English bloopers - Common Mistakes in English

Terrible grammar and error-riddled speech is frequently a problem for young adults.

Poor English makes you sound unprofessional and can lead to laughs at your expense! If you need to touch up on your English, or just want a few giggles, read on!

Continuing our user-driven series on common English bloopers, let's highlight a few mistakes overhead by Rediff.com users.

Shilpa Archaya sent several bloopers she encounters frequently.

~ Please return my book back.

~ Could you repeat that last line again?

In both cases, the final word is redundant. When you return a book, you give it back to the owner. When you repeat a line, you're saying it again. They should read:

~ Please return my book.

~ Could you repeat that last line?

Shilpa also noted the following common mistake.

~ I, my sister and Deepa went to the mall

'I' and 'me' are always placed at the end of a list of names/ pronouns. The correct usage is:

~ My sister, Deepa and I went to the mall.

SM Hussein from Andhra Pradesh notes the prevalence of other redundancies:

~ The fish aquarium is very large.

~ The dance ballet was lovely.

In both cases, the descriptive word is unnecessary. An aquarium houses fish and a ballet is always a dance! The correct usage is simply:

~ The aquarium is very large.

~ The ballet was lovely.

Another mistake Hussein hears frequently:

~ I could not able to do it, sir.

In this case, either able should be removed or could should be replaced with was. Here are the two correct possibilities:

~ I could not do it, sir.

~ I was not able to do it, sir.

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~ "I'm going to give an examination."

You don't give an examination, you take one! So what you really should be saying, is:

~ "I'm going to take an examination."

"The city bus service is highly erotic!"

Well, the word she was looking for was 'erratic', which means lacking in consistency and regularity, and not 'erotic' -- which we all know means sexually arousing! So what she should have said was:

~ "The city bus service is highly erratic!"

 "I will revert back to you shortly."

The word 'revert' itself means to return to a previous subject or condition, so the insertion of the word 'back' in the sentence is incorrect. The correct thing to say is:

~ "I will revert to you shortly."

Get Ahead reader Sivashankar says, "A common error I hear people making is when they say the word 'anyways' instead of 'anyway'. There is no such word as 'anyways', and the additional 's' is not at all required." He further adds that many folk also tend to pluralise words that are already in plural, such as: 'datas' instead of data, and 'criterias' instead of criteria.

Dear Sir,

We are glad to tell you that we are manufacture of disappearing ink pen ttached please check our disappearing ink pen catalogue with pricepictures and other details. Any interested itmes please kindly inform us."

A grammatically correct copy of that mail is presented below:

"Dear Sir,

We are glad to inform you that we are now manufacturing disappearing ink pens. Attached please find our catalogue withprices, pictures, and other details furnished. If you are interested in any of the items, kindly inform us."

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1. ~ "It was a blunder mistake."
Correction, people! The word 'blunder' means mistake, so you could say:
~ "It was a blunder," or
~ "It was a big mistake."

2. ~ "It would have been more better."
The word 'better' itself implies that the option in question is superior -- the use of the word 'more' in the sentence is, therefore both inappropriate and unnecessary. Thus the correct sentence would go as follows:
~ "It would have been better."

3. ~ "Why don't he get married?"
The term 'don't' applies when discussing a plural subject. For instance, "Why don't they get married?" The right way to phrase that sentence would be:
~ "Why doesn't he get married?"

4. ~ "I want two Xeroxes of this card."
The term 'Xerox' is used in North American English as a verb. Actually, 'Xerox' is the name of a company that supplies photocopiers! The correct thing to say, therefore, would be:
~ "I want two photocopies of this card."

5. ~ "Your hairs are looking silky today."
This is one of the most common Indian bloopers! The plural of 'hair' is 'hair'! Thus:
~ "Your hair is looking silky today."
Get Ahead reader Nasreen Haque says, "We must realise that English is not the native language of Indians. Having said that, we should tell ourselves, 'Yeah, I could go wrong and I could make innumerable mistakes, but of course there is always room for improvement.'"
Here are a few bloopers Nasreen has across often:

1. ~ Loose vs lose
Many people make this mistake. They inevitably interchange the words 'loose' and 'lose' while writing. 'Lose' means to 'suffer a loss or defeat'. Thus, you would write:
~ 'I don't want to lose you," and not ' don't want to loose you.'
'Loose', on the other hand, means 'not firm' or 'not fitting.' In this context, you would write,
~ "My shirt is loose," not "My shirt is lose." 

2. ~ "One of my friend lives in Kolkata."
This is one of the most common Indian English bloopers ever! The correct way of putting that is:
"One of my friends lives in Kolkata."
Why? Because the sentence implies that you have many friends who live in Kolkata, but you are referring to only one of these friends.

3. ~ Tension-inducing tenses.
People often use the wrong tense in their sentences. For instance, someone might say:
~ "I didn't cried when I saw the movie."
Unfortunately, the word 'didn't' is never followed by a past tense verb, in this case 'cried'. The correct way of putting it would be:
~ "I didn't cry when I saw the movie."

Source: http://www.rediff.com/getahead/2007/apr/26english.htm