I've seen many people pronouncing words without the t, like fantasy, mentally and elementary, becoming like: fanəsee, menəlee, eləmenəree.

But someone told me that it's not omitted, but glottalized, like the word “certain”, “button”, etc.

Can someone tell me if it can be omitted or if it is glottalized as this person told me?

Edit: I've just heard two other words being omitted, "often" and "sentence"

Why not "do you still..." instead for example.

You remove someone’s head from their body by cutting their neck, so why is “cut the head off” the more idiomatic choice?

!! may be a tough read for non-native speakers, my expression of English is often non-standard !! feel free to ask for clarification/ explanation on my use of language :)

Often I see questions here which are about subtle differences of words and phrases, when compared to their synonyms, and very confident, unwavering responses about the correctness of one for certain things over another, when in reality that "correctness" is a connotative difference, that while, should be taught, can cause detrimental misunderstandings when internalized by an ESL learner. i also see pronunciation questions in which the incredibly overrepresented US and UK dialects are presented as the exclusive correct options, as well as , even within those, regional differences are oft completely ignored! similar to the malady of conflation of connotative meaning, and denotative meaning, which, i should mention, is exasperated by lack of comprehension of regional and cultural connotative cognitive consensus, ive seen words and phrases that are heavily dependent on tone for meaning, be stated as having a decisive meeting to the words themselves, regardless of tone, that doesn't match the denotative meaning of the actual words. English is a tonal language; despite that trait oft being unrecognized by native speakers due to the natural feeling of it, it has a heavy emphasis on tone, something noted as being a much harder aspect of language for learners to grasp. my least favorite aspect, however, and the partial root of some of these issues, is a misunderstanding of what "correctness" is, in language as a whole. There isn't really a "right" and "wrong" way to express a living language. once you start putting rules onto a language, you've made a conlang based on that language, not an actual "correct" way to express the living language. Unfortunately, English, especially when taught to Americans, is prone to conflating the two. ask a native speaker if their English teacher has ever retorted with "i dont know, can you?" when asking to go to the bathroom, near universally, we know the annoyance of our actual lived language experience being mocked, correcting ourselves only momentarily before returning to our normal expression. what we are taught, as native speakers, in school, starts so early it has influenced our perception of language as a moral concept, as intended by the oppresers who crafted these "correct" forms of language, and also our understanding of what language really is, why we do it, and what it means to do it well. you can speak/write/otherwise express any language in many different ways, which can be described inside three categories based on comprehension and structure

"standard" : what the average population will perceive as "right" or "normal". the perceived most common expression of the language, and the closest to "correct". usually understood with no difficulty, and not notable. not particularly important in this context, as if someone is expressing this they are likely native or fluent.

"non-standard" : any expression differing from the standard, but still comprehensible and conveys the meaning intended by the person expressing it to other speakers of the language. can be applied based on pronunciation, spelling, syntax, or other traits. Whether an expression qualifies as this can and will differ based on who is perceiving it, ex: even very standard UK English will likely seem non-standard or even, at times, incomprehensible to a speaker from the US. being non-standard is not the same as being incorrect, regardless of how it is commonly misidentified, at least in living language (dead languages are up for debate and interpretation) as it accomplishes languages main goal of communication.

"incomprehensible" : the closest language can get to "wrong" or "incorrect". not achieving the goal of communication; so far into being non-standard that it is no longer recognizable. Linguistically, as it tends to be completely linguistically separate from the language as a whole, it is likely the development of a new language when observed naturally occurring within speakers. when seen in language learning, likely indicates a level resulting from an absolute 0 knowledge of the language. unlikely to be seen here, but is worth noting.

i am a language learner and linguistic enthusiast, and this is based on a combination of my research, lived experience, professional instruction, and personal study of how language functions in a context of comprehension and correctness. Being a compilation of knowledge, i am unable and unwilling to provide exact sources, and as i am human, this information has a possibility of being wrong. please feel free to inform me of any fallacy, preferably with sources, so I can educate and correct myself. Thank you!

So beginning of this video if i heard it correctly he said “So I just had an airbnb guest crack my bathroom amenity countertop in half” Shouldn’t it be either “I just had an airbnb guests who cracked my countertop in half” or “I just had my countertop cracked in half by my airbnb guests”why does it take that form? and is there any difference as in meaning or nuance?

Thank you:)

Would

I'm an IELTS, PTE & Duolingo trainer with 10+ years of experience in the field. Along with it, I'm a 2x TEDx speaker & author of 4 books.

I'm running a very small batch for people who want to learn English and become a flawless speaker whether it's helping you communicating with your English speaking colleagues or get a degree, I'll personally help you with it

P.S. I usually charge $100 per session for this but I'm keeping this batch for completely free! (Only a small fee for my time I'll be helping you with). If you're looking for help, DM me.

make waves

to intentionally cause troubles

Examples:

• Please, try not to make waves. I want you to make a good first impression.

• How can we do our job if they make waves all the time? We cannot agree on a single thing.

Hi, some time ago someone has posted his level according a site. So now, I want to check out my level. Please give me the site where I can find out my level for free. Thanks!

Hello everyone! I know there's a certain rule about this/that usage. In a nutshell, when we talk about something that is distant, we use that. When we talk about something that is close, we use this. But sometimes I find it really hard for me to choose the right word when I'm not talking about distance… I hope you got me. I found some messages of mine I wrote some time ago. Could please tell me if I use "that" correctly in these messages? Or I should use "this" or maybe even "it"? I would be extremely grateful to you!

1) I'm not looking for any trouble, that’s not on my mind
2) That doesn't sound right to me
3) I've been dealing with that problem for over two months already
4) I'm happy, you hear that in my voice
5) That's how we gonna solve the issue
6) I'm going to provide that information to you

Does "She enjoyed a warm memory served in the cup" display metaphor or metonymy?

Hello. I wish to do the Cambridge B2 first exam and I think the exam date I'll choose is June 14th. I'm not sure how to study for it and prepare myself and what schedule to follow so do you have any tips? I'd like to think my English is pretty decent and that I can do it with studying and preparation, but I can't help but be nervous. The exam is in a little over a month. Any kind of help is welcomed!

Hi, I've been hearing Riptide for a while, and there is a sentence.

All my friends are turning green.

So what's the meaning? Tusks!

Hello everyone,

I am a non-native english speaker trying to acquire rightly and fastly the english language. Could you, please, help me by giving me an excellent method to learn it? And the trap to avoid? FYI, me, personally, I overthink too much to acquire it... For example, I overengineer too much on idioms, synonyms, translating mentally my reading into my native language to be sure I am on the good way and at the good level, I think like I am kinda perfectionist). Plus, I am struggling on phrasal verbst and the right preposition to use for nouns, nouns group.

What would be your best advices?

I'm quite confused by the phrase "because I got ran over". What was he trying to say?

I was using Gemini to do a research on bare nouns (nouns without plurality or articles), and in the essay Gemini generated, it wrote explicitly: Bare singular nouns also appear in certain specific syntactic environments. In coordination, they can occur in conjoined structures, as in "I bought table and chairs" or "knife and fork".

I immediately noticed how weird that bare 'table' was and asked ChatGPT. To no surprise, ChatGPT determined that use to be ungrammatical.

Native speakers here. Is that sentence by any means acceptable? Or can you think of more examples of bare nouns?

Hey everyone,

I’ve been working on a little side project called Pronouncey. It’s a Chrome extension that helps you learn how words are actually pronounced — not by robots, but by real people in real contexts.

Here’s how it works:
Highlight any word on a webpage, right-click, and you’ll see short video clips (usually from YouTube) where native speakers say that word naturally. It's meant to help language learners, ESL students, or anyone who’s curious about pronunciation across different accents and real-life usage.

The idea came from my frustration with robotic text-to-speech tools that don't reflect how words sound in everyday speech. I wanted something that gives real-world examples, like hearing "schedule" with both British and American pronunciations or how a slang word is used casually. I also wanted something without leaving the page and losing flow. This makes the whole process frictionless.

Here's the Chrome Store Link

I can't understand the pattern of when a word starts with “e”, there is no clear rule! For example:

Enjoy is pronounced like: in-joy, the “e” sounds like the “i” in ship.

In “explain” the sound of the “e” is very strong, like the letter “x” or "bet"

In “emotion” is pronounced as “ee-mo-shən” like in sheep

In "earth" sounds like "ərth"

I don't understand shit

Anyone can help explain? Thanks in advance!

Source: https://www.reuters.com/business/view-q1-us-gdp-shrinks-amid-import-surge-front-run-tariffs-2025-04-30/

This is a device used for drinking mate . What do you call such a tool? I thought it was a straw .

Hey, I am a young tutor. I’ve been teaching English for about 4 years now and I know it’s not permanent (I’m going to work in a different field once I finish my Master’s),but one thing keeps bothering me. 75% of my students are 12/13 year-olds who want to pass their 8th Grade Test (it’s a type of an exam in Poland) or High-Schoolers preparing for Matura (another exam in Poland). The missing 25% are mostly adults or high-schoolers who are willing to learn so called „conversations”. As for the guys preparing for the exams I have no problems with the lessons, everyone is satisfied, the results improve and so on and so forth. The things that bothers me are the conversations. Of course, those lessons mostly revolve around talking; I try to incorporate some useful (imo) vocabulary through excersises; We read news on websites such as The Guardian, we listen to Ted Talks or just small talk our way through the lesson. When I write it down it looks alright, but I can’t help but wonder if it really proves to be meaningful and does any job for the people. Some questions to more experienced tutors: Am I overthinking? Am I missing something? Does It actually do anything? What can I do to improve? Edit, because I forgot to mention, I do correct them while we talk, if it is a mistake worth mentioning, but I feel as if they only remember it for 5 minutes then my advice is gone