Common Mistakes
Can you find and correct the mistakes?
Hello everyone!
Are you afraid of making mistakes when you speak English? I’ve written before about how it’s not something that you should worry too much about. Mistakes are a normal part of the learning process. You can even learn from your mistakes. And you can usually communicate effectively even if it’s not perfect.
Having said that, of course you should always work on learning new things and improving your accuracy. That’s what this lesson is about.
Today, I’m going to give you a free example of the type of lessons my paying subscribers are getting every week. They get a grammar, vocabulary or reading lesson with a PDF download every week. I’m giving you a PDF as well and you can find it at the bottom of this post.
If you like this lesson, and if you can afford it, please consider upgrading and supporting my work.
Can you find and correct the mistakes?
Each sentence contains one mistake. This could be a mistake with grammar, vocabulary, punctuation or word order. Can you identify what’s wrong and put it right?
1. I went to a party last night. I really enjoyed.
2. Do you know what was happened?
3. He is concentrated on his homework.
4. London is famous for its buses red.
5. This is the book which Jane told me about it.
6. She was too happy because she passed all her exams.
7. We were four people on the boat.
8. Both of my parent’s cars are Volkswagens.
9. Please could you make a photo of us?
10. We spent a good time with our friends.
11. We made a party last Saturday.
12. I’m thinking to watch a film this evening.
13. I go to work at 8.30 and I go to home at 3.30.
14. They have a five years old child.
15. The dogs are intelligent animals.
Now check your answers!
Answers
1. I went to a party last night. I really enjoyed it. / I really enjoyed myself.
After “enjoy”, you need another word, an object.
2. Do you know what was happened?
“Was happened” looks like the passive but “happen” is always active.
“Was happened” is impossible.
3. He is concentrating / is focusing / is focused on his homework.
The first two are present continuous. “Focused” is an adjective.
“Concentrated” can be an adjective but it can’t be used here.
4. London is famous for its red buses.
The adjective goes before the noun in English.
5. This is the book which Jane told me about it.
“Which” replaces “it” in this relative clause.
6. She was so/very/really happy because she passed all her exams.
“Too” usually has a negative meaning. For example, “too hot” means I don’t like it. Can you be too happy?!
7. There were four of us on the boat.
There is no particular reason. That’s just how English people say it!
8. Both of my parents’ cars are Volkswagens.
The apostrophe goes after the “s” for plural nouns.
9. Please could you take a photo of us?
It’s always “take a photo”. You have to learn which words go together in English (called collocations).
10. We had a good time with our friends.
“Spend time with friends” and “spend time talking to friends” are good English but we say “have a good/great/lovely/wonderful time”.
11. We had a party last Saturday.
Like number 9, this is just about which words go together.
12. I’m thinking about/of watching a film this evening.
Use “think about” or “think of” to describe possible plans.
13. I go to work at 8.30 and I go to home at 3.30.
There is no preposition here.
14. They have a five-year-old child.
“Five-year-old” is an adjective here. Join the words with hyphens and drop the “s”.
15. The dogs are intelligent animals.
We don’t use “the” when speaking about something in general.
So how did you do?
Here’s the PDF for you to download and keep:
See you next time!
Katie
PS You might see a few small changes here soon. At the moment, you can read all my posts going back to when I started on Substack in February. I might change this so that only the past six posts are available. I’m telling you now to give you a chance to read past posts while you still can! Of course, if you have old emails from me, these will not disappear.
The full archive will be available to paying subscribers. If you’d like to sign up or upgrade, you can do so below.
Thanks alots ❤️
Some excellent practice for English language students .... plus great grammar explanations!