Most Common Mistakes in English

Dr. Christine Coombe Emirates/Dubai Mens College Toastmasters

Errors in English
The concept of error is based on My perspective
Is based on American English Recognizes that the native speaker is a misnomer
There are many more non-native speakers of English in the world than native speakers

Recognizes the importance of global English

My Top Ten
Verb Forms Adjective Placement Prepositions Misc. Grammar Pronunciation Punctuation Spelling Meaning Ambiguity (2 types)

Verb Forms
Oftentimes the degree to which you know the verb system in English indicates your level of language proficiency
i.e. mastery of the past tense indicates an intermediate level

English teachers cite the following as major problems with verbs:

Overuse of the infinitive Indian usage of present continuous becoming a fossilized error in Arab students

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 of shape and width When there is more than one fact adj, use this order
How big?How old? what color?where from?what is it made of?
A small black plastic bag An old white cotton shirt Big blue eyes

Prepositions
Little words in English cause the biggest problems! Phrasal verbs add to the confusion
Run away Get by Look out Take off Fill in Cut down

Grammar Slammers
There/their/theyre a/an before h Its/its Your/youre Who/which or that? Anyone vs. any one

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

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

Its/its
Its is the possessive form of the pronoun
That is a good book. Its title is..

Its is the contracted form of it is or it has

Its time to go. Its been great.

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.

Who/which or that?

Who (or whom) refers to persons Which refers to animals or things That can refer to either persons or things

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 a single person Examples:

Anyone can download my software. But the software can only be used by any one user at a time.

Pronunciation
Learners define good pronunciation as sounding 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 the suspect!" verb has stress on the second syllable "I suspect you.

compound nouns are fairly equally balanced but with 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

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!

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.

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

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?

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!