I heard someone said like Costa Rica as in how much does it cost

i've also heard someone said it like in coast -Coasta Rica

which one is prefered?

Hey guys, I've hit a massive bottleneck with my English and could really use some app or resource recommendations.

My passive vocabulary and comprehension are decent (around B1-B2), but my active speech is slacking. Traditional apps don't work for me because they just test "English-to-native" translation, which only trains recognition. I need tools that force actual output, active recall, or fill-in-the-blanks to drag these words into my speech.

Two main things I'm trying to fix:

1. Learning in "chunks" and collocations. I want to stop translating word-for-word in my head. I need to practice natural word pairings, phrasal verbs, and conversational phrases so I can speak in pre-assembled blocks rather than isolated words.

2. "Domestic" fluency. I have huge gaps in basic, everyday English—things native speakers know from childhood but aren't taught in schools. Think specific kitchen utensils, household appliances, chores, etc. I need to master this alongside regular conversational and professional English.

Are there any platforms or methods that focus on context, reverse translation (native to English), and active production instead of just passive multiple-choice?

Thanks a lot!

Could anybody explain the difference of "it" and "that"? In my knowledge there isn't.

UPD I mean, like, "it's ok" and "that's ok" and similar.

I just tried to make some sentences. Please correct my sentences.

(Follow)
You should follow the rules.
You can follow me if you don't know the way.

(Keep up with)
I couldn't keep up with the agenda because I missed it yesterday.

I know it'll be a fairly hard time to keep up with them. They are definitely genius.

(Catch up on)
Never fall behind your competitors. It is a definitely competition. You have to catch up on.

I think 'follow' and 'keep up with' is obviously different but what's the difference between 'keep up with' and 'catch up on'?

I'm a native English speaker, and I'm curious which words you hate. I welcome replies from native and non-native speakers.

"Pad" in the context of walking is one I absolutely cannot stand to read. I have never heard it spoken in this context. It's always in books. "He woke up at 2 am and padded into the kitchen for a glass of water." I don't mind when it is used to describe adding extraneous or irrelevant information: "She padded her resume with every small award and recognition she got in high school and college" or adding material to something to cushion it: "He padded the dog's bed with extra blankets to protect her old joints from the hard floor."

(Day 6)
The weather today was really bad. It was raining for a long time. I have hated a rainy day since I was young. It makes me gloomy and when it is raining, I have to change my clothes which are wet. Fortunately, the weather forecast says this weekends will be sunny. So I have a plan to go swimming. And I have to see a dentist tomorrow to check my teeth. I hope there won't be a long line and get a checkup well.

A question for English natives

I guess I kinda realized how to make a question properly.

so there is a phrase "this baking sheet is used"

and it has two interpretations, right? correct me if not

1. it has been used and now it may be dirty

2. people use it usually/every day etc.

so depending on context we could know which one of the two is being used

the first interpretations describes its state/condition/result (again correct me if these words don't fit here)

the second interpretation just means that people use this baking sheet but we just changed the focus from people to the object

so two interpretations

1. current condition/result/state

2.people use it generally

so as I see now, present passive voice can be either current condition or general actions

so my next question is

how would you interpret these sentences

it is called a pen

she is mentioned in the book

I'm not allowed to come here

he is considered the most powerful man

do you perceive these as a current condition or actions that are performed on the object?

or it as the first example could have two meanings, depending on context??

Edited: also just as an example. My shoulders are sunburned. I guess it also has two interpretations. Current state vs general actions (from the sun)

I start learning English and I feel the pronunciation is really hard for me. Reading is ok but when I try to speak it sounds very wrong.

The nasal sounds confuse me a lot, and the silent letters make it difficult because I always want to pronounce everything like I pronouce an Arabic word.

Is this normal at the beginning? How long it take for you to feel more comfortable speaking? What helped you the most?

I'm going to give examples to clarify my question:

"I appreciate YOUR/YOU taking the time to write to me."

"HIS/HIM doing that was a surprise to us all."

"THEIR/THEM leaving suddenly caused major issues."

"It could be interpreted as HIS/HIM being simply uncomfortable."

"Are you okay with MY/ME doing the job alone?"

Well, you get the idea - so which one is grammatically correct in those situations, the possessive article - such as "his" - or the pronoun in accusative (?) form - such as "him"? Does it perhaps depend on the verb? I'm not a native English speaker, but I speak English fluently, so I feel like I should know this, yet I still don't. Can anyone help me with this?

Thanks for any answers!

I have a english language B exam in the morning and I have not done any proper revision yet. I am naturally decent at the subject but I want to know if it is realistically possible to clutch a grade nine with just one intensive night of study. If anyone has actually pulled this off please tell me your exact strategy.🙏🙏

If you sat down with lifelong residents of Paris, Montreal, and Port-Au-Prince would you expect them to give identical answers to questions about French grammar or wording?

What then is the point of throwing “Native” English questions out to the entire world?

Are these some kind of AI training exercise or something? I can’t wrap my head around the volume and inanity.

In traditionally published works, a long word near the end of a line will be split, hyphenating it after the first syllable. What's the term for that?

I understand how to use it when you’re referring to something specific (ex. “Look at that!”), but do I need to use it in the sentence, “I’m glad that the exam wasn’t too hard for you,” or can you exclude it? I can’t remember other examples off the top of my head at the moment and I don’t know how to describe its function, but does this also apply to similar sentences? I hope I explained myself well.

Edit: Reddit is not allowing me to comment under my post right now so I am editing my post to thank everyone for the helpful explanations and advice I have received!

Words ending in "is" often have an "es" plural. Analysis, hypothesis, crisis etc. Like one thesis, many theses.

The pronunciation for the ending of the words is something like:
thesis - /ɪs/
theses - /iːz/

I learnt that as a sort of rule, at least for Greek-derived words.
But I am starting to hear a lot of plurals pronounced that way even if they have nothing to do with Greek, and also when they don't even have the "-is" ending in the singular.

Example: one process, two processes
According to the rules I learnt it should be process/ɪs/, but people say process/iːz/ Same with biases. I think it should be bias/ɪz/ but I swear to god people say bias/iːz/

Are those people just being extremely pretentious like "I am very educated so I say it like a Greek word" even when they're not Greek words, or is my rule wrong?