3 ms·

If you'll tolerate nitpicking (EDIT: I don't consider any of this worth pointing out other than nitpicking): Rather than "would sometimes" as "will sometimes".

If you'll tolerate nitpicking (EDIT: I don't consider any of this worth pointing out other than nitpicking): Rather than "would sometimes" as "will sometimes". I'd rephrase "current thought" to "thoughts" or "train of thought". I'd rephrase "I’m also aware of my grammar not being perfect." as "I'm also aware that my grammar is not perfect." "but that currently [is] not an option" (presumably a typo).

OJFord 7y ago
These are all the things I would have picked out - except I would just drop 'would', not replace with it 'will'. (The verb then becoming 'do', later in the sentence.) I'd also add that in changing any of those I could easily be proof-reading a native speaker's writing. With the exception of: > if you spot out anything unless it's an AmE idiom or something, to me that's the only think that marks you out as non-native. I'm aware I've said both 'picked out' and 'marks you out', and I have no idea how to explain why this is different, it just sounds weird. > if you spot anything
- jgwil2 7y ago
  AmE speaker here. I have never heard anyone use "spot out" as a verb, but on the other hand, prepositions seem to pretty frequently attach themselves to new verbs or drop from common phrases. It still bugs me a little to hear colleagues talking about "building out" a new feature instead of simply building it, for example.
  - OJFord 7y ago
    That is a weird one, yes. I think it comes from 'flesh out', which, if similar, is at least old enough that it doesn't sound strange to me. Wiktionary sort of suggests it should sound similarly odd - it doesn't discuss it on the flesh out page [0], but for flesh vb. [1] it does give '5. To put flesh on; to fatten'. [0] - https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/flesh_out#Verb https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/flesh_out#Verb [1] - https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/flesh#Verb https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/flesh#Verb

OJFord 7y ago

These are all the things I would have picked out - except I would just drop 'would', not replace with it 'will'. (The verb then becoming 'do', later in the sentence.) I'd also add that in changing any of those I could easily be proof-reading a native speaker's writing. With the exception of: > if you spot out anything unless it's an AmE idiom or something, to me that's the only think that marks you out as non-native. I'm aware I've said both 'picked out' and 'marks you out', and I have no idea how to explain why this is different, it just sounds weird. > if you spot anything

jgwil2 7y ago
AmE speaker here. I have never heard anyone use "spot out" as a verb, but on the other hand, prepositions seem to pretty frequently attach themselves to new verbs or drop from common phrases. It still bugs me a little to hear colleagues talking about "building out" a new feature instead of simply building it, for example.
- OJFord 7y ago
  That is a weird one, yes. I think it comes from 'flesh out', which, if similar, is at least old enough that it doesn't sound strange to me. Wiktionary sort of suggests it should sound similarly odd - it doesn't discuss it on the flesh out page [0], but for flesh vb. [1] it does give '5. To put flesh on; to fatten'. [0] - https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/flesh_out#Verb https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/flesh_out#Verb [1] - https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/flesh#Verb https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/flesh#Verb