Common mistakes by non-native English speakers

[mark]

in the philippines is it quite funny bec. we mix chinese, tagalog and english.

So what do you call it? Chagalish? Entagnese? Tagenchi? Enchilog?

DL

[SiMoNsAyS]

probably i'm the 1 who made most mistakes of this kind

[Shotgun]

me too, every once in a while. I mostly speak Spanish, but online I use both. IMO I'm fluent with English. Somewhat intermediate on the spoken part.

[Incroyable HULK]

I'd like to be politely corrected when I do such mistakes. Otherwise, how will I know all the errors I am doing...

[Tokugawapants]

I'm learning Spanish myself. Sometimes I wonder, when non-native speakers are taught English formally (in a class), do they teach the very proper English (with the rules I stated above), or do they teach the more relaxed, common, colloquial English like most people speak to each other?

[brian873]

Tokugawapants:

The problem with English is that with many languages it has a very diverse dialect. In my city alone there may be up to 5 or 6 ways of saying the same thing all of which could be understood by another Glaswegian. But to a “proper” English speaker would be incomprehensible.

hail hail

[FAT64]

Hootsmon!

[brian873]

Hootsmon!

lol

have you seen that mouse ? orr come to think of it my trousers !

[prathapml]

I would say the main problem for those who make problems while speaking/writing english, is that their language of thought (or counting numbers) is their native language (i.e., not english). If they think in English while expressing themselves, it would all be fine.

For example, a non-native english speaker will come up with the words for:

How do you do?

in his native language, and THEN translate it into English - thereby making mistakes. Again, whatever is read/responded, will again be translated back into his native language by his brain, introducing possibilities of mis-understanding.

No, don't look at me! I happen to think in English and THEN translate thoughts to words in my native language.

[Tokugawapants]

I would say the main problem for those who make problems while speaking/writing english, is that their language of thought (or counting numbers) is their native language (i.e., not english). If they think in English while expressing themselves, it would all be fine.

For example, a non-native english speaker will come up with the words for:

How do you do?

in his native language, and THEN translate it into English - thereby making mistakes. Again, whatever is read/responded, will again be translated back into his native language by his brain, introducing possibilities of mis-understanding.

No, don't look at me! I happen to think in English and THEN translate thoughts to words in my native language.

I agree. I find it extremely difficult and risky to think in my native language then translate into another. Some people may say it's not possible, but I tend to think that I don't think in any language, which allows me to be flexible when I speak. But when I do think in a language, I don't always think in my native one. However, it makes it a bit more difficult to translate aloud from one language to the other, because my first reaction is translating into the language im trying to translate from

[rupert86]

Everybody does the same to their native language. That's because if a language is live (i.e: prospering/developing, I'm falling short of vocabulary here), slang keeps developing, and anyway it doesn't matter anything to the listener if he correctly understands what the sayer means.

[Silicon]

I'm not native speaker. But I have no such problems.

However, the perfect tense really puzzles me.

[Tokugawapants]

Yeah, and some languages completely lack tenses other languages have. Also, it is my understanding that you can't say something like the following in Mandarin:

"If he had not wasted his time, then he would have been prepared."

All these things are very interesting. English, for the most part, lacks different forms in the subjunctive mood, bleh.

[mark]

Ok, you guys win. 'perfect tense', 'subjunctive mood'. ? I learned English from those around me. When it came to schooling, I was aweful. I was just reading in another thread and the English speaker there was difficult to understand. Bad grammar, punctuation, spacing.

Fun fact: There are eleven different ways to pronounce the group of letters 'ough'. See, English is fun.

DL

[prathapml]

All these things are very interesting. English, for the most part, lacks different forms in the subjunctive mood, bleh.

What are you saying?

You mean "the (British) Queen's English, for the most part".

Come to India, and you'll see english being used in the most wholesome way possible. There is a joke round here, that the Englishmen came and brought their language here, and left it behind! (referring to how even people in english-speaking countries don't speak the language correctly and add lot of modifications and slang, while we kept the language in its original form and enhanced it to make it suitable for all purposes) For confirmation, just see how many Indian words keep entering the dictionary every year, lol.