This post is aimed to both clarify some common mistakes made by Vietnamese students when speaking English and recommend students some tips to correct those mistakes to communicate in English excellently.
Thank and thanks
They seem to be very simple terms that we meet and use every day. However, the fact shows that lots of students cannot distinguish the usage of those words. Here are some examples:
Thanks you >>>>> Thank you
Thank for watching >>>>> Thanks for watching
Thank a lot! >>>>> Thanks a lot1
The problem is that we use “thank” or “thanks” depending on the objects next to them. If the word “thank” has an object, we do not add “s” (thank you) and vice visa, we just use “thanks” when it has no objects (thanks, thanks so much, many thanks…).
- Almost, most, most of
Those 3 words are thought to share the similar meaning or to be equivalences of the others. However, it is completely wrong to use those 3 words carelessly without understanding clearly their grammar functions.
Firstly, “almost” has no connection to proportions. It does NOT mean “many”, “majority”, “nearly all”…..as we think. “Almost” is similar to “virtually”, “nearly” and is used to mention about time, measurement, size or progress of some process. For instance:
- I am almost finished
- She is almost 1 meter 70
- It is almost July
Secondly, when we want to express about “nearly all”, we cannot use almost, in this case, the suitable term is “most”. “Most” is simply understood as over 50 % and it is used to talk about general facts. For example:
- Most students want to find a suitable job after graduate
- Most foreigners cannot get used to the traffic in Vietnam
Thirdly, if we want to mention about a special group without caring about the general facts, we need use “most of”. This phrase is used to talk about a proportion in a group that has been separated from a whole. We can see the differences between “most” and “most of” by following examples:
- Most people like sandwich
- Most of the people in this class like sandwich
Therefore, the phrase ‘the people in this class” is a group that has been separated. In addition, “most of” is divided into 2 cases that depending on the special group follow it. The first on is a progressive word following “most of” and the second one is without it. In the second case, we have to add “the” before that word. For example:
- Most of my money is provided by my father
- Most of the students in this class is from Thai Nguyen province
- Wait me some minutes
Many Vietnamese students are mistaken when making this sentence due to the habit of translating word by word from Vietnamese into English. The sentence “wait me some minutes” has two different mistakes.
Firstly, when talking about waiting for something; we should remember to add “for” after “wait”. Therefore, “wait me” must be changed into “wait for me”. If after “wait”, there are not any objects mentioned, we don’t need to add “for”.
For example:
Wait for your answer!
Wait 2 hours to buy the pizza!
Secondly, in English, we cannot say “some minutes” even though “some” have the same meaning with “several”. When talking about continuous time, we always use the word “a few” such as “a few minutes”, “a few days”, “a few weeks”. We just use “some” when mentioning about separated time. Therefore, the correct form of “wait me some minutes” should be replaced by “wait for me a few minutes”
- Very like
According to grammatical rules, “very” just comes before adjectives or adverbs only like “very beautiful”, “I am very proud of you”… However, a large number of Vietnamese learners misunderstand and apply this word for verbs, for instance:
- I very like him
- I very want to meet her
- I very love this lesson
In order to correct those wrong sentences, we can apply two following choices:
Firstly, we must replace “very” by “really”, for example:
- I really like him
Secondly, instead of using really, we can obit “very” and add “so much”, “a lot” at the end of each sentence:
- I love this lesson a lot
- I love this lesson so much.
To sum up, there are still lots of common mistakes we should know to adjust as soon as possible. This post is referred from useful videos of a young foreign teacher named Dan Hauer. You can subscribe his videos on YouTube channel to have more helpful lessons.
Referred by Bui Thi Chi
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