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Grammar: Common Errors
• Point out the mistakes in the following sentences:
▫ He is good in English.
▫ She is poor in Mathematics.
Common error 1:
Use of prepositions
▫ He is good in English.
▫  He is good at English.
▫ She is poor in Mathematics
▫  She is poor at Mathematics.
 Poor in  having very little of something
 E.g. Our company has been poor in money lately.
• Phrases having the same meaning as ‘good
at’:
▫ Excel in
 E.g. She excels in foreign languages.
• Phrases having the same meaning as ‘poor
at’:
▫ Bad at
 E.g. He is bad at Chinese.
▫ Weak in
 E.g. He is weak in Chinese.
• What’s wrong with the following sentences:
▫ Having just joined the company, she is
junior than everybody.
▫ The boss in team A is superior than the one
in team B.
Common error 2:
Prepositions used with adjectives
▫ Having just joined the company, she is junior than
everybody.
▫  Having just joined the company, she is junior to
everybody.
▫ The boss in team A is superior than the one in team B.
▫  The boss in team A is superior to the one in team
B.
General pattern:
Adjectives of comparison + to/than
▫ Pattern 1: senior, junior, superior, inferior + to
 E.g. Spain is superior to the Netherlands in World Cup
2010.
▫ Pattern 2: better, worse + than
 E.g. The performance of the Netherlands is worse than
that of Spain in World Cup 2010.
famous for,
active in,
adaptable to,
afraid of,
anxious about,
applicable to,
appreciative of,
appropriate for,
aware of,
available to
essential for,
beneficial to,
capable of,
careful about
commensurate with,
experienced in,
different from,
similar to,
satisfied with,
equal to,
detrimental to,
responsible for
• Is there anything wrong in the following
sentences?
▫ Either the boy or his friends has taken the
watch.
▫ Neither the girl nor her classmates is
using the badminton court.
Common error 3: Subject-verb
agreement in either…or and neither…nor
• The verb agrees with its nearest
subject.
▫ Either the boy or his friends has taken the watch.
▫  Either the boy or his friends have taken the
watch.
▫ Neither the girl nor her classmates is using the
badminton court.
▫  Neither the girl nor her classmates are using
the badminton court.
▫  Neither the girl’s classmates nor the girl herself
is using the badminton court.
• Both the boy and the girl are tutored
by the teacher.
• Which of the following two sentences contain
a mistake:
▫ 1) Peter is intelligent but his younger
brother stupid.
▫ 2) Mary is a smart girl but her two
younger sisters stupid.
Common error 4: Sharing verbs
• (1) is correct because the first subject (Peter) and the
second subject (his younger brother) are both
singular noun, and therefore, CAN share the same
singular verb ‘is’ (which can be omitted).
 1) Peter is intelligent but his younger
brother (is) stupid.
• (2) is incorrect because the first subject (Mary) and
the second subject (her two young sisters) are singular
and plural nouns respectively, and therefore, CANNOT
share the same verb.
 2) Mary is a smart girl but her two
younger sisters are stupid.
• Can you figure out the mistake for each of the
following sentences:
▫ 1) I saw the koala climbed up the tree.
▫ 2) I feel something crawls up my left arm.
▫ 3) She heard a monster was scratching on
the wall.
Common error 5:
Verbs of perception
• Verbs coming after verbs of
perception (see, feel, hear, watch)
can take either the infinitive form or
the present participle form:
▫ 1) I saw the koala climb/climbing up the
tree.
▫ 2) I feel something crawl/crawling up
my left arm.
▫ 3) She heard a monster
scratch/scratching on the wall.
• What’s the difference between using
the infinitive form and the present
participle form?
▫ 1a) I saw the koala climb up the tree.
(you saw the overall process of climbing)
▫ 1b) I saw the koala climbing up the
tree. (you saw only part of the climbing
process)
• Figure out the mistakes in the following two
sentences:
▫ His car suffered a lot of damages.
▫ There have been a lot of developments in
the city.
Common error 6:
Countable and uncountable nouns
with different meanings
▫ Damage (uncountable)
 harm done to something
▫ Damages (countable, plural)
 money paid or claimed as compensation for
damage
  His car suffered a lot of damage.
  The insurance company paid one million damages
to the man for his injuries.
▫ Development (uncountable)  growth
▫ Developments (countable, plural)  a new event
that changes a situation
  There has been a lot of development in thy city.
  We will keep you informed of developments.
• Work (uncountable)  job
• Works (countable)  creations of
writers, musicians, artists
• Paper (uncountable)  a thin sheet
used for writing
• Papers (countable)  newspapers,
documents, examination papers
• One of the following two sentences is correct.
Which one is it?
▫ 1) I wish I can go to the party.
▫ 2) I hope I can go to the party.
Common error 7: Wish vs. hope
• To wish means to want something that is
unlikely to take place, so it should be used with a
modal that shows unlikelihood.
▫ Wish  Subjunctive mood  past tense 
unreal
  I wish I could go to the party.
• To hope means to want something that is
possible to take place.
▫ Hope  possible situation  present tense  real
  I hope I can go to the party.
• Wish (present/future)  simple past
▫ I wish I could go to the party.
• Wish (past)  past perfect
▫ I wish I had gone to the party.
• Fill in the following blanks with a suitable word:
• Sometime, some time , sometimes
▫ 1) Let’s have dinner together sometime next week.
▫ 2) I am afraid it will take some time to repair your
car.
▫ 3) I sometimes went skiing when I lived in Germany.
Common error 8:
Easily-confused words
▫ Sometime (adverb)  an indefinite time
 E.g. We will take a vacation sometime in
September.
▫ Some time (two separate words)  a considerable
amount of time, a period of time
 E.g. She has lived in Italy for some time.
▫ Sometimes (adverb of frequency)  on some
occasions, more than once
 E.g. I sometimes have to work late.
• The underlined adjectives are used wrongly in
the following sentences:
▫ 1) The price of the house is cheap.
▫ 2) The examination fee is expensive.
Common error 9: Wrong use of
adjectives
• In English:
▫ Payments (price, fee, cost, charge, fare, toll, pay,
salary, penalty, etc.)  high/low
 The price of the house is low.
 The examination fee is high.
▫ Things (houses, cars, bags, jewellery, pens, etc.) 
expensive/cheap
 The house is cheap.
 The examination is expensive.
• Are (a) and (b) in each sentence pair different or
similar in meaning?
1a) I started working in this company 10 years ago.
1b) I started to work in this company 10 years ago.
2a) I remember mailing the parcel to the client.
2b) I remember to mail the parcel to the client.
Common error 10: Gerunds and toinfinitives with different meanings
• Remember + ing  refers back to the past – to things
that one did
▫  I remember mailing the parcel to the client.
• Same as ‘forget’
▫ E.g. I’ll never forget meeting the Queen.
• Remember + to-inf  refers forward in time – to things
one still has to do
▫  I remember to mail the parcel to the client.
• Same as ‘forget’
• E.g. I forgot to buy the soap.
• Go on + ing  continue with the ongoing activity
▫ E.g. He went on talking about his own hobbies until we
all fell asleep.
• Same as ‘stop + ing’  stop the ongoing activity
▫ E.g. He stopped talking about his own hobbies when we
all fell asleep.
• Go on + to-inf  change of activity
▫ E.g. He went on to talk about his romance.
• Same as ‘stop + to-inf’  stop the current activity and do
something else
▫ E.g. He stopped to talk about his romance.