Who is a native English speaker?

[wooden_fish]

Never heard of it but sounds like a clever name. Is it non-fiction on pandas or a murder mystery?

It’s a book about grammar. and it’s amazing!

It’s a book about grammar.

Conveying sarcasm via text only is so hard!

[manucornel]

Eats Shoots and Leaves. great book on grammar. buy it. read it!

I feel much more confident in my ability to properly use commas after reading that book (as suggested in this forum).

I’ll check the book out.

Just be sure to remember that Grammarly is nowhere near perfect and flags as many things incorrectly as it does correctly. It is not an adequate substitute for human proofreading.

I know about its limitations, it’s just a bit convenient. I checked out the other tool, and it appears way cooler.

That’s the tip I always forget to share here in the forum, but has been invaluable for me as a writer.

Not just for grammar, but to make sure my content is always factual. I ask questions to people with more knowledge than myself, or sometimes have them review my content before delivery. Although must be careful about who sees it, I don’t want the content leaking before the buyer has a chance to publish. I tread carefully about it, but make sure I did a good job before delivery.

I never did this. I’m glad I made this post, I’ve learned so much in 48 hours.

My honest opinion is that the most common mistake sellers make is that they focus on things they cannot change. Fiverr’s algorithm, picky clients, the new Fiverr Pro thingy right in the face, Illuminati, the conspiracy created to make them fail at life etc. Time wasted with things we can’t control (or imaginary) that could have been used to improve the only thing we control: OURSELVES.

You should write a Brian Tracy kinda book. I get you loud and clear. As for the Algorithm, I think I figured out how it works.

I think that it comes down to NO ONE IS AN AUTHORITATIVELY NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKER because it is different all around the world.

That’s a bold statement up there, obviously, Queen Elizabeth woudn’t wanna hear that.

I would love to meet you and chat! We could have a wonderful discussion. In English!

In the end, this thread could spin off something quite beautiful.

I’m not sure what the exact problem was, but the oldest boy’s math teacher thought that the kid was a special needs child. That’s how bad the problem was. The boy was actually very intelligent and great at math, he just couldn’t understand Australian English (and, because English is one of the official languages in Nigeria, the children didn’t get any language lessons before they were enrolled into Australian school).

Do you think that a difference in intonation would create such a huge problem, or could it have been something else, too?

I watched an Indian Movies days back, and it focused on Geniuses who had issues recognizing alphabets; hence they couldn’t learn to read and write as quickly as their peers, but they were immensely gifted in other areas.

I think the condition is called Dyslexia. Alternatively, it could just have been the Australian intonation.

I couldn’t reply anymore last night. Fiverr said I had to wait for 12 hours.

You should write a Brian Tracy kinda book. I get you loud and clear. As for the Algorithm, I think I figured out how it works.

Hehe, I am sure you got my point. And I actually have two Brian Tracy kinda books, so you read me well.

Eats Shoots and Leaves. great book on grammar. buy it. read it!

Added to read list. Thanks!

Can I write stuff in English that will sell on the International Market?

Yes, you can, and you should if you want. Great writers didn’t stop creating amazing books that amaze our minds because they were questioning their nativeness. This is silly.

I understand that this might feel different for other people, but from my pov, nativeness is only valid if it’s linked with a high-quality writer. IF you are native and you write like a 5-year-old, you won’t succeed over a non-native that writes like a pro. Plain and simple.

Quality comes with practice and a lot of self-improving. Something you earn.

Using the born native thing to differentiate writers sounds a bit like using race to differentiate humans. Just because you have something you didn’t choose doesn’t make you entitled to something that you must earn. I understand if you want to rock your Cali accent and be proud of it, but most professional writers prefer to not have a specific accent. And accents are not something that determines quality. They are just a matter of preference.

But like I said, buyers have their right to choose whomever they want to work with.

Now let’s imagine this scenario. We have Johnny that is from a non-native country but loves English. He started learning it from kindergarten, practiced it online and spoke with friends on MMO games. He watched movies all his life in English without subtitles, and he gets surrounded with it. In high school, he starts studying it even further while writing online as a hobby.

His excellence in this language at the age of 30 is proportional to his endless passion and love he has for English. He becomes a proficient writer, with many bestsellers under his belt. IMHO, Johnny deserves to be called native more than a born native that can’t match his 10 years old version. 🙂

Let’s read it from Wikipedia:

A first language, native language, or mother/father/parent tongue (also known as arterial language or L1) is a language that a person has been exposed to from birth[1] or within the critical period. In some countries, the term native language or mother tongue refers to the language of one’s ethnic group rather than one’s first language.[2] Children brought up speaking more than one language can have more than one native language, and be bilingual or multilingual. By contrast, a second language is any language that one speaks other than one’s first language.

I see why Fiverr includes native with bilingual, and it makes sense to me to be this way. A zip code will never be an expression of quality.

If that makes you happier, you can blame it on the vagueness of the term bilingual. I will quote a teacher/blogger to make my last point:

When you hear the term “Bilingual” what do you think of? Some say that bilingual means that a person is a native speaker of two languages, others say bilingual means that someone is fluent in two languages. There are also many who say that bilingual means simply to be able to communicate in two languages. … According to the Oxford Dictionary the definition of bilingual is:

Bilingual as a Noun: “A person fluent in two languages”

Bilingual as an Adjective: “Speaking two languages fluently”

It really isn’t clear cut, because the word “fluent” also can also mean different things to different people. And, it varies on who you speak to, or which research you read, as to how fluent someone needs to be, to be called bilingual.

-Chontelle Bonfiglio

Sorry for the long post. I understand there is a cuteness tax, so here it is.

https://media.giphy.com/media/ule4vhcY1xEKQ/giphy.gif(image larger than 3072KB)

[amritamazumder]

You should write a Brian Tracy kinda book. I get you loud and clear. As for the Algorithm, I think I figured out how it works.

Hehe, I am sure you got my point. And I actually have two Brian Tracy kinda books, so you read me well.

Eats Shoots and Leaves. great book on grammar. buy it. read it!

Added to read list. Thanks!

Can I write stuff in English that will sell on the International Market?

Yes, you can, and you should if you want. Great writers didn’t stop creating amazing books that amaze our minds because they were questioning their nativeness. This is silly.

I understand that this might feel different for other people, but from my pov, nativeness is only valid if it’s linked with a high-quality writer. IF you are native and you write like a 5-year-old, you won’t succeed over a non-native that writes like a pro. Plain and simple.

Quality comes with practice and a lot of self-improving. Something you earn.

Using the born native thing to differentiate writers sounds a bit like using race to differentiate humans. Just because you have something you didn’t choose doesn’t make you entitled to something that you must earn. I understand if you want to rock your Cali accent and be proud of it, but most professional writers prefer to not have a specific accent. And accents are not something that determines quality. They are just a matter of preference.

But like I said, buyers have their right to choose whomever they want to work with.

Now let’s imagine this scenario. We have Johnny that is from a non-native country but loves English. He started learning it from kindergarten, practiced it online and spoke with friends on MMO games. He watched movies all his life in English without subtitles, and he gets surrounded with it. In high school, he starts studying it even further while writing online as a hobby.

His excellence in this language at the age of 30 is proportional to his endless passion and love he has for English. He becomes a proficient writer, with many bestsellers under his belt. IMHO, Johnny deserves to be called native more than a born native that can’t match his 10 years old version. 🙂

Let’s read it from Wikipedia:

A first language, native language, or mother/father/parent tongue (also known as arterial language or L1) is a language that a person has been exposed to from birth[1] or within the critical period. In some countries, the term native language or mother tongue refers to the language of one’s ethnic group rather than one’s first language.[2] Children brought up speaking more than one language can have more than one native language, and be bilingual or multilingual. By contrast, a second language is any language that one speaks other than one’s first language.

I see why Fiverr includes native with bilingual, and it makes sense to me to be this way. A zip code will never be an expression of quality.

If that makes you happier, you can blame it on the vagueness of the term bilingual. I will quote a teacher/blogger to make my last point:

When you hear the term “Bilingual” what do you think of? Some say that bilingual means that a person is a native speaker of two languages, others say bilingual means that someone is fluent in two languages. There are also many who say that bilingual means simply to be able to communicate in two languages. … According to the Oxford Dictionary the definition of bilingual is:

Bilingual as a Noun: “A person fluent in two languages”

Bilingual as an Adjective: “Speaking two languages fluently”

It really isn’t clear cut, because the word “fluent” also can also mean different things to different people. And, it varies on who you speak to, or which research you read, as to how fluent someone needs to be, to be called bilingual.

-Chontelle Bonfiglio

Sorry for the long post. I understand there is a cuteness tax, so here it is.

https://media.giphy.com/media/ule4vhcY1xEKQ/giphy.gif(image larger than 3072KB)

You are absolutely right about the first language and second language thing. If someone in India (or other non English speaking country) studies at a school whose medium of instruction is English, his/her first language would be English, 2nd language would be the mother tongue and 3rd language would generally be some other language commonly spoken in that state or area. And I have heard about many schools in the city who even fine their students for speaking any language other than English inside the school campus.

[fonthaunt]

You are absolutely right about the first language and second language thing. If someone in India (or other non English speaking country) studies at a school whose medium of instruction is English, his/her first language would be English, 2nd language would be the mother tongue and 3rd language would generally be some other language commonly spoken in that state or area. And I have heard about many schools in the city who even fine their students for speaking any language other than English inside the school campus.

If someone in India (or other non English speaking country) studies at a school whose medium of instruction is English, his/her first language would be English, 2nd language would be the mother tongue and 3rd language would generally be some other language commonly spoken in that state or area.

This is a pretty iffy idea, but it doesn’t really matter. That’s all fine and good and I don’t care where someone is from when I hire people unless it matters for the job. If I need a voiceover with a native accent, I probably would prefer someone from that country, but I’ve heard actors who can sure fool me.

What really matters with all this is what potential buyers want, what they get, and how they rate you in the end. If you say that your native language is Martian and they don’t believe it when they get a delivery, they will rate you poorly. If you say that your native language is Plutonian but that you are fluent in Martian, they will still rate you based on what you claim. If you think you can back up your claims and the buyers rate you accordingly, it’s all good.

[amritamazumder]

If someone in India (or other non English speaking country) studies at a school whose medium of instruction is English, his/her first language would be English, 2nd language would be the mother tongue and 3rd language would generally be some other language commonly spoken in that state or area.

This is a pretty iffy idea, but it doesn’t really matter. That’s all fine and good and I don’t care where someone is from when I hire people unless it matters for the job. If I need a voiceover with a native accent, I probably would prefer someone from that country, but I’ve heard actors who can sure fool me.

What really matters with all this is what potential buyers want, what they get, and how they rate you in the end. If you say that your native language is Martian and they don’t believe it when they get a delivery, they will rate you poorly. If you say that your native language is Plutonian but that you are fluent in Martian, they will still rate you based on what you claim. If you think you can back up your claims and the buyers rate you accordingly, it’s all good.

True. I exclusively state on my gigs that I am fluent in English (not native/bilingual) and I cannot write colloquial terms in any of my write ups.

[fastcopywriter]

Yes of course - I know that about Canadians!

I can easily tell the difference between a NZ and an Australian accent!!!

But for me on Fiverr, that is not the question. The question is ‘Can I write stuff in English that will sell on the International Market? And written international marketing English tends to be American English!’

Don’t care where the writer is from as long as he writes well. One of the best copywriters I knew was born in Brazil, grew up there, the shocking thing is that he was an art director for years, then switched to copy and became a big star.

And written international marketing English tends to be American English!’

That’s a mistake when targeting Australians, Kiwis, South Africans, etc. A smart writer will switch his English dictionary to UK or AU, to avoid spelling mistakes. I read Daily Mail everyday, so I can see that the British do not spell every words like Americans. You see “cheque” instead of “check.” “Colour” instead of “color.” “Programme” instead of “program.” Then there’s the slang, words like rhubbish, blimey, chuffed, kip, wonky, chips, bangers, are uniquely British. An American writer can’t be expected to know the slang.

[amritamazumder]

Don’t care where the writer is from as long as he writes well. One of the best copywriters I knew was born in Brazil, grew up there, the shocking thing is that he was an art director for years, then switched to copy and became a big star.

And written international marketing English tends to be American English!’

That’s a mistake when targeting Australians, Kiwis, South Africans, etc. A smart writer will switch his English dictionary to UK or AU, to avoid spelling mistakes. I read Daily Mail everyday, so I can see that the British do not spell every words like Americans. You see “cheque” instead of “check.” “Colour” instead of “color.” “Programme” instead of “program.” Then there’s the slang, words like rhubbish, blimey, chuffed, kip, wonky, chips, bangers, are uniquely British. An American writer can’t be expected to know the slang.

Wow. I never knew cheque was spelled as ‘check’ in American English.

[fonthaunt]

Don’t care where the writer is from as long as he writes well. One of the best copywriters I knew was born in Brazil, grew up there, the shocking thing is that he was an art director for years, then switched to copy and became a big star.

And written international marketing English tends to be American English!’

That’s a mistake when targeting Australians, Kiwis, South Africans, etc. A smart writer will switch his English dictionary to UK or AU, to avoid spelling mistakes. I read Daily Mail everyday, so I can see that the British do not spell every words like Americans. You see “cheque” instead of “check.” “Colour” instead of “color.” “Programme” instead of “program.” Then there’s the slang, words like rhubbish, blimey, chuffed, kip, wonky, chips, bangers, are uniquely British. An American writer can’t be expected to know the slang.

An American writer can’t be expected to know the slang.

This is true, and I don’t fault your reasoning one bit on anything you said. The only thing I would say is that the same is true of English anywhere. For that matter, it’s true of other languages like Spanish spoken in Mexico, Spain and other places or German spoken in Germany or Switzerland or… blah blah. The slang will be different and the spelling may vary.

Of course, the exception is still my native Martian which is not spoken anywhere but the small village I am from. There is no Martian slang except mine. Even Heinlein stole it from me. This paragraph is all total and complete bullpoo.

[fastcopywriter]

An American writer can’t be expected to know the slang.

This is true, and I don’t fault your reasoning one bit on anything you said. The only thing I would say is that the same is true of English anywhere. For that matter, it’s true of other languages like Spanish spoken in Mexico, Spain and other places or German spoken in Germany or Switzerland or… blah blah. The slang will be different and the spelling may vary.

Of course, the exception is still my native Martian which is not spoken anywhere but the small village I am from. There is no Martian slang except mine. Even Heinlein stole it from me. This paragraph is all total and complete bullpoo.

True, Spanish can very tricky. On Netflix I used to watch comedians from Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, and often had to turn the subtitles because some of their slang is completely unfamiliar to me.

Even reading books like La Reina del Sur (The Queen of the South), had a few words I didn’t know.

[newsmike]

You are absolutely right about the first language and second language thing. If someone in India (or other non English speaking country) studies at a school whose medium of instruction is English, his/her first language would be English, 2nd language would be the mother tongue and 3rd language would generally be some other language commonly spoken in that state or area. And I have heard about many schools in the city who even fine their students for speaking any language other than English inside the school campus.

If someone in India (or other non English speaking country) studies at a school whose medium of instruction is English, his/her first language would be English, 2nd language would be the mother tongue

The first language would instead be the one that you started absorbing 10 seconds after you were born, long before you ever attended your first school. The mother tongue would have to be first, then anything that you started studying years later would, by definition have to be 2nd, 3rd, etc…

And I have heard about many schools in the city who even fine their students for speaking any language other than English inside the school campus.

And the reason for this again makes my point. They are trying to break them of the habit of preferring their first language (the mother tongue) and attempting to establish English as primary. That is fine, but it will never make English their native or first language. That’s precisely why the fines are needed, to keep people from reverting to what comes naturally. The mother tongue.

[eoinfinnegan]

You are absolutely right about the first language and second language thing. If someone in India (or other non English speaking country) studies at a school whose medium of instruction is English, his/her first language would be English, 2nd language would be the mother tongue and 3rd language would generally be some other language commonly spoken in that state or area. And I have heard about many schools in the city who even fine their students for speaking any language other than English inside the school campus.

You are absolutely right about the first language and second language thing. If someone in India (or other non English speaking country) studies at a school whose medium of instruction is English, his/her first language would be English, 2nd language would be the mother tongue and 3rd language would generally be some other language commonly spoken in that state or area. And I have heard about many schools in the city who even fine their students for speaking any language other than English inside the school campus.

This is probably the crux of the whole conversation.

Does a school in a non-native English speaking country that teaches through English teach the same English that is used in England? From the Indian people I know offline, that is simply not the case. Pronunciation and word use is often quite different. This can make it VERY far away from being suitable for US readers - remember that US buyers make up the largest market and that the majority of text being published on the internet is supposed to be US English.

[freelanceplus1]

@udimmanny A native speaker of English is someone who is originally from England or who grew up speaking the language among the English people in England as L1.

[amritamazumder]

You are absolutely right about the first language and second language thing. If someone in India (or other non English speaking country) studies at a school whose medium of instruction is English, his/her first language would be English, 2nd language would be the mother tongue and 3rd language would generally be some other language commonly spoken in that state or area. And I have heard about many schools in the city who even fine their students for speaking any language other than English inside the school campus.

This is probably the crux of the whole conversation.

Does a school in a non-native English speaking country that teaches through English teach the same English that is used in England? From the Indian people I know offline, that is simply not the case. Pronunciation and word use is often quite different. This can make it VERY far away from being suitable for US readers - remember that US buyers make up the largest market and that the majority of text being published on the internet is supposed to be US English.

I would have to agree with you about the pronunciation part. Also there are many words directly incorporated from Hindi to Indian English like jungle(Forest), pajama etc.

[amritamazumder]

If someone in India (or other non English speaking country) studies at a school whose medium of instruction is English, his/her first language would be English, 2nd language would be the mother tongue

The first language would instead be the one that you started absorbing 10 seconds after you were born, long before you ever attended your first school. The mother tongue would have to be first, then anything that you started studying years later would, by definition have to be 2nd, 3rd, etc…

And I have heard about many schools in the city who even fine their students for speaking any language other than English inside the school campus.

And the reason for this again makes my point. They are trying to break them of the habit of preferring their first language (the mother tongue) and attempting to establish English as primary. That is fine, but it will never make English their native or first language. That’s precisely why the fines are needed, to keep people from reverting to what comes naturally. The mother tongue.

The first language thing is only relevant for students choosing to study at an English medium school. I live in Calcutta and here are numerous schools whose medium of instruction is a vernacular language (primarily Bengali, Hindi and Urdu). For them, English is their 2nd language. And the fine is there for them to practice speaking English fluently. In India, fluency in spoken English is required for applying to jobs. Every official business is conducted in the English language.

PS:- Please do not think that I am trying to argue. I am just trying to be a part of a healthy conversation.

[newsmike]

The first language thing is only relevant for students choosing to study at an English medium school. I live in Calcutta and here are numerous schools whose medium of instruction is a vernacular language (primarily Bengali, Hindi and Urdu). For them, English is their 2nd language. And the fine is there for them to practice speaking English fluently. In India, fluency in spoken English is required for applying to jobs. Every official business is conducted in the English language.

PS:- Please do not think that I am trying to argue. I am just trying to be a part of a healthy conversation.

The first language thing is only relevant for students choosing to study at an English medium school

I don’t think that you are trying to argue, but I think you are trying to play with words in a way that makes it seem that there is no difference in a language that was learned from your first breath, and one that you may be somewhat proficient in.

Words mean things with absolute certainty. A first language can mean only one thing. The language you learned first.

We all have a first language, then the rest of what we learn. This is not even negotiable by playing with definitions.

[polash007k]

I would appreciate if you are specific about my grammatical errors, we learn everyday.

I would be happy to do so. All suggestions are bolded. Take it with a grain of salt as I am a flawed being just as you are and I’m far from being any sort of English pro.

Most buyers requests writing gigs, often come with a caveat emptor [Not very familiar with this term but I have a hunch this isn’t quite the right usage. Not sure.] “only native English speakers,” should apply. [Comma Unnecessary]

Though the Cambridge dictionary defines a native English speaker as : [no colon] *“someone who has spoken a particular language since they were a baby, rather than having learned it as a child or adult,” most [punctuation, formatting, and capitalization] buyers often limit would-be eligible sellers to residents of the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.

By narrow Western understanding, those are the only native speakers of English, but that is all wrong. Most of us come from English speaking countries [no comma] with as many as 350 local languages. This language fragmentation makes it impossible for us to interact officially in any other language apart from English. We are just as fluent in English as a native of London or New York.

I wasn’t making any sales with my writing gig until I ran into someone on Twitter [no comma] who hired me to write for their Agency [no comma] here on Fiverr. Some of the buyers, who merely got in touch [no comma] but never bought my Nigerian writing gig, happily purchased from the Agency account and left rave reviews for the articles I wrote.

I’m doing a bit of Buyers’ education here. Until this perception wanes, fake accounts with fake locations will continue to thrive, no matter how stringent the Fiverr checks are.

We have produced literary giants like Wole Soyinka, the Nobel winner; Chinua Achebe, the author of Things Fall Apart [it’s a novel, not a short story.]; Chimamanda Adichie the fiery feminist heating up the American polity; and Dr. Nnedi Okoroafor.

It is not only residents of the big five English speaking nations that are native English speakers. We are native speakers too.

Since you are here, I’m a Tech Writer, specializing in Digital Transformation (AI, Machine Learning, IoT, Blockchain, Electric and Autonomous Cars [Just write it out!], Drones, and the Commercialization of Space Travel [Consistency]).

We should work together.

P.S. I’m not cheap. [style]

So, probably I missed something. Probably I mistakenly corrected something that was sound English. That’s just the way I would critique it if it were my own work (not including content.)

Apologies if it seems too harsh! Also, sorry for the lack of good editing tools. Hope I got my point across.

Nobody specks here everyone write their own styles. .😉

[amritamazumder]

The first language thing is only relevant for students choosing to study at an English medium school

I don’t think that you are trying to argue, but I think you are trying to play with words in a way that makes it seem that there is no difference in a language that was learned from your first breath, and one that you may be somewhat proficient in.

Words mean things with absolute certainty. A first language can mean only one thing. The language you learned first.

We all have a first language, then the rest of what we learn. This is not even negotiable by playing with definitions.

I do think there is a difference. I am a non native speaker and I may have a better proficiency over people who did not choose to study this language or study subjects in this language but I am not as proficient as a native speaker. I do need to check for grammatical mistakes, mistakes in the structure of a sentence, spellings which I would not do if I speak in my mother tongue. I just stated facts about the Indian school structure. 🙂

[newsmike]

Nobody specks here everyone write their own styles. .😉

Nobody specks here everyone write their own styles.

[newsmike]

I do think there is a difference. I am a non native speaker and I may have a better proficiency over people who did not choose to study this language or study subjects in this language but I am not as proficient as a native speaker. I do need to check for grammatical mistakes, mistakes in the structure of a sentence, spellings which I would not do if I speak in my mother tongue. I just stated facts about the Indian school structure. 🙂

[amritamazumder]

Look at it this way. Your English is far better than my Hindi. 😀 I suck at reading and writing Hindi.

[ahmwritingco]

(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted in 24 hours unless flagged)

[jonbaas]

I am a native Klingon speaker. Very refined – just like most Klingons. 😎

[writing_better]

I can understand why this is frustrating but at the same time consider how frustrating it is for a buyer when they get a delivery and the text does not read how it should.

I work in both US and UK English and while they are similar and have similar rules, the fact is that I as a native UK English speaker will express things in a different way to how an American might. Add in that different states in the US also have major differences and you begin to see why there can be difficulties. For online content, US English is generally fine for anywhere because it is the language of the internet. However, most African and Asian English speakers are brought up with UK English. In the Middle East, it is more US English.

I have a number of Australian clients and while their basic language rules are the same as in the UK, there are often times when I have to look up phrases to understand what they mean - I will never use those phrases when writing for them.

Similarly, I have hired English speakers from various African and Asian countries and find that how they write is just different to either UK or US. Some countries use more basic/simple English while others are extremely bombastic in their choice of words meaning that neither actually reads as if written by a UK or US English speaker. I’m not going to start pointing out differences between individual countries as it may seem like I am being insulting, but I can honestly say that in my work as a proofreader, I can almost always tell the country of origin of a writer by the type of English used.

For those who don’t come across such a variety of writing as I do, they can not understand these differences and just assume that the reason for the differences is down to someone not being a native English speaker so that is why they then demand a native speaker in their next request.

Some tips for writing US English:

• Firstly, use the spell check on Word. This will help with honor/honour, behavior/behaviour etc.
• Consider changing or rephrasing any words you use that have more than 7-8 letters. Obviously common words like lighthouse, wheelbarrow etc are fine but others like “enlightenment” are just not commonly used.
• Consider the audience. Is it academic? If not, the reading level aimed for should be Middle or High School level. Use online reading difficulty checkers to assess your writing.

As a translator, whenever I translate from Russian into English, I exclusively use American English. I was born and raised in the US, and as a US reader/writer, I feel that considering the audience is KEY. Your intended audience will determine the vocab you use, the syntax you follow, and the grammar rules you decide to break. I know there is a lot more to consider when writing, but reading a Facebook post that is written like a legal document is very painful to the eyes (and vice versa!)

The question is, can you develop that skilled and flexible use of American English/UK English without ever spending time there? I think you can… it just takes a lot of hard work!

[fonthaunt]

@udimmanny A native speaker of English is someone who is originally from England or who grew up speaking the language among the English people in England as L1.

A native speaker of English is someone who is originally from England or who grew up speaking the language among the English people in England as L1.

This is not a really useful definition. I was born in the United States and in Texas. My parents spoke American English with a Texas twist and so did I. It isn’t even close to how the language is used in England. My written English might be a tad closer to British English, but I don’t try to correct my spelling to British spelling unless a buyer needs me to. On the forum, I actually mix them up according to my memory of varied spellings from books that I’ve read.

Does that mean that I’m not a native speaker of English since I’m not originally from England and I didn’t grow up speaking the language among English people in England? What is my native language by your definition?

This probably comes off as sounding defensive and it’s not meant to. I think it’s funny. I still don’t think that the only native English speakers can be defined as @freelanceplus1 claims.

[lenasemenkova]

I really do have a problem with misplaced commas.

Eats Shoots and Leaves. great book on grammar. buy it. read it!

I feel much more confident in my ability to properly use commas after reading that book (as suggested in this forum).

Eats Shoots and Leaves. great book on grammar. buy it. read it

Thank you for this. I’ve been struggling to understand English punctuation or find any good enough source on it for years. They don’t teach it in schools around here and the native speaker tutor I’ve hired for specifically for this purpose eventually ended with: “Just throw out half of the commas you’d put in intuitively and you’ll be 95% right.”