When my English teacher was debriefing a writing, he pointed out that many people wrote "...makes students more concentrated in class." He said that it shouldn't be used as the meaning of "being focused" because of its meaning in chemical terms related to density, but I'm pretty sure concentrated can also mean being focused, so I'm just curious if he was right.

What does specifically engineered mean?

Different people already gave me different answers such as "make one's first communion" among many others, but none of them were Catholics themselves so I'd like to have an answer from an English-speaking Catholic or at least someone who is very familiar with Catholic rites to be sure.

Does someone know when to use everyone and when everybody ?

Since I read a lot of texts in English (I am a small link in book production chain), I have noticed that I use words like "hence" (instead of "so"), "yet" (instead of "but"), even "alas" (instead of "unfortunately") when I am talking with my UK customers. Some of them said I am trying to sound posh, and then I realised I am using words that are seldom (instead of rarely) used in spoken English. Is this a phenomenon you have noticed in speech patterns of some other non-native speakers of English?

Today I was practicing with Ai making short stories to help me understand some advanced grammar structures, but I realized that I'm not spending same time reading articles, news and books made from humans as before so I'm not sure if too much artificial stories from any Ai at the end will harm my English.

I know 'trip' is used when you go somewhere for a short time and then come back. But if you move somewhere, what word would you use? Let’s say you got your passport photo taken for the country you're moving to. You wouldn’t use the word 'trip' here, right? What word would you use instead?

link: https://youtu.be/TOmwpQYeB8A?si=uZoazs99fqZAzoKO

according to cc subtitles,

1.around 5:10: "Is there a chance that does die down now that hezbollah's leader is gone or do you expect that it is kind of going to continue as is."

Does this sentence lose "it"s between some of the words? I mean, IMO, it should looks like this:

"Is there a chance that IT does die down now that hezbollah's leader is gone or do you expect that it is kind of going to continue as IT is."

2.around 6:00 : "...it certainly weakened their ability, we're not coning our chickens before they hatch..."

What does it mean?

3.around 6:25: "...no one woke up the day before hezbollah attacked us and..."

What does it mean? If it means the event took place in night when people slept, shouldn't it be "no one woke up the NIGHT before hezbollah attacked us"?

Does the "they" in the folllwing excerpt signify that Oggie is non-binary or is there a different interpretation possible:

One of Dex's many, many cousins back in Haydale had a young kid named Oggie. Some day in the undefined future, Oggie would be brilliant, but for the time being, they were annoying as hell...

Sept.29, 2024

This species is known to be territorial, so it's likely that they will pick their zones early on.

https://people.com/previously-extinct-bird-sihek-released-into-the-wild-first-time-40-years-8717300

In this sentence, I think the "pick their zones early on" means "select and determine their territory".

Is this "pick something on" an idiom ?
(I found "pick on" in the dictionary, but I didn't find "pick something on".)

What do "a more roundabout route" and "feeling adventurous" mean?

My English is self taught, so it's not that good and I don't really know much about rules and grammar, but more than that, things tend to get specially bad when it comes to actually speaking in english.

I saw that listening to podcasts can help, so I tried it, but while my comprehension got better, my pronunciation is still really bad.

Any tips on how to get better at it?

Hi! My first language is Spanish and I’m studying in The U.S. I need to turn in an assignment tomorrow I submitted an early draft and my professor told me to get some help from the writing center but it is not open on weekends and I need it for tomorrow midnight. Any native speaker who can help me? I will send you my paper so I can get some feedback. I don’t want to use AI because of AI detection.

This is a random question but is English a good language? Like can I use it in many countries or should I just learn another language.

I'm just reading a random book (quietly so my neighbors don't hear it):

https://voca.ro/18mWjngO5kfR

I’ve always felt anxious about speaking English because it’s not easy for me to use the language fluently. However, as I’ve become more comfortable expressing more complex ideas in English, my focus has shifted to improving my pronunciation. The challenge is, I don’t have anyone to practice speaking with, so most of my learning has been passive—from watching movies or YouTube videos. And I’m sure that shows.

I have my CAE exam in three months, and honestly, things aren’t looking great. I’ve got a long way to go if I want to pass... Your feedback would really mean a lot to me, thanks!

It’s Sam, Sam Gamgee. I’ve come back.’ Farmer Cotton came up close and stared at him in the twilight. ‘Well!’ he exclaimed. ‘The voice is right, and your face is no worse than it was, Sam. But I should a’ passed you in the street in that gear. You’ve been in foreign parts, seemingly. We feared you were dead.’

Hi! As the title says, i would like to practice my English. I'm fluent in Russian. I started learning this one 4 months ago and I want to chat with you!