The Non-native English Common Mistakes Thread

[irinastaxen]

I submitted a document last week, which had "lover" in stead of "lower" ... one of the VPs had a good laugh

[MusicChick]

	Quote:	irinastaxen
	The French always use vacations (pl.)

That's just simply due to having so many....

I find some stylistic oddness here in this huge effort not to repeat the same word too often (even if it is a name or a specific concept or terminology), people go into great pains to avoid repetition, search for synonyms so hard, that it sometimes takes me a while to decode..Just use the word twice in one paragraph, it really is ok

[PlantHead]

A Swiss colleague of mine once addressed an email to senior management as

Hi Gays,


He meant guys but it made my day.

@Glenda Jackson:
My point was anyone can make English mistakes. Today the distinction between natives and non-natives is blurred anyway.

I see high-level equestrianism going on in this thread.

[jrspet]

	Quote:	Niranjan
	@Glenda Jackson: My point was anyone can make English mistakes. Today the distinction between natives and non-natives is blurred anyway. I see high-level equestrianism going on in this thread.

[MusicChick]

	Quote:	Niranjan
	@Glenda Jackson: My point was anyone can make English mistakes. Today the distinction between natives and non-natives is blurred anyway. I see high-level equestrianism going on in this thread.

Yeah, I like the little quirky things people take from their own mother tongues or other languages they speak..

Linguistic snobbery can be fun too, but not on the account of somebody who is trying hard to become fluent in yet another language..

[Nil]

I am a non-native English speaker and beside the fact that my accent is absolutely lovely I can see my german husband's mistake like to mix V and W when talking.

Wacation,

wictim, etc

[MusicChick]

And I have to say, unless one makes a really good effort, longer you stay here, your own language gets mixed up. There are people who have been here for decades and do not make a single mistake, while there are others who speak Frenglish now, or other funny tongues..I have never been a purist.

[jules980]

Do you make sports?

[jrspet]

	Quote:	jules980
	Do you make sports?

Yes, if the language is in German.

[Sky]

Oh my very favorite of all times was a very good buddy from university.
Being of French mother tongue, he often used the term: "Fait moi plaisir" or "ça me fait plaisir"
which basically means: Keep me happy/pleased (with no double entente) or I'm pleased/happy to oblige

But his translation was:

Make me pleasure

[Village Idiot]

	Quote:	PlantHead
	A Swiss colleague of mine once addressed an email to senior management as Hi Gays, He meant guys but it made my day.

I can't count the number of times I've signed off an e-mail with:

Kind retards...

Is it my fault the 'g' and 't' keys are right beside each other?

[Longbyt]

The old 'fingers on the wrong keys one' was 'Sear Dir' at the start of business letters - and in those days there were no 'correct' keys or anything so it was out with the paper and in with a new sheet before anyone noticed. The one good thing about it was that it was at the beginning and not at the end. The latter would have meant re-typing the lot.

[NotAllThere]

For pronunciation - it's adg-enda. Not a-genda. (Agenda). Vodka is pronounced the same in English and German.

Mobbing, in the sense of work place bullying, is not an English word. (False friend).

Performant is not yet in the OED. But should be. A useful neologism.

"You don't must do it", instead of "you don't have to do it". But as I cannot get the hang of the German forms, I'm a fine one to talk.

Anyone who purports to be a fluent English speaker, who says, for example "Could of", should be shot through the lungs. Pour encourager les autres.

[Deep Purple]

I don't get irritated by mistakes by non-native English speakers. We English can make enough of our own mistakes, especially those who have lived in Switzerland for some time. These may irritate me a little from time to time.

My English is not perfect and my foreign languages are almost non-existant, so I am not in any position to criticise.

It is helpful to point out common mistakes. These will help those learning English to improve.

[Geode]

	Quote:	Niranjan
	@Glenda Jackson: My point was anyone can make English mistakes. Today the distinction between natives and non-natives is blurred anyway. I see high-level equestrianism going on in this thread.

I'm not a native speaker, and frankly I wish sometimes english people would be less lenient with my mistakes. They let it go because basically they understand what I mean but then, I don't make any progress...

But then again, being interrupted every sentences is irksome as well..

[Longbyt]

	Quote:	NotAllThere
	Anyone who purports to be a fluent English speaker, who says, for example "Could of", should be shot through the lungs. Pour encourager les autres.

No names, no pack-drill; no-one gets shot through the lungs but just a selection...

	Quote:
	...this could of been done online?

	Quote:
	... but he did take it about 8 yrs ago so it could of gone up now.

	Quote:
	...simply amazing photos, no-one could of taken better.

	Quote:
	Ahh I didnt know you were from the forum, you should of said...

"Not a big dent in his wallet....they should of taken the car!! "
"Perhaps i should of queried it".


All the quotes come from different members and I checked that all had 'English' as their mother tongue. I've a feeling this mistake is far more common than we like to think. To be fair though, that's the way the phrase sounds when I say it too. I just don't write it like that.

[k_and_e]

I heard a colleague once tell that she had "a horizontal function".

[jrspet]

Mdm. Mod!

[Longbyt]

...and if anyone thinks I'm nit-picking, you can blame jrspet for aiding and abetting. Without him, I'd never have known how to search for things like that!