Discussion Does this also happen to you?

I don't have that large of a vocabulary but I try to be diverse to the words I'm using so it doesn't sound redundant.

Lately, I seem to be using some really deep words into some of my conversation that even though I know I used it correctly I have to look up the word on the dictionary to make sure.

Do have instances like this? Where you are sure on what you are doing or saying but you need to make sure you do it or say it correctly?

It's probably common sense but I'm sure I already establish that I don't have those.

What do you think?

 

I don't use words I'm unsure of. I find words that I don't know from reading and then search up their definitions. If I like the word and it fits into a conversation then I use it.

 

Yep; in such situations, a quick Google search is a great confidence booster.

 

Same. English is my second language and I've been learning it in school for ages. My situation is just a bit different from yours, though.

I'm an avid reader and I read a shit ton of stuff each day. The thing is, if I stop reading novels and focus more on manga and the like, which just consists of pictures and not actual sentences describing a scene, I seem to lose my grasp on English. It's like it retreats to the back of my head and I get confused about grammar - trivial things, really - but it still makes me want to check if I said/wrote/thought something that's grammatically incorrect. I start getting insecure about it.
Human mind is such a weird thing.

 

I would have doubts while typing and then search the term before posting.

 

I get conscious everytime i speak englishl and mess my sentences up
lol but i can make conplete sentences in my mind though

 

yes

 

Yep, I do this too on occasion.

Related: I love when I get to use a vocab word in conversation (or previously in a school paper). I'm specifically talking about when that word just tumbles out of my mouth and it is just the right word to express what I'm trying to say. Especially if it's a word I haven't gotten to use before. It gives me a small warm and fuzzy feeling.

 

I often do this halfway through a text, post or writing a chapter. I just always think, 'what does it actually mean?' since most of my vocab I got from reading random books around the house, and the words I learned their meanings from context. So... Quite a few of the words I know, I don't actually, know, know, you know?

 

my problem is more wondering if others understand the word....

 

I can't even talk properly in my native language...

 

Doesn't happen all too frequently, since it seems my vocab's more or less enough for normal convo and I usually try to keep things simple. Cause the more I use words I'm not familiar with, the more I'll have to look things up xD and the people reading it may have to look it up too? So it's kinda an inconvenience for everyone, which is why I seldom use words that are really out there if yanno what I mean XD
Idioms though... oftentimes I'll find myself writing sth like "I don't know it off the top of my head" and then question if that's actually a real idiom, and if I'm using it correctly. Those take up most of my search time xD you can just use a translator for single words but for idioms or multiple word expressions... I once spent like 10 minutes googling the usage of "as if" cause I wanted to put it in a poem in the rhyming game. Sth like "her mind as if broken, her heart as if torn" but I couldn't find it being used like that on google. I could swear I had seen it used before like that but I couldn't find anything so I replaced it with "seeming" pwq

same lol gotta make sure everything's correct ... or someone may call you out and it'll just be a waste of everyone's time

 

Haha, I use words I'm unsure of and sure of both in all the wrong ways just as jokes.
Like, I say "overlook" when I mean to say "look over".
I use the term "sleep on it" when I'm actually trying to tell someone to remember something for the next day or to think of something the whole night, not to make them decide on something like it's supposed to mean.
And I say "how the turntables" (mostly because of the meme) when I'm saying "how the tables have turned".
Or saying "priceless" not for things that are invaluable, but for things that have no worth at all.
And other things like that.

Everybody understands my mistakes but just lets it happen cause they know I'm just doing it on purpose. (I try to minimize doing it online cause people here don't know my personality and they might think I'm actually an idiot who doesn't understand the meanings of those words.)

Anyway, there are a lot of things I just say that sound like it might be correct but it's not. So I think because of that I've never felt that anxiousness of wanting to check if I've used a word correctly, cause I'm using words wrongly all the time! lol

 

Usually, I try not to. Think, that is. The smoke sets off the detector.

You are just well read and get a good grasp of the meaning of the word based on it's usage. If you read amateur works more than professional then it's always good to be in the habit of double checking in case the author had a poor understanding of the usage/definition of the word.

One story I read, the author had the main character, 'enjoying the sights as he ambled down the river in the raft his parents bought him' or something. In fact, he might have been enjoying the, 'sites'; Because fanfiction author.

 

There are instances that not only in the vocabulary side of things, even when you're cooking for example.

You've cooked your favorite dish for years but you tend to look it up on the internet how to cook it again. Like there was a moment of doubt.

I basically don't have a bone of nationalism in my body. I used to do essays assignments for a price, if its in Filipino its around $10 and if its in English its half of the price.

 

This. Worst offenders I come across are usually native English speakers.

 

I use every word i could think off even if its just a growl or grunt aslong as im understood its good

 

I'm a literary retard. I lack finesse and proper grammar etiquette. This is why I have headaches when I attempt to write. It's all passionate one night writes for me, rather than planned execution. Woe is me, indeed!

 

My verbal English is bad...
But my written, I think, is passable...

I don't usually communicate to people verbally so the words I wish to say are just stuck...
And I prefer texting, messaging people as typing is easier (for me)... So it can really shock people as to how 'talkative' I am when conversing (mostly on line)...
My vocab just expands as I read... But I read mostly CN with lots of idioms and somehow affected my vocab irl, so when I reply with idioms, others don't understand me... *sigh*

 

if I use a word, I'll know what it means and how to use it

but if you were to ask me to give a dictionary definition of what the word means....