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English Language Learners Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for speakers of other languages learning English.

This sentence may have two meanings as follows. Which is more accurate?

A. English Language Learners Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for speakers of other languages who are learning English.

B. English Language Learners Stack Exchange is a question and answer site which aims at helping speakers of other languages learn English.

Sorry for ambiguity in my question, let me put it another way: That slogan can be paraphrased to the following two sentences. which one is closer to the orignal sentence in meaning?

A. English Language Learners Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for speakers of other languages who are learning English.

B. English Language Learners Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for learning English of (or 'by', I am not sure. ) speakers of other languages.

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  • I don't think we can say which is more precise. They are both clear and precise sentences. On that basis I've voted to close. It is a matter of opinion which is more precise.
    – James K
    Sep 23, 2021 at 5:16
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    There is a potential ambiguity in the slogan (is it the speakers who are learning English, or is it the languages which are learning English) But that ambiguity is easily resolved by context (languages can't learn things, so it must be for speakers who are learning English)
    – James K
    Sep 23, 2021 at 5:17
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    I think the OP means "accurate", in which case, there's a correct answer, which is A. This site may be a place which aims at helping people, but that's not what that sentence means.
    – gotube ♦
    Sep 23, 2021 at 5:57
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    Does it really matter? There is no real semantic difference between A. and B. The term "question and answer" implies providing help to people by answering their questions, so it follows that A. entails B.
    – BillJ
    Sep 23, 2021 at 8:01
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    I wrote an answer, because I feel that there are a lot of people who don't really understand this question and I didn't want to put words in your mouth by adding my explanation to your question. I think it would be helpful for you to edit your question to add more explanation though.
    – ColleenV
    Sep 24, 2021 at 19:28

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I'm going to simplify your example sentence a little:

This site is for people learning English.

If I understand you correctly, you believe that could mean one of two things:

  1. This site is designed for people who are in the process of learning English.
  2. This site is used by all sorts of people for the purpose of learning English.

Only the first meaning is the one that native English speakers would think of immediately. It took me a little while to understand why you thought there were two meanings. I will need to think about it little more before I can explain why I interpret the sentence that way. There is likely a rule about using "is for X to-infinitive Y" instead of "is for X verb-ing Y" for this situation, but I don't know what it is exactly.

If we wanted to remove the ambiguity we would write the two meanings this way:

  1. English Language Learners Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for speakers of other languages who are learning English.
  2. English Language Learners Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for speakers of other languages to learn English.

There isn't a big difference in meaning. A site that is for people who are learning English, or for people to learn English would probably look very similar, except the first meaning emphasizes the student and not the learning. The second sentence feels awkward to me though; I would probably reword it to use "teach" instead of "learn".

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  • I have edited my question. Please have a look. BTW, why is it better to use "teach" instead of "learn"?
    – wuhan
    Sep 30, 2021 at 3:27
  • @wuhan I prefer “teach someone something” over “for someone to learn something” because it is more direct, and it is less likely to be ambiguous.
    – ColleenV
    Sep 30, 2021 at 11:11

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