NONNATIVE SPEAKER Definition & Meaning

nonnative speaker

[ non-ney-tiv spee-ker ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

a person whose knowledge and use of a language is characterized by the fact that it is not their first or native language: For nonnative speakers, this sound is especially hard to pronounce. Compare native speaker ( def ).
She was the first nonnative speaker of Japanese to win this award.
For nonnative speakers, this sound is especially hard to pronounce.

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�y��vlog History and Origins

Origin of nonnative speaker¹

First recorded in 1915–20; native speaker ( def )

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Example Sentences

You've probably witnessed people switch to a slower, louder, simpler speech style when talking to an elderly person or a nonnative speaker.

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“A nonnative speaker would have trouble kind of fitting in naturally.”

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Given the choice, she said, babies prefer a food they’ve seen a native speaker eat over a food eaten by a nonnative speaker.

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But the translation, which has been conducted in part by a nonnative speaker, has not gone smoothly.

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In my relationship with English, in this relationship with the intrinsic distance between a nonnative speaker and an adopted language that makes people look askance, I feel invisible but not estranged.

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