[drivers99]

In the spirit of giving a correction, and how to get them, the title should say either “I started” or “I am starting” not “I start.” I was going to suggest lang-8 for written corrections but it appears they changed to HiNative.com (I’m not affiliated) which appears to be for a combination of corrections and asking language questions.

I used to give language corrections on lang-8. I started to notice there are two types of corrections you can give. One type of error is a true grammar mistake, like saying “a apple.” Another is just making it sound more native. In those cases I would sometimes decide how to fix the grammar while keeping the original way of saying it, but also suggest a better way of saying it.

[mxgrn]

> either “I started” or “I am starting” not “I start.”

... And suddenly it seems so obvious! Thanks, fixed!

[a_lieb]

To be fair: titles and headlines are often written in the tense you used, often to give a sense of energy and intensity. In fact, this is the most common form in news headlines, like "Smith wins 2022 election" or "new statistics show increase in employment rate."

[jlund-molfese]

That's definitely true, but just for the third person.

For the second person, "you start taking the bus at age 30" is an imperative statement, which has a totally different meaning from the observation "You started taking the bus at age 30".

And for the first person, "I start the project on Monday" refers to the future, "I started the projected on Monday" the past.

[munificent]

Headlinese: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headline#Headlinese

[js2]

“A apple,” a grammatical mistake yes, but always makes me smile because it reminds me of the Honeymooners episode where Ralph Kramden gets stage freight presenting he “handy housewife helper” ending his latest get rich scheme.

https://youtu.be/em1DEwOtm3I

[drivers99]

Haha “I will now do it the modern way” is really relatable. I’m going to steal that.

[wrs]

Another thing that stood out: “the primary school” instead of just “primary school”. It implies there was only one primary school where you lived, which I’m guessing is not what you meant.

I don’t give “nativeness” corrections like this unless asked, but when I do, it can be fascinating to dig around in my unconscious language skills to try to explain why things sound “wrong”.

[mxgrn]

Appreciated the effort! Love these tiny details. Edited the post.

[mxgrn]

From what I've seen so far, ChatGPT is surprisingly good at editing texts. Would love to hear an opinion from a native, though.