Some Grammatical Blunders To Avoid
Some Grammatical Blunders You Should Avoid
We make some grammatical blunders everyday in our interactions with others. I once visited a private school and was disappointed that the instructors in the school were not laying a good foundation for sound grammar for the kids. Children are very sensitive to copying what they see or hear. Teachers in schools and parents at home should be mindful of this because kids copy a lot and are greatly prone to accept what they hear as correct.
Below are some grammatical blunders we should avoid while speaking, especially, to kids:
1) ‘Stop matching me’ (WRONG).
Instead, say ‘ Stop stepping on me’. To ‘match’
means to walk with quick calculated steps in unison
by a group of people, especially, in the military.
2) ‘He is my junior brother’ (WRONG).
Instead, they ‘He is my younger brother’.
3) ‘On my way to Lagos, I’ll branch my sister’s house’
(WRONG). Instead, say ‘On my way to Lagos, I’ll visit
my sister or I’ll go to my sister’s house’. There’s no
verb as ‘branch’ in English which means the same
thing intended by the speaker.
4) ‘I saw your missed calls’ (WRONG).
Instead, say ‘I missed your calls’. The calls were
missed because you didn’t pick or not disposed to
do that.
5) ‘He is drinking mineral’ (WRONG).
Instead, say ‘He is drinking mineral water or soda’.
Minerals are natural deposits, they are not foods or
beverages.
6) ‘My car is more better than yours’ (WRONG).
Instead, say ‘My car is better than yours’. MORE and
BETTER are both comparative adjectives. Two
comparative adjectives are not used in same
sentence.
7) ‘On the long run’ (WRONG).
instead, say ‘In the long run’.
8. ‘Either Bisi or Ade are coming’ (WRONG).
Instead, say ‘Either Bisi or Ade is coming’. There are
two subjects in the sentence but only one person will be coming which makes it singular. Remember, ‘IS’ is a singular verb while ‘ARE’ is a plural verb.
9) ‘Those are the men that caught the thieves’
(WRONG).
Instead, say ‘Those are the men who caught the
thieves. ‘WHO’ and ‘THAT’ are relative pronouns
in this context. While ‘who’ is used for humans, ‘that’
is used for things and animals.
10) ‘They are discussing about the weather’ (WRONG).
Instead, say ‘They are discussing the weather.
The rest are more of Oral English, Phonics or Speech. That’s speaking right.
11) OFTEN, LISTEN – Pronounce them without the letter ‘T’. Such as ‘ofen’ and ‘lisen’.
12) PERFECT – Pronounce it as ‘pefekt’ and not ‘pafekt’
13) ATE (past tense of eat) – Pronounce it as ‘et’ not ‘hate’.
14) MARKET, POCKET, BUCKET, ROCKET, etc – Pronounce them as ‘markit’, ‘pockit’, ‘buckit’ and ‘rockit’.
15) BUS – It’s pronounced correctly as ‘bas’.
16) SUITE (in hotels) – Pronounce it as ‘sweet’ and not ‘suit’.
17) EXAMPLE, EXAMINATION – Pronounce them as ‘eexample’ and ‘eexamination’ respectively.
18) MILD – Pronounce it as ‘mald’.
19) NEEDED (past tense of need) – Pronounce it as ‘needid’.
20) COME – Pronounce it as ‘cam’.
For those taking IELTS, TOEFL and other English proficiency tests, you need to pay particular attention to the LISTENING SECTION. You may easily misunderstand the speaker if you don’t pay attention to things you think do not matter.
We all have an opportunity to learn everyday. Strive to learn new things everyday.
