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THE SEVEN DEADLY ERRORS

IN WRITTEN ENGLISH

Essays, Letters, Projects, Reports

1.  You must distinguish the singular from the plural: your use of pronouns must agree: singular with singular, plural with plural. This is the most common error I see in students’ English.

Examples of typical errors:

they was, this books, she walk, we speaks, those man, that houses.

On this point you must remember the subject of the verb –

a. This list of countries is long.

b. All the teachers in a typical school are educated.

In these examples:

a. The subject is list, which is singular, not ‘countries’.

b. The subject, teachers, is plural and goes with ‘are’.

You must always take care on this point. Please see Nouns and Plurals.

2.  The use of ‘the’. In English we use ‘the’ when the thing referred to is specific, we do not use ‘the’ when it is general. Please see

Definite and Indefinite Articles

3.  The third person singular: in the present tense of a verb it must end in s.

For example – you eat, he eats; I run, she runs, we talk, it talks.

Please see The Third Person Singular in English.

4.  Adjectives NEVER change in English. They don’t change in the plural, they don’t change for gender. Please see Adjectives.

5.  Sentences of more than twenty words pave the way to the devil – and, in many cases, the comma is your enemy. You should consider using full point (period) and a new sentence.

6.  ‘One’ is a number in English, as in ‘one, two, three.’ It does not resemble in any way the indefinite articles ‘a’ and ‘an’ (as it does in some European languages). Please see Definite and Indefinite Articles.

7.  Literal translation from your own language is risky. If it doesn’t sound right in English think about using another word or phrase.

The test is: have you ever seen it in English or heard anyone saying it? Be especially careful about proverbs, fixed phrases and sayings – they don’t usually translate well.

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