Mark Twain once said, “Ignorant people think it is the noise which fighting cats make that is so aggravating, but it isn’t so; it is the sickening grammar that they use.” Grammar is the foundation of all English writing and communication. I have noticed that there are three different kinds of grammar mistakes that I make. They are the usage of modals, pronoun reference and articles.
Modals
One of the errors that I tend to make is in modals. They are used commonly to express ability, degrees of possibilities, advisability, or necessity or lack of necessity. They are mostly accompanied by other verbs. The most common error that I make is the improper usage of verb form after the modals. It is required that a modal should be followed by the base form of the verb.
Incorrect: John could heard the bell
Correct: John could hear the bell
The second error that I usually make is the improper usage of infinitive along with the modals.
Incorrect: You must not to use that pencil
Correct: You must not use that pencil
Articles
Articles are used only with certain categories of proper nouns. They consist of the nonspecific articles (a/an) and specific article (the). Among these articles the one which I misuse the most is the usage of ‘the’. ‘The’ is used when something is specified properly. The example below gives a better explanation of the errors that I tend to make in articles.
Incorrect: People who own the laptops say that they can save a lot of time.
Correct: People own laptops say that they can save a lot of time.
Prepositions
The final and the most common error that I make is the usage of prepositions. Prepositions are used to link the nouns, pronouns and phrases to other parts in a sentence. They indicate temporal, spatial or logical relationship of its object to the rest of the sentence. Prepositional phrases are built with a preposition followed by a pronoun or noun. The usage of different prepositions are ambiguous and the common examples of prepositional errors are the following.
Incorrect: The dog is hiding in the porch because it knows it will be punished.
Correct: The dog is hiding under the porch because it knows it will be punished.
I like you that you always try to add something interesting to your entries. You know, by doing this, you have passed the joys to all of us in doing the seemingly monotonous task of writing academic blog.
ReplyDeleteYour creative phrases and quotes always adds a dramatic intro to your essays making it more interesting to read.
ReplyDeleteAnd I didn't know that "People who own the laptops say that they can save a lot of time." is a wrong use of articles.
the errors that u make in essay writing are also made by me sometimes. Especially for propositons,some prepositions have different meaning in different sentences. So I am very confused about the usage of prepositions.
ReplyDeleteYes, i totally agrees with the two above that adding a quote at the beginning of the entries really captures the readers attention as well as their interest.
ReplyDeleteA good start could as well mean half of the success and you have done it again by capturing my interest this time. Well done and keep it up (on the quoting). :)