Commen Mistakes

1. English Grammar

1.1. Countable Nouns and Uncountable Nouns

• Countable nouns cannot appear alone
  • Error Form
    • Teacher is ...
  • Correct Form
    • Teachers are ... (plural form)
    • A/The teacher is ... (preceded by a definite or indefinite article)
    • My teacher is ... (possessive pronouns)
• Uncountable nouns cannot add '-s'
  • Error Form
    • I have some informations.
    • Can you give me some advices?
  • Correct Form
    • I have some information.
    • Can you give me some advice?

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Some Uncountable Nouns

• abstract nouns
  • information
  • advice
  • knowledge
  • progress
  • news
  • happiness
  • love
  • luck
  • fun
  • work
  • time
  • space
  • behaviour
  • heritage
• materials and substances
  • water
  • rice
  • cement
  • gold
  • milk
  • jewellery
• natural phenomena
  • weather
  • thunder
  • rain
  • snow
  • traffic
• collective nouns
  • furniture
  • equipment
  • rubbish
  • luggage
  • music
  • research
  • fruit
  • scenery

1.2. Third Person Singular in the Present Tense

• Error Form
  • She call me from time to time.
  • He always tell many jokes.
• Correct Form
  • She calls me from time to time.
  • He always tells many jokes.

1.3. Past Tense

• Error Form
  • My parents and I go on a boat trip to Dalian last month.
  • She said that she is busy and cannot attend the meeting yesterday.
• Correct Form
  • My parents and I went on a boat trip to Dalian last month.
  • She said that she was busy and could not attend the meeting yesterday.
  • I told him I really like my teacher.
    • (A sentence can be partly in past tense and partly in present tense. In this sentence, "told" is in the past tense, which means that you told someone at some time in the past. And "like" is in the present tense, which means that you still like your teacher now. This combination of tenses is common because they reflect different events or states that occur in different tenses.)

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Most verbs form the past tense by simply adding 'ed,' but there are a few irregular verbs with different past tense forms.

The most common irregular past tenses that are wrong in oral exams

• begin - began
• buy - bought
• catch - caught
• choose - chose
• come - came
• feel - felt
• find - found
• give - gave
• go - went
• leave - left
• make - made
• read /ri:d/ - read /red/
• see - saw
• sit - sat
• spend - spent
• take - took
• teach - taught
• think - thought
• win - won
• break - broke
• bring - brought
• do - did
• drive - drove
• eat - ate
• fall - fell
• have - had
• know - knew
• ring - rang
• sing - sang
• speak - spoke
• write - wrote
• fly - flew

1.4. There be

• Error Form
  • There have/has ...
  • There are more and more people travel abroad now.
• Correct Form
  • There is//are//was//were//will be//used to be (there be)
  • There are more and more people who travel abroad now. (there be + n.)

1.5. Verb Forms: -ed and -ing

• -ed (It means "feeling...", used to modify people)
  • I feel tired.
  • I feel excited.
  • interested
  • fascinated
  • bored
  • relaxed
  • touched
• -ing (It means "to make people...", used to modify things)
  • Driving is tiring.
  • I got some exciting news.
  • interesting
  • fascinating
  • boring
  • relaxing
  • touching

2. English Words

❌	✔
learn knowledge	gain/acquire knowledge
nowaday	nowadays // these days // today
living skill	live skill

• At first vs. Firstly
  • At first (change)
    • At first, ..., but ...
      • At first, I didn't like the new policy, but now I see its benefits.
      • At first, the task seemed impossible, but we eventually found a solution.
  • Firstly (sequence)
  • Firstly, ... Secondly, ... Thirdly, ...
    • Firstly, we need to identify the problem. Secondly, we need to find a solution.
    • Firstly, I want to thank my family for their support. Secondly, I want to thank my friends for their encouragement.
• traffic jam vs. traffic congestion
  • traffic jam (countable)
    • a traffic jam
    • traffic jams
  • traffic congestion (uncountable)
    • traffic congestion
• building vs. architecture
  • building (countable)
    • a building
    • many buildings
  • architecture (uncountable : Refers to all buildings in an area or a style, rather than specific houses.)
    • architecture
• campus vs. school grounds
  • campus (college/university)
  • school grounds (primary and secondary school)
• moreover vs. what's more
• moreover
  • (only for formal writing, not for speaking)
    • The new policy has been successful in reducing costs. Moreover, it has also improved efficiency.
  • (Only the beginning of the sentence)
    • Moreover, the new policy has been well-received by employees.
• what's more
  • (speaking or informal writing)
    • I love this restaurant. What's more, the service is excellent!
  • (At the beginning or in the middle of a sentence)
    • The new policy has been successful, and what's more, it has also improved efficiency.