welcome to linguistic academy

Common mistakes are those actions that are repeated by the people of a particular region, class, or group in the same fashion. And the beauty of this kind of mistake is that people don't know that they do it repeatedly. From time to time, these practices become mature to the point where they are misunderstood in their beliefs that they are right.

Asking about the most common English mistakes people make here in India can lead to a long list that can ruin the impression of the language presented. "Hare (Rabbit) and hair (a thin threadlike part of the body)" are homonyms and have different meanings, which can be confusing while writing if not confirmed. This can happen to anyone while writing or typing. In English, the word ‘not’ is rarely found alone except in special cases. Most often it follows an auxiliary verb. That is, "do not", "does not", “has not", “have not", "did not", “is not", and so on. 

Here are some examples of The Most Common Mistakes in English in India.

1. Use of 'have' with all plural and singular subjects. 'Has' should be used with III^rd person singular subjects and have with all rest of subjects. The use of has/have in negative sentences also troubles learners. 

Incorrect: My friend have a car.

Correct: My friend has a car.

Incorrect: Neeta have not two brothers. She has only one.

Correct: Neeta does not have two brothers. She has only one.

Incorrect: They have not three rooms in the house. They have five.

Correct: They do not have three rooms in the house. They have five.

2. The spelling of 'tomorrow' is commonly written as;

Incorrect: Tomarrow, tommorrow, tommorow, etc.

Correct: Tomorrow.

3. The biggest challenge is to use do/does in negative or interrogative sentences of Simple Present Tense.

Incorrect: Rahul do not care about his work.

Correct: Rahul does not care about his work.

Incorrect: Do she talks on the phone?

Correct: Does she talk on the phone?

Incorrect: What does he has in the bag?

Correct: What does he have in the bag?

4. While making sentences of Simple Present Tense use of V5 =(Verb +s/es) in positive sentences is a strange thing for basic and intermediate level learners, e.g. read/reads, come/comes. They use the wrong one unknowingly.

Incorrect: Deepika act very well in films.

Correct: Deepika acts very well in films.

5. Generally, people use 'return back' in place of 'return' or come back.

Incorrect: I return back home at 4 in the evening.

Correct: I come back home at 4 in the evening.

Incorrect: She has returned back your money last week.

Correct: She has returned your money last week.

6. Excessive use of the 'ing' form of every verb is common here even though it is prohibited by grammar where we know that it is not used with verbs like know, want, feel, like, love, hate, understand, etc.

Incorrect: How are you feeling now?

Correct: How do you feel now?

7. Blunder and mistake, two words basically mean the same never be used in a sentence together as many do. The mistake means a simple error whereas blunder means a big mistake. Sometimes, the blunder is considered a series of mistakes that causes big losses or harm. Use of these two words like ' blunder mistake' is similar to writing 'mistake mistake' not 'big mistake' which is absolutely wrong. 

Incorrect: She made a blunder mistake

Correct: She made a blunder.

8. Use of its and it’s is very confusing for most Indians.

‘Its’ a possessive pronoun, can be used for showing possession, right on anything of ‘it’ or belonging/ quality to ‘It’.

Incorrect: Mr. Xavier knew it’s benefits, so he bought the house at extra cost.

Correct: Mr. Xavier knew its benefits (benefits of it/house), so he bought the house at extra cost.

Incorrect: The Smartphone and it’s applications made life easier.

Correct: The Smartphone and its applications (applications of it/phone) made life easier.

‘It’s’ as a contraction or short form of ‘It is’ or ‘It has’.  

Incorrect: Do not touch the pack, Its going to explode.   

Correct: Do not touch the pack, It’s (it is) going to explode.

Incorrect: I found in my new bag, its secret pocket inside.   

Correct: I found in my new bag, it’s (it has) secret pocket inside.  

(Note: There is no word like [ Its’ ] so avoid it.)

9. Another common mistake is the usage of words like Everyone/body/thing which all are singular in numbers while many use them mistakenly as plural.

Incorrect: Every one of them go to school.

Correct: Every one of them goes to school.

Incorrect: Everything are fine there.

Correct: Everything is fine there.

10. People around Haryana, U.P, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Delhi, and Rajasthan from Hindi backgrounds, generally pronounce Car and Call (/kɑː/) with the same tone, not call as  (/kɔːl/). Similarly, people around Tamilnadu make the same sound for Far and For as (/fɔːr/).

11. People from North-Eastern states have some difficulty pronouncing the sound of the letter 'T'  correctly as used in the word Time because of their tongue practices. 

12. You may ask your friends the full spelling in alphabets of 12th - Twel....... (and check how many say TWELFTH correctly.) 

*This article is based upon the personal experience of the writer which he gained by teaching thousands of students across India.

Do you know how it looked then?

Think-Think...

Fortunately, it became a painting, filled with some colours not perfectly but beautifully and full of creativity.

OK, let me share with you –

It was the end of winter and post the Holi festival when the whole world was shaken up by Covid-19. In India and the rest of the world, nobody had any idea what would happen in the following days. Suddenly people started being panicky and feeling insecure when a piece of numerous news was spread about the shortage of medicines, ration, and toilet paper. In the 3rd week of March 2020, most of the nations declared lockdown in their countries including India. Now it was the first week of lockdown when every single person was stopped by choice or force. There was uncertainty about the future and nobody knew what would happen next. We speculated that the situation was going to be worse for a long time, so I along with a few students started our online classes and in this way we found our route to move ahead on 27th March 2020. It was nearly impossible for us at that time because earlier we were not in favour of online teaching for skill-based or language programs. 

Since that day we have been teaching English and foreign languages to our students online. We started, learnt, and implemented. Now when people are looking for language courses, we are available with experienced teams to serve them better. Our team is preparing now for more advanced classes with the latest and tested features for the benefit of students/learners. The whole six months journey wasn't so easy but we were determined to come back, so we did. I personally thank all students who have placed their faith in us and our teams who fought against the morbid situation. People joined us not only from Delhi but also from several other cities of India and even other countries. We stood for learning and teaching as everybody should do for his/her job for the dream.

During lockdown (Apr-Sep 2020), we taught English, Hindi, Spanish, French, Arabic, German and Japanese. We provided our translation services too. Currently, we are offering more languages (Chinese, Korean, Russian, Portuguese, Turkish, etc) online for students. 

Linguistic Academy is committed to serving you always in better ways, so we have decided to support our students to get a placement as well. 

"Wear the mask, Maintain physical distance, Keep learning &  Stay healthy"

|

Prabhat Yadav 

We assure to keep the quality of learning same as it was before. New technologies and tools are making our path easy and clear.

Ask for upcoming classes ASAP to save your time and to become advanced than others. JOIN SOON.

Stay Home, Stay Safe, Keep learning.