Avoid common mistakes in English

Some mistakes made by foreigners while speaking English are more common than other ones. I hope this might help some of you and reading it will take only a few seconds... Let’s get started.

To tell and to say

We will learn the usage of the verbs 'to tell' and 'to say'. We say: I tell you. I say to you. We do not say: I tell to you. I say you. Analogically: I told you. / I said to you. not: I told to you. / I said you. I'm telling you. / I'm saying to you. not: I'm telling to you. / I'm saying you. I was telling you. / I was saying to you. not: I was telling to you. / I was saying you. I have told you. / I have said to you. not: I have told to you. / I have said you. etc.

To lose weight and to put on weight

Now we will learn the usage of the verbs 'to lose weight' and 'to put on weight'. Please notice, that a preposition 'on' occurs only in one of two given verbs and never in the other one. It is correct to say: I lose weight. Even though a lot of my students tend to say: 'I lose on weight' or 'I put weight' - these are not correct sentences. Please, study analogical examples below: I lost weight. / I put on weight. I have lost weight. / I have put on weight. I had lost weight. / I had put on weight. I will have lost weight. / I will have put on weight. etc.

Lesson3. I would also like you to have a look at the following list of words that very often I happen to see spelled wrong: accommodation, address, beginning, coffee, curiosity, disappear, disappointed, embarrassed, forbidden, guarantee, immediately, necessary, preferred, pronunciation, recommend, ridiculous, successful, unconscious, unfortunately, writing

Prepositions in, at and on

Now we're going to have a brief look at prepositions 'in', 'at' and 'on'. Common mistake number 1: I'm good in English. The sentence written above is NOT correct. Please remember that the preposition ‘at’ is used when describing people’s abilities in different pursuits. The correct sentence: I'm good at English. Common mistake number 2: There is a cat on the picture. The sentence written above is NOT correct. Please remember that the preposition 'in' is used when indicating place and location. The correct sentence: There is a cat in the picture.