How to be a wonderful speaker

8 common mistakes made by us while we speak.

Mistake # 1

Use of double negative. Since most of us try to translate a sentence to English from our native language, thus, we end up adding double negative while speaking out. This is wrong.

For example:

We say – “I don’t know nothing.”, this means that we know something, but the correct one is

Correct – “I don’t know anything.”

Mistake # 2

Use of the wrong tense. Many of us have the tendency to use the wrong tense. For example:

We say – “I didn’t cried when I saw the movie.” Here the word didn’t is never followed by a past tense verb. So, the correct one is

Correct – “I didn’t cry when I saw the movie.”

Mistake # 3

Use of two comparatives/superlatives together. A sentence must not have two superlatives or comparatives together. For example:

We say – “This could never have turned out to be more better.” Here, better is the comparative of the adjective good and more is the comparative to the adjective much. Thus, the correct one is

Correct “This could never have turned out to be better.”

Mistake # 4

Me v/s I. Clear it in your mind that “I” is the subject and “me” is the object. We usually confuse between the two.

We say – “They are going to send my wife and I a package.” Here, if we remove the person and preceding the “I”. It would sound; “They are going to send I a package.” This is wrong!

Correct  “They are going to send me a package.”

Similarly, if we say “Jim and me are going to the gym.” what’s wrong here? When we remove “Jim and”. The sentence becomes “Me am going to the gym”. This is also wrong. The correct one is

Correct – “Jim and I are going to the gym.”

English Speaking, English Grammar, PEP TALK INDIA, Vocabulary

Mistake # 5

Fewer v/s less. The word fewer is only used for items that can be counted, whereas less is used for the uncountable. For example:

We say – “Today, the market has less people.”

Correct – “Today, the market has fewer people.”

Mistake # 6

Using ‘s’ unnecessarily after every word. This is a very common mistake we usually make. For example:

We say – “Unless you gets your act right.” This is wrong! Only if “you” is replaced by he/she and “your” is replaced by his/her. The correct sentence is:

Correct – “Unless you get your act right.”

Mistake # 7

Does v/s do. “Does” is used for the singular form of the subject, while “do” is used to indicate the plural form of the subject.

We say – “Why does they bother you a lot.”

Correct “Why do they bother you a lot.”

Mistake # 8

Blunder and mistake. Another common mistake we make while speaking is mixing blunder and mistake. Blunder is the synonym for mistake, thus it cannot be used together. For example:

We say – “It was a blunder mistake”

Correct – “It was a blunder” or “it was a mistake.”

 

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