Common Mistakes that Beginners Make in English Communication

When you are learning a language and it is not your first language, you’re bound to make mistakes. Especially if the language is English, making mistakes is inevitable. However, what’s important is that you identify your mistakes and learn from them. In this article, we’ll discuss common mistakes that beginners make in English communication.

Your and You’re

• “I am sorry for your loss”- This means that you feel bad that the other person lost something
• “I am sorry that you’re loss”- This statement means that you feel bad that the other person IS a loss (in this case you might mean that the other person is a failure)

Note that YOU’RE and YOU ARE have the same meanings.

There and Their

• “I will meet you there”- This sentence means that you will meet the person at a specific place, which is here, explained by THERE. THERE refers to a place, which is far from where you are, at the moment.
• “I will meet you at their house”- This statement, on the other hand, means that you will meet the other person at somebody else’s house. THEIR refers to something that belongs to some other people.

Its and It’s

• “It’s her calendar”- This statement tells that this calendar belongs to her. Apostrophe S (’s) is used when you want to say IS. For example, this statement could be rephrased as- IT IS her calendar.
• The bird is eating its food”- This sentence means that the bird is eating the food. To avoid confusion in such statements, you must try replacing the apostrophe with IS. If the meaning feels right, go ahead. In this case, if you would say, “The bird is eating IT IS food” the sentence would make absolutely no sense.

And and But

• “Radha is beautiful and intelligent”- This statement implies that Radha is both a beautiful and intelligent girl at the same time.
• “Radha is not beautiful but an intelligent girl”- This sentence means that Radha is only an intelligent girl and not beautiful.

Between and Among

• “Rahul is standing between them”- The sentence means that Rahul is standing in the centre of 2 other people. The word, BETWEEN is used when we are talking about somebody or something which is ideally in the middle of two other things.
• “Rahul is standing among them”- This statement tells that Rahul is one of the many people who are standing. AMONG is used in situations when we are talking of a single person or thing out of many others.

To and Too

• “Since she was crying, Rahul went to her”- The statement says that because the girl was crying, Rahul went near her. In this context, the word TO refers to going or being close to somebody or something.
• Since she was crying, Rahul cried too”- This sentence implies that because the girl was crying, Rahul also started crying. The word TOO can be used as a replacement for also, in some cases.

Into and In to

• “The man fell into the well”- This statement means that the man fell inside the well. The term INTO can be defined as a preposition that is used to express the movement of something towards the other.
• The man went in to meet his wife”- This sentence tells that the man went inside in order to meet his wife. In this case, IN is referred to an adverb which is followed by the preposition TO. Both these words, IN and TO have been combined in order to put sense in the sentence.

Then and Than

• “Ram then talked to her”- This means that Ram talked to her only after a certain event happened. In most cases, the term THEN is used to explain an action that took place after another action. Such a term is mostly followed by a verb.
• “Ram chose to talk to Nisha than Meena”- The statement says that Ram decided to talk to Nisha instead of Meena. In such cases, the usage of THAN implies a difference between two things or people; where one is chosen over the other.