#33 About Johnny And Other Things!

     I suggest that we discuss COMMON MISTAKES this time. I am sure you are familiar with the mistakes because you probably made them lots of times and your teachers explained them to you         many times. But you keep making them!

                          So I want you to look at the three options in each set 

                                      and decide which sentence is right. 

                  Do not forget to write the five correct sentences in your comments.

1. About Johnny...

• I and Johnny live here.
• Johnny and I live here.
• Johnny and me live here.

2. About summer...

• It is more hot now.
• It is much hot now.
• It is hotter now.

3. About love...

• She told me that she liked me.
• She said me that she liked me
• She told to me that she liked me.

4. About languages...

• She speaks English good.
• She speaks English well.
• Her English is well.

5. About travelling...

• When I will arrive, I will call you.
• When I arrive, I will call you.
• When I would arrive, I will call  you.

GOOD LUCK! I am waiting for your comments and correct answers! If you are not sure about some sentences, it is better to ask here, than make your teachers angry again and again! 

#18 On Long Sentences!

     Hi English learners! Do you like posts with common mistakes? Today is time for some more:)
     A common mistake we are going to discuss here is making your sentences too complicated. Your English sentences are sometimes so complicated that even a teacher can`t understand what you mean:) Long sentences usually have very many mistakes. The longer the sentence, the greater the chance it will have many mistakes:)
     If you want to check whether you make this common mistake or not, take a piece of your writing and read it. If a sentence takes up nearly a whole paragraph, be sure it is exactly what I mean here. It is a complex sentence with many clauses and structures and everything that makes it impossible to understand and sounds very weird and strange.

I once came across a sentence that had nearly 10 lines! Would you be able to understand what the author meant? And can you imagine how many mistakes that piece of writing had! I didn`t even count them:)

     My advice is BREAK A LONG SENTENCE INTO SIMPLE SENTENCES. It will save you many troubles, I promise:) This tip is not only for writing, but for speaking as well!
     Here I would like to introduce some structures that help to make your English sentences correct, easy and listener-friendly. Remember that we say:
let sb. do sth. (e.g. Let me have a look at that letter.)
make sb. do sth. (e.g. I don`t like my parents because they make me study English.
                                   I like him because he makes me laugh)
want sb. to do sth. (e.g. My parents want me to study English.)
     As you can see, we don`t need any that-clauses here. We simply use an object+verb after let, make and want. NOTE that in the last sentence (with want) we need to before a verb.
     I hope this little tip was helpful and you will make fewer mistakes when speaking English!

#14 Phone Your Friend!

     Hi my dearies! Do you have time for a little grammar today? If you do, go on reading!
Do we meet our friends? or Do we meet with our friends? Which of the two sentences is right? The FIRST sentence is right and the second is a common mistake! Remember: meet sb, marry sb, discuss sth. phone sb. We say: play the guitar, climb a tree, drive a car, ride a horse, answer a question. These verbs are followed by a person or an object but there is NO preposition in between.
      If you think of Ukrainian equivalents to these verb phrases, you will see that in our language they share the following pattern verb+preposition+noun. In English it is verb+noun (no preposition). In grammar, this phenomenon is called direct object (no preposition is needed).
For example,

• My boyfriend plays the guitar. (NOT My boyfriend plays on the guitar.)

• My boyfriend is going to marry me! (NOT My boyfriend is going to marry with me!)

• I have to phone my friend. (Not I have to phone to my friend.)
  

     So WHY do English students make these mistakes? They usually translate a Ukrainian sentence word for word. The problem is that English is quite a different language and our language structures don`t work here:) So you have to develop a habit of  THINKING in English:) This is not easy, of course. But the more you work with English, the more you understand how this language works!
      To brighten up the boring rules here watch this FUNNY VIDEO about kids riding horses. Every person looks so happy here! Enjoy the video, remember about direct objects and phone your friend!

#11 Do You Make These Mistakes In English?

     Hi ladies and gentlemen! Do you make mistakes when speaking English? If yes, my new rubric is for you! In posts under the label Do You Make These Mistakes In English? we are going to discuss most common mistakes, mistakes that make your speech difficult to understand and mistakes that annoy me as a teacher of English :-) 

So let`s get started!

     What do you think is the most common mispronounced word in English? 

Surprisingly, (in my opinion) it is the word hotel. Try to pronounce it now. Aloud! 

Then check if you are right here:

http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=hotel&submit=Submit 

Did you pronouce hotel right? Here are some more common misspronounced words: 

keys (n)

adult (n)

onion (n)

museum (n)

shop assistant (n)

biscuits (n)

politics (n)

politician (n)

answer (v)

correctly (adv)

FIRST pronounce the first word on the list ALOUD. After that check its pronounciation here http://www.howjsay.com/ Then do the same with the second word.

So how many mistakes did you make? What words did you mispronounce? Write them in the comments section!