Tips to help you speak better English. Practice makes perfect, so use it or lose it!
I often hear these mistakes made by German speakers who are learning English.
They say: She’s a good friend from me.
This is totally understandable and everyone would know what you meant if you said this. However, it is not a correct sentence in English and is a mistranslation of the original sentence in German.
Correction: She’s a good friend of mine.
Further examples:
They are good friends of ours.
We are good friends of theirs.
Have fun learning English!
Louise
I often hear these mistakes made by German speakers who are learning English.
They say: How is it like (working at that company)?
The problem here is with the word ‘how’. It is the wrong question word for this sentence. Instead of ‘how’ we need the word ‘what’.
Correction: What’s it like working at that company?
Further examples:
What’s it like living in London?
What’s it like working abroad?
What’s it like having a job interview in English?
Don’t forget we need the _ing on the verb in all of these sentences.
Have fun learning English!
Louise
I often hear these mistakes made by German speakers who are learning English.
They say: In former times I lived in Berlin.
This is totally understandable but it sounds a little strange to native speakers to use the words ‘in former times’ here.
Instead we use the construction ‘used to’. This describes an action that was true in the past but is no longer true now.
Correction: I used to live in Berlin. ( = I don’t live in Berlin now.)
Further examples:
They used to work together. ( = They don’t work together now.)
He used to smoke. ( = He doesn’t smoke now.)
She used to travel to work by train. ( = She doesn’t travel to work by train now.)
Have fun learning English!
Louise
I often hear these mistakes made by German speakers who are learning English.
They say: I already do this for several weeks.
The problem here is the tense. There are a couple of key words / phrases in the sentence which can help us to identify which tense we need. The key words / phrases are ‘already’ and ‘for several weeks’.
The sense here is of a repeated action which started in the past, is still being done now and will probably continue in the future.
Correction: I have already been doing this for several weeks.
Have fun learning English!
Louise
I often hear these mistakes made by German speakers who are learning English.
They say: I explained her the problem.
Remember, in English we explain something to someone. Therefore the ‘to’ is missing in this sentence.
There is also a problem with the word order.
Correction: I explained the problem to her.
Further examples:
He explained the situation to me.
They explained the rules of the game to him.
We explained the reasons for our decision to them.
Have fun learning English!
Louise
I often hear these mistakes made by German speakers who are learning English.
They say: We are really looking forward.
This sentence, although understandable, is incomplete. We need to specify what we are looking forward to.
Correction: We are really looking forward to it.
We are really looking forward to seeing you / to meeting you / to working with you.
Remember, ‘to look forward to’ if followed by a verb must have an _ing.
Alternatively: We can’t wait.
We can’t wait to see you / to meet you / to work with you.
This is a little more informal.
Have fun learning English!
Louise
I often hear these mistakes made by German speakers who are learning English.
They say: She has always problems with English grammar.
The problem here is the word order. With adverbs of frequency the verb comes after the adverb.
Correction: She always has problems with English grammar.
Further examples: She never has problems with English grammar.
She sometimes has problems with English grammar.
She often has problems with English grammar.
Of course in English there are often exceptions to the rule. The exception here is the verb ‘to be’. Here the verb comes before the adverb. (See the example in the sentence above with ‘are often . . .’)
Further examples: He is always late for meetings.
They are sometimes busy on Saturdays.
Have fun learning English!
Louise
I often hear these mistakes made by German speakers who are learning English.
They say: She is retired since February.
Since is the keyword in this sentence and tells us which tense we need: Present perfect tense and not present tense (as in the example above.)
Correction: She has been retired since February.
Have fun learning English!
Louise
I often hear these mistakes made by German speakers who are learning English.
They say: I try to learn English since 2 years.
There are a couple of things wrong with this.
Firstly the tense is wrong. Remember in English when we are talking about an action that started in the past, is true now and will continue into the future we do not use the present tense (as in the example above).
We need the present perfect tense (have/has + 3rd form of the verb) or present perfect continuous (have/has + been + verb + _ing). Because the example is talking about a repetitive action that has taken place regularly over a period of time we would use the continuous form.
Secondly the word since is used with points in time (since January, since yesterday, since Monday) and not with lengths of time. For that we need to use the word ‘for’.
Correction: I have been trying to learn English for 2 years.
Have fun learning English!
Louise
I often hear these mistakes made by German speakers who are learning English.
They say: I know him for ages.
The tense is wrong in this sentence.
Remember if we are talking about someone we still know now we need to use the present perfect tense here (have/has + 3rd form of the verb) because this is something that started in the past, is still true now and continues into the future. It is ongoing and unfinished.
Correction: I have known him for ages.
Have fun learning English!
Louise