Minor but significant mistakes you may have made in speaking English

billzhao

Some friends, especially those who are just learning English, often make the following mistakes.
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1. My husband has a good job. She makes over 100,000 dollars a year.
    My girlfriend did not live with me, because he is still in China.
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' {- t0 }, G  W$ M  g' GThe reason to make this mistake is not due to grammar knowledge. One reason might be she and he have the same pronunciation in Chinese.

  m" ~& c( P/ u3 h$ f% N2. I do not like big rain, I like small rain.
! y6 T) X4 y6 b3. Please close your phone.
These mistakes are made because of direct translation. Another similar mistake is: I very like Canada. You really like Canada, or you like Canada very much.


4. How to say: heavy rain, light rain, and turn off your phone in English?
The correct way to ask the question is like this: how do you say... in English?
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5. I am a Chinese.
& _  |; t: `/ n; S0 R$ WI am a Chinese person, or I am Chinese.
4 [' w' @: Y; p+ ]* ]2 t3 i" H6. He is a gay.
6 h8 v9 p+ |' yHe is gay.

7. Why? No why.
3 }" C& |* s2 gNot no why, no reason.
( l  n1 t$ d/ @) k1 ^7 D, ^  D8. Thanks! No thanks!