English with Kirsty – episode 31
Common mistakes part 2
In this episode, I talk about the other five common mistakes from my second article on this subject. The first common mistakes post was the most popular post on my blog last year. If you want to listen to the episode that discussed last year’s article, you can listen to episode 10. I discuss the first five mistakes from this year’s article in episode 30.
You can listen to episode 31 here:
1. Handy number
We talk about our phones, sometimes our iPhones, sometimes our mobiles – but we never use the word “handy” for this device.
“Handy” means convenient. We live near the shops, which is handy if I don’t buy enough milk. I can quickly go to the shop nearby instead of driving to the supermarket.
2. I told to him
You can say something to someone or explain something to them, but you just tell them. You never tell “to” them.
3. We’ll see us next week
This is wrong because it should be “we’ll see each other next week”.
4. Tag questions
These are used if we think that something is true, but we want the other person to confirm it.
If the first part is positive, the second part has to be negative:
You’re coming to the meeting tomorrow, aren’t you?
If the first part is negative, the question part has to be positive:
You don’t like fish, do you?
You can’t just add the word “or?” at the end of a statement to get this effect.
5. Compound nouns
We have less of them in English than in some other languages, such as German. For example, mailing list, kitchen table and Christmas present are never written together.
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