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: How do you call it?
This is totally understandable to native speakers. If you say this people will know what you mean but it is incorrect.
Correction: What’s it called?
Alternatively you can say: How do you say . . . in English?
What’s the name of . . . in English?
Have fun learning English!
Louise
I often hear these mistakes made by German speakers who are learning English.
They say: That are good news.
Remember in English the word news is an uncountable noun. That means it is singular and not plural. It cannot be used with a / an.
Correction: That is good news.
Have fun learning English!
Louise
I often hear these mistakes made by German speakers who are learning English.
They say: On Easter I visit my family.
There is a preposition problem here. Remember we use ‘at’ as the preposition for Easter, Christmas, Carnival.
Correction: At Easter I visit my family.
Remember, this means every Easter. It is describing a repeated action or a habit.
Another example could be: At Christmas we go skiing. (Every year the same. Repeated action or habit)
If you talking about a one-off action or something planned for a future date we need to use the _ing form.
E.g. At Easter I’m visiting my family. (It is planned for the next Easter. It is not necessarily the same every year.)
E.g. At Christmas I’m going skiing. (It is planned for the next Christmas. It is not necessarily the same every year.)
Have fun learning English!
Louise
I often hear these mistakes made by German speakers who are learning English.
They say: The report was written from my colleague.
Remember when we are talking about who wrote something (a report, a document, a book, a file, an email etc.) we need to use the preposition ‘by’.
Correction: The report was written by my colleague.
Further examples:
This book was written by a friend of mine.
These emails were all written by my boss.
Have fun learning English!
Louise
I often hear these mistakes made by German speakers who are learning English.
They say: The manager is responsible to make the decision.
There is a preposition missing in this sentence. Remember we say ‘responsible for’ something or someone.
Also, responsible for takes the _ing form if followed by a verb.
So the correction is: The manager is responsible for making the decision.
Some further examples:
She is responsible for placing the order.
They are responsible for planning the event.
I am responsible for organising the meeting.
Have fun learning English!
Louise
I often hear these mistakes made by German speakers who are learning English.
They say: Last month he has got five new customers.
Remember ‘last month’ describes finished time so the tense is wrong here.
For finished time (yesterday, last week, last month, last year, two days ago etc.) we need to use the simple past tense.
Correction: Last month he got five new customers.
For unfinished time (today, this week, this month, this year etc.) we can use have / has + 3rd form of the verb.
E.g. This month he has got five new customers.
Have fun learning English!
Louise
I often hear these mistakes made by German speakers who are learning English.
They say: Have you time today?
Remember that because we are asking a question here in the present tense we need the word ‘do’.
Correction: Do you have time today?
If we are speaking in the past tense we need the word ‘did’.
Did you have time yesterday? (Not, “Had you time yesterday?”)
Have fun learning English!
Louise
I often hear these mistakes made by German speakers who are learning English.
They say: I made a lot of photos in my holiday.
There are a couple of things wrong with this.
Firstly, make is the wrong verb. We don’t make photos we take them.
Secondly the preposition is wrong. We don’t say in my holiday we say on my holiday.
The correct sentence is: I took a lot of photos on my holiday.
Have fun learning English!
Louise
I often hear these mistakes made by German speakers who are learning English.
They say: The conference has begun at 11 yesterday.
The wrong tense has been used here. Remember the word yesterday indicates finished time. Therefore use the past simple. For unfinished time use the present perfect (have / has + 3rd form of the verb.)
Correction: The conference began at 11 yesterday.
Some further examples:
I worked a lot last week (finished time; last week is over, done, finished.)
I have worked a lot this week (unfinished time; this week is not finished, it is ongoing.)
She drank three coffees yesterday (finished time; yesterday is over, done, finished.)
She has drunk three coffees today (unfinished time; today is not finished, it is ongoing.)
Have fun learning English!
Louise
One area of English that often causes problems for learners is prepositions.
Below are some examples of prepositions we use when travelling.
We travel on foot but by car, by train, by plane, by bus, by tram, by taxi, by bike.
E.g. It won’t take me long to get there. It’s only 10 minutes on foot from here.
We are travelling by train to the conference.
He travelled more than 30 km by bike to get there.
We sit in a car and in a taxi but on a train, on a bus, on a plane, on a tram, on a bike.
E.g. We are in the taxi at the moment. We’ll be with you shortly.
We are on the train at the moment. We’ll be with you shortly.
We had good seats on the plane with plenty of legroom.
Have fun learning English!
Louise