Richard-Business Eng
Professional Teacher
3 Common Mistakes and Errors... Stop the Mistakes and Improve your English
All errors and mistakes are in red
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Error and Mistake Defined
In the study and science of languages, a.k.a. (also known as) linguistics, the nouns "error" and "mistake" ARE NOT INTERCHANGEABLE and DO NOT have the same meanings and usages.
An "error" is seen as resulting from a learner's lack of proper language knowledge. In other words, the learner did not know the correct way.
A "mistake" occurs when the person fails to use the correct grammar that they have already studied and learned and know how to use properly. 

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The names of languages ... english, spanish, russian

Nouns, the names of things and people, are classified as common nouns or proper nouns.
Proper nouns have two distinct features: They name specific one-of-a-kind items, and they begin with capital letters, no matter where they occur within a sentence.
Proper nouns include: a person's name, the name (title) of a place (a city or country, etc), or thing (such as the name of a team, a company, a language or the name of a business).
So, all the names of all the different languages need to be capitalized.

Proper Noun Examples:
People: Janet / Simon / Bill Gates / Jackie Chan
Places: Hong Kong / Pacific Ocean / Princess Street / Canada / Asia
Titles: President X / Principal X / Doctor X / Lord of the Rings / Titanic 
...X means the actual name of the person and must appear in the phrase "Title + Name"
Calendar/dates: Monday / January / Lunar New Year / Christmas / Ramadan
Languages: English, Chinese, French, Russian... (all language names)
Nationalities: British, Canadian, Chinese, American, Polish, Indonesian, Indian

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What is the difference among 'say', 'tell' and 'speak'?.............. incorrect
What is the difference between 'say', 'tell' and 'speak'?........... correct

Note to learners:
Don't believe anyone who insists that you have to use among for three or more. This is not true at all. If you are considering three or more items individually, you have to use between. Here, you are comparing each word with each of the other words, so you cannot use among.

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What means this word?................. incorrect 
What mean this word?................... incorrect
What is mean this word?............... incorrect
What does mean this word?.......... incorrect
What does this word means?........ incorrect

The correct option, of course, is this:  What does this word mean?

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Can you suggest other mistakes that are commonly made?
Jun 10, 2018 12:07 PM
Comments · 3
1

Thank you Aliph and Rose...  I'm glad you find these simple examples helpful.

Thanks to Rose for providing a couple of good mistake answers

June 11, 2018
1

Thank you Richard for helpful article. When it comes to my mistakes in English for example:

I like very much fruit. Incorrect

I like fruit very much. Correct

If I will be there, I will contact you. Incorrect

If I am there, I will contact you. Correct

June 10, 2018
1
Thank you Richard as always I like your topics! Very useful for me.
June 10, 2018
Richard-Business Eng
Language Skills
English, French
Learning Language
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