10 Common Mistakes That Native English Speakers Make

Started by milos, January 30, 2017, 07:14:30 AM

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milos

One Christ. One Body of Christ. One Eucharist. One Church.

Solar

He's absolutely correct! I cringe when I hear the English language being bastardized like this, be it street or ghetto slang, to kids trying to be cool.
Problem is, these misspeaks can easily become part of our language to the point they become accepted and when someone speaks clear English, they are somehow viewed as outcasts, in some cases, people assume they're being snobs and purposely insulting.

I was raised by parents from the turn of the 19th century, where everyone spoke and wrote the English language with uniformity, so as to be certain language was not misinterpreted.
While today we have all kinds of slang dialects within a given city, from gang to street, to broken English because of immigration, and the dim party encourages it with "Press #1 for English".

So don't feel bad, grasping these can take a near lifetime if you weren't raised with people that insisted on proper English.

Sad thing is, people, don't realize just how it reflects upon them personally in their daily lives.
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milos

As a non-native English speaker, I freak out when I see people intentionally mix "their", "there", and "they're", or "your" and "you're", because they think it's cool. I have been learning English for nine years in school, and in some courses later, to be able to write it properly, but still wasn't able to master it, and now I see native English speakers intentionally ruining it, and when I see them doing this I just want to punch them in the face, this time really literally, if I just could reach them. While some people are putting their efforts to learn something properly, the others are putting their efforts to ruin it.

Although the English is usually considered to be one of the easiest languages to learn, when you look deep into it, it's not that easy at all. Whether to use indefinite or definite article, or not to use them; differencies between British and American English (ok, I know it's parking lot and not car park so far); meaning of some words, why "good" is not the same as "well", when to say "little" and when to say "small"; we who have learned French also have some spelling problems, for example why is it "indépendance" in French, but "independence" in English; and tenses of course, they are so confusing I will never learn to use them properly, it's a real nightmare, especially the Future Continuous Perfect Past Participle Present Tense, never been able to figure it out. :wink:
One Christ. One Body of Christ. One Eucharist. One Church.

Solar

Quote from: milos on January 31, 2017, 03:50:38 AM
As a non-native English speaker, I freak out when I see people intentionally mix "their", "there", and "they're", or "your" and "you're", because they think it's cool. I have been learning English for nine years in school, and in some courses later, to be able to write it properly, but still wasn't able to master it, and now I see native English speakers intentionally ruining it, and when I see them doing this I just want to punch them in the face, this time really literally, if I just could reach them. While some people are putting their efforts to learn something properly, the others are putting their efforts to ruin it.

Although the English is usually considered to be one of the easiest languages to learn, when you look deep into it, it's not that easy at all. Whether to use indefinite or definite article, or not to use them; differencies between British and American English (ok, I know it's parking lot and not car park so far); meaning of some words, why "good" is not the same as "well", when to say "little" and when to say "small"; we who have learned French also have some spelling problems, for example why is it "indépendance" in French, but "independence" in English; and tenses of course, they are so confusing I will never learn to use them properly, it's a real nightmare, especially the Future Continuous Perfect Past Participle Present Tense, never been able to figure it out. :wink:
There's no excuse for it in the written word, but when I hear "yer" spoken I tend to brush it off as, maybe it was say a Southern dialect, where they may actually be saying your, or you're, but when it happens with the written word, to me it's inexcusable, especially with all the grammar programs available for free.
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milos

Lol, I found another non-native English speaker who is also being annoyed by the same thing, we must raise awareness about this issue. :smile:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBh6J4m-71c&feature=youtu.be&t=285

Ok, spoken dialects can differ, but the written language, come on.
One Christ. One Body of Christ. One Eucharist. One Church.

TboneAgain

Quote from: milos on January 31, 2017, 03:50:38 AM
As a non-native English speaker, I freak out when I see people intentionally mix "their", "there", and "they're", or "your" and "you're", because they think it's cool. I have been learning English for nine years in school, and in some courses later, to be able to write it properly, but still wasn't able to master it, and now I see native English speakers intentionally ruining it, and when I see them doing this I just want to punch them in the face, this time really literally, if I just could reach them. While some people are putting their efforts to learn something properly, the others are putting their efforts to ruin it.

Although the English is usually considered to be one of the easiest languages to learn, when you look deep into it, it's not that easy at all. Whether to use indefinite or definite article, or not to use them; differencies between British and American English (ok, I know it's parking lot and not car park so far); meaning of some words, why "good" is not the same as "well", when to say "little" and when to say "small"; we who have learned French also have some spelling problems, for example why is it "indépendance" in French, but "independence" in English; and tenses of course, they are so confusing I will never learn to use them properly, it's a real nightmare, especially the Future Continuous Perfect Past Participle Present Tense, never been able to figure it out. :wink:

Have faith and persevere! I congratulate you on your endeavors toward mastering a truly difficult language! Don't let anyone tell you anything different -- English is NOT an easy language to learn. Its primary difficulty is rooted in its stubborn, random irregularity, and that derives from its roots as a hopeless bastard conglomeration of languages from literally all parts of the world.

I studied Latin for three years in high school. While I'm certainly no Latin scholar, I can tell you that I learned more about universal grammar and structure in those three years than I did in all the English classes I ever took combined. Compared to English -- any version -- Latin is unbelievably (and refreshingly!) structured. The spelling and placement of every word in a sentence is derived in its tense, its person, its number, and its gender, with half a dozen other possible variables thrown in. With a relatively few exceptions, Latin is almost scientific in its composition and its translation. English is more of an acquired skill, something learned on the fly. The same essential rules of communication apply in both languages, but the tools of Latin are like the wrenches so neatly arranged on the pegboards in my workshop, while the tools of English look more like that mishmash at the bottom of my junk drawer.

Being a "grammar Nazi" is a thankless and unpopular task in any environment, short of scholarly journals of the highest sort. But as you have noticed, the battle for the language -- what there is of it -- is wider and more difficult than ever before. Public education standards in this country have been reduced as Leftists have solidified their hold on academia. The constant erosion of public behavior mores has given us justifications of horrible grammar and usage by giving them names like "Ebonics." Heck, we still struggle with native English speakers who think all those years between 1900 and 1999 were the 19th Century.  :rolleyes:

Don't give up, and don't punch them in the face! You're doing fine.
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milos

Thank you. I think I will never figure out how to use different tenses. For example, when to ask "Where were you?", and when to ask "Where have you been?", they both sound the same to me. This kind of things one can only learn by experience. Why you write "British" with one "t", but "Scottish" with two "tt". Why is a soccer team "it" in American English, but "they" in British English. Why are ships and aircraft and countries "she" instead of "it". There was some women name, "Phoebe", I believe of Greek origin, which is kind of popular, but I was wondering why would anyone give such a strange name to a person, until I figured out it is actually pronounced like "Fee-bee". Etc. There was one case in high school I will never forget, when in some exam everyone in the class wrote "didn't believed", and our English teacher went like "Are you all nuts?!", and she wrote everyone across all the page "didn't believe" with red marker pen and underlined it twice. I like some phrases in English which sound noble, for example, it sounds prettier to say "a friend of mine" than just "my friend".
One Christ. One Body of Christ. One Eucharist. One Church.