Narednih dana jezička mreža Verbalisti donosi najkompletniji pregled grešaka koje se obično prave u korišćenju engleskog jezika i to ne samo od polaznika koji uče engleski već i od onih kojima je taj jezik maternji. Čak 200 primera biće vam na raspolaganju da poboljšate svoj engleski ili da rešite neke nedoumice po pitanju reči, pravopisa ili gramatike. Svakog dana objavljujemo po 10 primera a za danas smo pripremili sledeće:
1. Writing “then” when you mean “than”
The first is a description of time – “I will go to the bank and then I will stop at the store.” Than is used when making a comparison – “I am a faster runner than my friend.”
2. Confusing “into” with “in to”
The word into is a preposition that answers the question, where? It does not need to be a physical place. – “The doctor walked into the room to greet me” and “My sister had gotten into graduate school.” In to is used as in a prepositional phrase – “We decided to dine in to avoid the cold outside on the patio..” Notice the two words are written separately and they appear side by side. Into indicates movement, action or transformation. “In to” is usually used to mean “in order to”.
3. Using “a/an” incorrectly. It is not “an banana” and “a apple”
Use the article “an” to precede words in the English language that sound like a short vowel. Use the article a” before all other words. So “I would like a banana and an apple for lunch.” Watch your articles – they are very important.
4. Using “centered around”
The correct phrase is “centered on” – “My science report is centered on space exploration.” If the center is the middle point, then it can’t center around something.
5. Using “irregardless”
This word is often listed as “non-standard” in a dictionary. It is best to use the word “regardless” to mean despite everything. “My dog will stay outside for hours regardless of the weather” and “I will learn English regardless of how difficult it may be at times and how much time I must invest in study.”
6. Using “could of,” “would of”, and “should of”
None of these expressions are proper English. You need to use the verb have with each of the helping words – could, would and should. We can assure you that you will commonly hear people use “of” or “a” instead of the verb “have” as in the above examples: could of and coulda, etc., but this is not correct grammar.
7. Using “I and somebody else”
This is a common error. You need to put the other people you are referring to in your sentence before yourself. So instead of saying “I and my friend took the class”, you need to say “My friend and I took the class”.
8. Using “that” instead of “who”
If you’re writing about people, always use who. You should say “The students who study on-line English are working really hard” not “The students that study on-line English are working really hard.”
9. Using “it’s” when you mean “its”
The contraction it’s stands for the words it and is. Whenever you see this word, you can go back and reread the sentence to see if it is used correctly. You can also reread the sentence to make sure its does not mean it is. For example, “The dog wagged its tail” (not it is tail) and “It’s my turn to drive the car” (it is my turn…) are correct.
10. Using a random apostrophe
Often you will see an apostrophe used in a word that is plural like in the example, “I bought three pizza’s for the party” or it is absent in the example, “Its November and the weather has turned colder.” However, the apostrophe should be used to show possession as in “The teacher’s briefcase was lost on the bus”. You can see that the teacher owns the briefcase. And in the sentence about November and the weather, an apostrophe is needed to say “It is November…colder,” so the correct way with an apostrophe would be “It’s November and the weather has turned colder.”
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Engleski jezik, greške i nedoumice, primeri 11-20
Engleski jezik, greške i nedoumice, primeri 21-30
Engleski jezik, greške i nedoumice, primeri 31-40
Pošaljite nam vaše jezičke nedoumice, predloge, komentare ili pitanja na urednik@verbalisti.org