit, and still different ones if we were writing a book. I don't know if it's possible to learn those things without actually living here for many years.

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austexgringo@reddit

People learn British english, or another words proper English, and a great number of words are used differently than ever used in our region, i e. lift, boot, bonnet, jumper, bloody all have double meanings that don't exist here, as well as words that basically don't exist here like Lorrie, maths, are immediate giveaways.

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MattieShoes@reddit

Adjective order is a good one... We tend to unconsciously put lists of adjectives in a certain order, and when somebody puts them in the wrong order, it stands out. Also "two or three" is fine, but if you say "three or two", something's up.

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redflagsmoothie@reddit

For me it is the pronunciation of certain words. Just as a random example, I recently met an internet friend in person and I kind of figured he wasn’t a native speaker but his English was great…but then he told my boyfriend he was from New York Ci-Ty and that emphasis on the T was a real giveaway.

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TechnologyDragon6973@reddit

> My friend and I have acquired English since our childhood This phrasing is something that a native speaker would probably not use. “My friend and I have spoken English since childhood” is more natural, but still somewhat formal.

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ubowxi@reddit

you might get away with it if you add a cover story, pretending to be from a part of the US that's culturally and geographically distant from the region the american you're speaking with is from. ultimately there's no substitute for practice, and practicing naturalization of speech means living among native speakers. nothing else will help much.

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kjk050798@reddit

“Mate”

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AnimatronicHeffalump@reddit

The term “phrasal verbs”. This is the second time I’ve read that term here in the last week, but it’s not a term I’ve ever heard a native English speaker use. A verb phrase, yes, not a phrasal verb. Depending on the speakers first language: dropping or adding articles. My polish friend often leaves off “the” or “a”, but also sometimes adds them in weird places like before someone’s name because her brain struggles to remember where to put them and where not to… and she’s been on the US for 20 years and spoke English even before that. I find this to be common for people who speak Slavic languages or others that don’t really have articles. Similarly, word order issues. Many languages use a different word order. For example in English we would say “my mom’s cat” but in Spanish it would be “el gato de mi mama” or “the cat of my mom”. Not using contractions. Clunky phrasing or overly formal writing or speech in a context that doesn’t call for it like others have mentioned.

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More_Negotiation_534@reddit

Idioms

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MoonieNine@reddit

Sometime their names will give them away. I've met people from Hong Kong or China who had English names (besides their chinese names)... but they would be old-fashioned names like Harold or Edith. So even if their English was perfect, I could figure out they likely weren't from the USA.

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Dios-De-Pollos@reddit

Honestly a lot of it is ‘vibes based’ for me. You can kinda just…. _tell_ when someone is ‘off’. For example, it’s like meeting someone who was only homeschooled. There’s just something….missing.

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MarcusAurelius0@reddit

Use of British English, grammar, spelling, and phrasing.

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skucera@reddit

Omitting the conjugated “to be” from a sentence. Either foreign or Joey Tribbiani.

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Espron@reddit

Nothing comes to mind. Lots of people with thick accents were born here.

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justcallmedad11@reddit

Sentence structure and they'll use words that are more common in British English than American English

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idiot-prodigy@reddit

Adding an "s" where there would never be one. "We picked **thems** up at the airport."

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SufficientZucchini21@reddit

Saying “phrasal verbs” is a giveaway.

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KithMeImTyson@reddit

If you want to sound more native, take everything you just wrote and say, "My friend and I speak English pretty well for non native speakers. Does anyone have tips to sound more native?" The overly correct vocabulary is just way too much. Relax and just talk. Using big words makes a big pot of word soup, and we prefer steak here 😉

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Sublime99@reddit

Your first sentence sounds pretty non-natively jargony, others have noticed it and especially in written English its a fairly easy way to ascertain English isn't someone's first language. I came across one word used by an indian classmate once, "Updation": its perfectly understandable but I hardly ever see native speakers use unusual variants as such. Also worth adding about adjective order rules. Try messing around with "lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife" and it won't feel right (but understandable).  Next is of course pronunciation/accent. Native English speakers usually can do quite well identifying this, unless someone really is particularly talented.

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Mr_Kittlesworth@reddit

Very often it’ll come with contractions or the lack thereof. For example, “I’ve to go,” is grammatically correct but not something anyone who speaks American English would say. Also, missing the correct order with adjectives, which is something most Americans never learn, formally, but is deeply ingrained. I can say, “I went to the doctor to get him to look at the little, round, hairy, purple, bump.” But if I say, I went to the doctor to get him to look at the purple, round, hairy, little bump,” it sounds bizarre.

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fullmetal66@reddit

They pronounce letters that end in vowels with an “r” sound. Very typical of other common wealths that aren’t US or Canada

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BigBaws92@reddit

Saying “oat” instead of “out”

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sapphireminds@reddit

Sorry

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wampastompa09@reddit

If you ever want to just have a conversation, I'd be willing to help point things out as they happen.

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JimBones31@reddit

People that say whilst un-ironically.

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AlexisRosesHands@reddit

It’s a dead giveaway

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TatarAmerican@reddit

In my community it is English words like "half" and "calf" that give it away, most first generation immigrants incorrectly pronounce the silent L.

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Agoonga@reddit

I only speak American English, so I don't have much insight on other languages or accents. Be casual. Don't use too many words. Like the way Ernest Hemingway writes, or the dialogue in a Coen brothers movie. It doesn't have to pass an English test to sound right. My friend and I have studied English since we were kids, and regularly use American phrases. My friend pronounces words well, but people can always tell he's not from here. What could be the reason?

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TuskenTaliban@reddit

Honestly? Saying USA is the biggest one for me.

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ayebrade69@reddit

You’re using too many big words, dawg

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clickbaitnsfw@reddit

Sounds super real to me

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therealjerseytom@reddit

Even the way you wrote this post and your choice of words comes across as overly stiff / textbook and not really natural.

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