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Ever busted a non-native speaker? | ||
Tags: Error | Advanced Level | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Wulfgar Senior Member United States Joined 4671 days ago 404 posts - 791 votes  Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 34 01 September 2012 at 10:19pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Have you ever talked to someone in your L1, thinking she was a native speaker, but suddenly realized she isn't? I
think it would be interesting and helpful to learners trying to become native-like to list examples of how you "busted" a non-native speaker. Examples of busting non-native writing are also welcome. Here's an example. I was talking to a young lady for about 15 minutes, thinking she was American. Then she stood up, smiled and said "I'm peeing. I'll be right back." Busted - should have been "I have to pee". Turns out she moved here as a child from Costa Rica. What she said was a direct translation from Spanish. An example for writing - I've seen some flawless posts with the only error being using "advice" as a verb. Anyway, I hope people will give examples in other languages too, not just English, but with translations to let us know what was done wrong. Also, please keep in mind that these are supposed to be errors made by very advanced, near- native learners that had you fooled otherwise. Edited by Wulfgar on 01 September 2012 at 10:21pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Random review Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5783 days ago 781 posts - 1310 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Yiddish, German | Message 2 of 34 01 September 2012 at 10:31pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I have, but more as a sudden realisation based on the cumulative effect of a number of
tiny errors, any one of which could be made by a native, but which taken in conjunction...
Unless she actually was peeing at the time and that was her excuse for rushing off to the toilet, in which case what she said was correct ;-)
I've seen natives make mistakes like that. Edited by Random review on 01 September 2012 at 10:32pm 9 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4665 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 3 of 34 01 September 2012 at 11:21pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Speakers coming from Romance languages who otherwise have a very convincing English pronunciation will sometimes slip up by making their vowels insufficiently diphthongy (for example, /e/ where a native would say /eI/).
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| Kyle Corrie Senior Member United States Joined 4829 days ago 175 posts - 464 votes | Message 4 of 34 02 September 2012 at 1:41am | IP Logged | |||||
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I believe preposition use is typically the most obvious give-away of a non-native.
People can be extremely, extremely good. But the preposition use will eventually betray them. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
 newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6379 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 34 02 September 2012 at 7:34am | IP Logged | |||||
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It's propositions in my opinion, too. I have known several people who speak perfect English otherwise but at times use propositions incorrectly.
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| LaughingChimp Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4699 days ago 346 posts - 594 votes Speaks: Czech* | Message 6 of 34 02 September 2012 at 9:44am | IP Logged | |||||
People from northern England or Scotland often speak like that. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4665 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 7 of 34 02 September 2012 at 1:38pm | IP Logged | |||||
True. I should have noted that in these cases the person's accent sounded like "General American" otherwise, so the vowels sounded very out of place. Edited by tastyonions on 02 September 2012 at 1:39pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| asad100101 Diglot Senior Member Pakistan languagel.blogspot.c Joined 6455 days ago 118 posts - 137 votes Speaks: Hindi*, English | Message 8 of 34 02 September 2012 at 5:01pm | IP Logged | |||||
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@newyork it is 'prepositions' not 'propositions', different word altogether.
to me , the biggest give away is subject-verb agreement. Non-native speakers make a lot of mistakes on that front. At least that is quite a common pattern ... In my native language urdu this is the same issue foreign learners have to struggle with. Im wondering why? it is such an easy thing to fix subject-verb issue. I mean, Plural subject takes a plural verb form or singular subject takes a singular verb form...etc Whatever American native speakers I had come across who were actually on the verge of being called native speakers but their biggest give away was the use of formal vocabulary too much in their speaking...their overall meaning was crystal clear but they sounded slightly off ..because native speakers kind of use easy informal words as well. Edited by asad100101 on 02 September 2012 at 5:03pm 5 persons have voted this message useful |
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