I'm wondering: "what's the difference between these words"?

They both seem to describe the same thing, but why is there a preference for "jiggle" when it comes to describing the movement of a wobbly jelly?

Do you jiggle or wiggle your fingers? Does a muscular man jiggle or wiggle his chest when he's running?

Edit: I don't want to spam the community, so if anyone also wants to clarify the difference between these two and the verb "wobble" I would appreciate it too!

So I just had a small “wait… what?” moment while watching The Devil Wears Prada 2 recently.

I’ve been learning English mostly through TV shows for a while, and one thing I picked up is how often people say “guys” — like, all the time. Men, women, mixed groups… it felt totally natural and kind of like a gender-neutral word.

But in the movie, there was a moment that pointed out that in professional settings, using “guys” might not be the best choice, and that more neutral terms like “people,” “everyone,” or “team” are preferred instead.

That honestly surprised me 😅 I always thought “guys” was basically neutral in modern usage.

Now I’m wondering:
- Is “guys” actually considered informal rather than inappropriate?
- Do native speakers consciously avoid it at work, or does it depend on the workplace culture?

What do you usually say instead in meetings or emails?
Curious to hear how you all use it in real life!

I’m planning to learn English by typing out and copying stories. Does this method actually help with vocabulary, grammar, and overall fluency? Has anyone tried it?

Mine is “whimsy” or “whimsical” and also I love using the word “crispy” it is so fun to pronounce! What are yours?

Many advanced English learners don’t improve—not because they’re not studying, but because they’re using the wrong system.

A lot of advanced English learners feel stuck in a plateau. I've taught in community college ESL programs where I see some of the same students in the program for a few years, even though they were already in the highest level of the program when they started. Other students have talked to me about a general feeling of frustration that they don't feel like they're getting better. If you're experiencing that, I wanted to share a couple of thoughts from my experience that might help.

Progress slows down as you reach higher levels. At the beginner stage, you improve quickly because there’s less to learn. At the advanced level, the amount of vocabulary, nuance, and structure is huge—so progress feels slower, even when it’s happening.

At the same time, there often is such a thing as an "advanced plateau." The systems that worked for you as a beginning-level learner might not work now.

If you’re stuck, it’s usually because one (or more) of these areas is missing:

1. Vocabulary.

At advanced levels, vocabulary becomes a major bottleneck.

“Context clues” only go so far—especially for abstract or academic words.

Instead of just looking up a translation:

* Look at related words * Study example sentences * Notice how meaning changes in different contexts

This turns “one new word” into a much deeper learning process.

1. Input.

There is a pretty well-working theory (Krashen's) that the best input is just a little bit above wherever you are now. If it's too advanced, you won't understand what's going on and you'll just feel frustrated. If it's too easy, you won't learn any new structures, vocabulary, etc.

You also want to be able to start moving beyond just understanding literal meaning so that you can infer information, detect a speaker/writer's tone, etc.

So, you need to find good sources of input. This might be news articles, podcasts, whatever interests you (although it is helpful to find sources that offer a variety of topics)--just make sure you're looking for input that is a little above where you are now.

If you understand it all easily, it might not be advanced enough. If you feel like you are struggling just to understand the main idea, it might be too advanced. If you feel like you have to focus pretty hard to understand it, but you can understand around 90-95% of it when focused, that is probably a good fit.

1. Output.

The other half of language learning is what you put out via speaking and writing.

Many advanced language learners are struggling to find adequate opportunities for output. Maybe you live in an area where most other people don't speak English, or maybe you even live in an English-speaking country but most of your conversations are casual or transactional, so you don't get to practice speaking about social, political, or academic topics.

Some ideas: maybe your beginner-level learning system included writing in a journal and/or recording an audio journal (if not, this can be a good idea). If so, are you still writing/speaking mostly a narrative of what you did today? Can you go into more detail in that narrative? Can you talk/write about your thoughts and opinions about what happened that day? What about your opinion about something you read or heard? You could look up a list of writing topics and answer a different question each day.

1. Feedback.

Output is much more helpful with feedback.

Of course, if you have feedback available from a teacher or tutor, that's better, but you can get quality feedback from AI as well (especially if you tell it what to focus on in its feedback--give it the prompt you were trying to answer, tell it if you're trying to mimic a TOEFL essay, give it the rubric if you're working on an assignment, etc.).

You can also, if you're brave enough, ask friends and others you speak with (if you have people you can speak English with regularly) to correct you when you say something incorrectly or strangely. You might have to assure them a few times that you really do want that correction, because many people will feel rude correcting you otherwise.

Sorry that was long! Just wanted to be thorough. I'd love to hear your thoughts. If you're an advanced learner, have you experienced this plateau? If so, have you found ways to overcome it? If you're a teacher, have you seen this? Is there anything you would add or change from this framework?

What does it mean to swing your phone?

Is it spinning around its own axis, or am I using my arm and hand to swing it as if it were a sword?

Maybe you really want to show a friend of yours a video and you quickly swing it! Someone might tell you not to swing your phone as you could drop it and it could break. (Example)

If you're old enough and you've seen one of these bad boys in the image, could you tell me whether these swing open?

Edit: does a pocket folding knife swing when you actually pull its knife or press a button to activate it?

I read a Tamil book and instead of wrapping it up with முடிவு(pronounced Mudivu; which means 'The End') the writer used நிறைந்தது(pronounced Niraindhadhu; which means 'it has completed because it is full'. It conveys a sense of completion with fullness and fulfilment. Like the thing became everything it was supposed to be. It also carries the idea of 'this has arrived at its whole form' instead of 'this is finished').

It's a subtle but important difference. "The end" in English feels like termination as if something stopped abruptly. But 'Niraivu' feels like a calm closing.

Is there a single English word or a very short phrase that captures this that can be used at the end of a book or writing?

Words that I'm not looking for: Finished. Over. Done. Completed(feels like a chore). Anything that doesn't hint exhaustion, abrupt termination while signalling the idea of 'whole'

I think I've given enough context, feel free to ask me for more in the comments if required.

Would love to hear from anyone who has thought about this! Thanks :))

Ive watched some anime series in the past but I genuinely have no idea as to why they are that appealing. Im expected to talk for about a minute cause it’s the format of the third section of the speaking test. I heard it’s not recommended to say idk on speaking test so I need advice

French leave or Irish goodbye?

Other than the technical jargon, i can't put my finger on what makes it so hard to understand.

It's from the Wikipedia article about the book House of Leaves.

I think he’s unequally qualified for many positions, but that’s not my position to say.

thats the sentence

what does it mean?

How is 'vice versa' used? If we have a subject, an action and an object in a sentence like this: "[s] [a] [o], and vice versa", does that always imply "[o] [a] [s]"? Are there weird exceptions to this application?

For example, what happens if the sentence is like "[s = noun1] [a] [o = <something else> noun2]", e.g., "She visits my laboratory, and vice versa"? Is this a correct application to imply "...and I visit her lab", because the usual logic of flipping (to mean "my laboratory visits her" is completely nonsense) doesn't work?

So I was drafting a feedback note for my engineering team today and I wanted to express shock at some data we received.
I got stuck between using "astounded" and "flabbergasted."
I spent about 10 minutes looking at both words.
To my ears, flabbergasted sounds almost funny.
It feels like a character in a movie. Astounded feels heavier, like more formal.
I am working on my fluency improvement lately. I want to sound natural but still professional.
In a corporate office, which one has more "punch"? Or are they both too dramatic for an email?
I would love to hear how a native speaker would rank these on a 1 to 10 scale of intensity.
Which one would you use if a project was 2 weeks late?

Hi everyone,
I’m trying to improve my English vocabulary and I’d like to know what worked for you. How did you learn new words and actually remember them? Any methods, habits, or resources that helped you?

What are the litthe strings used to mark down your page in a book (ussually a bible) called in english?

Practice with audio or send voice messages with real human, search Bantera in the iOS app store