Common Mistakes/Common Mistakes 4

Academic English Structures - Common Mistakes.

The following are examples from students’ essays. Re-write them correctly. The number in brackets indicates how many mistakes or problem areas there are.


1) I could study harder when I was young, but I didn't work hardly. (two)
Please write your answer here:[ANSWER]


2) This stage of the proccess spends a lot of time. (two) [ANSWER]


3) Most of students in the class suffer because of there English is weak. (three) [ANSWER]


4) An amount of students did research through means of internet. (three) [ANSWER]


5) First, from the survey indicates that 87% those people visiting museums want cheap souvenirs. Second, they..... (three) (...or four) [ANSWER]



Do you need some hints and clues (pieces of helpful information)? Then scroll down...................

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Hints and clues:



1) I could study harder when I was young, but I didn't work hardly. (two)
1) The past tense of "could do" is "could have done" when it means "to have an opportunity" (as it does here). The past tense of "can" is "could" or "was able to" when it refers to ability. ("I can't run the marathon now, but I could run it when I was younger.")

Also:

The adverbs "hard" and "hardly" have different meanings. Which one is appropriate here? (One of them cannot be used with a negative verb.) [ANSWER]


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2) This stage of the proccess spends a lot of time. (two)
2) Only living things can "spend" time. Which verb is more appropriate here?
Also:
There is a spelling mistake. [ANSWER]



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3) Most of students in the class suffer because of their English is weak. (three)
3) There is a problem with "most of students".
Also:
You cannot use "because of + subject + verb structure". "Because of + noun" is possible. (e.g. It was cancelled because of the rain.)
Also:
There is a common spelling mistake. [ANSWER]


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4) An amount of students did research through means of internet. (three)
4) There's a problem with "an amount of". The student wanted to say that it was very common for students to use computers, but "amount" is the wrong word.
Also:
There's a problem with "through means of". The student wanted to say that they used this method to do their research, but is mixing two different expressions.
Also:
There is a problem relating to articles. (a, an, some, the, etc.) [ANSWER]


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5) First, from the survey indicates that 87% those people visiting museums want cheap souvenirs. Second, they...... (three) (.... or four)
5) Problem with the sequencing words. These are "sentence adverbs".
Also:
"From the survey" cannot be the subject of the following verb. Never put a preposition before a subject.
Also:
What should come after "%"?
Also:
The adjectives "first" and "second" should really be in the form of adverbs. [ANSWER]








When you've rewritten the sentences, check further down the page to see if they're the same as the suggested answers..............







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Answers:



1) I could study harder when I was young, but I didn't work hardly.
1) I could have studied harder when I was young, but I didn't work hard.

Or:
I could have studied harder when I was young, but I hardly worked.


Note:
Neither is a particularly good sentence. Perhaps a better one would be:
I could have studied more when I was young, but I didn't work hard enough.



2) This stage of the proccess spends a lot of time.
2) This stage of the process takes a long time.


3) Most of students in the class suffer because of their English is weak.
3) Most of the students in the class suffer because of their weak English.

Or :

Most of the students in the class suffer because (-) their English is weak.




4) An amount of students did research through means of internet.
4) A number of students did research through the internet.

Or:

A number of students did research by means of the internet.




5) First, from the survey indicates that 87% those people visiting museums want cheap souvenirs. Second, they.....
5) Firstly, (-) the survey indicates that 87% of those people visiting museums want cheap souvenirs. Secondly, they.....

Note:

In the above, "people visiting" can replace "people who visit".....








Photo Album





A cave is natural, but these t------ are m-- - m---.

Answer:

tunnels - man-made. Two companies raced each other to build a railway line across Canada. This abandoned (no longer used) section of line belonged to the Canadian Pacific Railway company. Explosives were used to blast holes through the mountains. (Photo: Taken near Hope, British Columbia, Canada)





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Do you get it?



When it comes to teaching, the carrot is more effective than the stick.

Alternatively, you can find a really big carrot and use it as a stick.

Idioms: carrot and stick
A carrot held in front of a donkey can be used to encourage it to go forward, while a stick can be used to drive it from behind. Example - "The banking firm offered its staff the carrot of huge bonus payments, while simultaneously waving the stick of redundancies and job losses if they didn't perform well."