When I write a paragraph I make 5 to 7 spelling mistakes. Sometimes i even swap some of the letters in the word while writing or typing. (I know, I don't have the habit of reading English articles, and that may be the reason why I forget the spelling of simple words.)   I see in dictionaries every word is given with symbols to tell how to pronounce it. Nobody has taught me how to read those symbols. Can anyone help me to improve my language skill by giving some web links or advice?
121032
In questions such as this one () answerers often answer pronunciation questions with special characters, as Matt does for that question by using ləʊðd.  Though I already know how to pronounce the word loathed, I for the life of me can't look at those special characters and figure out how the pronunciation comes from them!  How exactly do they work?  Is there a reference somewhere for how each character is to be pronounced, so I can get a better handle on this system? It makes it hard for me to read questions and answers containing these symbols when I don't understand them.
116698
I confess! Being a non-native speaker, I struggle a lot especially when I come across a new word. And I wonder how do native speakers pronounce perfectly even though they read the word for the very first time. There should be some rule/technique? I'm not sure.  Let's take a case.   If I see a word having 'ch' for the very first time, how do I guess it? Remember, I don't have dictionary. Nor do I have access to this great site when I encounter that word. For example,   Take the word 'chariot'. Being a non-native with quite limited knowledge of orthography, I know that 'ch' is pronounced as in 'Charles'  But then, imagine, I came across the word 'charade'. Undoubtedly, for me, it is 'ch (as in Charles)-re-d-s'. But then, actually, 'ch' there is 'sh' (as in Shane).   It's not just 'ch' but it goes for 'g' as well. 'G' as in 'goat' or 'g' as in 'gymnastic'. Is there any source that teaches how to pronounce a letter if it is placed after/before certain letter? Is there any such rule? The one I remember is when a word ends with 'mb', you don't pronounce 'b'. 'Bomb', 'Comb', 'Tomb' and .      There are a few more words that add another nail in the coffin of my pronunciation complexity!      penis (pee, and not as in 'pen')  asthma (no 'th' pronounced)  Dengue (dengeee)  and many more...
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I myself am dyslexic and wondered about the fact that it is expected of users to have the spelling correct. I saw friends of mine (whose native language isn't English) make some really bad grammar mistakes, but it was still clear to everyone, and thus getting down votes. Although this might not be expected from users, this is a community driven page so what ever the majority thinks will probably be applied because of the auto ban.  So my question: what if you are dyslexic? Are you doomed to be banned after a "secret" number down-votes?  because of this I am also not encouraged to post answers.  P.s. My dyslexia isn't that bad (anymore) but still writing this took me some time ;-)  EDIT:  I think at its core, the question in hand is: how are we evaluating ourselves and those who are connected to us – by NoProblemBabe - This was exactly what i was trying to approach
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As is commonly known, English is quite notorious for having a writing system that is far removed from the actual way it is most commonly pronounced. I understand that there are important historical reasons dating back to the Norman invasions, and the influence of French in medieval English courts and elites.  My question is historical. Was there ever a movement or attempt at reforming the spelling system in order to bring it closer to phonetics?
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I realize (or realise?) I may be splitting hairs here, but I find this question interesting, and I’ve never heard or seen it discussed before.  I was about to post a quote from Rich Hickey outside my cubicle, taken from  with him, in which the writer uses the traditional British spelling of realize.  Hickey is an American, as am I, so I changed it back to the American spelling.    However, it got me thinking: if Hickey were British, should I spell it his way?  The question then is whether I should do so only if quoting something he wrote, or even if I were quoting something he spoke — and thus something he did not actually spell.    Tangentially: should I think of this as quoting Hickey himself, or quoting the author who quoted him?  My gut instinct is that if you’re quoting something written, then you should maintain whatever spelling the author used, and if something spoken then it’s debatable, and using the spelling of your dialect (or of your audience’s dialect) is probably okay.   But I’d like to know: do any conventions exist on this matter?
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I know how to write a usual index with the help of the underscore, but I seem to be unable to find out how to write an (upper/lower) index in front of a letter/text.  These kind of indices are common in chemistry.
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Originally my keyboard is QWERTY , and greater than (>) and less than (&lt;) symbols work well, but when I switch my language from english to french ( AZERTY) . I don't know where is the location of those keys. I will be thankful for your help. Regards!
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I'm writing a report together with another person, and he often neglects to use a capital letter at the start of each sentence. Is it possible to get LaTeX to correct this automatically instead of doing so by hand?
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I began my physics studies last summer. All our written assignment is in LaTeX and that's ok - and I use Texmaker. I think Texmanker is a good program and I have just one problem with it. I can't install a danish spellcheck and use it in LaTeX. That is not nice, so I really need your help!  Help me please. Tell me where and how to install a danish spellcheck and how to use it in Texmaker, pls. I am desperate! :/
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I am trying to find a way to enable spell-check in cases such as:   \remark[I don't understend this]{$2+5=7$}   I found something that might look as an answer but it sadly does not work ... In 'configure TexStudio' -> 'editor' I unchecked both 'hide spelling errors in non-text ..' and 'hide grammar in ...'.
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Could I get an example as to how these three elements (are these called metacharacters?) differ?  I know that * means all or nothing, but I am not sure if it's the right way to think about it. On the other hand . and ? seem the same. They match one character, right?
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Is it incorrect grammar to make the first letter of a proper noun small letters ?  I found that most of the online grammar checkers will mark it as an error if you don't  capitalize the first letter of a proper noun. What's the logic behind that.
39942
Why is “cannot” spelled as one word whereas other similar constructions such as “do not,” “will not,” “shall not,” “may not” and “must not” are spelled as two words (unless they are contracted as “don’t” and so on)?  (I know that languages are not always logical, so I would not be too surprised if there is no known reason for this.  But I am asking this in the hope that there is some explanation.)
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Sometimes, more in some languages than in others, a word is spelled using one or more numbers instead of letters. Is there a term for this?  The only example I can think of in English is se7en (seven).   Therefore,     The number se7en was not spelled entirely with letters; it was written in   ______.
90024
Being an English language learner for about 30 years, I still make mistakes. In a written language, when I have misspelled and noticed it in a timely manner, I simply navigate to a wrong word and edit it.  However, in a spoken conversation, when I use a wrong word, I must stop and correct myself by saying a correct one. I've seen many ways to do that, but I'm still not sure which one to use:  He's going to school...   ...er... she's going; ...sorry, I mean, she's going; ...oops, she's going; ...I'm sorry, let me restate it from the beginning, she's going;   What is the grammatical and polite way to correct myself in a spoken conversation? Let's stick to a formal/business context if it matters.  Also, what part of a sentence should I repeat to make it clear?
94634
I will begin with a disclaimer, I am not an English native speaker, but I can speak fluent English and understand English in almost all research papers I read.   However, occasionally I come across some papers published in peer reviewed journals  with ridiculously complicated sentence structure using relic non-technical vocabulary that no one in the past century has heard of!   Here is one of my favorites:     The algorithm fathoms in a synergetic manner globally, and an antagonistic depth quest locally.   Whatever that means!  Don't get me wrong, the content of such papers can sometimes be informative, but I can't help but get frustrated over such over complication in language! I can spend days trying to decipher what the author was trying to convey and I occasionally give up on the entire paper.  So my question is, why do authors feel the need to hide their amazing ideas/contributions behind such language barrier? Would it hurt to write the paper in a simple fashion such that any reader with the required technical background can understand it?      auth'rs, wherefore thee doth this?
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Why is "letter" not plural in "two letter words"?  For me it's very strange as the equivalent in French would be plural but my English friend finds it totally normal.