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Logan Susnick
A short list of bad English language habits!

Here are five of the common errors in English that come to mind. You can hear them often from native speakers and I am guilty of a few, too!!!

 

FEWER vs LESS

Wrong: "Checkout for 10 items or less"

Right: "Checkout for ten items or fewer"

If a noun is countable, you use "fewer"; if not, use "less". "To lose weight, you should consume fewer calories and less fat".

 

WENT vs GONE

Wrong: "You should have went to the concert"

Right: "You should have gone to the concert"

Of course, should + have needs a past participle!

 

TAKE vs BRING

Wrong: "When we go to the hospital, let's bring some oranges"

Right: "When we go to the hospital, let's take some oranges".

The verb "to go" starts from a point of departure, whereas the verb such as "to come" is at the arrival point. When you go, you take; when you arrive, you bring. So it would also be correct to say "When you come to the hospital, please bring some oranges".

 

WHO vs THAT

Wrong: "She is the girl that forgets her lines"

Right: "She is the girl who forgets her lines"

If it's a person, use who.

 

WHICH vs THAT

A pronoun "that" is a restrictive pronoun and "which" should be used to add information. The "which" part can be left out without changing the meaning of the main part of the sentence. The removal of "that" part would change the meaning of the sentence and that's why it's called restrictive.

"Sushi that is improperly prepared can give you parasites"

"Sushi, which is basically raw fish, is a Japanese delicacy"

If you remove the "which" addition, you are left with "Sushi is a Japanese delicacy" which is correct and does not change the meaning of the sentence. But if you remove the "that" section, it reads "Sushi can give you parasites" which is generally true but it completely changes the meaning and in some cases could even make the sentence not true.

Comments · 15

6

Thanks for the excellent and thorough explanation.  Allow me to add my pet peeve:  the use of object pronouns as part of a compound subject of the verb.  

 

Extremely wrong:   "Me and my brother are going to the movies."   "Her and Jane attend college."

 

Beautifully correct:  "My brother and I are going to the movies."   "She and Jane attend college."

2

Thanks Logan. Normally I really have to search for the little grammatical mistakes I still make, but all four of these examples were useful for me. Do you have more?

1

I would respectfully disagree. Some of the fine distinctions you pose are what I call "English-teacher distinctions." People who are particular about them are very sure they are "right," but if you actually check a usage guide or the American Heritage Dictionary's usage notes, you will find that the "wrong" usage is endorsed by the usage panel. You can't really win these arguments because the person you are arguing with will just say "well, the dictionary is wrong, then" but there is at least scope for debate. 

 

Often you can find examples of the supposedly wrong usage in the writings of impeccably good writers. For example, in the category of "that" versus "who," would you correct Mark Twain's story title, "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg?" Edgar Allen Poe's "The Man That Was Used Up?"

 

In some cases, the classroom rules are trying to enshrine usages that are fading, so it is a matter of taste whether one is upholding an important standard, or hopelessly trying to preserve something archaic. 

1

You're right Devin, that is probably why keys work like that, that makes sense. But you know there's tons of other examples and here's just a few examples in these sentences. There's so many folks who seem to forget that there's rules to follow when it comes to grammar, at least in speech. And phrases like "a lot" take their form from the subject, so "a lot of people are boring" and "a lot of beer is good" would both be correct, but somehow it's mostly singular when it comes to "here's" and "there's". In spoken English and increasingly so written as well. Hey, language is a living thing, we have to keep up with it!

1

Nice explanations, Logan.

I think your "keys" example is due to the fact that we normally have to deal with "a set of keys".  Being a single "set" gives the brain the impression we're dealing with a singular (set) instead of a plural (keys).  So, using your example, the reason we get away with "here's your keys" is because we're THINKING "here is your set of keys".

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