Common Errors in English
Chapter Eighty-Four
Syllabus topic 4.2, Grammar, and MU's course objective that students "write correct English"
Pages 395 to 399 of 406
In one line
Most of the mistakes an examiner sees fall into eight groups, and a candidate who learns these eight writes better English than one who has learnt a hundred rules.
1. Articles
The rule in three lines. "A" and "an" are used before a singular countable noun mentioned for the first time; "the" is used when the noun is already known, unique, or specified. No article is used before an uncountable or an abstract noun used generally.
"A" or "an" goes by sound, not by spelling.
| Correct | Why |
|---|---|
| a university, a European, a one-rupee note, a useful book | They begin with a consonant sound: yoo, wun |
| an hour, an honest man, an heir, an honourable court | The h is silent, so the sound is a vowel |
| an M.A., an L.L.B., an F.I.R., an S.P. | The letter names begin with vowel sounds |
| a B.A., a Ph.D. | Bee and pee begin with consonant sounds |
Where Indian English regularly goes wrong.
| Wrong | Right |
|---|---|
| He is in the hospital for treatment. | He is in hospital for treatment. (Institutions used for their purpose: in hospital, in prison, at school, in court, in bed) |
| The justice was denied to him. | Justice was denied to him. |
| He returned back to the home. | He returned home. |
| Discuss about the case. | Discuss the case. |
| He is a M.L.A. | He is an M.L.A. |
| She is the best of the two. | She is the better of the two. |
"The" is used before superlatives, before names of rivers, seas, ranges and groups of islands, before the names of newspapers, before a nationality used as a group (the Indians), and before an adjective standing for a class (the poor, the accused).
2. Prepositions
The list a law student must know, because these are the ones that appear in legal writing and are got wrong.
| Right | Not |
|---|---|
| accused of an offence | accused for |
| charged with an offence | charged for |
| convicted of murder | convicted for murder |
| sentenced to imprisonment | sentenced with |
| guilty of | guilty for |
| an appeal against an order, to a court | appeal on |
| a suit against a person, for recovery | suit on |
| compensation for an injury | compensation of |
| liable for the loss; liable to pay | liable of |
| entitled to | entitled for |
| comply with | comply to |
| consist of | consist in, when meaning "have as parts" |
| die of an illness, from a wound | die by illness |
| differ from a thing, with a person | differ than |
| married to | married with |
| congratulate on | congratulate for |
| insist on | insist to |
| prevent him from going | prevent him to go |
| superior to, inferior to | superior than |
| discuss, enter, marry, reach, resemble, order | take no preposition |
And the eight verbs to remember by heart, because Indian English adds a preposition to all of them: discuss, enter, marry, reach, resemble, order, attack, accompany. Discuss the case, enter the room, reach the station.
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