Hi
I would like to know if the word unconfident is the opposite of confident! He is an unconfident speaker. Do you find this sentence OK?
Tom
Hi Tom
Personally, I’d prefer not:
He is not a confident speaker.
The word “unconfident” is a valid word, but I’d say “not confident” is more commonly used.
Amy
Hi Tom,
Unconfident doesn’t sound very pretty. I would suggest:
A speaker lacking in confidence.
Alan
i found that sentence as a part of FCE use of english papers and the first option (use of past simple) was suggested as a more correct one, why can’t we use past continuous in that example?
regs
Hi,
If you write/say: ‘I was climbing …’, the reader/listener would expect to find out what happened next as in: I was climbing higher and higher when I heard the sound of an explosion.
Alan
thank u alan 
i have one more question, totally different kettle of fish though:
is the expression ‘the whole megillah’ really strange and archaic when used by a non-native speaker? ( i heard it in the movie) my american friend told me not to use as nobody speaks like that …
hmmm …
I have never heard that phrase - ever - in my entire life.
I have heard that expression and/or variations such as ‘the big magilla’ and ‘the real magilla’. I don’t hear these ‘magilla(h)’ expressions very often and don’t use them myself. However, I imagine it’s possible that these magillah expressions might be more common in the immediate New York City area, for example.
This link has some info about the expression:
the whole magilla(h)
[color=darkblue]______________________________________________
[size=75]“Traffic signals in New York are just rough guidelines.” ~ David Letterman[/size]
i heard that phrase in ‘northern exposure’ said by an inveterate new yorker joel fleichman so u r right, perhaps it is much more common in that area or perhaps it’s particularly used by the jewish … it would make sense, taking the linguistic roots and all.
thanx
why do we use present simple to talk about ‘at the moment’ in the following sentence:
'at the moment I spend a lot of time just making friends. ’
is it 'coz the verb ‘spend’ is more often used in simple than contin.?
Just my 2 cents, but I think that your friends opinion to not use the phrase is poor advice.
I am 34 and havent heard it in a while, but I have heard and said it in my life.
If you like it and how it sounds(and understand how and when to use) please dont let anyone stop you.
I say all sorts of things that people are surprised to hear, it gives you character.
…and yes it is more of a regional/cultural phrase to be precise.
yes, i guess u r right using specific type of vocab does give u character
Using words that don’t exist on a forum for people who want to improve their English also tells us something about your character ;-)![YSaerTTEW443543]
TOEIC listening, talks: Job candidate is explaining why company should should hire him[YSaerTTEW443543]
“The film doesn’t start until 7.30. We’re half an hour early.”
why not “earlier”?
can anyone explain it to me, pls? 
regs
[quote=“Torsten”]
Using words that don’t exist on a forum for people who want to improve their English also tells us something about your character ;-)!
well, i thought the forum’s purpose is to ask questions connected with english … no matter the proficiency level
i found the effort made (by the natives) to help me with ‘the whole megillah’ phrase quite useful.
I recently saw “unconfident” and agree with ‘Alan’ that it’s an ugly word but the reason it was used was because of the “ignorance” of the writer in not knowing the conventional choice of “lacking (or lacked) confidence”. In other words they automatically used “un” to mean the opposite of…but not all adjectives work with “un” although this has never stopped the way that Americans invent words and verbs.
Regarding “Megillah” whilst this Yiddish word has long been used by Jewish people to refer to a long winded story or event, (it is actually the name of the book telling the story of Queen Esther and the Jewish Festival of Purim) it is like a lot of American words that are filtering into the English language and being used by English people (here in the UK) without understanding the origin of the word. The Americans are much quicker at using/adopting Yiddish in their conversation than the English.‘Stum’ and ‘Shmaltz’ being only two other examples.
Normally, the definition given by a non-Jew falls very far short of the actual
definition/use of the word when used by Jews (and other Yiddish speaking people)- because Yiddish is far more expressive than English. Whilst ‘Shmaltz’ is actually chicken fat- using the word in a sentence about the description of a let’s say a "shmaltzy "love scene in a film - can convey very little of the emotion as understood by a Yiddish speaker compared to an English speaker.
You are just explaining “slang” in a run around the bush way. Slang is words used in a intentional way that is not what was its original use. Also English, as we know it today, is just a mash-up of many languages.
Although I do agree that some slang exists because of ignorance.