Common Errors In English

[chenchow]

This will be the place for us to point out each others' grammatical error, or any general grammatical error, or other errors in english that we all made. This will be a fantastic learning experience.

[littlebigone]

ok...I'll start
:)

unless it is only possible for each person to make only one error, then it should be:
"...for us to point out each other's grammatical errors..."

also, "all" is redundang in "we all"

and unless we're only interested in past mistakes:

"...other errors in English that we make.[/b]

[CrAzyCow]

I would love someone to help me in this category. I alwiz get mixed up with plural and past tense. Eg.

Everyone has or have...

I will post up more when i realize more of my confusions.

[silverblue]

"Most undergrads here in the US also having the same problem"

It should be "have the same problem".

Examples of some correct usage of 'having':

She is having a hard time.
He is having fun!
Having said that, we should now try harder.
We have been having the same problem for years. (this projects that the problem have been there for a long long time. 'we have the same problem' is just a statement without reference to time)

Hope this helps..

[royston]

"...other errors in English that we make.

Hi Kevin, I don't see any problem with "make" and "made". We may discuss about the past mistakes and improve ourselves to prevent the future mistake.

~ roy ~

[silverblue]

Everyone is singular and therefore, require singular verbs. So is anybody, somebody, nobody, no one and someone.

That is why we are supposed to say everyone has his or her own opinion (as opposed to everyone have their own opinion)
Everyone has done his or her homework.
Somebody has left her purse

We use have whenever we are refering to a group of people (with one exception, where we can only use I HAVE instead of I HAS):

They/We/People/I have alot of ideas
She/He has alot of ideas


Also, another thing to note:
Each of the students is responsible for doing his or her work in the library.

Don't let the word "students" confuse you; the subject is each and each is always singular ? Each is responsible.

Crazycow - did this clear your confusion? :)

[CrAzyCow]

Thanx alot. Yeah. tht clears out alot of stuff. I still have more. I will post up when i encounter more. Thanx again.

[__earth]

i've a question.
if you have an adjective in front of a verb, and the verb starts with a vowerl, for example:
"long iron"

do you write it as
"a long iron" or "an long iron"?

i've always assume the former is the correct from. I've tried looking it online but never got what i've wanted.

[littlebigone]

Hi Kevin, I don't see any problem with "make" and "made". We may discuss about the past mistakes and improve ourselves to prevent the future mistake.



the difference is that "made" implies you are only interested in mistakes that we have made in the past but are not interested in future mistakes. but i feel "make" is more appropriate. Used in this sense, the present tense implies a habitually event or action, that is to say, we're talking about mistakes that we do constantly or repeatedly.

I hope that made sense. Reading back, I realize that this may be more of a context and choice of words problem than a grammatical one.

[royston]

I am sorry but I don't agree with what you said.

What is the meaning of "mistake"? It is something we have done in the past, which considered wrong. With the "past mistake" then we may discuss how to prevent "repeated/future mistake". So either make or made shall be applicable.

~ roy ~

[silverblue]

"...other errors in English that we make.

Hi Kevin, I don't see any problem with "make" and "made". We may discuss about the past mistakes and improve ourselves to prevent the future mistake.

~ roy ~

Present Simple
Pronoun/noun + Base form (+ -s or -es for 3rd person sing.) = I make; He makes
We use the present simple to talk about our habits and routines (things we do regularly) and situations which last for a long time

Past Simple
Pronoun/noun + Past form = I made; he made, etc.
We often use the past simple to tell a story. We use this tense a lot.

Present Perfect Simple
Pronoun/noun + have/has + Past Participle = I have made; He has made, etc
The present perfect simple tense is used to talk about a past time which has very strong meaning for the present.

Past Perfect Simple
Pronoun/noun + had + Past Participle = I had made; He had made, etc
The past perfect simple is used to talk about a past time before another time in the past.

adapted from www.teacher-training.net ;)

In this case, I think 'errors in English that we make' would best fit the sentence....

[royston]

So, if we really follow the rules, by adding a "had" after "we", the word "made" will be appropriate, right Cheryl?

~ roy ~

[topdog]

The English language is as infuriating as it is beautiful. Here's something I came across while prowling the Web :twisted:

1)The bandage was wound around the wound.

2) The farm was used to produce produce.

3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

4) We must polish the Polish furniture.

5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

8) At the Army base, a bass was painted on the head of a bass drum.

9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10) I did not object to the object.

11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

13) They were too close to the door to close it.

14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.

15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

18) After a number of Novocain injections, my jaw got number.

19) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.

20) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

21) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

22) I spent last evening evening out a pile of dirt.

[littlebigone]

That's a really cool collection of sentences.

How about palindromes:

1) racecar

2) stop no ten in nine ton pots

3) Go hang a salami, I'm a lasagna hog.

4) Able was he ere he saw Elba.

Palindromes are funny. Often times they make no sense, but they're still cool. I wish I was a palindrome. That way I could walk on my hands when i feel tired.

[silverblue]

HHmm... just a thought:

Shall we concentrate more on improving our English (i.e. correcting mistake, giving examples of correct usage, comment on appropriate sentence structures, etc)? Cos if we were to put everything funny or amusing about English, this forum will be another section like 'English Jokes' or 'English Paradoxes' and we won't be able to concentrate on the root problem - get the basics right first.

Well, of course I am not saying that we shouldn't post something like what littlebigone or topdog did. Those stuff are really good/funny/entertaining stuff to know, but just trying to say that these stuff should be occasional, while we focus more on Good English.

Sorry... I hope that wasn't offending to anyone...

[iQing]

Hmmm... talking about English language, why don't ReCom displays some famous, motivating quotes of all time... it would be nice and it brings asthetical and moral values
for example..

A journey of thousand miles starts with a single step - Lao Tzu

Never, Never, Never, Never, Never, Never, Never, never give up - Winston Churchill

[topdog]

3) Go hang a salami, I'm a lasagna hog.
That's real cool!

Okay, as silverblue said, we should stick to discussing common errors in English in this thread from now on.

[iQing]

sorry...
i have posted my idea in the wrong forum...
blame me for being blurred

[silverblue]

blame me for being blurred

it should be just 'blur' not 'blurred'
an adjective describing yourself shouldn't be past tense, in this case. Unless you were trying to say that you were being 'blurred' by something.. like 'my vision was being blurred by a sudden deluge of rainfall'

[iQing]

sorry

yup...
past participle can be used as an adjective sometimes..
depends on the situation

thanx silverblue

[luke]

heh too bad guys .. www.webster.com doesn't know any adjective "blur" ... "blur" is either a noun or a verb but never an adjective .. the adjective you guys might be talking about is "blurry" ...

[littlebigone]

how come no one like palindromes?

i've a question.
if you have an adjective in front of a verb, and the verb starts with a vowerl, for example:
"long iron"

do you write it as
"a long iron" or "an long iron"?



should be "a long iron"

speaking of this, I had the longest problem with why we use "an" in front of "ear". I always used to pronouce "ear" as "year" and it didn't help that my school teachers did the same. But I finally found out one fine day that the problem was not with my understanding of grammar but a pronounciation problem. :)

[__earth]

how about this

"A insightful person" vs "an insightful person"?

sometimes, i have problem with the object-subject stuff. here, i've assumed the latter is correct. is it true?

[silverblue]

Yup... it's

'an insightful person'

may I know what was causing the confusion about this, _earth? cos we almost never use 'a' when the next word begins with a vowel do we?

[__earth]

me too but i've heard a friend saying that a/an should be used to reflect the object.

for instance, in "an insightful person" certainly the object is person but i guess he's wrong. =)

thanks.

finally the ultimate question in subject/object.

how the **** do you use who/whom? i usually use who in every place. even my friends here say it's okay.

[jiahui]

Was writing my own notes the other day and got stuck with whether to use "I've overcame my fear or I've overcome my fear?". I've overcome SOUNDS (it might not be right) to me, but ain't sure if overcame is the correct one.

Oh, could some one help out with the usage of might and may?

Ta. =)

[__earth]

Was writing my own notes the other day and got stuck with whether to use "I've overcame my fear or I've overcome my fear?". I've overcome SOUNDS (it might not be right) to me, but ain't sure if overcame is the correct one.

Oh, could some one help out with the usage of might and may?

Ta. =)
you're right. it sounds better and it also does better in a grammar test.
always use past perfect tense after have/has/had/were/was

if you want help in remembering it, try "I've been" it would be odd to say "I've be"

[silverblue]

Yeah.. _earth is definitely right about that.. so it's "i've overcome" or "i overcame"

a few other mistakes I came across while reading some old forums...

incorrect: "you mustn't wasting time online doing nothing"
correct: "you mustn't waste time doing nothing online "

incorrect: "i wasting government money"
correct: "I am wasting the government's money"

[littlebigone]

ok ok....here's one I need clarification on.

I vaguely remember way back in primary school learning the following rule:

apostrophes can only be used to show possession for human objects and not for inanimate objects.

eg: the car keys not the car's keys
the dog cage not the dog's cage

anyone remember this rule or whether it's correct?

[__earth]

i don't remember to rule (damn me)

but if you said it's for animated object, wouldn't it be "a dog's key" instead of "a dog key"
a dog is pretty much alive. anyway, let's google it.

[littlebigone]

hmmm...not sure. Maybe if you're talking of dog cage as a particular object. But if you're talking about a particular dog's cage.

Makes sense?

[silverblue]

hope this clarifies things...

For inanimate objects, possessive case does NOT exist:

the front door of the house NOT the houses' front door

However, there are exceptions for personified objects:

the ship's sail, the plane's engine

Also, idiomatic applications to time and money:

a day's work, a dollar's worth

[__earth]

how about "malaysia's industry"?
should it be "malaysia industry"?

[littlebigone]

industry of Malaysia
Malaysian industry

Malaysia's industry has grown => the Malaysian industry has grown or the industry of Malaysia has grown

[__earth]

malaysian industry?
doesn't malaysia and malaysian are two different things? one is a country and one shows citizenship.
though i'm not sure, i'm pretty much more to "malaysia's"

[littlebigone]

no, Malaysian also shows "possesion" I guess, for lack of a better word.

Malaysian rain forest
Malaysian SEA games
the Malaysian Students Department
stuff like that.

Yeah, i know that Malaysia's sounds okay too, but this is one part where I want to clarify without using intuition.

[silverblue]

So,

'a dog cage' is right... if you are refering to the cage... and
'the dog's key' is also right... if you are refering to the dog's object

Dear _earth,

I think it should always be Malaysia's industry never Malaysia industry...
eg. there was a negative perception against Malaysia's timber industry

You can also use Malaysia Industry if you are describing Malaysia's industry.. eg. there was a sudden log ban to protect the Malaysian timber industry

[__earth]

silverblue, you are a walking grammar book. =)

[littlebigone]

that's because she took a class on writing correct english...or something like that...so what ever she says is right.....


unless I say other wise :P

[__earth]

lol

[Schye]

I think maybe we can use one of the Emoticons to mark the sentences that sound weird to us when we are posting.

for ex:

:!: if i was a girl , i will....

This is because sometiems i do feel that my sentences sounds weird but just dont know how to correct it.

[silverblue]

Dear Schye,

In fact, it really should be...

"If I were a girl..."

other examples...
"If I were able to go, I would"
"If they were rude, I would have scolded them"

"I was hungry, but not anymore"
"I was able to do that 5 years ago"
"If she/he were here, I'd be happy"

Let me know if you are still confused about this... :wink:

[Schye]

Dear Schye,

In fact, it really should be...

"If I were a girl..."
"If I were able to go, I would"
"If they were rude, I would have scolded them"

Let me know if you are still confused about this... :wink:

I was trying to give an example but i really thought that

If they was ===> which is wrong

before.Thanks for reminding me ... :oops:

[iQing]

I think subject-verb agreement is difficult for some of the malaysians

I have a lot of friends who can't master subject verb agreement

Sometimes it's confusing..

[silverblue]

Well.. so that's what this particular forum is for!! :)

If you have any doubts or confusion at all... do post it here and we'll try to help out as much as we can.... and I know that before I post my answers, I always double check to make sure they are correct or accurate...

however, of course I am only human and can make mistakes... so if you do happen to spot a mistake in my posts, do tell me too!

hope people who wants to improve their English can come in here to participate! :)

[iQing]

I have learned that there's a type of grammar known as gerundive
I think it's like that...

we can write :
The apple can be eaten

gerundive form :
The apple is to be eaten

and it can be written as :
The apple is edible

the same stuff can be written in various form...

I came across gerundive when I was learning German.. does it exist in English?

[silverblue]

For one thing, IQing,

all the three statements convey completely different meanings, if you notice....

can you tell what's the difference?

[iQing]

really?

they are of the same meaning in German...
maybe they are different in English... can you clarify it plz?
but they are the same in German...

confused.... :roll:

[silverblue]

we can write :
The apple can be eaten

Lemme try...
The apple CAN be eaten, is telling someone that he/she has the permission to eat the apple...

gerundive form :
The apple is to be eaten

this is telling someone that the apple is going to be eaten soon by someone or something... (is to be...)

and it can be written as :
The apple is edible

this is just saying that the apple is a type of food and can be ingested by any living body on earth! ;)

Does this make sense?! ;)
[/i]

[iQing]

Hmmm interesting...

I would like to talk about the word CAN

(1) it can either mean that a person is allowed to eat the apple...

(2) or the person has the ability to eat the apple.

I think that's when the confusion arise...

There's no problem in german as there are seperate words for (1) and (2)

but this reminds me of Malay (pls allow me to touch a little bit on this topic becoz there has been a misunderstanding of language)

DAPAT

and

BOLEH

We have officiallu learned in BM that
DAPAT is (2)
and
BOLEH is (1)

so MALAYSIA BOLEH officially should mean...

Malaysia has the permission to....

and the proper phrase is...

MALAYSIA DAPAT

I feel a bit funny but I don't mind about it

[littlebigone]

just a small note on the word "can"

If you're speaking and asking for permission to do something, it is more polite to say "may" than to use the word "can"

I used to get scolded by my mom everytime I used the word "can" when asking for someone.

polite--> "May I speak to Mr Green Coconut Leaves?"

not so polite--> "Can I speak to Mr Green Coconut Leaves?"

Maybe it's just the way I was brought up. hehehehe.

[silverblue]

Hmmm interesting...

I would like to talk about the word CAN

(1) it can either mean that a person is allowed to eat the apple...

(2) or the person has the ability to eat the apple.

I think that's when the confusion arise...



Yeah, you are absolutely right. I think it all boils down to the context, context and context in which the word is being phrased..... I think English is one of the languages where you cannot tell meanings by looking at the words in isolation. So always try to think in terms of what the whole sentence or even paragraph is trying to say. Think of what makes sense and how the word will fit or not fit... or what the word means in this context or another..... hope this helps...

[iQing]

is th = s ?

maketh = makes ?

eye of newth = eye of news ?

th ??

[chenchow]

this is from budakkerek:-

Hey ppl! i kinda did what Schye asked us to do. the first post, (that i quoted) is the original. Check out the 2nd one below, which i've edited (i don't like to say corrected, too "teacher like" hehe...)

What i can say is, most of us, we tend to used the tenses wrongly. If you notice, "was" is the past tense of "is" and it's is used for singular items, but Schye used "was" for "discussions", which is incorrect coz "discussions" is the plural form of "discussion".

oke...hope Schye, you're not offended with what i said here.

Well, what i posted might be wrong..so other Recommers, do correct me when i am wrong k?i'm willing to help where i can, hope so you guys'll do the same.

If you guys want a detailed explanation why such is such, lemme know. i'll post a more detailed one (if you guys want it laa) oke?

Schye wrote:
I was in an English speaking secondary school but I never speak English there... sad huh as I didn't realized the importance of English at that time.
The first time I speak in English was when I went to the interview of Petronas.There was discussions and well, as expected, I failed

I know that I have made a lot of mistakes in my previous posts and I really hope that someone can correct me. But if we do that, the forum or discussion will be interrupted.
Can we have a forum just to quote ones post and point out the mistakes?
I would really like mine to be posted for mistakes if we are going to have one.


I was in an English speaking secondary school but I never spoke English there... sad huh as I didn't realize the importance of English at that time.
The first time I spoke in English was when I went to the interview of Petronas.There were discussions and well, as expected, I failed

I know that I have made a lot of mistakes in my previous posts and I really hope that someone can correct me. But if we do that, the forum or discussion will be interrupted.
Can we have a forum just to quote one's post and point out the mistakes?
I would really like mine to be posted as examples of mistakes if we are going to have one.

[__earth]

about can, another polite way (informally) is to use could.

is th = s
maketh = makes ?
eye of newth = eye of news ?
th ??

I'm not sure (but i'd say no) but the th could only be found in old literatures. It's outdated and nobody uses it anymore.

[silverblue]

I second _earth...

unless you are writing poetry or old English Shakespeare plays.... people don't really use 'th' to replace 's' anymore...

[eeyore]

im confused about something, iqing are you referring to the way the sounds "s" is made? for some reason i have a feeling you are. anyway, from what i understand, th at the end of words is used to make things into past tense, for example, walketh is used to represent walked.

This is another slight that I spotted in one of the recent forums...

"and this sometimes making me couldnt sleep at late nite"

There are a few errors in this sentence...

Would someone like to try correcting them?

[silverblue]

Whoops! The previous post was from me... sorry! Forgot to log in... ;)

Please do attempt to correct the above! :)

[__earth]

This is another slight that I spotted in one of the recent forums...

"and this sometimes making me couldnt sleep at late nite"

There are a few errors in this sentence...

Would someone like to try correcting them?

simple. "and this sometimes makes me sleepless late in the night."

the make is singular as it was used to refer to this.
concerning making i can't really come up with an explanation but having a gerund in front of sometimes is weird.

and this brings on to sometimes. What's the diff between sometimes, sometime, some times and some time?

[screw3d]

This is another slight that I spotted in one of the recent forums...

"and this sometimes making me couldnt sleep at late nite"

There are a few errors in this sentence...

Would someone like to try correcting them?

simple. "and this sometimes makes me sleepless late in the night."

the make is singular as it was used to refer to this.
concerning making i can't really come up with an explanation but having a gerund in front of sometimes is weird.

and this brings on to sometimes. What's the diff between sometimes, sometime, some times and some time?

I think just "..makes me sleepless at night" will get the point across, or "this gives me sleepless nights sometimes".

I'll attempt to make a fool out of myself:
sometimes on certain occasions - Sometimes, life sucks.

sometime a certain time in the future? - Let's meet up sometime.

some times I think this is just the plural for for the one below - Some of the best times of my life were spent in Mongolia.

some time an amount of time - Let's kill some time by [insert fav activity].

Grammar is not exactly my forte.. just my $0.02.

[__earth]

but is there such a thing as plural time?

[screw3d]

but is there such a thing as plural time?
Yes I'm pretty sure there is.

Ex.
1. At times, I'm too lazy to attend lectures (like today).
2. These are the times when we should bla bla bla.

[luke]

yes there is a plural times as in "How many times did you fail that class?", "Oh, it's just three times."

[silverblue]

simple. "and this sometimes makes me sleepless late in the night."

Actually, there is something wrong with "late in the night".
==> "late at night" would be more accurate.

If you still want to use the word preposition 'in', I think you can use it this way

"and sometimes, this makes me sleepless late into the night"
.... but it still sounds a little odd 8O

I think just "..makes me sleepless at night" will get the point across, or "this gives me sleepless nights sometimes".

Now, this sounds perfect at first, but come to think of it, I think the author was maybe trying to stress that she can't sleep late at night, whereas what you have was saying that she can't sleep at night. See the difference? So I guess it really depends what the author was trying to say here.

Alternatively, we can write "and sometimes, I can't sleep late at night because of this" ...

Good feedback u guys! :)

[silverblue]

Some errors I found... (I know some may be typo..but nevertheless..)

1) "so watch up"

==> I think he was trying to say "so watch out"

2) "I'm a Malaysia who travel thousands miles"

==> "I am a Malaysian and I have traveled thousands of miles.."

3) "I had a elder brother and he graduated from University of xxx and he is now working as a xxx"

==> "I have an elder brother who graduated from University of xxx..."

4) "my father working as an EE before but now he in business"

==> "my father worked as an EE before but now he is into business"

5) "I'm studying in University at XXX , USA..."

==> "I'm studying at the University of XXX, USA..."

6) "she is studying in University XXX but she not sure her major yet..."

==> "she's not sure of her major yet..."

7) "it's all depend on the the Funding..."

==> "it all depends on the availability of funding..."

8 ) "I'm planning to create a website that gather students from all around the Malaysia, and this project is funded and technically supported by Inti College Malaysia... This is a commercial and profit oriental project, and we are going to conduct surveys and doing many promotion is schools and colleges in Malaysia..."

==> "..that gathers students from...", "...this project will be funded and...", "...profit-oriented...", "...and make many promotions in..."

9) "I have a group of ppl is helping to design the website now and I'm currently engage in my studies here, we agreed to launch the project at year 2007(if possible)"

==> "....group of ppl who is helping me..... and since/as I am currently engaged in my studies.....launch the project in year 2007.."

10) "... it's rather a Journal from the sharing of Malaysian Students from world wide..."

==> "...rather, it's a journal that compiles all the stories shared among Malaysian Students from all across the world..." (I am not even sure how to rephrase this... any ideas anyone?)

11) "If UK had their Renosance period thousands years ago and same would happen in Malaysia, if Malaysia has missed out the Industrial Revolution in 17th Century shall we miss out the Informational Revolution in 21st Century?"

==> " ??? " (I wasn't quite sure what the first sentence meant actually...)
"If Malaysia had missed-out in the Industrial Revolution during
the 17th Century, shall we also allow ourselves to miss
the Information Technology Revolution in the 21st Century?" (not
too sure about this too..)

12) "I'm opening of your feedbacks just firing me with your questions"

==> "I welcome feedback from anyone. Just fire me with your questions"


To the author: I am sorry if this post seemed to be too picky on the mistakes made and such, but hopefully this would be helpful in preventing future similar mistakes (I am sure they were all just careless errors!! ;) )

But then again, in the words of Screw3d, "Of course, I may be wrong.."!! (in my attempt to correct the errors) :wink:

[silverblue]

There's one common error that I always see in the forums...

it goes something like this... "malaysian students in overseas"

this isn't accurate because by writing overseas, you are already implying that the student is "in" a foreign land.... therefore, you only write

"malaysia students overseas" without haven't to include the "in"

:)

[littlebigone]

not so much an error, just wondering people's opinions.

Does speaking of Malaysia as our motherland sound too much like we're speaking of China?

It may be that I've not heard many people use the term "motherland" when they're talking about Malaysia. The only time I think i hear it is in movies when the Chinese bad guy is talking about his "motherland"

Maybe I;m wrong. Just wondering about people's opnions. :)

[topdog]

Not too sure about this, since my Chinese is bad, but i think Chinese Malaysians who actually speak Chinese:) always refer to their homeland as "motherland"...it's a direct translation from chinese. Chinese speakers, am I right?

[silverblue]

hahaha... yeah i kinda agree that it sounds a little 'chinaish'.... hehe..

but actually, I've checked the dictionary and it seems that 'motherland' is in all ways, used the same way 'homeland', 'native land', 'mother country' or 'country of origin' is used. So there is absolutely nothing wrong with calling Malaysia our motherland. In fact, I found out that we can also call it our 'fatherland' and it'll still be correct. Hahaha... that sounds odd I know... hmm but this is interesting... does anyone know why we tend to feminize our country or earth (mother earth/nature) etc?? 8)

[wwhong]

because life comes from female aka mother.

i think in "motherland",etc it actually means land of origin or land that one comes from instead of directly related to mother

[topdog]

Well yeah I'm sure we all know what motherland means. There's nothing wrong with calling one's native country one's motherland. It's just that English speakers do not typically use the term.

[__earth]

well, the earth is feminized because the of hellenization of the mediterranean and persian cultures.
In ancient Greek, Gaia is an Earth God. And Gaia is a she and so, we always refer to the Earth romantically, she.
but don't use she when refering to me. :D

i donno why we feminized country though but calling a country as fatherland sounds like Nazi but then, there's nothing wrong in calling a country as fatherland (I hope there is no Jew in here :P ).
but in my opinion, it's because chauvanistic character of past society. So, when they love something, they wouldnt refer to it as he (it would be totally GAY). it was only appropiate for them to us3 she.

but be aware, this phenomena only happen to culture of which has masculine/feminine distiction in their respective language. For Malay, the same argument is rendered invalid since there's no he/she but only dia

[littlebigone]

Reading the forum these days there are a lot of interesting ideas. However, grammatical errors abound. I'm not picky but when these errors get in the way of the message getting across, I really think it should be pointed out.

Would people mind if we start correcting their grammar in public? I think we should have a list of people who want their english corrected so others would not feel bad correcting them.

You can start by adding me to the list.

So if you read any of my posts and you find errors, just correct me. I would like to learn better english.

If you want to add yourself to this list, post a msg and let us know.Thanks.

[soul_out]

Would people mind if we start correcting their grammar in public? I think we should have a list of people who want their english corrected so others would not feel bad correcting them.

You can start by adding me to the list.

So if you read any of my posts and you find errors, just correct me. I would like to learn better english.

If you want to add yourself to this list, post a msg and let us know.Thanks.

I want. Thanks very much.

"You should not feel shy when you're asking something which you don't know or doubt" --- Chinese Proverb.

[Schye]

Add me in although I should already be in the list because I was the one who gave the idea to start this (and because i am poor in English too :oops: )

[1st_Spirit]

EveryOne please add me into your list...

Bombard and firing me with your Cruel and merciless comments and lectures...

[chenchow]

Me too, would like others to correct my English.

My english is horrible. I still remember when i was in uitm and topdog was my roommate.

The initial few months, whenever he said something, I would always not be able to catch what he said and typically he needed to repeat it once or twice at a much slower rate for me.

I am sure topdog and others then must have thought that i must be something wrong, when I always could not catch their English. It is through all those helps, that my English gets to improve. Thanks, friends! A good way, Calvin, a friend of mine at USC, who used to "force" me to watch movies in English to help me learn English.

[screw3d]

I observed that many common mistakes in English are a result of direct translation from the language he/she is comfortable with. Of course it doesn't work very well that way. One of the tricks to speak/write good English is probably to start thinking in English.

But I don't think in English myself. I don't know what language I think in.

o_0 <- ghetto confused emoticon.

Edit: Whoops!!! :oops: That's what you get when you don't have enough sleep .

[topdog]

I observed that many common mistakes in English is a result of direct translation from the language him/her is comfortable with.

I don't mean to be rude, but I've taken the liberty to point out a couple of errors. The sentence above should read:

I observed that many common mistakes in English are a result of direct translation from the language he/she is comfortable with.

[screw3d]

I observed that many common mistakes in English are a result of direct translation from the language he/she is comfortable with. Of course it doesn't work very well that way. One of the tricks to speak/write good English is probably to start thinking in English.

But I don't think in English myself. I don't know what language I think in.

o_0 <- ghetto confused emoticon.

EDIT: Holyshat.. ladies and gentlemen, I'm officially owned by some horrible mistakes. I don't normally do that :( Thanks for pointing that out.

[silverblue]

One question:
When we post people's errors, should we leave out the name of the author and where we got it from or should we include it? Just wondering...

Recent error spotted:
"Everyone of us...."

It should be "All of us..." or just plainly "Everyone..."

This is because 'everyone' already means 'all of us' and writing 'everyone of us' would be redundant. I also noticed that redundancy is a very common mistake in most of the Recom forums....

[littlebigone]

I don't think redundancy in "forum speak" is important as redundancy is generally accepted in speech and since "forum speak" is in some ways like speech, i think a little redundancy should be okay.

[luke]

speak of redundancy I think English is quite a "redundant" language ... here is what I meant: "He was eating two peanuts when his friends came yesterday" ... okay we know "he" is a singular but why do we still have to use "was" to denote singularity? ... and we know "two" is plural but still we have to add "s" to "peanut" ... and another we know from the first part of the sentence that the story is in the past but still we have to maintain that "past" attribute throughtout the sentence ...

compare this to BM: "Dia sedang makan dua butir kacang apabila kawan-kawannya datang semalam."

in japanese (correct me if I'm wrong): "[Kare wa] kinou piinatsu o tabeta toki tomodacchi ga kimashi.ta." (remove the . between shi and ta. laguage filter at works) - here we can even omit the [kare wa] part if we already know we talk about "he", and the past tense is only denoted by the last vrb kimashi.ta - the verb "tabeta" is tenseless

see any redundancy? anyway, i don't want to start a new topic ... sorry posting my thought here ..

[qedx]

[Kare wa] kinou piinatsu o tabeta toki tomodacchi ga kimashi.ta.

tabeta = plain past form of taberu. i think when we want to modify a noun with a verb we use the dictionary form of the verb, so it would be taberu toki. but does that apply when we are talking about a past event, like in that sentence? maybe someone else should clear it up. but i digress :P

what was the topic again?

[silverblue]

I don't think redundancy in "forum speak" is important as redundancy is generally accepted in speech and since "forum speak" is in some ways like speech, i think a little redundancy should be okay.

Well I think there's still a difference between "forum speak" redundancy and 'real' redundancy mistakes... so it really depends on whether you really want to correct common errors in the English language in general or just say that this is "forum speak", and then of course we have alot of leeway in our grammar idiosyncrasies etc...

I think to improve our English, we should try to point out a mistake that would usually be penalized in essay writings.. shouldn't we? Cos that's English in it's most formal way. And I guess the formal way is the way to learn. Of course it's ok to use colloquials, and this is why I feel that this forum is just a place to tell ppl the right form of English, but no one can stop ppl from using informal languages.... ;)

[qedx]

redundancy sometimes help emphasize points in a debate situation, which often comes up in forums. compare "Everyone has a responsibility to..." to "Everyone of us has a responsibility to...", for example. To me the second one sounds stronger.

[silverblue]

Ok, I have to correct myself... :oops:
I checked and found out that the usage of 'Everyone of us' is actually ok in some cases... or maybe it's not that big deal an error that people usually overlook it... so I guess no real harm lar... :P

But anyway, sometimes, it depends on how 'correct' it sounds oso lar...
:) sigh... English is so complicated...

[qedx]

what i like about english is the little games one can play with words and sentences (puns and the like). i dont know if it is jus a problem with familiarity but one seldom find such word games in written malay

[silverblue]

Confusion about 'few' and 'less'

I have heard of this error way too many times and I just hope that this would help to clarify any confusions...

"Few" is used to describe plural countable nouns and "less"and " little" is used with uncountable nouns

Therefore, this example is wrong : "There are lesser people here"
This should be the right sentence : " There are fewer people here"

More examples:
(a) This recipe requires fewer eggs than that recipe.
This street has less traffic than that street.

In these examples eggs is a plural countable noun modified by fewer
and fewest, and traffic is an uncountable noun modified by less and
least.

(b) I made few mistakes.
They have little hope of success.

In these examples, mistakes is a plural countable noun modified
by few, and hope is an uncountable noun modified by little.

Used with Uncountable Nouns
many much
more more
most most

Used with Countable Nouns
few little
fewer less
fewest least

[topdog]

I am not pointing out a common error this time around. Instead, I would like to urge Recom members to please spell properly. I am not talking about genuine typographical errors like "their vs they're"; I am referring to the usage of "sumwhere" for "somewhere", "fwens" for "friends", "da" for "the", "dun" for "don't", to name a few.

I understand that online forums are meant to be casual in nature, but I really do not see why anyone should spell like that. It is neither cute nor trendy. I find it painful to read. More importantly, it reflects poorly on the writer, and to some extent, detracts from the gist of the writer's message.

I guess I should have posted this rant in the "Pet Peeves" thread. :D

[topdog]

I am not pointing out a common error this time around. Instead, I would like to urge Recom members to please spell properly. I am not talking about genuine typographical errors like "their vs they're"; I am referring to the usage of "sumwhere" for "somewhere", "fwens" for "friends", "da" for "the", "dun" for "don't", to name a few.

I understand that online forums are meant to be casual in nature, but I really do not see why anyone should spell like that. It is neither cute nor trendy. I find it painful to read. More importantly, it reflects poorly on the writer, and to some extent, detracts from the gist of the writer's message.

I guess I should have posted this rant in the "Pet Peeves" thread. :D

[laplace]

Well, I agree with you topdog. But I believe everyone of us know how to spell it properly, maybe this is due to the habit of chatroom.

We have the freedom to write whatever in Recom, as long as we are writing things that related to the particular topic, but we should utilize the time in Recom to brush up our English skills in terms of speaking, spelling and so on.

Again, this is not a kind of enforcement by Recom, but for your own good, try to get yourself used to the proper English spelling.

I don't mean to offend anyone of you, just a piece of advice... :wink:

laplace..

[laplace]

Well, I agree with you topdog. But I believe everyone of us know how to spell it properly, maybe this is due to the habit of chatroom.

We have the freedom to write whatever in Recom, as long as we are writing things that related to the particular topic, but we should utilize the time in Recom to brush up our English skills in terms of speaking, spelling and so on.

Again, this is not a kind of enforcement by Recom, but for your own good, try to get yourself used to the proper English spelling.

I don't mean to offend anyone of you, just a piece of advice... :wink:

laplace..

[hungwei]

True. Habits somethimes make you do things unconciously without thinking. If you're in the good ones, its fine. And if you're in the bad ones, you might end up writing a research paper with sms "junks".

I agree that we should use proper language no matter what kind of chatrooms we are in. Make sense to begin early rather than too late.

[hungwei]

True. Habits somethimes make you do things unconciously without thinking. If you're in the good ones, its fine. And if you're in the bad ones, you might end up writing a research paper with sms "junks".

I agree that we should use proper language no matter what kind of chatrooms we are in. Make sense to begin early rather than too late.

[janewai]

Would people mind if we start correcting their grammar in public? I think we should have a list of people who want their english corrected so others would not feel bad correcting them.

You can start by adding me to the list.

So if you read any of my posts and you find errors, just correct me. I would like to learn better english.

If you want to add yourself to this list, post a msg and let us know.Thanks.

I want. Thanks very much.

i want too! my english was poor before i come to study in korea, but it is getting worse and worse since i have been staying here for years. I dont have the chance to improve my english in this foreign land which got thier own language here. Thanks! :D

[janewai]

Would people mind if we start correcting their grammar in public? I think we should have a list of people who want their english corrected so others would not feel bad correcting them.

You can start by adding me to the list.

So if you read any of my posts and you find errors, just correct me. I would like to learn better english.

If you want to add yourself to this list, post a msg and let us know.Thanks.

I want. Thanks very much.

i want too! my english was poor before i come to study in korea, but it is getting worse and worse since i have been staying here for years. I dont have the chance to improve my english in this foreign land which got thier own language here. Thanks! :D

[ElansarGelmir]

I think I prefer using casual language here. Sorry, but using proper English with proper grammars and spellings don't make this like a 'chit-chat' corner liao. We are just 'borakking' for the fun of it, rite? This is the place to get the stress out of us... That's why i frequent this place rather often

[ElansarGelmir]

I think I prefer using casual language here. Sorry, but using proper English with proper grammars and spellings don't make this like a 'chit-chat' corner liao. We are just 'borakking' for the fun of it, rite? This is the place to get the stress out of us... That's why i frequent this place rather often

[ElansarGelmir]

Oh yeah, an addition to my previous message, as much as I'm ok with casual language, I don't really mind if you guys point out some mistakes of mine as well. Hey, who knows I thought that minor blunder was right after all... Thanks!

[ElansarGelmir]

Oh yeah, an addition to my previous message, as much as I'm ok with casual language, I don't really mind if you guys point out some mistakes of mine as well. Hey, who knows I thought that minor blunder was right after all... Thanks!

[iQing]

^bump

[sping]

no, Malaysian also shows "possesion" I guess, for lack of a better word.

Malaysian rain forest
Malaysian SEA games
the Malaysian Students Department
stuff like that.

Yeah, i know that Malaysia's sounds okay too, but this is one part where I want to clarify without using intuition.

erm...what about "American Idol", "Malaysian Idol", "Australian Idol", but "Singapore Idol" ??

[Patrick]

The worst error anyone can make is:

He's good IN Mathematics

It's supposed to be....He's good AT Mathematics.


Photostat ---> Wrong...
Photocopy ---> Right!

And...pronounciation...
1. Shut up ----> Wrong pronounciation = Shaddap
2. Not yet ----> Wrong pronounciation = Notchet

Goodness....

[topdog]

Photostat ---> Wrong...
Photocopy ---> Right!

And...pronounciation...
1. Shut up ----> Wrong pronounciation = Shaddap
2. Not yet ----> Wrong pronounciation = Notchet

Goodness....

there is nothing wrong with "photostat".

"pronounciation" doesn't exist. the correct spelling is "pronunciation".

[juventus]

I am 'an SPM student'. Somehow, a SPM student sounds all wrong. I know, technically, a SPM student is the right one..but I'm still a little confused.

I'm watching an F1 race. What do you think? Correct, wrong?

And b4 u ask, yes yes, I do know that for words which start with vowels, 'an' should precede it..

[masdie]

I am 'an SPM student'. Somehow, a SPM student sounds all wrong. I know, technically, a SPM student is the right one..but I'm still a little confused.

I'm watching an F1 race. What do you think? Correct, wrong?

And b4 u ask, yes yes, I do know that for words which start with vowels, 'an' should precede it..

You see, the way you pronounce S and F sounded as if they started with vowels (a and e). So you use 'an' in front of them. This applies to other similar situations.

[myc04]

no, Malaysian also shows "possesion" I guess, for lack of a better word.

Malaysian rain forest
Malaysian SEA games
the Malaysian Students Department
stuff like that.

Yeah, i know that Malaysia's sounds okay too, but this is one part where I want to clarify without using intuition.

erm...what about "American Idol", "Malaysian Idol", "Australian Idol", but "Singapore Idol" ??

It's called Singapore Idol and not Singaporean Idol because anyone in Singapore can participate in the singing contest. You don't need to be a Singaporean to join it unlike Malaysian/American Idol. :)


and... yup. AN SPM student is correct.

SPM -> Ess Pee Ehm.
F1-> Eff Wan.

You only use 'a' when the S/Fs pronounce like STUFF, STORY, STUDENT,FOREST, FLOWER, etc

For English, I don't even know what's a verb, simple agkadgka tense etc and those "What's wrong & What's right", "How do you use ____?" thingamajigg. I just use what sounds right to my ears because .... I don't "study" english so yeah. I just read a lot. What about y'all?

[masdie]

SPM -> Ess Pee Ehm

Ess eh? I've always thought that the S in SPM is pronounced as A$$.

Hmm....

[kevinkent]

SPM -> Ess Pee Ehm

Ess eh? I've always thought that the S in SPM is pronounced as A$$.

Hmm....

How about MRSM??

Is like "Em"aresem??

So, which one is the correct one??

He is an MRSM student?
He is a MRSM student?
:roll:

[andrewlza]

SPM -> Ess Pee Ehm

Ess eh? I've always thought that the S in SPM is pronounced as A$$.

Hmm....

How about MRSM??

Is like "Em"aresem??

So, which one is the correct one??

He is an MRSM student?
He is a MRSM student?
:roll:

an.

[zigot14]

Need help haha.

1. Always got confuse when using have and had. eg:

Shud it be -

I have been to England before. or
I had been to England before.

She has completed her homework.
She had completed her homework.


2. Usage of "Who" and "Whom".

[chriss]

Me too....... What about this,

we have had our lunch this morning.
we had had our lunch this morning.

SPM(Ess Pee am)? :?:
then,
STPM(Ess Tee Pee am)????? :?:

I have a cousin who is in Australia now.
I have a cousin whom is in Australia now. Which 1??

[vseehua]

Some punctuation mistakes to look out for
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/apostrophe
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/semicolon

[youngyew]

The semicolon is a tricky one; I only recently learned that I have been using the semicolon the wrong way all my life. :P

[wei0927]

i got a question...a grammar question.....that is when we use the word-can,should...then,we put present tense verbs after using can??.my grammar damn bad T.T

[alepbing]

i got a question...a grammar question.....that is when we use the word-can,should...then,we put present tense verbs after using can??.my grammar damn bad T.T

Yes, you use present tense :)