Thursday, October 13, 2011

More common mistakes of English language



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.

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