Some Common Silly Mistakes People Make In English Language

8 years ago

Some Common Silly Mistakes People Make In English Language

THE COMMON SILLY MISTAKES/ERRORS PEOPLE MAKE IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

They say "nobody is above mistake", that's is nothing but the truth, one of my lecturers does say; "error is when u don't know d right thing before saying the wrong thing, while mistake is when u know d right thing but u said d wrong thing"

Everybody is liable to mistakes of course, either silly or not, but some people are not expected to make silly mistakes, else it'll be categorized as unprofessional.

There was a day, I went to file a fresh case @d magistrate court Isabo Abeokuta, normally, any for me, any time I find myself in an/a official/formal organization like that, I express myself in English language because that's d official language, so after greetings, I explained to a woman what I came to do;
I: Ma, I came to file a new case, this is my first time of doing that, please how do I go about it?
The Woman: "E ko iranu siwaju joo, won a ma so Oyinbo bi eni pe won o gbo Yoruba, Oloyinbo o ki ku sile, America ni won n ku si." (Get out with rubbish, they'll be speaking English as if they don't understand Yoruba, English men don't die @home, they die in America). I was so embarrassed as the people there bursted into laughter, I just smiled it off as if it was nothing, I later replied, "E joo ma, bawo ni mo se ma se e?" (Please ma, how do I do it?) She directed me to one young man in d same office, I turned to his table, he looked @me and began to laugh again, "that's how they form as if they can even speak d correct English" he said. I was so annoyed but I didn't show it facially because what I went there to do was very important, he was still attending to me when a man of about 80years old that looks like a professor came in with his son, he followed d grown up son for age declaration or affidavit, the man requested for a teller so that his son could go and pay d necessary fees first;
The old man: Please, where can I get teller so that my son will go and pay d necessary fees?
The young man: Am sorry, there is no teller @d moment, I've WENT to REQUESTED for it more than 5times today.
The old man: You have what!!!?
The young man: I said I have WENT to REQUESTED for d teller several times today.
The old man: Oh my God! People like you still make such mistake? This is not professional @all, young man, it is not "I have WENT", it'll "I have GONE", and why should u say "to REQUESTED" when the correct thing is "to REQUEST". Please son, watch d way you speak English, it'll not our language though but your post here demands something fluent. The people on the queue were already laughing their lungs lungs out while d young man was just numb, I didn't know when I bursted into laughter too, I looked @his face again it was like "shit wey rain beat ;D " , I cautioned my laughter until I left d office, I laugh each time I remember how d old man reacted to d "gunshot" that day. That triggered me to list out some common silly mistakes people make knowingly / unknowingly:

1: Auxiliary verbs mis-usage
From the young man's error above, he used the auxiliary verb "have" which d followed verb must be in part participle. "I have gone"

2: "To" and verb
When "to" is used, the followed verb must be in present tense; "I have come to tell you"

3: "Did" and verb
The same rule with "to", when u use "did", then ur next verb has to be present tense. That reminds me of what happened to me some years back, I accompanied my friend to choir rehearsal, a guy asked me if I came for rehearsal too, "No, I did not came for the rehearsal", I said, the guy was like "pardon?" I realized that I've "shot", I responded immediately "I said no, I just accompanied him to rehearsal" 8) ;D

4: Rules of Concord
This is well known to people, I still wonder why they misuse it pretty well.
i: When the noun or pronoun is singular, the verb too should be singular, e.g "Lalasticla uses 23 hours online out of his 24 hours in a day" :D
ii: When the noun or pronoun is plural, d verb should be plural. E.g "I wonder if Nairaland moderators work somewhere else"

5: Mis-usage of singular verb "does"
Especially in negative sentences, after using "does", the next verb, d next verb should not be in singular again: "He does not know" ~~He does not knows~~

6: You can correct my mistakes/errors and add yours 8)
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Culled From Nairaland