Common Mistakes in English

Common Mistakes in English

Compiled by-

Revatagaon sir

1. Subject-Verb Agreement Errors

A lot of people make a mistake in writing is that the subject and the verb don’t match.

The verb and subject need to match in number.

If the subject is one person (singular), the verb must agree and reflect that.

Here’s an example.

Wrong: Our dogs is running in the park.

Right: Our dogs are running in the park.

2. Sentence Fragments

An incomplete sentence is called a sentence fragment.

If the sentence is missing an independent clause or a complete verb, it is considered incomplete and is therefore wrong.

The most common way sentence fragments occur is when the meaning of a second sentence is based on a previous sentence.

For example:

Wrong: I don’t like to eat bitter gourd. Because I dislike the taste.

Right: I don’t like to eat bitter gourd because I dislike the taste.

3. Misuse of Contractions and Apostrophes

A lot of people struggle with knowing when to use a contraction or apostrophe.

Whether the contraction is –

“its” vs “it’s,”

“your” vs “you’re,”

“they’re” vs “their” vs “there.”

As a rule, anything that uses an apostrophe indicates possession or a contraction.

If you can say “it is” or “it has” instead of “it’s” in a sentence and it still makes sense, then you need an apostrophe.

Similarly for contractions, if you can say “you are” in a sentence, then you know you should be using “you’re” instead of “your.”

Let’s have a look at some examples.

Wrong: Its cold outside today.

Right: It’s [it is] cold outside today.

Wrong: I don’t understand why your mad, their the ones who made a mistake.

Right: I don’t understand why you’re [you are] mad, they’re [they are] the ones who made a mistake.

4. Passive Voice

It’s common to see a passive voice when the object is put at the beginning of a sentence as opposed to at the end. When the object is at the beginning, then the verb is happening to the object instead of the object causing the verb.

In order to correct this mistake, the sentence needs to be changed to become active. This is a very common mistake, even for experienced writers, and it’s often difficult to pick up on. Here are some examples:

Passive: The baby was held by its mother.

Active: The mother was holding her baby.

Passive: The wall was painted by Jennifer.

Active: Jennifer painted the wall.

5. Dangling Modifiers

A dangling modifier is a phrase, clause, or even a word that is separate from the word it’s meant to describe or modify.

It makes the sentence sound awkward and can be confusing to read.

If your sentence isn’t clear about exactly what is being modified, there’s a mistake in it.

Wrong: Checking in his bag, the book was not found.

Right: Checking in his bag, he didn’t find his book.

Wrong: After breaking her leg, it was hard to walk.

Right: After breaking her leg, Jane found it hard to walk.