Most common mistakes in English !

The following are the 5 most common ESL mistakes in ESL academic writing:

1. Misuse of articles

One of the most common ESL mistakes made in academic writing is the tendency to confuse indefinite and definite articles. Indefinite articles (a or an) are used to refer to a noun, the specific identity of which is unknown. A is used for words that begin with a consonant sound and an is used for words that begin with a vowel sound. There is only one definite article in the English language (the); this means you don’t have to worry about listening for vowel sounds. The is used in front of singular or plural nouns and adjectives to refer to something with which both the writer and reader are familiar. A duck refers to a single unspecified duck

whereas the duck refers to a specific duck.

2. Transitional phrases

Another one of the most common ESL mistakes we see in academic writing is an over-reliance on transitional phrases. Often, two logically-related sentences do not need a transitional word to link them. For example, “The lumberjacks chopped the tree. Consequently, it fell down.” In this instance, consequently is not needed because readers can figure out for themselves that the tree fell as a consequence of the lumberjacks’ chopping.

3. Watch your adjectives

Adjectives are used to describe nouns and can sometimes be tricky if you are using more than one to refer to a specific noun. If you are using more than one adjective, they usually follow a specific order: 1) article, 2) judgment, 3) size, 4) shape, 5) age, 6) color, 7) nationality, and 8) material. Consider the sentence, “He wants a white new bike.” Does it sound weird? That’s because the color of the bike comes before the age of the bike. Reverse those two words and the sentence sounds correct.

4. Wordiness

The tendency to use two or three words when one would do is a common ESL mistake. If we compare the sentence, “Suzie believed, but could not confirm, that Bill had feelings of affection for her,” to this sentence, “Suzie assumed Bill liked her,” we notice that they communicate the same meaning, except one uses five words and one uses 14. When writing an essay, it’s important to avoid wordiness and to be as precise as you can when constructing sentences.

5. Plural possessive

This is not just a common ESL mistake, but one seen in writing from native English speakers as well. When showing possession of a plural noun, simply add an apostrophe at the end of the word (the brothers’ bike). If the noun is singular, add an apostrophe plus the letter “s” at the end of the word (the cat’s toy).