Hi,
Here is the corrected version of the text:
---
Mistakes we make while speaking English part-1...
The girl next door is as cute as a button, but when she opens her mouth, her English is bad enough to get her sent back to kindergarten! Well, it's a common enough problem today -- almost everyone is mourning the lack of fluency in English among our school and college-going generation, as well as in the new entrants into the workforce.
Presented here are a few English bloopers sent in by our readers -- they are a good lesson in the English language!
Let's start off with a few common blunders that reader Sunita R Kamath comes across frequently:
1. "It was a blunder mistake."
Correction, people! The word 'blunder' means mistake, so you could say:
~ "It was a blunder," or
~ "It was a big mistake."
2. "It would have been more better."
The word 'better' itself implies that the option in question is superior -- the use of the word 'more' in the sentence is therefore both inappropriate and unnecessary. Thus the correct sentence would go as follows:
~ "It would have been better."
3. "Why don't he get married?"
The term 'don't' applies when discussing a plural subject. For instance, "Why don't they get married?" The right way to phrase that sentence would be:
~ "Why doesn't he get married?"
4. "I want two Xeroxes of this card."
The term 'Xerox' is used in North American English as a verb. Actually, 'Xerox' is the name of a company that supplies photocopiers! The correct thing to say, therefore, would be:
~ "I want two photocopies of this card."
5. "Your hairs are looking silky today."
This is one of the most common Indian bloopers! The plural of 'hair' is 'hair'! Thus:
~ "Your hair is looking silky today."
Get Ahead reader Nasreen Haque says, "We must realize that English is not the native language of Indians. Having said that, we should tell ourselves, 'Yeah, I could go wrong and I could make innumerable mistakes, but of course there is always room for improvement.'"
Here are a few bloopers Nasreen has come across often:
1. Loose vs lose:
Many people make this mistake. They inevitably interchange the words 'loose' and 'lose' while writing. 'Lose' means to 'suffer a loss or defeat'. Thus, you would write:
~ "I don't want to lose you," and not "don't want to loose you."
'Loose', on the other hand, means 'not firm' or 'not fitting'. In this context, you would write,
~ "My shirt is loose," not "My shirt is lose."
2. "One of my friend lives in Kolkata."
This is one of the most common Indian English bloopers ever! The correct way of putting that is:
~ "One of my friends lives in Kolkata."
Why? Because the sentence implies that you have many friends who live in Kolkata, but you are referring to only one of these friends.
3. Tension-inducing tenses.
People often use the wrong tense in their sentences. For instance, someone might say:
~ "I didn't cried when I saw the movie."
Unfortunately, the word 'didn't' is never followed by a past tense verb, in this case 'cried'. The correct way of putting it would be:
~ "I didn't cry when I saw the movie."
---
I have provided corrections for Part 1 of the text. Let me know if you would like corrections for the remaining parts as well.
From India, Coimbatore
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746Here is the corrected version of the text:
---
Mistakes we make while speaking English part-1...
The girl next door is as cute as a button, but when she opens her mouth, her English is bad enough to get her sent back to kindergarten! Well, it's a common enough problem today -- almost everyone is mourning the lack of fluency in English among our school and college-going generation, as well as in the new entrants into the workforce.
Presented here are a few English bloopers sent in by our readers -- they are a good lesson in the English language!
Let's start off with a few common blunders that reader Sunita R Kamath comes across frequently:
1. "It was a blunder mistake."
Correction, people! The word 'blunder' means mistake, so you could say:
~ "It was a blunder," or
~ "It was a big mistake."
2. "It would have been more better."
The word 'better' itself implies that the option in question is superior -- the use of the word 'more' in the sentence is therefore both inappropriate and unnecessary. Thus the correct sentence would go as follows:
~ "It would have been better."
3. "Why don't he get married?"
The term 'don't' applies when discussing a plural subject. For instance, "Why don't they get married?" The right way to phrase that sentence would be:
~ "Why doesn't he get married?"
4. "I want two Xeroxes of this card."
The term 'Xerox' is used in North American English as a verb. Actually, 'Xerox' is the name of a company that supplies photocopiers! The correct thing to say, therefore, would be:
~ "I want two photocopies of this card."
5. "Your hairs are looking silky today."
This is one of the most common Indian bloopers! The plural of 'hair' is 'hair'! Thus:
~ "Your hair is looking silky today."
Get Ahead reader Nasreen Haque says, "We must realize that English is not the native language of Indians. Having said that, we should tell ourselves, 'Yeah, I could go wrong and I could make innumerable mistakes, but of course there is always room for improvement.'"
Here are a few bloopers Nasreen has come across often:
1. Loose vs lose:
Many people make this mistake. They inevitably interchange the words 'loose' and 'lose' while writing. 'Lose' means to 'suffer a loss or defeat'. Thus, you would write:
~ "I don't want to lose you," and not "don't want to loose you."
'Loose', on the other hand, means 'not firm' or 'not fitting'. In this context, you would write,
~ "My shirt is loose," not "My shirt is lose."
2. "One of my friend lives in Kolkata."
This is one of the most common Indian English bloopers ever! The correct way of putting that is:
~ "One of my friends lives in Kolkata."
Why? Because the sentence implies that you have many friends who live in Kolkata, but you are referring to only one of these friends.
3. Tension-inducing tenses.
People often use the wrong tense in their sentences. For instance, someone might say:
~ "I didn't cried when I saw the movie."
Unfortunately, the word 'didn't' is never followed by a past tense verb, in this case 'cried'. The correct way of putting it would be:
~ "I didn't cry when I saw the movie."
---
I have provided corrections for Part 1 of the text. Let me know if you would like corrections for the remaining parts as well.
From India, Coimbatore
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Thank you Mr. Peer Mohamed. Very informative. Your post reminds me the Proverb , "Small things can make perfection but perfection is not a small thing". Regards, Kumanan. A
From India, Madras
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From India, Madras
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Dear Sir,
A very nice post, informative and influencing. Here is something I found out:
Rajiv Raghunath, with Conversant Info Solutions in New Delhi, finds other common errors while editing business letters and other forms of writing.
~ I am quite certain that I paid the fee.
~ I could hear quiet music in the distance.
While you may be certain that you paid the fee, no one will know if you remain 'quiet'. Likewise, 'quite' music makes no sense. The authors mixed up the spellings of 'quite' (very) and 'quiet' (a soft sound).
The correct version would be:
~ I am quite certain that I paid the fee.
~ I could hear quiet music in the distance.
There is a difference between the error and the correct statement.
Request you to comment on the following statements which are also common:
1. Lot of people attended the International conference on "Advances in pollution control" held in New York last month.
2. I will be able to do that task alone.
Thanks
From Czech Republic, Mlada Boleslav
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A very nice post, informative and influencing. Here is something I found out:
Rajiv Raghunath, with Conversant Info Solutions in New Delhi, finds other common errors while editing business letters and other forms of writing.
~ I am quite certain that I paid the fee.
~ I could hear quiet music in the distance.
While you may be certain that you paid the fee, no one will know if you remain 'quiet'. Likewise, 'quite' music makes no sense. The authors mixed up the spellings of 'quite' (very) and 'quiet' (a soft sound).
The correct version would be:
~ I am quite certain that I paid the fee.
~ I could hear quiet music in the distance.
There is a difference between the error and the correct statement.
Request you to comment on the following statements which are also common:
1. Lot of people attended the International conference on "Advances in pollution control" held in New York last month.
2. I will be able to do that task alone.
Thanks
From Czech Republic, Mlada Boleslav
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Thanks, Sir! Good post!
I would like to add one more Americanism which is incorrect grammatically. The peculiar expression is "I am hurting" or "He is hurting". What is being communicated here is that there is pain which he/she is undergoing at the moment. Grammatically, it would mean that the subject is in the act of hurting (inflicting pain on somebody); however, that is not what is intended by the colloquial usage. There are more colloquial ways to use 'hurting' in AmE. Sometimes 'hurting' is used informally to describe a person or thing which is in bad shape/condition or isn't working properly.
For example:
- If my car is running, but just barely, I might tell you that 'my car is really hurting'.
- If John is broke, I might tell you that 'he's hurting for money'.
In the Indian context, though, we have not caught up with the Americans on this expression.
From India, Gurgaon
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I would like to add one more Americanism which is incorrect grammatically. The peculiar expression is "I am hurting" or "He is hurting". What is being communicated here is that there is pain which he/she is undergoing at the moment. Grammatically, it would mean that the subject is in the act of hurting (inflicting pain on somebody); however, that is not what is intended by the colloquial usage. There are more colloquial ways to use 'hurting' in AmE. Sometimes 'hurting' is used informally to describe a person or thing which is in bad shape/condition or isn't working properly.
For example:
- If my car is running, but just barely, I might tell you that 'my car is really hurting'.
- If John is broke, I might tell you that 'he's hurting for money'.
In the Indian context, though, we have not caught up with the Americans on this expression.
From India, Gurgaon
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Hi Mr. Peer,
Thank you for your efforts that you put into this posting. You have reminded me of what I studied, such as tenses, verbs, proverbs, etc., during my school days, which we may not use in our daily conversations.
Regards,
Kalyani.
From United States, Marina Del Rey
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Thank you for your efforts that you put into this posting. You have reminded me of what I studied, such as tenses, verbs, proverbs, etc., during my school days, which we may not use in our daily conversations.
Regards,
Kalyani.
From United States, Marina Del Rey
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As always, a very good contribution, Sir!! Thank you.
Hi Anamika, regarding your query:
The use of "advice" and "advise" is as follows:
He gave me good advice.
I advised him.
"Advice" acts as a noun, while "advise" is a verb.
I hope it's clear.
Cheers [:)]
From India, Calcutta
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Hi Anamika, regarding your query:
The use of "advice" and "advise" is as follows:
He gave me good advice.
I advised him.
"Advice" acts as a noun, while "advise" is a verb.
I hope it's clear.
Cheers [:)]
From India, Calcutta
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Hi all,
I thank Mr. Sardhar for posting these "Bloopers". However, before others start to cut and paste more bloopers sent to them by mail by others, let me guide you to a website which has 27 such parts. The website is [BPO (Business Process Outsourcing): Mistakes we make while speaking English Part-1](http://shahreenhoq.blogspot.com/2007/07/mistakes-we-make-while-speaking-english.html) found by searching the Web using Google. Have a nice day.
Simhan
A retired Academic
From United Kingdom
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I thank Mr. Sardhar for posting these "Bloopers". However, before others start to cut and paste more bloopers sent to them by mail by others, let me guide you to a website which has 27 such parts. The website is [BPO (Business Process Outsourcing): Mistakes we make while speaking English Part-1](http://shahreenhoq.blogspot.com/2007/07/mistakes-we-make-while-speaking-english.html) found by searching the Web using Google. Have a nice day.
Simhan
A retired Academic
From United Kingdom
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1. Every word in capital letters. What kind of grammar is this?
2. "The term 'don't' applies when discussing a plural subject"... Seriously?!
3. "Unfortunately, the word 'didn't' is never followed by a past tense verb"... Fortunately, still it doesn't....
From India, Udupi
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2. "The term 'don't' applies when discussing a plural subject"... Seriously?!
3. "Unfortunately, the word 'didn't' is never followed by a past tense verb"... Fortunately, still it doesn't....
From India, Udupi
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Common Mistakes in English Usage
Reading many of the posts in HR itself shows a range of common mistakes in English. There was a query about "leaves," while it should have been "leave." People start sentences with small letters and do not know when and where to use capital letters. People use the word "the" everywhere, for example, "I went to the Delhi."
Due care and the use of the spell check feature in our software can reduce instances of poor English. People should confine SMS words only to SMSes originating from your mobile. "Please" is not "plz," "you" is not "u," and "that" is not "dat" in respected forums like this where one is seeking information from or giving knowledge to others.
Regards
From India, Pune
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Reading many of the posts in HR itself shows a range of common mistakes in English. There was a query about "leaves," while it should have been "leave." People start sentences with small letters and do not know when and where to use capital letters. People use the word "the" everywhere, for example, "I went to the Delhi."
Due care and the use of the spell check feature in our software can reduce instances of poor English. People should confine SMS words only to SMSes originating from your mobile. "Please" is not "plz," "you" is not "u," and "that" is not "dat" in respected forums like this where one is seeking information from or giving knowledge to others.
Regards
From India, Pune
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Some errors in posts at Cite HR.
"Whether" is spelled as "weather."
"Break" is spelled as "brake."
Wrong use of capital letters in between sentences.
"Paid leaves" should be "paid leave."
The word "The" gets used inappropriately, like "I am from Delhi."
Some care, use of spell check, and a dictionary can help us write better.
From India, Pune
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"Whether" is spelled as "weather."
"Break" is spelled as "brake."
Wrong use of capital letters in between sentences.
"Paid leaves" should be "paid leave."
The word "The" gets used inappropriately, like "I am from Delhi."
Some care, use of spell check, and a dictionary can help us write better.
From India, Pune
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English Communication Skills.doc
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