How do you spot native enlish speaker
- Thread starter nimdekvan
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Check passport, or if he says 'dear' a lot.
Brighter Faster
Junior Member
- May 12, 2018
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Incorrect use or omission of definite and indefinite articles is often a giveaway. For instance you wrote “spot native English speaker” instead of “spot a native English speaker.”
Incorrect use of singular and plural is common as well. I see things like “10 best exercise machine for men” instead of “10 best exercise machines for men” pretty frequently.
How do you spot these things if you aren’t a native English speaker? I don’t know... practice, or hire someone to review your articles.
dotc0m
Elite Member
- Aug 24, 2010
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Most american's are very strict about grammar.
I know I am. Everything at least grammatically, has to be correct.
Little misspellings here and there go a long way.
SocialManager
Elite Member
- Nov 26, 2018
- 3,155
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Control + F "loose" where they should use "lose." Ask them to go on Skype webcam and show their identification to you if it's important to you.
superduper7
Power Member
- Apr 24, 2014
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Learn how to spell
nimdekvan
Regular Member
- Jun 3, 2015
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Grammarly actually suggested "a" in there but I removed it because I thought it doesn't has to be so strict (in my language it's not).
Sometimes I thought that those natives are lazy and just type whatever that is enough to understand but no need to be grammatically correct.
Would you still buy a product even though a review website is not grammatically correct?
- Feb 19, 2016
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Americans*
Everything, at least grammatically, has to be correct.*
Not so strict now, are we?
OP, you can always hire a proofreader or use Grammarly to make sure everything's good to go before publishing any article on your site. Grammar mistakes, especially obvious ones, can be a huge turn-off for some readers.
I really hate this native vs. non-native debate. You shouldn't judge the content's quality based on the writer's origins or ethnicity. As long as he/she uses proper grammar and engaging sentences to create content that converts and sells, you shouldn't worry about it.
timothywcrane
Supreme Member
- Apr 25, 2009
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Get a content sample and run it through a flesch kincaid grade level checker.
nimdekvan
Regular Member
- Jun 3, 2015
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True enough. I'm not being racist but I think it's common to believe that native should be more fluent writing their own language.
- Feb 19, 2016
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More fluent? Yes.
Better at crafting quality content? Not always, as it all boils down to experience and passion - both of which many native speakers don't have.
All of that just to say that unless the writer claims that he's a native speaker while providing shitty content, you needn't sweat it.
Makemeproguys
Banned for Inflammatory Content.
- Oct 30, 2017
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You can spot out the immature. I have seen people from USA speaking terrible English.. where as some people from japan speaking extremely well just like a native..! Accent and confidence is the only way you can find that out.
Brighter Faster
Junior Member
- May 12, 2018
- 152
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Whether someone is a "native" speaker of English doesn't matter. I assume this is shorthand for "high quality English that would sound natural to someone whose primary language is English." The whole "native" thing on BHW is a bit weird, but I sort of get what people mean. There probably is a correlation between "native" English speakers and natural sounding English writing, but it is definitely not perfect. I have plenty of friends whose only language is English, but whose writing is terrible.
A couple of things on writing. First, most English speakers do not care about grammar or spelling, per se. It's more a question of which grammar and spelling mistakes they make. People whose primary language is English make lots of grammar mistakes, but there are certain types of grammar mistakes they almost never make. As I mentioned above, omitting indefinite articles where they are necessary is something they would almost never do. It's not because they care about grammar, it's because it sounds very wrong.
Another example. Native English speakers will mess up possessive forms a lot (as @Nerva pointed out someone above used "American's" instead of "Americans"). They'll put an apostrophe in the wrong place, or will omit it where it is necessary. However, a mistake I see in a lot of content on the web is omitting the 's' entirely. Something like "Best Women Athletic Clothes." Leaving out the 's' completely is not a mistake someone whose primary language is English would make, and would immediately make the writing sound low-quality to me.
Using Grammarly is good, but will miss a lot of errors. For instance, in the sentence of yours above that I quote, Grammarly only complains about the "actually" being unnecessary and that "has" is the wrong form of the verb. Those are both valid points (the second is far more important than the first). However, it fails to notice other problems that stand out. (Your English is totally fine, btw, I'm just using it as an example of things that I notice that make it sound like English is not your first language.) For instance you write "type whatever that is enough..." which sounds wrong even if it is not technically a grammar mistake. Similarly, "sometimes I thought that..." is a construction that sounds awkward.
As to whether it will matter for conversions, I think that it does. If a site has low-quality writing, I'd be less inclined to believe they have high-quality products.
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