#56 Our favourite mistakes: Writing

▶️ Please take a look at this:
I like learning English. Because it is very interesting.

✅ Well, it should be:
I like learning English because it is very interesting.

❓Why?

❗️ Because is a dependent clause, not a full sentence. Do not start sentences with Because when they belong to the previous sentence. You may start a sentence with Because of, e.g. Because of the rain we decided to stay at home.

👉@afandi_english👈 #mistakes #writing #grammar

#60 Our favourite mistakes: Punctuation

▶️ Which one is correct?
a) Afandi said I have a donkey.
b) Afandi said “I have a donkey”.
c) Afandi said „I have a donkey”.

✅ The answer is b):
Afandi said “I have a donkey”.

❓Why?

❗️ Speech marks (also called “quotation marks”) are necessary in this case. Many people are lazy with this.

❗️ Without speech marks “I” refers to the person who wrote the sentence, not Afandi.

❗️ In English, speech marks are generally on the top, never at the bottom.

👉@afandi_english👈 #mistakes #writing

#64 Our favourite mistakes: Writing

▶️ Which ones are correct?
a) There are many countries in Europe, for example France, Germany and Italy.
b) There are many countries in Europe, for ex France, Germany and Italy.
c) There are many countries in Europe, ex France, Germany and Italy.
d) There are many countries in Europe, e.g. France, Germany and Italy.
e) There are many countries in Europe. F. ex. France, Germany and Italy.

✅ The answer is a) and d)

❓Why?

❗️ For ex is not a recognised abbreviation. It could be misunderstood as foreign exchange. Just ex means former, or as a noun former partner (“I haven’t seen my ex since we got divorced”).

❗️ Use e.g. instead. It comes from Latin, stands for exempli gratia and is perfect for use in writing. But not in speaking.

👉@afandi_english👈 #mistakes #writing

#68 Our favourite mistakes: Speaking & Writing

▶️ Please translate the following sentence:
Mening ismim Abdullayev Abdullo.

❌ Perhaps you think it is:
My name is Abdullayev Abdullo.

✅ Well, it should be:
My name is Abdullo Abdullayev.

❓Why?

❗️ In English first names come first and last names come last. Simple as that. Saying your first name first doesn’t mean you’re a celebrity like “Yulduz Usmonova” (rather than “Usmonova Yulduz”).

❗️ Think of this difference as a cultural difference. Western culture is more individualistic and therefore puts the individual person’s name first. Non-western cultures are more collectivist and emphasize who the person belongs to.

👉@afandi_english👈 #mistakes #writing

#72 Our favourite mistakes: Writing

▶️ What’s wrong here in these sentences?
• We had not written
• It will be writing
• I shall not have written
• I am taken

❌ Perhaps you think about grammar now. Please don’t. Please also don’t think about what these sentences might mean (it’s complete nonsense without context).

❗️ The problem is … missing full stops (British English =dot to finish a sentence; Americans say “period”)! Every sentence needs one at the end, unless you’re chatting with someone on Telegram. The same goes for questions. Every question needs a question mark!

👉@afandi_english👈 #mistakes #writing

#76 Our favourite mistakes: Punctuation

▶️ What’s wrong here in this non-language paragraph?

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet , consectetur elit,sed do eiusmod- tempor ut aliqua .Ut enim “ ad minim ”veniam ;quis exercitation –ullamco nisi ut consequat.Duis dolor(reprehenderit )in eu pariatur .

❗️ The problem is spacing around punctuation marks. Mistakes with spacing make your text look messy and unprofessional!
• No space before and a space behind
[.] full stop
[,] comma
[:] colon
[;] semicolon
[?] question mark
[!] exclamation mark
[)] closing bracket
[”] closing speech marks
• A space before and no space behind
[(] opening bracket
[“] opening speech marks
• Spaces to both sides
[–] dash
• No spaces at all
[-] hyphen (connecting two words)

▶️ Now look at the correct version:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur elit, sed do eiusmod-tempor ut aliqua. Ut enim “ad minim” veniam; quis exercitation – ullamco nisi ut consequat. Duis dolor (reprehenderit) in eu pariatur.

👉@afandi_english👈 #mistakes #writing

#84 Our favourite mistakes: Writing

▶️ Please take a look at the following placeholder text (=meaningless text, esp. for design):

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

❓What’s the problem?

❗️ The two paragraphs are marked by both indents (=space at the beginning of a line) and line breaks (=empty line). Choose one style only!

❗️ Indents are used in books and magazines for long, printed texts. They help us save paper. Online texts usually have line breaks. We can say that indents are a little bit old-fashioned nowadays.

👉@afandi_english👈 #mistakes #writing

#96 Our favourite mistakes: Spelling

▶️ Look at these two sentences:
I wonder If it rains tomorrow.
I think It is very interesting.

❓ What’s wrong here?

❗️ Some students have the strange habit of writing the two words if and it with capital letters. There’s no reason to do that!

👉@afandi_english👈 #mistakes #writing

#100 Our favourite mistakes: Review

▶️ Time to look back at a big bunch of favourite mistakes before we go on!

To help you navigate between the different posts, Afandi English uses *hashtags*.

❓You’re interested in any kind of typical mistakes of Uzbek English learners?
❗️Browse #mistakes (99 posts).

❓Vocabulary is what worries you?
❗️Follow #vocabulary (35 posts).

❓You want to work on your grammar?
❗️Check out #grammar (33 posts).

❓Your pronunciation needs polishing?
❗️Go for #pronunciation (30 posts).

❗️Besides, there’s also #writing (11 posts) for issues in spelling, punctuation and spacing.

👉@afandi_english👈 #mistakes