The Three Most Common English Language Errors Made by Non-English Speakers

The three most common errors educated English as a Foreign Language (EFL) speakers make and how to fix them.
By K. Titchenell, Abacus English Editing Services Producing polished and publishable copy in formal English is extremely difficult for many writers, particularly those whose first language is unrelated to English Chinese, Japanese and Thai, for example. Most aspects of English grammar are fairly easily learnt and educated Asians generally handle these better than, say, the average American does. However, there is a specific set of usage and grammatical mistakes which native speakers of English nearly never make, but which make up the majority of errors made by Asian language speakers. An analysis of many papers and articles over a number of years has revealed that perhaps as many 80-90% of usage errors fall into three well-defined categories, and, once identified, these errors are not difficult to correct. Just keep reading.

The Three Major Errors

1. Definite and indefinite articles. Non existent in many languages, the presence, absence, and choice of definite and indefinite articles, The, A or An before a noun determines whether that noun is a specific predefined instance, a general reference to any example, or, in some cases an iconic or representative case of the noun. 2. Count nouns and non-countable (mass) nouns. Certain nouns can be counted, others cannot and are quantified differently. The How much or how many problem is a pervasive but easily solved misusage. How much space and How many pencils are correct, but How many researches or How much example are both very wrong in English. 3. Prepositions, and the choice of which one to use in verbal phrases and other situations. Why is it that one partakes of something but takes part in something? Why does one have an aversion to something, but a dislike for something?

The Googling Solution.

It is usually possible to do a very specific search of online literature using a search engine to find the number of examples of a specific phrase that can be found on the web. It can be tricky to define the right search and one will always find erroneous usages, but in general, the quantity of usages found on the web can justify a specific usage. For example, to determine which is correct researches are or research is, a search for the two phrases (each in quotes) will yield the a clear answer in the form of an approximate count of how many of each are found on the web (210,000 and 17,300,000 respectively). If searched properly, the preponderant usage is nearly always correct. If the official grammar book contradicts prevailing usage, it should be, and probably soon will be changed. Of course one will always be erroneous usages on the web (210,000 in the above example), but they are usually clearly outweighed by the right ones. To be more sure about the results, one can restrict the search to specific countries, or domains. For example, searching within the Cambridge University website, the search: site://www.cam.ac.uk/ researches are yields no results at all, while site://www.cam.ac.uk/ research is yields 28 hits.

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The definite article, the is normally used when one specific case of a noun is meant: The dinosaur I saw had longer eyelashes than yours. But it can also signify an iconic or representative abstraction: To the researcher, such events can be very revealing. To the random vacationer, they are simply irritating. (No specific researcher or vacationer is referred to here, only researchers and vacationers in general.) Normally, singular nouns require an article, while plural nouns take no article if indefinite, people are funny, or a definite article if a specific group of the noun is meant, the people who planned the ice-cream barrage are in this room. There are some general rules, but also many exceptions which simply have to be learnt, and the Brits and Americans dont agree on everything. Specific place names may or may not require an article and this can only be learnt from experience or by looking them up; there is no consistent rule. It is The San Joaquin Valley, The Rift Valley and The Holme Valley, but Death Valley, Grass Valley, and Apple Valley never take an article. This aspect of English can be very confusing to foreigners, as dictionaries and other reference resources rarely explain whether a noun needs an article or not. While there is no irrefragible rule, there are some guidelines. With some nouns, particularly place names and proper nouns, the only way to be certain is to examine usages.