New ask Hacker News story: Non-native English speakers, I want to hear from you
Non-native English speakers, I want to hear from you
4 by rcamargo | 2 comments on Hacker News.
Even though I don't speak it natively, I write in English very often. Every time I start writing a new text, Grammarly is at my side. Thank you so much, Alex, Max, and Dmytro. You created something great! With the assistance brought me by Grammarly, I can identify and fix grammar mistakes. I reorganize words to make my copy clearer, engaging and impactful. But if English is not your mother tongue, Grammarly faces some limits. At the start of the past year, I wrote a Cover Letter to compete for a position at Basecamp. Along with my text, I wanted to use a metaphor. After all, Basecamp is the "cradle" of Rails. But how to be sure that "cradle of" would express in English the same meaning this metaphor has in Portuguese (my native language)? Another common situation is to make sure about the correct prepositions. Grammarly will tell you whether they are grammatically incorrect, but this is not enough. In the following examples, both prepositions are right: a) I am in the hospital, b) I am at the hospital. However, they have very different meanings. As you see, metaphors and prepositions are obstacles that Grammarly can't help us to overcome. So I want to hear from you, non-native English speakers: How do you handle these issues? Have you found a tool able to solve them? Thanks in advance for every suggestion, feedback, or insight!
4 by rcamargo | 2 comments on Hacker News.
Even though I don't speak it natively, I write in English very often. Every time I start writing a new text, Grammarly is at my side. Thank you so much, Alex, Max, and Dmytro. You created something great! With the assistance brought me by Grammarly, I can identify and fix grammar mistakes. I reorganize words to make my copy clearer, engaging and impactful. But if English is not your mother tongue, Grammarly faces some limits. At the start of the past year, I wrote a Cover Letter to compete for a position at Basecamp. Along with my text, I wanted to use a metaphor. After all, Basecamp is the "cradle" of Rails. But how to be sure that "cradle of" would express in English the same meaning this metaphor has in Portuguese (my native language)? Another common situation is to make sure about the correct prepositions. Grammarly will tell you whether they are grammatically incorrect, but this is not enough. In the following examples, both prepositions are right: a) I am in the hospital, b) I am at the hospital. However, they have very different meanings. As you see, metaphors and prepositions are obstacles that Grammarly can't help us to overcome. So I want to hear from you, non-native English speakers: How do you handle these issues? Have you found a tool able to solve them? Thanks in advance for every suggestion, feedback, or insight!
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