10 Advanced Grammar Rules that Confuse Most English Learners

Students, who are learning to speak English, whether beginners, intermediates or more advanced, can make mistakes with English grammar.  These mistakes can easily be repeated many times and are very common in students learning English.  Once students learn how to correct these mistakes, they are well on the way to improving their English.  Here are my 10 advanced grammar rules, which confuse most English learners:

 

Choosing the correct tense

 

Incorrect:        I have been in London last spring.

Correct:            I was in London last spring.

This refers to a specific event and time (last spring) so the past simple tense should be used and not the present simple (have been).

 

Apostrophes

 

Apostrophes relate to an item, which belongs to someone or something.  Apostrophes never make a word plural.

 

incorrect:        Richards house is over there.

Correct:            Richard’s house is over there.

 

Incorrect:        Book’s are for sale or rent in the market round the corner.

Correct:            Books are for sale or rent in the market round the corner.

 

Incorrect:        Annas shoes are in the cupboard.

Correct:            Anna’s shoes are in the cupboard.

 

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Homophones

 

Homophones are words that sound the same when pronounced but are spelt differently and have different meanings:

 

There                 Over there you will find the paper you are looking for.

They’re             They are going to the party later today.

Their                  Their parents are away on holiday.

 

Which                Which is the way to the station?

Witch                 a wicked witch is in the children’s story they are reading in class today.

 

Wait                   She just missed the train so she will have to wait for 20 minutes for the next train to London.

Weight              The weight of the punnet of strawberries is 2 kilos.

 

 

Weak                 She is weak after running the marathon.

Week                 There are seven days in a week.

 

Rain                   it is forecast to rain tomorrow.

Reign                 the queen will reign for many years.

 

Check                Please check the price of the potatoes.

Cheque             I will write you a cheque for the items i am buying.

 

To                       we are going to the party tonight.

Two                    John and joan have two children.

Too                     they are going to the party too (in this case too means as well)

 

Here                   here are the books you wanted.

Hear                   can you hear the sound of rain on the window?

 

See                      can you see the deer running across the field?

Sea                      the sea is very rough today.  No one is swimming.

 

There are many homophones, which are confusing but have to be learnt.

 

I/me/myself

 

When students are learning English, they will often start a sentence with himself or herself, which is incorrect.  Always start the name(s) of the person(s) you are doing an activity with followed by oneself.

 

Incorrect          1/me/myself and friends are going to the cinema tonight.

Correct             my friends and I are going to the cinema tonight.

 

Correct             Join me for coffee tomorrow morning.

 

Correct             if we have already used i in a sentence then we can use myself if we continue to talk about oneself.

 

Affect/effect

 

It is important to remember that to affect is a verb and effect is a noun.

 

Correct examples of both:

 

He was affected by the heavy snow, which fell last night, so he could not get his car out of the garage.

The effect of taking the anti-biotics meant that his ear infection improved very quickly.

 

Remember:     affect means to influence a situation

effect is what happens when one is affected by a situation or something happening.

 

Incorrect word order

 

Incorrect:        is marked the exam?

Correct:            is the exam marked?

The word order of sentences is different between the languages so this makes learning English harder.  In questions the noun (exam) comes before the verb (marked).  In other sentences the noun and verb can be reversed which makes word order confusing for students.

 

Use of incorrect preposition

 

Incorrect:        what happened with you last Friday?

Correct:            what happened to you last Friday?

 

The prepositions with, to or on confuse students learning English as there are not always clear rules about which is the correct preposition that they should be using.

 

Plural of nouns

 

Incorrect:        my brother has three childrens.

Correct:            my brother has three children.

Changing singular forms to plural forms can be difficult to learn.  Here are some more examples:

 

1 man                2 men

1 woman          2 women

1 child               2 children

1 witch             2 witches

1 goose             2 geese

1 mouse           2 mice

 

As you can see from these examples sometimes the letter(s) change(s) and sometimes an ‘e’ is added as well the letter ‘s’.  Learning the correct spellings will help but these plurals do need to be learnt.

 

To omit words

 

Any student, no matter how advanced, may forget to include a word in a sentence.  The person they are speaking with will probably be able to understand what they mean but it is very important to remember all the words in the sentences as this helps with speaking fluently.

 

Understanding the differnce between could, should or would

 

These 3 words all sound very similar and so can cause many problems for English learners.

 

Could

Could can be used to describe something in the past.

Example:          he could have done better in his exams if he had worked harder.

 

Could can be used to discuss something in the future.

Example:          she could get promotion if she works hard.

 

Could can be used as part of a question.

Example:          could i have a biscuit, as I am hungry?

 

Should

Should is used when giving advice to someone.

Example:          you should go to the doctor for your vaccinations as you are

visiting India on your trip next month.

Example:          that dress suits you.  You should buy it to wear at your

daughter’s wedding.

 

Would

Would is used to describe an event which will probably not happen.

Example:          he would love to visit New York to visit his brother this summer

but he has just bought a car so does not have any spare money to afford to go.

 

By having regular conversations with an English-speaking tutor, they can help with these mistakes.  Practice regularly and English learners will improve very quickly.  Repetition will truly help in remembering these grammar rules and making a note of them and looking at these notes daily will be of added benefit.  The more confidant English-speaking learners become then the more their fluency increases and they can talk with more people on many more subjects.