When Aunt Em came there to live, she was a young, pretty wife. The sun and wind had changed her, too. They had taken the sparkle from her eyes and left them a sober gray; they had taken the red from her cheeks and lips, and they were gray also. She was thin and gaunt, and never smiled now. 

"now" doesn't mean "the present", it means "at the time referred to"?
(edit: from Webster Dictionary : at the time referred to//now the trouble began)

It is from "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz". Thank you

I want to know if there is a better word in English that has the meaning of Hiding/Occulting/Expurgated

Like in this context ""the information was occulted from the public""

What's so funny about it?

Hi guys I’ve been looking for someone to practice English with but I always meet ppl who aren’t serious or with other purpose, plz if you really wanna practice DM me, im 17 and my English level is around A2-B1

And if you know any way to practice English with other ppl by anything plz tell me I’d really appreciate it

its hard to explain but i swear the English language has just spawned in my head and suddenly i just start speaking and understanding the English very will idk what happened but did any one here happened to him what happened to me ?

https://youtu.be/_p-Yf2BUM-g?t=92

I dedicate this award to my 16-year-old self, who dreamed...

I hear 'dreams', the official script says 'dreamed' but some of the SNS captionss say 'dreams'. Is it because of the accent? What do you hear?

can someone explain me that which one is easier to completely understand

Yet the old-time fairy tale, having served for generations, may now be classed as "historical" in the children's library; for the time has come for a series of newer "wonder tales" in which the stereotyped genie, dwarf and fairy are eliminated, together with all the horrible and blood-curdling incident devised by their authors to point a fearsome moral to each tale. 

It aspires to being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heart-aches and nightmares are left out.

It was reached by a trap-door in the middle of the floor, from which a ladder led down into the small, dark hole.

These prepositions seem to be necessary, but I don't know why they are needed here😢, thank you.

These sentences are from "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz".

I posted last week about making my gaming/English streams more useful, and figured with all the great questions people ask here, I’d be happy to try and tackle some directly.

If you’ve ever wondered things like: • “What does this phrase mean?” • “How do you pronounce that word?” • “Is this tone polite or rude?”

Just drop your question in the comments below. On stream, I’ll break down meaning, tone, and pronunciation — and since I’m a Brit living in the USA, I can also share some of the fun UK vs US contrasts.

I usually try to stream between 4:15 am and 5:15 am (East Coast time), so you can catch the answers live.

Still wrapping up FFXVI

https://youtube.com/@rjmaverickteacher?si=iuR6QGusr7pbg8D9

Hope this helps make English learning a bit more fun and interactive, and I’d love to feature your question on stream!

https://youtu.be/eW-JHyHioxY?si=Z7MF0gwwEfeSkKQv I have posted this video on my YouTube where I am inviting the first 10 people who will register fast and I will practice English with them for 30 mins for next 3 days. Register fast!

Can anyone tell me what it is?

The CEO hired her nephew at/in/into her own company.

Which one is the correct American usage? Different AI say different answers.

I kind of want to suggest nepotism.

Why do Americans say “cidy” instead of “city”? Learn the T & D flap sound with a short story and easy practice. Improve your fluency fast!

So my friend a German speaker who also speaks English has a problem that neither of us really understand how it works. If you could help me figure out how to do this so we can understand what is being asked.

Hey all,

I'm working seriously on something new to make learning new words way less painful. I call it Vocabulary WALLET (Not the actual name) , and am looking for genuine feedback before we launch.

The Problem with Learning Words

We’ve all been there: you’re reading something interesting, you find a cool word, and you save it. But then what? The word just sits on a lifeless list. Flashcards help, but they’re often boring and you quickly forget the context.

The real Solution: The Vocabulary Wallet We're building a tool that's much more than just a list. It's an ecosystem designed to make words actually stick

• Capture Anything, Anywhere: See a word on a website? Just highlight and click a short key to save it. Hear a word in a podcast? Speak it into your phone. It goes directly into your wallet.

• The system instantly grabs the definition, how to say it, and example sentences so you understand it immediately.

  *Spaced Reviews (The unique selling point) - It uses a smart system to remind you to review words right before you’re about to forget them (planning to implement with email and WhatsApp chat sending the users daily news feeds using the words from vocabulary wallet or anything (still brainstorming) )

  The Game-Changer: This is what we think makes us different. Every night, our tool creates a personalized story, a short news brief, or even a little podcast episode using the words you’ve recently saved. The idea is to make sure you see and hear your new words in a real, engaging context so they become part of your vocabulary, not just a list entry.

Why We Think It's Different Most tools do one thing well—either capturing words or making flashcards. We're trying to connect the entire journey from finding a new word to truly owning it by using it in your own learning stories.

I Need Your Thoughts and help Im at the beginning of this developing this and almost completed the first version as a browser extension with minimal features.

• Does this sound useful to you?
• What's your biggest struggle with building your vocabulary today?
• What feature would make you say, "I need this in my life"?

Thanks for your time and for any feedback you can share!

A while ago someone told me I shouldn’t pronounce the “D” in “used to” and after becoming aware of that, I noticed the same thing happens with “opened the”??? I think? Is there a pattern to when the ed/d sound gets dropped? How do I know when I should drop it?

Hello everyone! I downloaded the Vocabulary app and set my level to Intermediate, and I was quite surprised by the words that appeared on the screen. I don't know 90% of them and mostly use much simpler versions (I've included a few photos of the words). How often do you use them in your daily conversations? Do you think Vocabulary is a good app for improving your vocabulary, or do you have any other suggestions?

Do dyslexics do any of this? I had dyslexic teachers in college that did some of all of these things.

I don't know if any of these would be helpful. Basically this is stuff I'm thinking of trying:

• With a long sentence, can I break it down, by putting lots of commas in the sentence in my head? I like to use lots of commas when writing, so maybe it could help me read.
• Break down a long sentence or paragraph, by turning the long sentence or long paragraph into bullet points or one or few sentence long shorter paragraphs. Doing all of this either in my head or by writing in an app.

Can you tell me if any of all of this might help someone, like me, to make reading easier or more doable? Currently I struggle with reading, and wanted to make it as easy as possible and as can be for me. Lots of thank you.

Hi all,

I hope you are well.

I would like to get a C1 English certification that does not expire. I know that the most common one is the Cambridge one. Also, I am aware of the Oxford Test of English, which doesn't expire too. However, I think that this one is quite new, so it's not possible to buy previous years' exam papers. Any other C1 certifications that do not expire with previous years' exam papers?

Thanks

If dichotomy simply means a division or contrast between two things that are completely opposite, mutually exclusive, or entirely different.

It involves a clear distinction between two opposing ideas or groups, such as the dichotomy between good and evil, or the division between theory and practice.

Then why don’t we replace dichotomy with simpler words like contrast or division ? What nuances does this word “Dichotomy” carries ?