Common Mistakes We Make while speaking English!!

1. "It was a blunder mistake."
Correction, people! The word 'blunder' means mistake, so you could say:
"It was a blunder," or
"It was a big mistake."


2. "It would have been more better."
The word 'better' itself implies that the option in question is superior -- the use of the word 'more' in the sentence is, therefore both inappropriate and unnecessary. Thus the correct sentence would go as follows:
"It would have been better."


3. "Why don't he get married?"
The term 'don't' applies when discussing a plural subject. For instance, "Why don't they get married?" The right way to phrase that sentence would be:
"Why doesn't he get married?"


4. "I want two Xeroxes of this card."
The term 'Xerox' is used in North American English as a verb. Actually, 'Xerox' is the name of a company that supplies photocopiers! The correct thing to say, therefore, would be:
"I want two photocopies of this card."


5. "Your hairs are looking silky today."
This is one of the most common Indian bloopers! The plural of 'hair' is 'hair'! Thus:
"Your hair is looking silky today."


some more::


1. Loose vs lose:
Many people make this mistake. They inevitably interchange the words 'loose' and 'lose' while writing. 'Lose' means to 'suffer a loss or defeat'. Thus, you would write:
'I don't want to lose you," and not ' don't want to loose you.'

'Loose', on the other hand, means 'not firm' or 'not fitting.' In this context, you would write,
"My shirt is loose," not "My shirt is lose."


2. "One of my friend lives in Kolkata."
This is one of the most common Indian English bloopers ever! The correct way of putting that is:
"One of my friends lives in Kolkata."

Why? Because the sentence implies that you have many friends who live in Kolkata, but you are referring to only one of these friends.


3. Tension-inducing tenses.
People often use the wrong tense in their sentences. For instance, someone might say:
"I didn't cried when I saw the movie."

Unfortunately, the word 'didn't' is never followed by a past tense verb, in this case 'cried'. The correct way of putting it would be:
"I didn't cry when I saw the movie."

meron pa bang iab kayong maisusuggests na common mistakes natin :noidea:

nice :salute:

more more... i want more.. ^_^ :)

more more... i want more.. ^_^ :)

English is considered one of the most difficult languages to learn. After all, you have to keep in mind all the exceptions, rules, irregular tenses and other oddities.

Don't abandon hope if you're having trouble. Keep reading our reader-driven, English bloopers series, and before long you'll be an expert!

Today, we look at contributions from Karan Shah and Shihari BN.

Karan, a 21-year-old English student in New Delhi, says that many people make mistakes with irregular nouns, especially when changing them into plural form. He provided the following list:

~ I bought new furnitures for the bedroom.

~ Please bring along the film equipments!

~ Display the datas in a graph.

~ Did you see the deers in the forest?

~ There were many pretty womans at the party!

~ What were the different criterias for joining?

~ I'm interested in misunderstood phenomenas.

The common problem linking these bloopers is using the incorrect plural form of the noun. All of them have 's' added on to the end when it is unnecessary. The correct version would be:

~ I bought new furniture for the bedroom. (Furniture is plural as well as singular.)

~ Please bring along the film equipment! (Equipment is plural as well as singular.)

~ Display the data in a graph. (Datum is singular; data is plural.)

~ Did you see the deer in the forest? (Deer is singular and plural.)

~ There were many pretty women at the party! (Woman is singular; women is plural.)

~ What were the different criteria for joining? (Criterion is singular; criteria is plural.)

~ I'm interested in misunderstood phenomena. (Phenomenon is singular; phenomena is plural.)


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Srihari, a 36-year-old from Bangalore working in IT enabled services, sent a few bloopers he commonly hears in office.


Blooper no 1:

~ Every Sunday, I take headbath.

The correct version should be:

~ Every Sunday, I wash my hair.



Blooper no 2:

~ I sended that parcel.

This is common mistake. English has many irregular verbs in the past tense. Sent is the past form of send.

~ I sent that parcel.



Blooper no 3:

~ I will call you today night.

Just dissecting the word, to-day, shows the origin. It means during the day. Therefore, you should use to-night.

~ I will call you tonight



Blooper no 4:

~ Can I have your name?
~ Can I go to the toilet?
~ Can I hold your hand?

This is one of the most common misuses of a word in the English language. Of course you *can* have someone's name, just as easily as you *can* go the toilet or hold someone's hand. Can means whether or not you are able to do it. May means whether or not you have permission to do it.

~ May I have your name?
~ May I go to the toilet?
~ May I hold your hand?

Do you know what's wrong with them? (explanations below)

"I'm meeting my friends in my free time"

"I'm going swimming about twice a week"

(looking at a musician in a picture) "I think he plays a guitar"

"I live in london for 3 years"

"I've been to Paris last year"

"I finished"

"I'm bus driver"

"I saw Tower of London"

"I saw the Tower Bridge"

Explanations:

Present Simple/Present Continuous

"I'm meeting my friends in my free time" "I'm going swimming about twice a week" (in a picture)"I think he plays a guitar" etc (see below for corrections)

This is supposed to be one of the first grammatical structures students learn but this really is one of the most common spoken mistakes, and it occurs right the way from beginner to advanced. Why? Most languages have the same tense or aspect for something we're doing at the moment and something we do regularly. In English we use the simple aspect for regular activities and continuous for at the moment. The interesting thing is, while most learners know this, and would never make this mistake in a grammar test, for some reason it comes out while speaking. I hear even really good speakers of English, like teachers making this mistake. Some students have even invented a completely new tense in English (as if we don't have enough already) and say "I working on a ship" which in some parts of the world is becoming such a common mistake it might in a couple of hundred years time start to become correct. One in the eye for 'living language' opponents or purists.

Present Perfect

"I live in london for 3 years" "I've been to Paris last year" "I finished" (see below for corrections)

We know why this is a problem because most languages don't have this tense. The perfect aspect is also supposed to be the hardest one to learn, which I'm sure is true. Explaining the difference between present simple/perfect and past simple/presentperfect is one of the first really tricky things a TEFL teacher comes across when starting out teaching. If you're not a teacher, to see how tricky it is to understand, try explaining the difference and especially in which situations we use the present perfect ("I have done something") as opposed to the past ("I did something"). Fortunately the other perfect aspects such as past perfect ("I had done something") and future perfect ("I will have done something") are used relatively rarely in spoken English so they don't count as common mistakes. But present perfect we really do use a lot and it needs to be understood if someone wants to be able to communicate in English with any efficiency or accuracy.
So often I get asked the question here in Poland "How long are you in Poland?" Being an English teacher I know they mean "How long have you been in Poland?" Does it matter you may ask? Well yes it does. A native speaker of English especially will understand the question "How long are you in Poland?" to mean the future, ie"How long are you going to be in Poland?" and they could well answer "I'm not sure" which would create all sorts of confusion.

Also, like the mistakes made with present simple/continuous, this kind of mistake is widespread and some have predicted that the perfect tenses will die out in spoken English if they haven't already done so in large parts of the world where English is used by non-native speakers of English, for example different nationalities working together or doing business. Perhaps in a hundred years "how long are you in Poland?" really will mean till now instead of the future.


Articles - a, an, the

"I'm bus driver" "I saw tower of London" but "I saw the Tower Bridge" (see below for corrections)

Articles (when we use 'a' or 'the' or don't use them) are supposed to be THE hardest grammatical thing to learn in English, even harder than (the) present perfect.

Why? Because most languages don't use them.

What's the difference between "The pen" or "A pen"?

Non-native speakers of English tell me this is the one thing they think they will never be able to master completely, no matter how long or hard they learn English.

They could be right.

Even Neil Armstrong, a native speaker of English, got it wrong at one of the most important events in human history. While stepping onto the moon's surface he said; "This is one small step for man and one giant leap for mankind" which is actually nonsense in English.

What he should have said was; "This is one small step for A man and one .........etc"

Still I suppose he was under a lot of stress at the time.

Corrections:

"I meet my friends in my free time"

"I go swimming about twice a week" (both regular activities)

"I think he's playing a guitar" (activity happening at the moment)

"I've lived in London 3 years" (how long in the present)

"I went to paris last year" (finished time frame - last year)

"I've finished" (just happened, we still have the result of the action)

"I'm a bus driver" (unspecified job)

"I saw the Tower of London" (name or place with 'of')

"I saw Tower Bridge" (name or place without 'of')

This is really a big help for us. :)

very educational!!!! helpful!!!!

:salute:

better yet, join us - we need more people like you in our department :D

Wow napakahelpful ito, post pa po kayo tungkol dito... :thumbsup:

nga pala, i think ang thread title is supposed to be

Common Mistakes We Make When Speaking English

instead of

Common Mistakes We Make while speaking English!!
correct me if i'm wrong :D

nice thread..

...lol. that was fun.

i was lucky, i learned to read early. after that abakada yellow manual, i jumped straight to comics in the sunday newspapers. the images connects the dots between the words and the meaning implied, so learning was a cinch.

oh and, papi icon, both are right. yung suggestion mo lang, it implies speaking right now, the previous one implies anytime you speak. :)


about that Neil Armstrong comment, i wouldn't say he got it wrong. see, the problem with grammar is, it gets too literal too quickly. which is why i hate call centers. damned grammar. pfft.
when armstrong said "one small step for man", its pretty much like "mankind", which is pretty much all-encompassing, but implied on a lesser scale (of sorts). he's not referring to man as in "man" or "woman", but to the species or population in general. he just sort of referred to it twice using two different words, which he probably could've have said in a different way, but spoils the "grandiose" effect. :)

now ko lang to nakita a.. hehe.. thanks dito

ilang beses akong nakapanood ng mga Aga movie, Jericho movie,,they keep on saying "on the way na ko" nakupo maling mali!

ilang beses akong nakapanood ng mga Aga movie, Jericho movie,,they keep on saying "on the way na ko" nakupo maling mali!

dba po dapat.. "i'm on my way.." :giggle:

salamat dito master rentao di ko pa tapos basahin pero baka bukas :D very educational:salute:

:more: more! :more: more!

the more the manyier! :lmao:

:nice:

Wala bang "common mistakes we make while speaking Filipino(Tagalog)? Gusto ko munang pag-aralan ang ating sariling wika bago ang wika ng mga banyaga. Gayunpaman maraming salamat kaibigan. Malaking tulong ito sa mga nais matutong magsalita ng wikang ingles.

wow!...ngaun ko lng nlaman yun ah!...

nice thread...malaking tulong 'to. :thumbsup:

maraming salamat, malaking tulong po ito

Kung mdalas kau sa (nati0nal) b0okst0re, mer0n dun MALICTI0NARY -c0ntent of the b0ok: w0rds that r c0m0nly pr0n0unced wr0ng or used wr0ng by filipin0s. W0rth reading kc nkaka2l0ng din sa gramar..

thns

nice

teacher

http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n31/dibbera/Flowers/FlowerPotAnimated.gif

nice..

Every Sunday, I take headbath.:upset::rofl: headbutt!

Mahusay na simulain!!