English Exposed Common Mistakes Made by Chinese Speakers
February 22, 2022
- Amazon https://www.amazon.com/English-Exposed-Mistakes-Chinese-Speakers/dp/9888390759
- Outline
- Part A: Classes … to recognize
- Part B: Choices … to remember
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- NOUN-ADJECTIVE-VERB CONFUSION
- 11.1 How to distinguish the noun from its adjective form
- 常见的名词和形容词后缀
- 11.2 When to use the noun and adjective forms for gender
- man woman / male female / males females
- And when writing generally, the terms should be either singular or plural (plural is usually appropriate for a general reference).
- ‘Male’ and ‘female’ can be adjectives or nouns, but as nouns (‘a male’, ‘a female’) they usually refer to animals; ‘man’ and ‘woman’ are preferred for humans in a study.
- Noun and verb forms that attract errors
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- Selecting the correct word
- 12.1 commonly confused words
- about/regarding
- affect/effect
- apart from/except for
- as well/also
- ‘as well’ normally goes at the end of a sentence. It can only go at the beginning in the form of ‘As well as . . . ’.
- ‘Also’ is often used before a verb.
- casual/causal
- called/known as
- Only ‘known’ can be followed by ‘as’
- The same rule applies to ‘named’ and ‘termed’. They should not be followed by ‘as’
- concern/consider
- 2 meanings: to relate to; to trouble or worry
- overused
- contrary to/in contrast
- There is little difference between them, but ‘in contrast’ is normally used as a mere comparison. The other two (‘on the contrary’/’contrary to’) clearly state the opposite and show disagreement.
- ‘On the contrary’ can only be used as a response to something just mentioned.
- follow(ing)/as follows
- examples
- An estimation of the cost will also follow.
- … will be explained in the following parts:
- The advantages are described as follows:
- The three recommendations follow a brief analysis.
- The following are some suggestions.
- examples
- lack/fail
- rarely/merely
- remain/keep
- to remain verb: to continue to be; to be left; to stay there
- to keep verb: to hold or retain; to maintain
- remark/remind
- rest/remaining
- ‘Rest’ is a noun, and ‘remaining’ is an adjective.
- The noun ‘rest’ cannot be used as a plural.
- Whatever ‘rest’ is referring to will determine whether the verb is singular or plural.
- rise/raise
- same/similar
- trend/tend
- try/attempt
- As a noun, ‘try’ cannot be used with the verb ‘to make’. Instead, ‘attempt’ should be employed.
- underlying/underlining
- Underlining’ relates to emphasis or actually drawing a line under something.
- ‘Underlying’ is an adjective and relates to something that is fundamental or something that is present but not obvious
- well/good
- 12.2 prefix definitions and use
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- de: take something away; do the opposite of; reduce
- dis: reverse; opposite
- dys: difficult; bad; abnormal
- hetero: different
- homo: same; alike
- hyper: excessive; above
- in: not, negative; into
- iso: equal; same
- mal: bad; abnormal
- mis: bad, badly; wrong
- non: not; absence of
- poly: many
- re: again; repeatedly
- un: not; opposite (not always a negative meaning)```
- If there is an appropriate prefi x that can be attached to a particular word, then it should be used. It is always preferable to adding ‘not’ ‘or ‘again’.
- 和句子的语气保持一致
- This makes it not a suitable case study to use. X
- This makes it an unsuitable case study to use. V
- 13. Selecting the correct style
- 13.1 contractions
- 不用缩写
- 13.2 phrases to avoid
- Use ‘however’ or ‘regardless’, not ‘anyway’.
- Use ‘essentially’ or ‘ultimately’, not ‘basically’.
- Use ‘last’, not ‘at last’.
- Use ‘last’, not ‘last but not least’.
- Use ‘largely’ / ‘greatly’, not ‘majorly’.
- Use ‘withdraw’, not ‘quit’.
- Opt for ‘imagine’, ‘consider’ or ‘suppose’ instead of ‘reckon’.
- Use ‘in total’, not ‘totally’.
- 13.3 excessive adjectives
- mistake of using strong adjectives or inserting adverbs
- incredible -> key
- magnificent -> marked
- massive -> large/great
- Some adjectives already have a strong meaning and therefore do not require any assistance from adverbs to add emphasis. These include ‘crucial’, ‘critical’, and ‘necessary’
- 13.4 clarity and redundancy in writing
- 13.5 verbs in sequence
- When listing a sequence of points, it is desirable to keep the format consistent. If the list begins with a verb, it is advisable to retain a parallel structure with all the verbs in the same form; mixing verbs and nouns in a list should also be avoided.
- 13.6 nominalization
- 13.7 Exercises
- Part C: Components … to review
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- REGIONS AND COUNTRIES
- Although most proper nouns do not require an article, the names of some countries and regions have ‘the’ as part of their name.
- the United Kingdom
- the People’s Republic of China
- the Netherlands
- the United States
- 14.1 countries as adjectives
- Note the use of article
- 14.2 noun and adjective confusion
- Germany German
- India Indian
- Malaysia Malaysian
- France Franch
- Japan Japanese
- Taiwan Taiwanese
- Switzerland Swiss
- Thailand Thai
- Brazil Brazilian
- 14.3 order of adjectives
- The adjective for nationality should come after other modifiers (and therefore be nearest the noun)
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- Dates and Time Expressions
- 15.1 correct format for dates
- 15.2 prepositions and dates
- in Month/Year
- on day
- 15.3 tense
- 15.4 time phrases
- 15.5 adjective time phrases
- When time phrases represent an adjective modifying a noun, the unit of time needs to be in the singular form and the term hyphenated.
- example: This three-year cycle was confirmed by the research group in 1967
- 15.6 ‘today’ and ‘nowadays’
- The mistake occurs when writers try to give ‘nowadays’ possession. Nowadays can only be used as an adverb and therefore cannot take a possessive form like ‘today’ can.
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- Numbers and Percentages
- 16.1 using numbers
- Numbers should only be spelled out using letters if they are under 11
- If a number begins the sentence, then it must be spelled out regardless of its value
- Numbers, not words, should always be used with units
- Numbers and letters should not be mixed when writing out a number. This is commonly seen with hundreds and thousands
- 16.2 order of adjectives
- after sequence adjectives, before any other adjectives
- 16.3 ordinal numbers: 1st, 2nd,3rd
- 16.4 rank and article use: the 1st
- 16.5 fractions: two-thirds, Three-quarters
- 16.6 prepositional choice
- divided by, not “divided into”
- equal to/ equals
- 16.7 working with percentages
- The percentage sign % is prefered to words when using percentages in the main text
- But if the sentence begins with a percentage, then the terms should be written without numbers or signs
- if there are no numbers attached to the term, then the phrase to use is ‘percentage’ not ‘percent’.
- 16.8 Exercises
- A. forth->fourth, 19->Nineteen, seven->seventh
- B. percentage, percent, %, percentage
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- Figures and Tables
- 17.1 numbered figures
- Figure 4 or the table
- When sequence words are used (next, previous, following, etc), a number should not be added
- ‘in’ should be used for tables and figures, no ‘on’
- 17.2 using above and below
- This can be seen in the figure below
- Below is a table..
- The above diagram does not…
- As argued above
- 17.3 verb choice
- typical verbs: to show, to depict, to display, to see, to present
- One error that should be addressed is the use of ’exhibit’
- As shown in Table 2…
- According to Table 2, the number…
- 17.4 Exercises
- A. 3, 3
- B
- The follow table presents… or Table 6.3 presents…
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- Spellings and Typos
- 18.1 misspelled terms
- 18.2 issues with double consonants
- 18.3 Exercises
- through, phases, identifies, management, form, previously, aligned, customer, where, learn
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- Punctuation
- 19.1 commas and clauses
- 19.2 commas, conjunctions, and references
- 19.3 semicolons, clauses, and lists
- 19.4 distinguishing dashes
- hyphen -
- en dash –
- em dash —
- 19.5 capital letter use
- 19.6 Exercises
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- Referencing
- 20.1 Harvard and APA style
- 20.2 names
- 20.3 verb agreement
- 20.4 phrases and reporting verbs
- 20.5 using quotes
- 20.6 Exercises
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- Appendix: Irregular Verbs
- Part C: Components … to review