lapka - no need to apologize! The reason I made that post is because that's one I've seen you do a lot and know you would appreciate knowing about it. There is another word you use that I'm trying to figure out how to post about for you because it's not really wrong from any language rules perspective, but you use it differently than native speakers do. However, your usage might be intentional. Hmm..

Is it the difference between "few" and "a few"? That's the one I can't figure out how to explain.

The annoying thing in the theme "Lapka's English" is that it is more character problem than language problem.
- sheer was avoidable, because I was unsure and somehow just lazy/impatient and didn't google it.
- "vow the betterment" instead of "vow betterment" was also avoidable because if I translate it directly in German where I am pretty confident, I don't use the article. So again : laziness, impatience, not assigning enough importance to writing good English.

Am not sure how to address that in a better way.

Lapka "Am not sure how to address that in a better way."

Maybe MLYLT will give you tips on self-improvement.

The actual quantities are in the same range - the important difference is what we are comparing them with. "A few" means "Not zero" whereas "Few" means "Not many".

Consider:
I have a few plans for what to do after I retire, so I won't be bored. (sounds consistent)
I have few plans for what to do after I retire, so I won't be bored. (sounds like a contradiction)
I have a few plans for what to do after I retire, so I'll be bored. (sounds like a contradiction)
I have few plans for what to do after I retire, so I'll be bored. (sounds consistent)

With uncountable nouns (the things with which we say "how much" rather than "how many") we use "a little" and "little" instead of "a few" and "few" (this can lead to amusing student errors because "little" means "small" rather than "small number" when applied to countable nouns).

E.g.
We can wait, we have a little time (sounds consistent)
We can't wait, we have a little time (sounds like a contradiction)
We can wait, we have little time (sounds like a contradiction)
We can't wait, we have little time (sounds consistent)

Note that in all cases we might mean "3 minutes".

If you say "only a few" or "only a little" though it means "few" and "little".

"Few" and "Little" without the "a" often sound stilted as "not many" and "not much" work better in ordinary register and "not a lot" is also fine in informal register.

I feel like a cat that caught a mouse.

None of your tenses there are wrong, but they are less common in English.

The "present continual" (form of the verb "to be" and an "ing" ending on the verb) is generally used only when something is happening right now, but is expected to end soon. e.g. "I am taking a shower." You can use it for feelings for sure, but it implies that the feeling won't last.

As for the "past emphatic tense" ("did" plus the base form of the main verb), it is almost never used in English unless you are answering a question ("Did he eat the cheese?" "Yes, he did eat the cheese.") or refuting a negative statement ("I didn't break the window." "Yes, you did break the window."). When it is used alone, it implies great emphasis and is used after the verb has already been mentioned once. "My grandfather golfed for years and never hit a hole-in-one. Then he did hit one and died the next day."

This is analogous to the using the simple past (präteritum) in spoken German. It is not incorrect, but it sounds very strange. "Der Katz fing die Mause" isn't wrong, and would look fine in a kid's book, but would sound odd in conversation instead of "Der Katz hat die Maus gefangen."

Lastly, while there is absolutely nothing wrong with "I feel like a cat that caught a mouse," if you are feeling proud and rather smug the most common English colloquialism is "I feel like the cat that caught the canary." I have no idea why it is the cat and the canary, but I think the saying chooses a bird instead of a mouse because of the visual image of a couple of feathers giving a hint to what just occurred.

Usually, we'll say, "Literally translated as.." or "A literal translation is...", something on that order.

Also "It is such huge amount of restraining myself..." sounds kind of odd. Maybe something like, "I'm exhausted from the effort it took to keep from telling them to STFU."

Finally, that should piss you off...

I'm used to just:

Literally translated: "words, words, words."

tx guys. I will do my best to apply it.

Is "jumped in triangles" (from the chopstick travel thread) a Russian idiom?

We'd say that conversation was going around in circles (i.e., always back to the same point). Right now, I can't think how how I'd describe what action I'd take to try to get the chicken.

I am not half as relaxed as Chop in such situations. Plain because I would feel that they are somehow trying to extra troll me. And so I would escalate the whole thing until I get the damn chicken.

ElD found this link to "jump in triangles". It is on point.
https://www.waywordradio.org/jumping-in-triangles/

I also found this one good as explanation for why "I am jumping in triangles" = "I am totally outraged"

"
Airk
Jul '10
In a fighting game context, it’s the ability of a character to ‘bounce’ off the edge of the screen as if rebounding off a wall. It’s also commonly called a “wall jump” even though, generally, there’s no wall there. It’s done by jumping back towards the edge of the screen, and then pushing up-forward as you reach the screen’s edge, causing the character to make a second jump. Their trajectory describes a triangle (or at least, has three points - the start, the wall-bounce point and the end), hence the name.
"

"give" something to someone but "put" something somewhere. In this case, when the place is further away, we normally use "take", e.g."I took my bicycle to the bike shop with a flat tyre. It's also not a "have done" situation because the whole thing is over now and you're just telling the story - for the same reason "They charged me 30 euros".

Also things take time, so "It took me 10 min ..." (without did). "Cost time" is borderline (don't like it some might say ok), but if you want to draw on the connection between time/money then "I spent 10 minutes taking it there.... " would be good.

Is that good English?
I mean I would instinctively rather do "used to guess" or "used guessing". And isn't "used" used rather for repeated or prolonged action from the past and not for singular happening?

I mean.... I understand, that my English compared to Nat's is like non-existent.

They used a knife and fork to eat.
They used the subway to get to the restaurant.
They used "guess LKJ's weight" to decide who pays.

"Guess LKY's weight" is the name of the game they played to make a decision. You could write -

They used rock, paper, scissors instead of credit card roulette though, so that was a clever twist.

It's more like spoken English than written. I would either use "guessing," Or I'd put "guess LKJ's weight" in quotes, as though it were the name of a game. It's also missing a comma, but that's not important in informal English such as seen in forum posts.

I definitely wouldn't use "used to guess." That would work as a past tense, but not as a description of the activity. "They used to guess LKJ's weight" would sound like something they previously did but don't anymore.

OK Tx.

I understand now. "Used" not to indicate the happening in the past, but to indicate the usage of the certain game.

IMO "played" would have been better than "used", but I understand Natamus is something of an English scholar so I wouldn't argue. Also, quotes around the game would have made it much clearer.

Basically, without the context I think even a native speaker might have struggled with that sentence.

Didace nailed it. I failed to properly capitalize the title of the game and that leads to confusion

Don’t confuse “writer” with “scholar”

I wrote it in the run of spoken English I forget often that not everyone speaks English as a first language

Nat - your true failure is in not making an H&F weight loss thread so that I can post there and refer to you as Fatamus. Consider it my Make A Wish request.

If you aren't currently a fat, consider upping your intake of some delicious fast food for a while to solve that.

I am overweight! However H&F is likely more personal than I care to get to the general population. Although maybe MBabs perverted my perspective of what a H&F thread is.

You can call me Fatamus it made me laugh reading it. At least until I lost 30-40 lbs

It's just not the same without a dedicated thread.

You could always make the thread then never post in it. I think that's how most H&F threads work.

Don't take Mbabs thread as being typical to H&F. It was just typical to her. Plus you can boot anyone if they are too annoying. Don't mind Chop he's just annoyed Alobar disappeared in action.

Hi guys.

I want to apply to a certain position that I like a lot. The position is written in English and the rule of the thumb is to apply in the same language the position is advertised. Could someone have a look at my cover letter, please. Any suggestions, ideas, corrections help.

Lapka,
For ease of offering corrections, would you be able to copy/paste the text into a post?