I'm studying a subject at University called "Historia del Inglés Contemporaneo" (History of Contemporary English). It deals with almost all about English as a language and one curious thing is the common mistakes that non-native speakers make. Here you are some of them:

1) No proper use of "the" --> "I like *the football"
2) No proper use of infinitives in some cases --> I want that you come with me (should be: I want you to come with me)
3) Overuse of "can", "have", "put"...when others words match better with what we want to say
4) Incorrect use of "which" and "who"--> That is the man *which came yesterday to my house
5) Reduction of questions tags to 2---> "isn't it?" and "no?"
6) The dropping of the 3rd person singular -s ---> Here he *come

These are some of them...I just thought it would be curious to know

XPero

Im no native speaker english. i yet like ta use da phrace "What is wrong to you?" to irritate my phrend who lakes to korrects my inglish.


(PS.. this was to irritate my friend. could someone edit this line on monday. as i would like to show this post to my friend on tuesday.)

That's OK. Many native english speakers don't know the language that good either.

My mother was an English major. "Many native English speakers don't know the language that WELL either." HAHA

Lol. We just use the language so much we get old with it and modify it!

lol.. But bad english does make som good jokes now and then..

A dinae ken wit awe the fuss is aboot man as long as folk unerstawn ye, ye cud use awny patter ye like.

hail hail

Some common mistakes by Native English speakers:

1. Improper use of direct object in statement of comparison (Correct: I am taller than he)
2. Improper use of direct object with predicate (linking) verb (Correct: It is I!)
3. Improper use of subject pronoun "who" (Correct: from whom, to whom, with whom)
4. Improper use of adverb "where" (Correct: From whence did you come?)
5. Lack of subjunctive mood (Corrrect: I wish I were 1337)

if u say all that, why not put a hat on & call yourself shakespear

"GoodDay! sir, Whence' the closest restaurant"
"Whom will u meet There"
"Ya'll mama" LMFAO!

bugs me tho when ppl type shorthand (im good 4 that , but i hate reading it ) lol

Whence is only used when you're saying from "where." You use "where" when you say to where, in where, or at where lol .

Shakespearian writing/speaking is so difficult. Thou art proper, and thy English is thine. Nay, I dare not meddle thither. I must refrain from speaking in this manner whilst online lest I be smote for flaunting my erudition, which is all for naught.

i know, i made a joke im going 2 say whence @ work tomorrow & see "whom" notices lol

Why dont we look on the brighter side. Shakespear was bad at english.

two postives always make a negative ?, Aye right !

and as it is Burns night here's a song youu may know

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne!

Chorus:
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne.
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

And surely ye'll be your pint stowp!
And surely I'll be mine!
And we'll tak a cup o'kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

Chorus

We twa hae run about the braes,
And pou'd the gowans fine;
But we've wander'd mony a weary fit,
Sin' auld lang syne.

Chorus

We twa hae paidl'd in the burn,
Frae morning sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae roar'd
Sin' auld lang syne.

Chorus

And there's a hand, my trusty fere!
And gie's a hand o' thine!
And we'll tak a right gude-willie waught,
For auld lang syne.

Chorus

hail hail

in the philippines is it quite funny bec. we mix chinese, tagalog and english.

I'd love to see some common german mistakes, or chinese

So what do you call it? Chagalish? Entagnese? Tagenchi? Enchilog?


DL

probably i'm the 1 who made most mistakes of this kind

me too, every once in a while. I mostly speak Spanish, but online I use both. IMO I'm fluent with English. Somewhat intermediate on the spoken part.

I'd like to be politely corrected when I do such mistakes. Otherwise, how will I know all the errors I am doing...

I'm learning Spanish myself. Sometimes I wonder, when non-native speakers are taught English formally (in a class), do they teach the very proper English (with the rules I stated above), or do they teach the more relaxed, common, colloquial English like most people speak to each other?

Tokugawapants:

The problem with English is that with many languages it has a very diverse dialect. In my city alone there may be up to 5 or 6 ways of saying the same thing all of which could be understood by another Glaswegian. But to a “proper” English speaker would be incomprehensible.


hail hail

Hootsmon!

lol

have you seen that mouse ? orr come to think of it my trousers !

I would say the main problem for those who make problems while speaking/writing english, is that their language of thought (or counting numbers) is their native language (i.e., not english). If they think in English while expressing themselves, it would all be fine.


For example, a non-native english speaker will come up with the words for:in his native language, and THEN translate it into English - thereby making mistakes. Again, whatever is read/responded, will again be translated back into his native language by his brain, introducing possibilities of mis-understanding.

No, don't look at me! I happen to think in English and THEN translate thoughts to words in my native language.

I agree. I find it extremely difficult and risky to think in my native language then translate into another. Some people may say it's not possible, but I tend to think that I don't think in any language, which allows me to be flexible when I speak. But when I do think in a language, I don't always think in my native one. However, it makes it a bit more difficult to translate aloud from one language to the other, because my first reaction is translating into the language im trying to translate from

Everybody does the same to their native language. That's because if a language is live (i.e: prospering/developing, I'm falling short of vocabulary here), slang keeps developing, and anyway it doesn't matter anything to the listener if he correctly understands what the sayer means.

I'm not native speaker. But I have no such problems.
However, the perfect tense really puzzles me.

Yeah, and some languages completely lack tenses other languages have. Also, it is my understanding that you can't say something like the following in Mandarin:

"If he had not wasted his time, then he would have been prepared."

All these things are very interesting. English, for the most part, lacks different forms in the subjunctive mood, bleh.

Ok, you guys win. 'perfect tense', 'subjunctive mood'. ? I learned English from those around me. When it came to schooling, I was aweful. I was just reading in another thread and the English speaker there was difficult to understand. Bad grammar, punctuation, spacing.

Fun fact: There are eleven different ways to pronounce the group of letters 'ough'. See, English is fun.

DL

What are you saying?
You mean "the (British) Queen's English, for the most part".

Come to India, and you'll see english being used in the most wholesome way possible. There is a joke round here, that the Englishmen came and brought their language here, and left it behind! (referring to how even people in english-speaking countries don't speak the language correctly and add lot of modifications and slang, while we kept the language in its original form and enhanced it to make it suitable for all purposes) For confirmation, just see how many Indian words keep entering the dictionary every year, lol.

@pratapml Yeah, I've noticed that 'foreigners' seem to speak English quite well.

Oh, and by the way, Indian words don't 'enter' the English language, we steal them. And no, you can't have them back. Veranda and mugger are two that come to mind.

DL

@DL you can keep em dude.. theres lots more from where that came from

Uhh, thanks.

And can you believe it, Will Smith has a word he coined in the Oxford English dictionary.
Jiggy.

DL

i remember that from a few years ago "Gettin' Jiggy With It"

most of the time i make a misstake spelling a word. of course i do know how do use these propor.

i am a U.S.A cizisen

uewhm yeah right....