'How is your English?'

Question

All of a sudden, I am curious to know if this expression 'How is your English?' to mean How good your English is now?What do you native English speakers think?Thank you so much as usual.

BenAldridge0 · Accepted Answer

Yes, that is what it means. I may be wrong, but I see a little flexibility with the context this question could be expressed in.

For example, you may ask somebody that question when both of you are already practicing English. Perhaps you are living in America with someone from your native country, and both of you are studying English at a community college. How is your English? could be an inquiry into how quickly they are progressing and what they are struggling with.

Another context in which it might be used is if you're in your native country, and you feel like speaking in English for practice. Perhaps you look at someone whom you have never met prior, and you ask them, How is your English?In this context, you're trying to figure out if they can speak English at all, so you can practice with them. Of course, you can also ask, "Do you speak English" directly.

Perhaps my explanation is overkill or slightly redundant, but it just struck me that the question could have some subtle and distinct, applications.

Hope it helps,

Ben

GPY · Answer

"How good your English is now?" is not a correct sentence. It should be "How good is your English now?"

"How is your English?" means more or less the same as "How good is your English?". There seems no particular reason to include the word "now".

(Cross-posted.)

GPY · Answer

GPYThere seems no particular reason to include the word "now".

Sorry this wasn't very clear ... I mean there seems no reason to introduce the word "now" in the explanation when it was not present in the original. Of course, you can say "How (good) is your English now?" if you want to emphasise "now" versus some time in the past.

'How is your English?'

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