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English is Fine/Good
Hi Teachers
When a British says somebody's spoken English is "Fine", how far is it is from "Good" or "Very Good" or "Native"? I would like to seek some generic comments.
Regards
Anthony the learner
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Re: English is Fine/Good

Originally Posted by
patran
When a British person says somebody's spoken English is "Fine", how far is it is from "Good" or "Very Good" or "Native"?
'Fine' is not a point on a fixed scale. It means something like ' acceptable' or 'good enough'.
Context is important. Please provide enough for us to be able to deal effectively with your question.
Your thread title should include all or part of the word/phrase being discussed.
If you just want to know the meaning of a word, try OneLook Dictionary Search first.
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Re: English is Fine/Good

Originally Posted by
patran
Hi Teachers
When a British says somebody's spoken English is "Fine", how far is it is from "Good" or "Very Good" or "Native"? I would like to seek some generic comments.
Regards
Anthony the learner
By the way, it's not used in a question, as in "Is my English fine? Is this grammar fine?"
Well, it is often used this way by learners here. I mean native speakers don't use it this way.
A: "How do I look?"
B: "You look fine" - OK
A: "Do I look fine?" - Not OK
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Re: English is Fine/Good

Originally Posted by
Raymott
By the way, it's not used in a question, as in "Is my English fine? Is this grammar fine?"
It's also not used in negative utterances.
A: What do you think about my last paragraph?
B. It's fine. OK
B: It isn't fine. Not OK
Context is important. Please provide enough for us to be able to deal effectively with your question.
Your thread title should include all or part of the word/phrase being discussed.
If you just want to know the meaning of a word, try OneLook Dictionary Search first.
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Re: English is Fine/Good

Originally Posted by
5jj
It's also not used in negative utterances.
A: What do you think about my last paragraph?
B. It's fine. OK
B: It isn't fine. Not OK
And what about this exchange:
A: What do you think about my last paragraph?
B: It's fine.
C: No it isn't.
C is not repeating "fine", but he is saying that the last paragraph isn't fine. Is C's response natural?
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Re: English is Fine/Good
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