Common Language Errors: Time, Prepositions, and Verb Tenses, Apuntes de Psicología

¡Descarga Common Language Errors: Time, Prepositions, and Verb Tenses y más Apuntes en PDF de Psicología solo en Docsity! Error eradication 1. Hi Everybody, Okay, a very ambitious title…the idea is to prepare yourselves in advance in order to avoid making some common mistakes in your writing and speaking. I’ll be sending these on an (ir)regular basis, and I’d recommend that you save them in a special folder. Consult them before you send in a CA, in order to make sure you’re not making any of the mistakes mentioned here. This week’s comments deal with some of the errors connected with time (as well as a few old favourites that have already occurred in your warmups!) that usually appear in CA1, as well as a couple of errors that I know are going to be made in the near future... Here are 5 pages of examples, in no special order. I hope they are useful. I’m agree. AAAAArgh! No! Never! You are not a ‘gree’, you are a human. The correct expression is I agree. This is a typical Spanglish error, eradicate it now! Do not use it in your Skype recordings! Go out, go away leave- You go out with your partner/friends at the weekend (to the cinema, a club, etc.). Meaning: to leave your house for entertainment. You go away on holidays (to leave your town, city, to go somewhere far away). Go away! can also mean “Fora!”, “Sal d’aquí” – “go away and stop bothering me, I’m trying to study!” In everyday situations we use leave – “I leave my house at 8.55 every day”. Since,Until and By. Again, there’s some confusion with these. We use since to show when a long-term activity started, and usually with the Present Perfect/Present Perfect Continuous- “I’ve worked in this company since 1995”, “I’ve been living in this house since 2001”. Des.de. Until is used to show when an activity is /was/ or will be finished – “I work every afternoon until 6pm” ”I didn’t arrive home until after midnight” “we danced until dawn” “I’ll be on holidays until the end of October”. Sometimes abbreviated to ‘till/’til (informal or spoken). Fins. By is similar to “at the latest” – “Send in your contributions by Monday” “This report must be ready by 5pm” “If I leave the office at 6, I’ll be home by 9.30 pm”. Before and After – if you use a verb after these words you should put it in the Gerund…”Before having breakfast I take the crocodile for a walk” “After having a siesta I return to bed”. You can also use a subject + imperative... “Wash your hands before you start cooking”, “Turn off the computer after you finish working”. Also, the words “Before” and “After” cannot stand alone…you can’t say “Before, I lived in Granollers” “After, I go to work”; “Before that, I lived in …” “After that, I go…”. “Before breakfast I smoke a cigarette/ before having breakfast I …/ I smoke a cigarette before I have breakfast”. “After lunch I go back to work. / After having lunch I go back to work./I have lunch, and afterwards I go back to work”. Afterwards has the function of ‘after that (the activity in question)’. From 9 to 5. Be careful with the prepositions here! I work from 8am to 6.30pm, Monday to Friday. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-gqMpZroy8 Take advantage – “aprofitar” in a normal sense is to take the opportunity to do something. “When my boss was at lunch I took the opportunity to do my UOC homework”. You could also say “I used the time”. “Take advantage of our special offer and fly to Tahiti for only €29.99”. To take advantage sometimes implies abuse. “Taxi drivers sometimes take advantage of tourists and bring them by the longest route” ”He took advantage of his position in the Town Council to charge commissions on building contracts”. Spend / Lose / Waste time – You spend (gastar) time doing something, you lose (perder) time due to external circumstances, you waste (malgastar/perder) time on unnecessary things…”Last year we decided to spend 2 weeks travelling in Germany. However, we lost 3 days of our holiday because of a strike by airline workers”. “Don’t waste your time watching TV, do something productive!” “With 3 minutes remaining until the end of the match, Barça started wasting time”. “The government wasted no time and nationalised the banks”. Stay - "I stay with my friends after work". No! To stay means 'permanecer', 'alojarse' ‘quedarse’. "Stay in your room until suppertime!" "We stayed in a beautiful hotel outside the village". We normally use meet for social situations- "I meet my friends after work”, and also for surprise occasions “I met an old schoolmate yesterday in the metro. He hasn’t changed a bit!”. (For these situations you could also use the Phrasal Verb “bump into”. Check your Cambridge Dictionary (you do have it installed and on your toolbar, don’t you?). Used / Usually – Be careful here! When we talk about regular activities, routines, we say “I usually get up at 6 am”, “We usually have dinner at 10pm”. Used to refers to past habits that we don’t practise anymore (Solía) – “I used to collect Playmobil figures” “I used to play basketball sound a bit strange in some situations (My mother’s boyfriend was 77 last week). In same-sex couples it’s now common to refer to your partner as your husband (male) or your wife (female). Never use ‘couple’ when you mean ‘partner’. In other words, never say “My couple works at night...” A couple of refers to TWO* of something (un parell de...). “When I lived in London I shared a flat with a couple of German students (=2 german students who were not emotionally involved)” “There are a couple of Mossos at the roadblock doing alcohol tests on drivers”“Honeshtly, I only had a couple of dhrinksh..”. “I met him a couple of times near the coffee machine”. “I’ll beat a couple of eggs and make an omelette”. A couple means the 2 people in a relationship (parelles) “It’s difficult for young couples to get a mortgage these days”. “Don’t Flip and Leti make a lovely couple?””The couple next door have just had a baby.” F 0 B 7 In Ireland, a couple of anything could mean 2, or 3. And “a couple of drinks” might mean anything from 2 to 6. Or more. Go walking, go on foot – we don’t say this. We walk to work; we go for a walk in the park with the children. To go walking is an activity, like ‘excursion’; “Last year I went walking/hiking in the Pyrenees for 2 weeks”. To go on foot implies that no other transport is available – “The survivors had to cross the desert on foot”. Similarly, we don’t go by car, we drive. So, I walk to the park with my daughter, we play for an hour, then I drive to work. Age- we don’t describe people/objects age as “a baby of 3 months” but as “a 3-month-old baby” “I have a 17- year- old daughter” “He gave me a bottle of 20 year old single malt whiskey” “There’s a piece of 12 month old Cabrales in the fridge, I think it wants to come out…” With all the hyphens(-) or none, but no 50/50... “3-month–old chickens for sale” = I’m selling some chickens that are all 3 months old. “3 month-old chickens for sale”= I’m selling 3 chickens that are all one month old. “3-month old chickens for sale”= I’m selling chickens that are, for some strange reason, old after only 90 days of existence. Also connected with age…I am 320 years old; a typical mistake is to say I have 320 years. I am 35, you are 42, she is 27, we are all over 18… One something and a half- the noun should go to the end, and in the plural form. "The journey takes me one and a half hours". “I lived in Helsinki for 3 and a half years”. “Mickey Rourke’s biggest film was ‘Nine and a half weeks’. Nacho Vidal’s was ‘18 and a half centimetres’ ”. When it's one and a half of something, you can also say "an hour and a half", "a year and a half". “I waited for an hour and a half, then I told the registrar to cancel the wedding...” “I lived in Nepal for a year and a half”. But...when you put a noun after the description, it’s like the case of Age above...”A three and a half year old girl” “a two and a half- kilo hamburger” “a twelve-ton truck” ... Finally, these clips might help you with the pronunciation exercise and the upcoming Skype! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-oH-TELcLE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5035TY5RSpg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dphayJDCzog http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yR0lWICH3rY And that’s all for now, folks. http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=0FHEeG_uq5Y