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Common Mistakes In English That Might Embarrass You - Education (3) - Nairaland

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Re: Common Mistakes In English That Might Embarrass You by andymofia(m): 11:13am On Feb 09, 2017
PrinceFromDilli:
Na en be say e don tay way I dey fuckofff.

I swear, I don fvck up tire be that.
Re: Common Mistakes In English That Might Embarrass You by andymofia(m): 11:15am On Feb 09, 2017
2romantic:

There are many commonly misused, misspelled, and mispronounced words in English. I will try to mention, to the best of my knowledge and experience, the most commonly abused words here.

HEARING: The word HEAR is a verb. The incorrect use of hearing is usually over phone communication for example “I am not hearing you’’ This is wrong. The correct way to say this is: “I cannot hear you’’

There are legal uses of the word though. There is the noun hearing which means the ability to perceive sounds. e.g. There are people who have very acute hearing.

Also, another noun form of hearing means an opportunity to state one’s case e.g. I think I had a fair hearing in court.


ATE: As we all know, ate is the past tense of eat. The problem with this word for most people is not so much in the use as in the pronunciation.

Very many people pronounce the word as “ETE’’ as in TETE, whatever that means.

The correct pronunciation of this word is ATE as in HATE without the “H’’

It might be embarrassing to mispronounce this simple word in public.


REVERT: Haven’t we all seen it in email correspondences, “Please Revert’’ or in some cases, “Revert Back’’.

Contrary to what many think, revert doesn’t mean reply.

Revert means return to (a previous state, practice etc.) For example, “You look so much better now that you are on a diet; please don’t revert to eating junk food’’.

If revert is used correctly as above, it would suffice on its own and not require the inclusion of “Back’’ as in “Revert back’’ as this would be redundancy.


MISCHIEVOUS: When someone is full of mischief, that person is said to be mischievous. People know this already but the problem with this word is the pronunciation.

The word is pronounced MIS-CHIEVIOUS by many. Blink and you miss it. Did you spot the difference? Yes, the letter “I’’. There is no letter “I’’ after the letter “V’’ and there isn’t supposed to be one, not in the spelling and definitely not in the pronunciation.


DEFINITELY: Definitely means beyond doubt. The problem with this word for many is not in the usage or the spelling, but like in the previous word, the problem is in the pronunciation.

This word is pronounced by many as DEF-I-NATE-LY.

It should instead be pronounced as it is written. DEF-I-NITE-LY.


PRONUNCIATION: This list would not be complete without this commonly mispronounced word. (No pun intended)

Pronounce is a verb and the noun form of it is pronunciation.

I believe the origin of the problem with this word is the disparity in the spelling of the verb and the noun.

Many people already know the word pronounce and they know how to spell it, so they probably just apply the modification from pronounce to pronounciation directly which is wrong. The correct spelling does not have the second “O’’.

The correct spelling and pronunciation is PRO-NUN-CI-A-TION. I reiterate, no pun intended.

So, to avoid embarrassment, please take note of these words and correct yourself appropriately.


www.laffhub.com/blog/common-mistakes-in-english-that-might-embarrass-you


Nice one, I appreciate you. I have something new today.
Re: Common Mistakes In English That Might Embarrass You by jordinsparkles(f): 11:19am On Feb 09, 2017
Akuko
Re: Common Mistakes In English That Might Embarrass You by augustine: 11:21am On Feb 09, 2017
Nice. Years ago, I used the word 'EXPANCIATE' until I was corrected to use 'EXPATIATE'.
Re: Common Mistakes In English That Might Embarrass You by Mr2kay2: 12:21pm On Feb 09, 2017
BodePolScience:
lots of embarrassment, I think language or grammar ought not to trouble us as correct pronunciation doesn't really matter, what matters the most is efficient communication. We have the US, Austria and British pronunciations so why should we be bothered with lots of rules and seemingly inconsistencies inherent in language.

My thought anyway
exactly.By the end of the day what really matters is communication
Re: Common Mistakes In English That Might Embarrass You by brimoknight(m): 12:34pm On Feb 09, 2017
Ede oyinbo kin se ti baba mi.
Re: Common Mistakes In English That Might Embarrass You by Nobody: 12:43pm On Feb 09, 2017
kilele yi nso bayi ntoriolorun/ Emi omo ABD fun ra mi grin
Re: Common Mistakes In English That Might Embarrass You by Teenaba(f): 7:06pm On Feb 09, 2017
Ate can be pronounced as "et" or "eit". Both are correct. Thanks.
Re: Common Mistakes In English That Might Embarrass You by noble2faith(m): 12:56pm On Feb 10, 2017
@OP, using the verb "hear" progressively, as in "hearing" is grammatically incorrect or what's ur point?

Hearing is a participial verb, present participle to be precise. It can be used in present continous tense or past continous tense indicating that an action is/was currently going on at the time of speaking. "I am not hearing you" is grammatically correct"
"I cannot hear you" can also be used.

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