Common Errors we commit while using

English
A Spoken English
While greeting someone in the early afternoon or at night, many of us
say,good noon or good night respectively. Lets remember that noon
lasts for just a second ie -12 noon. A second before or after is morning
or afternoon and so our greeting should be good morning till 12 and
good after noon till 5 or 6 pm. If we meet someone after that till
midnight, we should say good evening and never good night. Good
night is to be used when we are leaving someone at night or even in
the afternoon when we are not likely to meet her/him again that day
The reply to how do you do is how do you do and not, I am fine,
thank you. It is, in fact rarely used these days, though quite prevalent
in the USA. We prefer hello or Hi, instead.
While expressing disgust, annoyance or disapproval, youngsters
generally use O shit. The word is in the list of Taboo Words in many
countries and its use in public is not acceptable.
.Many of us are in the habit of using na, no, nah, right or isnt it as
question tags after each sentence we speak. Remember a question
tag is not a question meant to be answered. It is to emphasize the
statement already made and so we dont use it after every sentence
we speak .Then, a correct tag always has the same subject, verb and
tense as the preceding statement. Moreover,an affirmative statement
will have a negative tag and vice versa. Eg IITians are poised to rise
higher in life, arent they? They wont waste time on unrewarding
things, will they? The institute facilitates their all round development,
doesnt it?I know it well, dont I? They tried as much as they could,
didnt they? etc.
While introducing ourselves we at times begin with Myself Mr. C S
Sharma from Ahmedabad only. It should be I am C S Sharma from
Ahmedabad. Similarly no need to say I originally/basically belong to
XYZ place. Enough to say I belong to.. .
When someone asks us here in India about the price of something we
have purchased, we tend to say---bucks which actually mean dollars.
So if you say you purchased a new shirt for 2000 bucks, it really means
you paid around Rs130000/(!!)
 We dont need to follow British or American accent while speaking.
Standard Indian English should be considered enough. Listening to
English news on DD or to some prominent Indian speakers like Dr.
Radhakrishnan, Jaggi Vasudeva ,Mahatraya Ra or even some good TED
talks may help enormously.
When we speak, we can try to be a bit conscious about the
pitch(neither very high nor very low), the pauses, stress on certain
syllables of words or certain words in sentences, proper intonation ie
rise and fall of the voice and above all, reasonably correct
pronunciation.
Though it is very difficult to write about correct English pronunciation,
specially due to variants in British and American English, ( I have sent
a mail about it earlier) we can be fairly careful about at least some of
the sounds where most Indian speakers goof up due to regional or
mother tongue pull.:-----
A Distinction between s and sh sounds It is not rare to hear
sentences like
1 shame to you SarmaShir ( The speaker spoke to Sharma Sir when he
wished him Happy New Year)
2 O lord shave ( save) the Queen! (Lord will have to wait till the queen
grows beard.
3 Can I shit here? (If one shits, we wont sit there.)
We need to be a little conscious about these sounds and have a lot of
listening , speaking and reading practice with periodic recording of our
own speech and reviewing it. Those with serious problem may try to
practise with the tongue twisters like---she sells sea shells at sea shore,
at sea shore she sells sea shells or We surely shall see the sun shine
soon.
B Pronunciation of English vowels and diphthongsSome of us fail to
distinguish between a, e or ei/ai sounds . So words like
man/men/mainor mane, bad/bed/bade, test/taste, snacks/snakes etc
are mispronounced.
C Confusion about short or elongated stress when we pronounce
words like fit/feet, ship/sheep, slip/sleep, full/fool etc.
D Many English verbs have different pronunciation when they are
changed to nouns or adjectives like repeat, reserve, resolve, prefer etc
having I sound in the first syllable are pronounced with e sound
when they become repetition, repetitive, reservation, resolution,
preference/preferential/preferable etc.

B Written English
Using cardinal and ordinal numbers while writing date, day, chapter, class,
standard, ranketc when month/ day/ chapter/class/standard/rank precedes
the number, we always use cardinals egMay 14,2016 ( not May 14th or June
1st,) day 7 (and not day 7th), chapter 2 ( and not chapter 2nd), .class/
standard/rank 3 ( and not class 3rd) However, when the number comes before
any of these words, we use ordinals14th May, 1st June, 7th day, 2nd chapter,
3rd class/standard/rank etc.

Single digit numbers should preferably be written in words. Rest in

figures only egwe undertook three (and not 3) experiments
simultaneously during past 15 (and not fifteen) days to prove that .
It is fine to write Dearest friend but never write or say Dearest father.
Superlative degree of an adjective is used only when there is a
comparison among more than two.
We dont need to say cousin brother/sister. Just say-- (S)he is my
cousin.
Can and able to should not be used together. Can means-be able to.
SosayI can not
(or I am not able to) explain all the vagaries of English language
through just one mail and notI cannot be able to--.
Similarly when we use May or Might, we should avoid using possible,
probable, perhaps, likely etc in the same sentence. May itself conveys
possibility/ probability. Wrong to sayIt may be possible. Should say
It is possible or it may be that. We may perhaps complete the
project this weekwrong. Right--- We may complete or We shall
perhaps complete----
When we begin a sentence with One of, each of, none of, either of,
neither of, the subject we use thereafter should always be plural and
verb in singular number. One of our students (and not student) is (not
are) going for a NASA project. None of the members (not member)
present has (not have) any objection to the proposal. Neither of the
projects submitted was (Not were) approved by the committee.
Sometimes we erroneously replace very by too So we wrongly say
English is too easy and interesting for us to learn or he was too rich/
strong / wise to do anything In fact, too conveys a negative meaning.
These sentences actually mean that Eng is so easy that we cannot
learn it or he was so rich/ strong that he could not do anything. Correct
 sentences--- Eng is easy enough for us to learn or Eng is too easy for
us not to learn.
(Double negative will convey positive meaning) He was rich enough to
do anything or He was too rich not to do anything.
Contractions (short forms like dont, theyll, Ive etc) are used only in
colloquial language and not in formal writing like essays, project
reports or scientific papers.
Inflated or redundant phrases and acronyms-
Repeat again, restore back, return back, reply back, blunder mistake,
red in colour, commute to and fro, difficult dilemma, punctual of time,
grateful thanks are the phrases we often hear. Single word in each
case is enough. Similarly, acronyms like CBSE, KV, HIV, DC/AC, PAN,
PIN, etc are complete in themselves yet we tend to respectively add
board, school, virus, current, number etc. When we say UG or PG
students, we actually mean under graduating or post graduating
students. Otherwise, it is enough to say undergraduates/ post
graduates.
We often hear/read that English has 26 alphabets. Fact is that it has
only one alphabet which has 26 lettersa, b, c, d are letters and not
alphabets.
Less than 20 students were present wrong because less is the
comparative form of little , used for uncountables only It should be
Fewer than 20
Courtesy is not only a great virtue but is parent to many other virtues
So good to have it but being over polite has a negative impact eg If
you dont mind, could you please review my SOP carefully and consider
my request for admission most sympathetically and favourably. Or---
With due respect and humble submission, I beg to offer my
candidature for the post of----. Lets remember that when we write an
application, we are only applicants and not supplicants and we believe
that we deserve what we are asking for and are not seeking any undue
favour.
At the end of a mail, we generally write Look forward to . .
Actually the phrase is always followed by a noun or a gerund (verb-
noun) and not a verb. So, the correct sentence would beLook/ looking
forward to meeting/ seeing / hearing from you etc. We can also write
Look forward to your reply/ a prompt action etc.( The other two phrases
used like this are with a view to and be used to.)
 Errors due to Mother tongue influence ,( I am competent to write only
about Hindi)
1 He is my real brother ( sagabhai)we dont use real brother in
Eng.
2 In US, students take exams, in Canada, they write, in UK, they
sit/appear for exams but we in India give exams ( parikshadena).
Lets say any of these but not give exam. Educators give the
students exam.
3 In Hindi, we use double future tense in the sentences having time
or conditional clausesEnglish allows only one future tense in
such cases egIf he tells ( not will tell) me , I shall help him.
When we return (not shall return) after the vacation, we shall be
full of fresh vigour and fervour.
4 After though or although, we can not use but. It should just be a
coma or yet. Though we know English is very helpful in our career,
we dont pay much attention to it.
5 In Hindi we repeat certain words like kabhi-kabhi, ten-ten, alag-
alag, chalte-chalte etc, but we can not do it in EnglishDont say
ten-ten or different-different or walking-walking.
6 We use jab and tab in Hindi but in English when we begin the
sentence with when or while, we dont need to put then. Just a
coma does the work. When I finish this course, I shall start with the
next one.
7 While joining two clauses we use ki in Hindiusnekahaki,
mainepuchhaki etc but in Eng when we use question words (what,
when, where, who etc) to begin the next clause we dont write
that before them eg He asked me when (not that when) I would
submit my assignment- She wanted to know why the quiz was
postponed.