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Annoying mistakes in your native language | ||
Tags: Native Language | Error | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Alkeides Senior Member Bhutan Joined 5944 days ago 636 posts - 644 votes  | Message 1 of 151 01 July 2009 at 3:00am | IP Logged | ||
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Does anyone have any pet peeves about mistakes other native speakers make in your native tongue? Personally I find the tendency of some Americans (or non-Americans writing for media set in America) to write "could of" for "could have" very annoying, the first few times I read it I only understood the meaning from context; I only realized it was a misspelling fairly recently.
On the other hand, "different than" from American English now sounds completely natural to me. In fact, in more than a few sentences, it is less cumbersome than re-arranging a sentence to use the standard British English "different from". 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Louis Triglot Groupie Italy Joined 5526 days ago 92 posts - 110 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish | Message 2 of 151 01 July 2009 at 5:45am | IP Logged | ||
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I know it's so trivial and nit-picky, but I grimace whenever a native speaker misuses or, rather, doesn't use the English subjunctive. It seems to be more common to say "I would go to the beach if it was sunny" instead of "...if it were sunny." One of my friends in high school made this mistake on a final term paper for a college-level (AP) English class. I corrected the mistake when I proofread my friend's paper. However, he neglected to change it before he passed the paper in. When we received our corrected papers back from the teacher, the mistake still was not corrected!
God save the subjunctive! The subjunctive mood is a beautiful and valuable component of the English language! Edited for clarity. Edited by Louis on 01 July 2009 at 5:46am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| delta910 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5671 days ago 267 posts - 313 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Dutch, German | Message 3 of 151 01 July 2009 at 6:01am | IP Logged | ||
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I agree with Louis. Loads of people do not use the subjunctive when it would best be used, or when they should use it.
Another thing that some people say is ain't.(I have heard many say, I ain't got'nun.) This drives me up the wall half the time, and I end up correcting them. Also, people like to "double-negate" a sentence. Such as, doesn't no one like this, when it should be, doesn't anyone like this. In that sentence I just wrote, some will say, don't no one like this.(many will replace this with them when it should be this rather than them depending on what is being spoken about whether it being a person or a thing) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Calvino Diglot Groupie Sweden sammafllod.wordpress Joined 5762 days ago 65 posts - 66 votes 2 sounds Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: French, Spanish, German | Message 4 of 151 01 July 2009 at 7:07am | IP Logged | ||
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It always irks me when Swedes conjugate strong verbs as though they were weak. So:
Skära, skar, skurit (cut, cut, cut) often becomes: Skära, skärde, skärt (cut, cutted, cutted). Personally, as a conscious reaction, I sin in the opposite direction by making strong verbs out of weak. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| grwn Groupie Netherlands Joined 5645 days ago 79 posts - 80 votes Speaks: Dutch* | Message 5 of 151 01 July 2009 at 8:45am | IP Logged | ||
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The two biggest mistakes made in Dutch are with the possesive pronouns "Hun" and "Hen" and with the d/t conjugation at the ends of verbs. There are also the regular abbreviations, but I wouldn't really count them as mistakes.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| LanguageSponge Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5562 days ago 1197 posts - 1487 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Welsh, Russian, Japanese, Slovenian, Greek, Italian | Message 6 of 151 01 July 2009 at 9:53am | IP Logged | ||
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I agree with the above posts about native English speakers not using the subjunctive, or not using it properly. Also what drives me nuts, although it's probably a really minor point otherwise, is when native speakers don't write the adjectives of nationality with a capital letter.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| MäcØSŸ Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5605 days ago 259 posts - 392 votes Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2 Studies: German | Message 7 of 151 01 July 2009 at 10:04am | IP Logged | ||
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I hate when people use plural with English loanwords (as in "ho due computers").
It sounds like a middle-aged woman attempting to sound smart... Edited by MäcØSŸ on 01 July 2009 at 10:47am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5634 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 8 of 151 01 July 2009 at 12:21pm | IP Logged | ||
I am familiar with the existance of this rule and I use it in writing (although it's possible that I occassionally miss it). I think the rule is a bit UNCLEAR and it's not easy to know and remember exactly when it applies. However are you sure that native speakers in general really observe this types of rule? My experience has been that some people comment that my English is too grammatically perfect and thus sounds unnatural. As usual in England, it depends on the persons background... I think it's almost provocative to some English people that a foreigner should have better grammar and possibly clearer pronounciation than them. (or should I say "than they do?") I've started speaking in a more 'relaxed' way in order to fit in better. With regards to Swedish - I think the standard of written Swedish is going downhill pretty rapidly. Not sure if it's the fault of schools, influence of English or result of immigration. But papers have plenty of grammatical mistakes, sloppy slang spelling and anglicism. This irritates me. "Dom" instead of "de", "mej" for "mig" looks horrible! Edited by cordelia0507 on 01 July 2009 at 1:44pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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