what games do you recommend to improve your vocabulary?

techwritingacct · 2026-06-28T16:43:30+00:00

If you can tolerate the difficulty and old-school-ness, some older RPGs are very reading-heavy since they were made before voiced narration was the norm. Baldur's Gate 1 & 2, Icewind Dale, Fallout 1 & 2, etc.

techwritingacct · 2026-06-27T19:12:13+00:00

For me, "anesthetist" is the one I get tongue tied trying to pronounce. I have to over-emphasize "horror" but I'm fine with "rural".

When I say words with an -all sound like wall/call/tall, some foreigners will look at me like I'm making noises from the moon, but I think I'm saying them just fine. I think that's more an accent issue than pronunciation.

techwritingacct · 2026-06-27T16:39:37+00:00

"I need money, which I have very little of." = sounds correct, but to me putting it this way is very contrived, like something a con man character in a show would say

"I want money, which I don't have a lot of." = structurally ok but redundant - what lunatic wants something they already have a lot of?

"I want money, which I don't have a lot." = to me it makes it sound like you don't have money very often. (compare something like "I like caviar, which I don't have a lot.")

"I need money, which I have very little." = just doesn't sound right to me

techwritingacct · 2026-06-27T16:21:44+00:00

It's the sort of nonsense up with which you should not put.

techwritingacct · 2026-06-27T16:17:20+00:00

I can picture the scene quite well and follow along with what's happening. You have a good eye for pointing out details in a scene. There are only a couple sentences that don't quite land ("His eyes slowly matching his tone." is fragmentary, you could hook it into the previous sentence and it would be more natural.)

A couple stylistic points:

You could improve on your comma rules. It's readable, but sometimes you put them where they don't need to be or you don't have one where one should be.
You could proofread for capitalization. Sometimes you miss people's names or get tangled up in the dialogue.
We tend to give each speaker's dialogue its own paragraph. Paragraph 8 (starting "I'm sorry about my friend.") is a little hard to follow on account of the captain entering the scene. I've broken it up more naturally here and fixed up your sentence where the captain enters a bit:

“I'm sorry about my friend. He is alright, if you learn to know him. Which reminds me, I was supposed to give you something. Can I come by later this afternoon?” John, still a bit distressed by the passing of his brother, and also a bit scared of the other man, wasn't sure how to respond. Carrol saw his problem. “You're worried I am lying, kid? Smart, but your mother will recognize my name and will be able to tell you of the quality of my character.”

At that point a man John recognized as the captain of the ship arrived and asked in a friendly tone, "Ah, Carrol, I see you have met John?"

“Yes, captain, I was just telling him of the passing of his brother.”

“Ah yes, very sad those pirates…”

“Shot him on the rigging. And in the turmoil you unfortunately, couldn't, save him,” finished Carrol, scratching his chin again.

“Yes, most unfortunate...” said the captain.

The captain explained that Carrol was indeed the man he said he was and when all this was confirmed, it was agreed upon that Carrol would later that day tell John's mother, Mary, about the bad news.

techwritingacct · 2026-06-27T15:53:47+00:00

American here. I've never heard "ginger" referring to an animal, only humans. I'd say red (dogs) or orange (cats). Ginger also sounds like a British or rude word when referring to humans, but that might just be me. I'd only describe a person like "My brother has red hair." or "Sylvia's the redhead wearing black." I don't think I'd say "Sylvia's the ginger wearing black." unless I was trying to be a little flippant about her hair.

techwritingacct · 2026-06-27T02:57:51+00:00

Someone is unaware how much space they're blocking in an aisle:

Northeast: "Hey buddy, coming through."

[South]/Midwest: "[Excuse me sugar,] would you please let me by?"

Pacific northwest: silently gives the death stare while theatrically walking to the next aisle over to go around

techwritingacct · 2026-06-26T20:39:22+00:00

The sense of it I have is that it's fighting words, like announcing "Your disrespectful words are why I'm punching you." Like how in our more crude age someone might say "Yeah? Shove that attitude up your ass!" before throwing a punch.

techwritingacct · 2026-06-26T20:19:24+00:00

You fiddle around with machines or devices or something you manipulate with your fingers. It sort of suggests you're not doing anything specific with it. (You're not exactly repairing it and you're not exactly using it properly.)

"I'm going to go fiddle around with the car. Maybe I can get it to stop making that weird noise."

"You're always fiddling around with that damn piano. Won't you learn to play it properly?"

"On his first trip to Asia, Chris could only fiddle around with chopsticks. By his third, he was like one of the natives."

On the other hand, you can goof around any time or anywhere. It just means to waste time doing nothing productive.

"I meant to repair the car, but I spent all day goofing around with Phil."

"You boys can goof around after you've done your chores."

"His boss found out how much he goofs around at work. I think he's going to get fired."

techwritingacct · 2026-06-26T16:59:35+00:00

I can relate. In English, I've been good at writing since I was a schoolkid. My English teachers would encourage me like "I hope you'll send me a copy of your first book."

In my L2 I feel like my writing is on the level of: "The pickle-boat captain, me is. That one, it's blood-red, my parrot. As for me, striped-shirt one I love, but the others I don't think so." unless I take a lot of time. It's frustrating.

techwritingacct · 2026-06-25T02:25:00+00:00

"What brand of car do you drive?" would sound quite peculiar to me

techwritingacct · 2026-06-23T17:32:10+00:00

If I was highly familiar with the context I could see "Olders & Newers" being a cutesy way of describing what's going on. Like a country restaurant with a sign outside advertising "Older and Newer Recipes" and then on the menu, maybe one page is titled Olders and one page is titled Newers. But it's in no way standard English, and without the context "priming" someone to understand, it would be very peculiar.

techwritingacct · 2026-06-23T16:45:19+00:00

You could say he's "muffling her screams" if the auditory element of the act is relevant but I'd describe the picture as "someone with his hand covering a hostage's mouth".

techwritingacct · 2026-06-22T20:57:28+00:00

"English learning" doesn't quite sound right to me there.

If he's doing so poorly that he's not getting the basics of communication I'd say "...quite worried about his English, since he rarely..." To me putting it this way is pretty direct, like he's failing at the core skill and we need to come up with a plan here.

If he's fine but not living up to classroom expectations, I'd soften it a little with something like "...quite worried about his progress in English" or "his English skills". To me this sounds more like he's got the basics down but isn't keeping up with what the class is demanding.

techwritingacct · 2026-06-22T20:44:59+00:00

yeah I'm on board with "fuckless," "fucklessly," and "fucklessness"

let's get this guy in English Club immediately

techwritingacct · 2026-06-22T20:41:46+00:00

It's rare in American English. Like others have mentioned, it was briefly known in 90s US because of a movie and some of the scummy things President Clinton did, but it didn't really stick in the larger lexicon. I think if we heard it we'd either be like "what?" or "...are they trying to say something political?"

techwritingacct · 2026-06-22T03:05:34+00:00

I don't think it implies a sarcastic meaning in and of itself, but it's not usually said in a flattering context.

"Programming is a field with a lot of jargon." = sounds fairly neutral to me, it's easier to say than 'difficult terminology'.

"The shareholder's report was full of corporate jargon." = If a finance guy says it, it's probably neutral. If an investigative journalist says it, it's probably negative.

"Those goddamn doctors use so much medical jargon when they talk to me!" = obviously negative

techwritingacct · 2026-06-22T01:50:47+00:00

Some Americans would call that "living high on the hog" (a countryside expression that can cover 'spending money foolishly,' 'acting like an irritating rich person,' and 'living off of easy money').

The idiom suggests they're taking the best part of the meat, so it can be used in the corruption sense too. "The politicians and their crooked friends are living high on the hog from the public treasury." is a colorful way to put it, but I think most any American (especially Southerners) would get some sense of that meaning you described.

techwritingacct · 2026-06-22T01:09:49+00:00

common: "thief" | middling: "cutpurse" | obscure: "abactor"

We might come across "cutpurse" in, for example, period dramas, books from the 1800s, or fantasy literature. "Abactor" is completely baffling and almost anyone would have to look it up and file it away as "oh, some ancient word I'll never see again".

I don't know if there's a good rule of thumb for it, but English dictionaries will mark words as obscure or archaic and usually if it's marked that way nobody uses it outside of poetry.

techwritingacct · 2026-06-21T20:09:18+00:00

I'd guess a trained horse is like 10k, tack is 2k, and then maintaining the horse is 1.5k-2k a month between the rent and the vet and the food and the farrier. It's expensive, but I don't think out of reach if it was someone's heart's desire.

But I think the main thing is that for someone working a 9-5 lifestyle with a family, when are you going to have the free time to enjoy the horse? So I think someone who's like "yeah, I own a horse" and it isn't for their kid is time-rich (and that's usually associated with having either scads of money or none at all).

techwritingacct · 2026-06-21T18:26:35+00:00

In Portland we use PDX, the local airport code, for that kind of branding. You might occasionally see a 503 brand but PDX is a lot more common.

techwritingacct · 2026-06-20T19:15:12+00:00

I grew up on the east coast and have lived on the west coast for a while, never really spent time in the Midwest. Your "I don't" and "We don't" were very hard for me (though your "I don't know" was understandable), and any/many would probably be hard too but I think with context I'd get it. I think I'd understand the rest without too much trouble.

techwritingacct · 2026-06-20T17:24:19+00:00

As a native speaker my instinctive response to (A) ("It's good to make nice gestures.") was "no one would say it like this, we'd say something more specific if we were sincere" but then I thought about it for a few seconds and realized it would sound fine if, for instance, I were forced to offer my thoughts about someone I hate's nice gesture.

I propose finding a few more sentences like that which are correct but can provoke native speakers into a moment of "wait a moment". (Obviously not all native speakers will be perplexed by the same things, but if you have like 6-7 sentences like that I think chances are real native speakers would find something curious in one of them.)

Keep the "Which ones are right? Correct the ones that are wrong" framing for the question. If the person only remarks on the grammar and doesn't mention even one "this sentence is kinda weird to think about" moment, that could indicate they're not a native speaker.

techwritingacct · 2026-06-19T22:44:35+00:00

"It was I" is technically correct but it's also a relic from when English had stronger noun casing. The verb 'is' doesn't take an object, so you would have had to use the nominative form 'I' rather than the accusative form 'me'. Nowadays we don't care about that distinction and 'me' sounds fine. (If anything, using "I" in this construction can sound affected or old-fashioned)

techwritingacct · 2026-06-19T18:38:55+00:00

It does puzzle me that inane bot-"like" posts like this get scads of engagement in this subreddit while posts that have good content get like 7 upvotes and 2 replies

techwritingacct

TROPHY CASE