Let's get rid of the common mistakes we Indians make!
I am not a linguist or an expert in English language and literature. But I have observed that people from a particular country, make particular mistakes in English grammar. Although the rules of English grammar or any language is universal, the mistakes vary. Theses specific mistakes could be because of many reasons, and one of the crucial reasons is how we speak our national language or in some cases local language or our native language. A lot of mistake is due to the wrong usage or unavailability of any particular word in our native language.
The most common mistakes we Indians make are as follows:-
1) Usage of “EVEN”-> Instead of using “also”, we Indians incorrectly use “even”.
One of the meanings of “EVEN” is that, it used for emphasis to indicate something surprising, unlikely, or extreme. For example “Even I know how to repair a flat!”
Now let me point out the mistake we Indians make. Suppose two Indians are talking to each other at the lunch time .One of the Indians will say, “I am feeling hungry.” .On this the other will say,”Even I am feeling hungry.” Where as other one should say “I am also hungry”, since it is not surprising to feel hungry in the lunch time.
By using “even”, he is making it look like since he is God, but surprisingly he is hungry.
I guess this mistake is because in Hindi we have only one word “bhee” for both “even” and “also”.
2) Usage of “Only” -> the correct usage is to emphasize a statement. “Only” should be used just before the word or the sentence which you want to emphasize. For example “We rushed the cat to the vet, only to find there was nothing wrong with it.”
But the way Indians will use it is completely inappropriate. We Indians use it at the end of sentences. Giving you an example, they will say “I wear black Pant only”. Where as the correct form will be “I wear only black Pant(emphasizing on the black pant)”.
Besides that they also use “only” as a filler word. Like yesterday I heard some one saying “I left the stop watch there only”. This sentence is grammatically incorrect. There is no purpose to use “only” here.
Again we you notice we use “only” incorrectly because of our Hindi language.
3) Since, for ->In English language “for” is used for a time period and “since” is used for a point in time.
But one of the common mistakes Indians make is with “since” and “for”.
Again if you look at the root cause of this mistake, you will find out that it is because in Hindi we do not have separate word for “since” and “for”
For example in Hindi we say:-
“Ram do baras se so raha hai”. (Time period)
“Ram kall se school jayega”. (Point in time)
For both the above sentences the same word “se” is used .So we are not so accurate about it. And we make the mistake while speaking or writing English too. Some times Indians just translate the Hindi sentence into English. And most of the time mistakes are because of that.
4) The other most common mistake is the usage of Articles “a, an, the”. Indians are so poor in using or some time completely ignoring the articles that, it is unbelievable!
Again this is because of our native Hindi language. We do not have any word for “a, an, the”.
Some languages do not use articles at all, like we in Hindi Language. Others use articles differently from the usage in English. Their use in English depends on the nouns they precede and the "focus" of the sentence. While hardly key, strategic elements of communications, articles are some of the earliest language elements taught to children, and native speakers of English. They seldom use articles incorrectly--errors you may make are therefore noticeable and distracting, particularly in writing.
I have become so familiar with these mistakes that when ever I read a blog,or any article I can easily say, that this particular article is written by an Indian, just by looking at these common mistakes. And to my surprise every time I have been correct.
These are some of the common mistakes I have observed. I am sure there might be more, which I make or many of us make. Please let me know. So that together we can improve our selves.I might have made tons of mistakes in this blog. But my point is we should be observant not to make the same mistakes over and over and again.
The most common mistakes we Indians make are as follows:-
1) Usage of “EVEN”-> Instead of using “also”, we Indians incorrectly use “even”.
One of the meanings of “EVEN” is that, it used for emphasis to indicate something surprising, unlikely, or extreme. For example “Even I know how to repair a flat!”
Now let me point out the mistake we Indians make. Suppose two Indians are talking to each other at the lunch time .One of the Indians will say, “I am feeling hungry.” .On this the other will say,”Even I am feeling hungry.” Where as other one should say “I am also hungry”, since it is not surprising to feel hungry in the lunch time.
By using “even”, he is making it look like since he is God, but surprisingly he is hungry.
I guess this mistake is because in Hindi we have only one word “bhee” for both “even” and “also”.
2) Usage of “Only” -> the correct usage is to emphasize a statement. “Only” should be used just before the word or the sentence which you want to emphasize. For example “We rushed the cat to the vet, only to find there was nothing wrong with it.”
But the way Indians will use it is completely inappropriate. We Indians use it at the end of sentences. Giving you an example, they will say “I wear black Pant only”. Where as the correct form will be “I wear only black Pant(emphasizing on the black pant)”.
Besides that they also use “only” as a filler word. Like yesterday I heard some one saying “I left the stop watch there only”. This sentence is grammatically incorrect. There is no purpose to use “only” here.
Again we you notice we use “only” incorrectly because of our Hindi language.
3) Since, for ->In English language “for” is used for a time period and “since” is used for a point in time.
But one of the common mistakes Indians make is with “since” and “for”.
Again if you look at the root cause of this mistake, you will find out that it is because in Hindi we do not have separate word for “since” and “for”
For example in Hindi we say:-
“Ram do baras se so raha hai”. (Time period)
“Ram kall se school jayega”. (Point in time)
For both the above sentences the same word “se” is used .So we are not so accurate about it. And we make the mistake while speaking or writing English too. Some times Indians just translate the Hindi sentence into English. And most of the time mistakes are because of that.
4) The other most common mistake is the usage of Articles “a, an, the”. Indians are so poor in using or some time completely ignoring the articles that, it is unbelievable!
Again this is because of our native Hindi language. We do not have any word for “a, an, the”.
Some languages do not use articles at all, like we in Hindi Language. Others use articles differently from the usage in English. Their use in English depends on the nouns they precede and the "focus" of the sentence. While hardly key, strategic elements of communications, articles are some of the earliest language elements taught to children, and native speakers of English. They seldom use articles incorrectly--errors you may make are therefore noticeable and distracting, particularly in writing.
I have become so familiar with these mistakes that when ever I read a blog,or any article I can easily say, that this particular article is written by an Indian, just by looking at these common mistakes. And to my surprise every time I have been correct.
These are some of the common mistakes I have observed. I am sure there might be more, which I make or many of us make. Please let me know. So that together we can improve our selves.I might have made tons of mistakes in this blog. But my point is we should be observant not to make the same mistakes over and over and again.
wow. a good collection. I try to write and speak grammatically correct english, but on reading this, "Even" I realised that I make that mistake so often.
ReplyDelete:-) I mean I realised that I also make these mistakes. I will be careful.
Congratulations for the great post and very interesting blog!
ReplyDeleteAs Ipanema girl said a good collection :) Will be useful also to me. I hope, I used it correctly.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the collection.
Yup, a really good collection. I am generally careful but all of us are bound to make mistakes :)
ReplyDeleteinteresting!
ReplyDeleteyou know what? some of the mistakes shown above, are the very same mistakes that some Singaporeans make while speaking...
Good post!
ReplyDeleteWhat you have written is quite true.
I don't know how to add value to you good post... Err... maybe this will help
wow! cool post ... u can take my grammar lessons.
ReplyDeleteInteresting observations !!!
ReplyDeleteVery good post. We can find a lot of mistakes we do on daily basic. For example,
ReplyDeletePerson 1: I don't like it
Person 2: Me too
Actually, if the person 2 didn't like it either, he should be saying "Me either" or "Me neither".
And of course those not-so-subtle grammatical errors such as:
"I didn't drank wanter" or "Where did you went?" etc.
We should probably keep a running list of these things somewhere
I have an observation about the use of the participle "ing"
ReplyDeleteIs this another common mistake that we Indians make?
For eg:
Please tell me, who would be doing the work.
rather than
Please tell me, who would do the work