How would you rate your English?

Well, I'm a native English speaker from England, not the USA. I think some people would consider that "better" or "real" English but I think that's ridiculous.
I'd give myself about a 9 1/2 writing, and a 9 or 8 depending on who I'm talking to. For the writing, I think I need to learn a few grammar rules and such, and for the speaking, I come from Bristol which has a VERY strong accent. Both my parents are from South East England and my dad went to a boarding school, so they both speak "properly" and somehow, I got their accent, not the atrocious regional accent of Bristol! :roflmao:

Most people probably don't know what a Bristolian accent sounds like. It's like a pirate or a farmer. With really strong r sounds. Sometimes they add L's onto the ends of words ending in A (idea = ideal, Asda = Asdal. God knows why) and sometimes they structure sentences weirdly. I've heard my neighbours and my sister say "Where's that to?/Where'd you have her to?" instead of "Where is it?/Where did you have the baby?" and "That well fucks me off, that do!" which means "that pisses me off" or something like that. When my mum moved here, she couldn't understand anything anyone said!

 

I'm very good with English, but few people possess perfect written English skills.

 

Always love this language even more than my own (french) but i don't really know where i stand. There is still a lot that i don't know.

 

C2 (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) / 9.0

I only have some trouble when starting a conversation, as it takes a little bit of time for my brains to switch to English mode (Interesting fact: I have the same problem when I've read too much English and I start a conversation in my native language). I also have some trouble with pronouncing the 'R' when it's in front of a word.

 

I voted 8/10.
Reading your comments I might have been a bit too generous with myself, though...
But as a non-native speaker I consider my English to be fairly good and I'm still working on improving my skills =)

 

8/10.

I'm not a native speaker.

 

I teach English so I'd rate myself a 9/8 or so. No one's perfect. Formal English, that is to say academic English, has so many odd little, persnickity rules that it's virtually impossible to rate a 10. Most of the rules are meaningless in a modern world. Our grammar is based in Latin. What doesn't work in Latin ofttimes works in English. That's why their are proofreaders and such.

 

I gave myself a 7. My English may not be 100% grammatically correct, but it's pretty damn good.

 

I like that according to this poll, the average English speaker is significantly better at speaking English than the average English speaker (at based on this particular sample). :roflmao:

Slim chance EC members are just fantastic at English, but I'm guessing this is one of those situations where its normal to think you're much better than average. I know studies have shown that people tend to rate themselves way above average on things like "sense of humor" and "taste in music," as well. :lol: Or maybe those who admittedly have some room to improve are just too embarrassed to post.

Full disclosure: I put myself above average too before seeing the other results. But to be fair, I scored in about the 93rd percentile on the verbal portion of the GREs.

 

^Not necessarily. It's reasonable to assume that people are above average at their native language, given that there are likely to be large numbers of non-native speakers exist. But regardless, this poll is really measuring two separate things that we often think of as the same: How good someone is, and where they fall compared to everyone else.

10, which is labelled perfect, is on the 'how good someone is' scale. 5 and 6 are on the other. I assume that most people here interpreted the question to mean how good they are, not how good they are compared to everyone else.

I'm very good at english. I'm a writer, so I have to be. I'd still be precisely as good as I am now, even if everyone else were better.

 

8.

 

Funny you should mention Latin, because spaces, capitalization, and punctuation didn't exist at all, and conventional word order was hardly even a thing. Even when we got the first three for translations, it was hard to figure out. I'm glad the two languages are not more similar actually lol.

 

English was not the first language I learned, but I might as well consider it my first language. It's almost all I use, with the exception of at my house. Growing up in the USA doesn't help my fluency in my family dialect. At all.

8 out of 10.

 

Various very honest and blunt British natives have been telling me that I speak and sound just like one of them for almost a century now. Suppose that is as good as it gets for a non-native, being classified as a native by natives. Surprised faces all around when I tell people I'm not actually from Britain / Scotland / Ireland (I tend to switch between the accents depending on who I am talking to, but mostly stick with Scots.).

I'm a true anglophile. I fucking love this language. I think, curse and talk to myself in English.
My passionate efforts invested in becoming a "native" speaker have paid off, I suppose.
I slip up when I'm drunk, but just the way natives do.

Now American English... that's pure bollocks.
Ye, I said it.

 

Was the part in bold intentional?

 

A 10. Simply the best anywhere.

Except on the computer, where I seem not to do as well as on the written page. Perhaps this has to do with the fact that I've always hated typing, and my thoughts emerge so differently than if I were to speak or write them. Keyboards feel unnatural to me, and my thoughts come out muddled sometimes.

 

Boo, Bristol accent is great! I'm always asking where things are to, don't go in for the gert lush or alright me luvver stuff though ha

I'm not that bothered about strict grammar rules really, actually I like it when people creatively break them. Speaking or writing you're trying to communicate something and as long as you manage that I don't think strict observance of grammar rules is really necessary, in fact people who get hung up about it can be quite dull.

My English is ok, I feel competent enough with it for formal or informal writing/speaking so. Don't know how I'd rate it on a scale though; abstain.

 

I speak English goodly LOL I'm just kidding. I speak English pretty well.

 

Honestly? Somewhere around 12.
Though I hope it doesn't sound too arrogant.