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8/8/2019 Most Common Mistakes in English for Students
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Most Common Mistakes inEnglish
Dr. Christine Coombe
Emirates/Dubai Mens College
Toastmasters
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Errors in English
The concept of error is based on
My perspective
Is based on American English
Recognizes that the native speaker isa misnomer
There are many more non-nativespeakers of English in the world than
native speakers Recognizes the importance of global
English
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My Top Ten
Verb Forms
Adjective Placement
Prepositions
Misc. Grammar Pronunciation
Punctuation
Spelling
Meaning
Ambiguity (2 types)
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Verb Forms
Oftentimes the degree to which youknow the verb system in Englishindicates your level of language
proficiency i.e. mastery of the past tense indicates anintermediate level
English teachers cite the following asmajor problems with verbs: Overuse of the infinitive
Indian usage of present continuousbecoming a fossilized error in Arab students
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Adjective Placement
Many languages place adjectives after the noun French: Une voiture bleue
Order of adjectives is often challenging Opinion adjectives (nice, beautiful, delicious)
Fact adjectives (long, young, hot, large) Opinion adjectives go before fact
Adjectives of size and length go before adjectives ofshape and width
When there is more than one fact adj, use this order
How big?
How old? what color?where from?what is itmade of?
A small black plastic bag
An old white cotton shirt
Big blue eyes
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Prepositions
Little words in English cause thebiggest problems!
Phrasal verbs add to the confusion
Run away
Get by
Look out
Take off Fill in
Cut down
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Grammar Slammers
There/their/theyre
a/an before h
Its/its Your/youre
Who/which or that?
Anyone vs. any one
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There/their/theyre
There is used in two ways
Can specify a place
Can be used as an expletive or empty
word to start a sentence
Their is the possessive form of
they
Theyre is the contracted form of
they are
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A/An before h
Before a pronounced h, the
indefinite article should be a
A history book
Before a silent h, use an
An hour
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Its/its
Its is the possessive form of the
pronoun
That is a good book. Its title is..
Its is the contracted form ofit is
orit has
Its time to go.
Its been great.
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Your/youre
Your is the possessive form of a
personal pronoun
I like your website.
Youre is the contracted form of
you are
Youre a dedicated student.
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Who/which or that?
Who (or whom) refers to persons
Which refers to animals or things
That can refer to either persons
or things
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Anyone vs. any one
Anyone means any person
Not necessarily any specific person
Can refer to multiple people simultaneously
As two words, any one refers to asingle person
Examples:
Anyone can download my software. But the
software can only be used by any one user
at a time.
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Pronunciation
Learners define good pronunciation assounding like a native speaker
Many factors effect pronunciation Stress
two-syllable nouns and adjectives--stress on the
first syllable (i.e. apple, hotel, lagoon, suspect) words which can be used as both nouns and verbs
noun has stress on the first syllable "You are thesuspect!"
verb has stress on the second syllable "I suspectyou.
compound nouns are fairly equally balanced butwith stronger stress on the first part (i.e. hairbrush)
Individual Sounds P/B for Arabic Speakers; L/R for Asians and F/V/W
for Indian Speakers of English
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Punctuation
Quotes before or after the period?
Quotation marks go After a period or comma
Before a colon After a question mark (unless the entire
sentence is a question)
End punctuation after URLs
There isnt any! Apostrophes
When in doubt, leave them out!
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Spelling
Continues to be problematic even
with Spellchecker!
Spell check is good to check spelling
It cant determine meaning
They cannot determine weather the
word is the one wanted.
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Meaning
Literal and non-literal meanings
(usually called idioms) must be
considered
Each of the following has two
meanings. What are they?
Bite your tongue
Kick the bucket
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Ambiguity
A word, phrase or sentence having more
than one meaning
There are two types
Structural French culinary professor
Is the cooking French or is the professor French?
Lexical
Ill meet you by the bank. Does by the bank refer to a place where you
withdraw money or to a river bank?
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Final Thoughts
I hope you enjoyed your brief foray
into common mistakes in the
English language.
Dont let the fear of making
mistakes prevent you from
communicating!