4 common mistakes made by our students #1
Our students often ask PS English to help them improve their English conversation skills by asking teachers to correct the most common mistakes.
In this series, our aim will be to highlight common English mistakes (both English grammar and vocabulary) so as to help you improve your accuracy and overall English level. Accuracy may be important to you especially if you need a good score in an English exam, such as TOEFL and IELTS.
1. He will back to Italy next month.
Understandability: high
This mistake shouldn’t cause much misunderstanding.
Here, “back” is being used as a verb, when in fact the context suggests it is an adverb. The intended meaning is “return” and therefore the correct utterance is “go back”.
“Back”, as a verb means “support” somebody.
“She wanted to become a doctor and her parents fully backed her in this endeavour.”
Correct answer: He will go back to Italy next month.
2. I want to learn English from UK people.
Understandability: high
This mistake will not cause any misunderstanding.
Here, it is simply an error of collocation, wherein “UK + people” is an unnatural combination of words.
Correct answers:
- British people
- The British
- The Brits (a phrase mainly used by the rest of the Anglo-speaking world)
- Britons (more formal and used to place British people in a historic context)
3. I’m very familiar with my boss.
Understandability: medium
This mistake shouldn’t cause much misunderstanding, but might lead to embarrassment!
Here, the misplaced use is “to be familiar with somebody”.
In English, “to be familiar with somebody” has a more unpleasant meaning, often with a sexual connotation when considered inappropriate. A native speaker should glean your intended meaning, but not without imagining first the core meaning: your relationship with the boss is more than just a professional relationship!
Correct answers:
- I have a good working relationship with my boss.
- I get on (well) with my boss.
4. 9/11 was a terrible accident.
Understandability: high
This mistake shouldn’t cause much misunderstanding, but might cause slight initial offence!
Here, the mistake is the restricted use of “accident” in English.
In English, “an accident” requires the happening of an unfortunate situation in which damage occurs unintentionally.
The better choice of word would be “incident”.
“Incident” has much broader scope, including both intentional and unintentional undesirable events. So an accident can be described – especially initially – as an incident, but not all incidents can be called accidents.
Correct answer: 9/11 was a terrible incident.