More common mistakes of English language

Mentioned here are some more common mistakes of English language. Please note that I will not go in detail because my aim in this post is to highlight the difference of the words that are similar and to furnish obvious errors so that readers can correct their mistakes. I request you to kindly let me know what you feel about these posts either by leaving your comments or by writing to me. Be brutally honest, your feedback will be of immense importance to me.

• “Seize” and “cease”. “S-e-i-z-e” is a verb and means to grab something: “I seized the opportunity of having coffee with him.” “My warden ma’am seized my phone.” “The police seized his property” “C-e-a-s-e” is also a verb and means to stop, end, desist etc. “We are ceasing to design websites.” “Our excellent services would never cease for our customers”
• “Except” and “accept”. “E-x-c-e-p-t” is a preposition and means apart from, excluding, but etc. “Except on Sundays, I don’t like wearing T-shirts.” “Except George, everyone passed” “A-c-c-e-p-t” is a verb and means to take, receive, agree, believe etc. “Please accept my offer.” “I accepted the letter.” “John accepted that I was right”
• “Effect” and “affect”. “E-f-f-e-c-t” is a noun and means result, consequence, outcome etc. “The effect of the revolution is that they gained independence.” “A-f-f-e-c-t” is a verb and means have an effect on, to pretend. “The bad weather affected my health.” “Ever since he has returned from America, he affects their accent.”
• “Site,” “sight” and “cite”. “S-i-t-e” is a noun and means a place, location, spot etc. “The construction site.” “S-i-g-h-t” is a noun and means view, spectacle, scene, the ability to see etc. “From this lobby the sea sight looks marvellous.” “Joe has some sight problem.” “C-i-t-e” is a verb and means to quote, name, mention, refer etc. “Citing the example of Gandhiji, Gita represented the theme of nonviolence.” “William cited several authentic books to prove his point.”
• “Practice” and “practise”. “P-r-a-c-t-i-c-e” is a noun and means rehearsal, preparation, training etc. “A week before the final presentation, it was the practice of students to give presentations among themselves.” “Peter made it a practice to run five kilometres every morning.” It is important to note that “practice” is also used as a verb in US English. “P-r-a-c-t-i-s-e” is a verb and means to repeatedly do something in order to gain mastery etc. “Everyday Sara practises on the typewriter.”
• The plural of “life” is “lives” not “lifes”. It should be “Our lives are good here” not “Our lifes are good here.”
• The plural of “wife” is “wives” not “wifes”. It should be “Tom’s wives are opposing his third marriage,” not “Tom’s wifes are opposing his third marriage.”
• Many people, writing the plural of “NGO,” put an apostrophe such as “NGO’s,” which is wrong. The correct word would simply be “NGOs”.
• The plural of “software” is never “softwares”. When I searched the plural form of “software,” I found out that it is a collective noun.
• “In fact” are two separate words, but many people join “in” with “fact” such as “Infact” which is wrong.

Common errors of English language

Common errors of English language

I am listing some common errors of English language.

• It is always “ma’am” but many people omit the apostrophe and write “mam” which is a blunder.
• In “up to,” there is always a space between “up” and “to”. It is never “upto”.
• In a sentence with “though,” “but” is not needed. You cannot say, “Though Tom is good, but his company is bad.” The correct sentence will read: “Though Tom is good, his company is bad.”
• “I will be more happier” is a blunder because double comparative is used. It should simply be “I will be happier.” This rule should be applied on all the similar sentences.
• People frequently err using “my” and “mine”. When “my” is used, the object has to be mentioned such as “My computer is not working.” “Where is my mobile?” “My shirt is loose” etc. But, when we use “mine,” the talked about object does not need to be mentioned. For example, if Tom talks further to “My computer is not working” – It should be “But mine is working well” – not “My is working well.” If he needs to answer the question “Where is my mobile?” it would be “It is with mine” – not “It is with my.” And talking about the shirt, he can say “Mine is fit” not “My is fit.”
• Difference between “Lose” and “Loose” is very obvious yet sometimes people get confused. “Lose” is a verb which means to be defeated – “Those who think they will win never lose,” to misplace or drop “I have lost my pen,” etc. “Loose,” on the other hand, is an adjective which means something not fit, tight etc. “My shirt is loose.” “Loose” can also be used as a verb. There are other meanings of these words but I merely highlighted the difference.
• “Does it works?” “What does he thinks?” are wrong sentences. The correct ones would read: “Does it work?” and “What does he think?”
• “Role” and “Roll” mustn’t be interchanged. “Role” is a noun and is used as “John has played a key role in the organization,” “The role of the comedian was crucial in the movie” etc. “Roll,” on the other hand, is a verb and is used as “He has rolled up the chart,” “The wheels of the vehicles were rolling” etc.
• “Past” and “Passed”. “Past” is an adjective which is referred when talking about a thing which has been over such as “past happiness,” “past president” etc. “Passed,” on the other hand, is the past tense of “pass”. “I have passed my graduation,” “Have you passed that information to everyone in the class?” etc.
• The pronunciation of “chore” (which is a noun and means a task or job) is as ch in child, and oor in door; but many people utter it from the K sound which is wrong. Cambridge dictionary website and howjsay.com are excellent sources to listen to the audio pronunciation.

Please click Avoid Common Errors and Errors to Avoid as I am sure that you all will find them very useful.