Even people whose native language is English make mistakes. In order to illustrate it, we’ve selected a series of examples shown in a document written by Bernard Lamb, a lecturer at Imperial College London, which is considered as one of the top three colleges in England.
Some students that were awarded first-class honours degrees made mistakes like:
| Error | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Put implicated for implemented | Wrong use of the word |
| Put peace for piece | Wrong use of the word |
| Put defiantly for definitely | Wrong use of the word |
| Confuse effect/affect | Word confusion |
| Confuse where/were | Word confusion |
| Confuse their/there | Word confusion |
| Confuse compliment/complement | Word confusion |
| Confuse infected/affected | Word confusion |
| Confuse infer/imply | Word confusion |
| It incorporate how an organisms adapt to | Grammar error. It should be: It incorporates how an organism adapts to |
| A women | Grammar error. It should be: a woman |
| In 3 different country | Grammar error. It should be: in 3 different countries. |
| Put it’s for its | Punctuation error |
| Put bieng for being | Spelling error |
| Put recieved for received | Spelling error |
| Put usualy for usually | Spelling error |
| Put totaly for totally | Spelling error |
| alot | Two words written as one: a lot |
| Infact | Two words written as one: in fact |
| Inorder | Two words written as one: in order |
| More over | One word written as two: Moreover |
| There for | One word written as two: Therefore |
And these are just some of the most eye-catching mistakes; there are many more. If you want to see the original document, you can download it from this link or this one.
Summing up, you need to lose the fear to make mistakes.
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3 comments:
Great post. We need to stop teaching and learning a language as if it were a science. Language is art, and even amongst native speakers it is subject to a lot of natural variation, and there is usually quite a high level of tolerance for error. The important thing is to develop a good instinct for what sounds right.
I like the way you practice what you preach with your comment at the end: "we need to lose the fear to speak...". Shouldn't it be "fear of speaking.." ;-) But I understood perfectly well anyway.
Hi Simon,
Thanks for your comment. I thought that you could say “lose the fear to make mistakes”. I have googled “lose the fear to” (with the quotes) and it seems to be a structure broadly used.
Anyway, thanks for pointing it out!:) My native language is not English so I’m not afraid of making mistakes. From Learn English Online we try to show others how to use free Internet resources in order to improve their English level.
Cheers!
Great blog!
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