I’d like to compile a list of the most common usage errors you run into with your adult writing students. I’ll start with ten of the most frequent errors I run into:
needs vs. requires
“I consider” vs. “I think/feel/believe”
Discuss about
Emphasize on
Contact with
Relax myself
Colorful life
Effect my life
Accompany with
I already didn’t know what to do.
The last time I attempted this, I tacked the question onto a list of questions about teaching writing to adults. The thread quickly deteriorated into debates about Chinese culture and off-topic discussions. It actually got pretty surreal by the end.
Only Chris responded with examples common usage mistakes (Thank you, Chris):
[quote]Use of “Although…but”
Overuse of “Because…A, B” and underuse of “B, because A”
Poor understanding of the use of the word “especially” [/quote]
I’d sure like to keep this one on topic.
When we’re finished, I’ll publish the full list here. I’ve got hundreds of them on file, but don’t have them arranged by frequency. I’d like to see which ones you run into most often when grading students’ essays.
[quote=“It is me again”]13. [color=blue]“I am finding Mr Jones”[/color], while “I am looking for Mr Jones” is meant.
14. Confused about when to use “to bring” and when to use “to take”, a tough topic anyway, even for native speakers.[/quote]
[color=blue]“I am finding Mr Jones”[/color] is fine if you do a sing song voice and wobble your head from side to side while serving pappadams.
I like to see movies, am seeing a movie right now, etc.
Use of THE all the bloody time, as in “I like to see the movie.”
Not pluralising anything. I like movie.
Can/could, will/would.
Anything involving use of the past tenses, perfect tenses, or indeed anything other than present simple. They know the bloody rules, and can complete worksheets galore, but as soon as they stop concentrating… Yesterday I go to see the movie.
When to use will vs am going to vs am+gerund for future.
Join, participate, take part in something.
The difference between hope, wish, and expect.
Putting ‘maybe’ at the start of every statement.
The last two are symptomatic of a deeper problem. It seems that most adult students just don’t think in the way that you need to to use the language properly. One issue is that people don’t want to give any commitment or say anything controversial, another is sometimes that the concepts are not as clear in Chinese, I guess. But Tomas is better qualified than me to go into this in detail.
I was with a class of adults recently looking at a reading passage and one paragraph described what the subjects expected and what they hoped for. Their answers to the question “what did the subjects expect?” were pretty appalling. They knew intellectually what the difference between expect and hope was, but 90% somehow got the answer wrong. In the end I concluded that they just wanted to write about the more pleasant option - what people hoped for rather than what they expected to get.
2 : in time : OPPORTUNELY <the question was not… timely raised in the state court – W. O. Douglas>
Mind you, that’s an American dictionary.[/quote]
Dictionaries preserve meanings or patterns which are attested historically, but that doesn’t mean they’re considered correct modern usage. I could walk around using 的 to mean ‘bright’ or 是 to mean ‘spoon’, 九 meaning ‘elbow’ or saying yu4 聿 to mean a writing ‘pen’, but people would just look at me with their mouths open.
Are you talking about “have got” (as in “You’ve got mail”), which is perfectly good English? Or something else?
I’ve found that people here often use very informal words in writing that’s supposed to be very formal (e.g. graduate theses, university application essays). Examples include “nice” and “get” (e.g. “I got nice grades” instead of the more formal “I received excellent grades”)
Another is the use of “besides”, as in “Besides, I also enjoy hiking”. To me this is fine in informal conversation, but a travesty in a formal essay: it’s too colloquial and sounds like an afterthought. They are translating 此外. I usually correct it to “Besides this”, “In addition” or something similar.
Are you talking about “have got” (as in “You’ve got mail”), which is perfectly good English? Or something else?
I’ve found that people here often use very informal words in writing that’s supposed to be very formal (e.g. graduate theses, university application essays). Examples include “nice” and “get” (e.g. “I got nice grades” instead of the more formal “I received excellent grades”)
Another is the use of “besides”, as in “Besides, I also enjoy hiking”. To me this is fine in informal conversation, but a travesty in a formal essay: it’s too colloquial and sounds like an afterthought. They are translating 此外. I usually correct it to “Besides this”, “In addition” or something similar.[/quote]
Excellent points, Chris. I teach students to use “In addition” rather than “besides.”
I appreciate the feedback so far. I’m hoping to get more, and focused on usage errors, rather than grammar problems with articles, verb tense, et al.
E.g. “I went shopping at Borders, Books-A-Million, Barnes and Noble.”
They understand that “and” should come before the last item, but don’t realize that the “and” in the last item doesn’t count as a serial “and”.
“I went shopping at Borders, Books-A-Million, and Barnes and Noble.” (For those who may not know, Barnes and Noble" is the name of a chain of bookstores.)
Doesn’t sound right to me.