Comment by djtango
As a native speaker, you probably scratched your head and worked out what could fit in that gap and eventually worked it out. Then you'll grumble because the other speaker didn't choose your preferred diction.
As a non native speaker you'll probably just feel upset/hopeless/angry.
From my experience, "non-native" here includes people who are "fluent".
So we arrive at the situation where my OH-SO beloved wife is fluent in English and is definitely better than me at writing clearly constructed English essays but when it comes to usage of random idioms/slang or understanding local (and foreign!) English accents I have a very clear advantage.
actually, no, other half never popped into my head. i only got it from seeing other comments in the thread of people confused by it as well.