English proficiency I
Feedback on writing assignment
(bios)
LANG
B102
Common errors
• please take care to look not only at the corrections in
the text you’ve written, but in everyone’s
contribution, and learn from these corrections!
• don’t let these corrections discourage you: there’s
only one way to learn a foreign language, and that is
to use it as much as possible, and learn from any
mistakes you make along the way
• don’t feel vexed because your mistakes are
‘publicly available’ (and perhaps will show up in
these slides or in other exercises): “we’re in this
together”, so as to learn from our own and each
other’s mistakes
Common errors: some examples
• what is it that you study at university?
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germanism?
germanistic studies?
the germanics?
Germanics? (he makes Germanics?)
Germans studies?
“langues et littératures germaniques”?
germanic langages?
germanic languages?
germanics languages?
German languages?
Germanic languages / Germanic philology
Common errors: some examples
• faire?
– “he makes Germanics”? (again)
– “His dream is to be happy in what he makes”?
– he studies Germanic languages, to be happy in what he
does
• do: to talk about actions/activities in a general way:
– What are you doing tomorrow evening? (Que fais-tu demain
soir?)
– Julia’s job is very boring. She does the same thing every day
(elle fait la même chose tous les jours)
– Shall I open the window? - That’s okay; I’ll do it. (Je vais le
faire)
– What do you do (=what is your job)? (Qu’est-ce que vous
faites)
Common errors: some examples
• make: ‘produire, fabriquer, élaborer, créer’
– She’s making coffee; he has made a cake; In this factory
they make umbrellas; This jacket was made in France
– I did a lot of things yesterday: I cleaned my room, wrote
some letters, and made a cake (fait… fait)
• expressions with do: to do an exam, to do a driving
test, to do a course, to do your homework, to do
someone a favour, to do exercises, to do business, to do
the shopping (faire les courses), to do the washing
(faire la lessive), to do the washing up (faire la
vaisselle), to do the ironing (repasser), to do the
cooking (cuisiner)
Common errors: some examples
• expressions with make: to make a list, to make
a noise, to make a bed, to make money, to make
a profit, to make a phone call, to make an
appointment, to make a mistake, to make a film
(but: to take a photograph)
Common errors: some examples
• third person singular
– present:
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“Her father is 44 and work in a metal factory”?
“She listen to salsa music”?
“She like travelling”?
“She already know her name”?
“She want to become a language teacher”?
works, listens, likes, knows, wants: third person
singular present indicative of a non-modal verb: -s
– past:
• “She wents to the Greek school”?
• “She spents a lot of time there when she was young”
• went, spent: no -s in past tense!
Common errors: some examples
• capital letters
– names of languages
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english?
french?
german?
English, French, German
– days of the week, months
• “I will not be able to be present for the film on monday. I
will bring you a certificate on tuesday”
• “don’t forget it next thursday”
• “he was born in augustus”
• Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, August (not ‘Augustus’!)
• age
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Common errors: some examples
“he has 18 years”?
a 18-year-student?
he is aged 18?
he is 18; he is 18 years old; he is an 18-year-old student; A
young boy, aged 12, fell from a tree and broke his neck
• definite article or not?
– “his favourite drink is the whisky”?
– “his biggest fear is the death”?
– his favourite drink is whisky; his biggest fear is death
• compare I like music, especially classical music (J’aime la musique, surtout
la musique classique); I hate exams (Je déteste les examens)
• but: the… of…: I like the music of Iceland; she likes the lakes of Finland
Common errors: some examples
• note also: to have breakfast, to have lunch,
dinner is ready (le dîner est servi), next week
I’m going home (la semaine prochaine), do you
work on Saturdays? (le samedi), to watch
television, to listen to the radio, to go to
work/school/prison/church/bed but go to the
cinema/the theatre/the bank/the post office/the
city centre/the doctor/the dentist; I like English
(l’anglais)
Common errors: some examples
• travelling
– “his favourite trips were in Scotland and Britain”?
– “she has already been in Los Angeles and London”?
– trips to Scotland, has been to Los Angeles and
London
• but: her dream is to spend one year in the US (not ‘to the
US’!)
• possessive pronouns
– “[about Cindy] His father is a forester and his
mother a primary school teacher”?
– her father, her mother: gender of the possessor
(Cindy), not of the head noun (father, mother)
Common errors: some examples
• adjectives
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the others students?
Germanics languages?
her favourites countries?
the other students, Germanic languages, her
favourite countries: adjectives do not take a
plural -s in English!
• uncount nouns
– “For more informations just talk to him”?
– for more information (uncount)
Common errors: some examples
• relative pronouns
– “a huge cat which’s name is Ricky”?
– “a very shy and tolerant girl whom main ambition
consists in travelling to England”?
– the genitive of the relative pronoun who is whose
(French dont); whom is the direct object form
[but this use is in decline: Here is a letter from
John, who(m) you've met of course] and also the
form that has to be used following a preposition
[Dr Green, to whom I showed the album with
clippings, was amazed])
Common errors: some examples
• tense
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“He is born in 1986”?
“Since her birth, she lives with her parents”?
“Since they met three years ago, it is the great love”?
“His parents are divorced for five years”?
He was born in 1986 (located wholly in the past);
since… she has been living/it has been the great
love; his parents have been divorced for five years
(present perfect: locating a situation in a period
that started in the past and goes up to now)
Common errors: some examples
• going to school…
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secundary school?
secundaries, primaries?
she made her primaries in Ottignies?
secondary school, primary school, she went to
primary school in Ottignies
– languages teacher?
– language teacher
Common errors: some examples
• French is everywhere…
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the cimetery? (cimetière)
the cemetery
I will you present Sylvie (Je te/vous présente…)
I would like to introduce Sylvie to you; introduce to
you Sylvie Devos
the less (leçon)
class (attending class)
[about two brothers] The both are married (Les deux
sont mariés)
They are both married/Both are married
Common errors: some examples
• French is everywhere…
– a small girl (une petite fille)
– a little girl (collocation)
– he dislikes waking him up early (il n’aime pas se
réveiller tôt)
– he dislikes being woken up early/waking up early
– independant
– independent
– He has three pets: (1, 2…) Eventually, he has a rabbit
called “Bidule”
– Lastly/Finally, he has a rabbit…
Common errors: some examples
• French is everywhere…
– I hope this has given you the envy to know him better
(envie)
– I hope this has made you want to know him better
– langages
– languages
– exercices
– exercises
– I hope we’ll be more than 2 (on sera plus que 2)
– I hope there will be more than two of us
Common errors: some examples
• French is everywhere…
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the dictionnary (dictionnaire)
the dictionary
the middle age (le moyen âge)
the Middle Ages
rumour has been spread that it exists a solution to this
problem (il existe une solution)
– rumour has it that there exists a solution to this
problem
Common errors: some examples
• ‘contamination’: getting different expressions
mixed up
– “I can’t stand forward to be there”
• I can’t wait to be there
• I’m looking forward to being there
– “since the age of five years old”
• since the age of five
• since she was five year old
P.S.: Sending e-mails in English
Letter-writing and e-mails
• see also OALD reference section
pages R53-R56
• please note that an e-mail to a teacher is more
formal than an e-mail (or MSN message or text
message) you send to a friend of yours
– this means among other things that you should
always start with a polite form of address (e.g. Dear
Ms Astley) and end with a polite closing formula (e.g.
Yours sincerely, With kind regards, Best wishes)
– this also means that you use normal forms of
punctuation and capitalization (i.e. you use full stops
at the ends of sentences and capital letters at their
beginnings)
Examples from students’ e-mails to me
• opening sentence (not introduced by any form of address):
“well, I just wanted to know something concerning Oxford
3000” Dear Mr Vandelanotte,
I have a question concerning the Oxford 3000 assignment.
• form of address: “Mr Vandelanotte, …”
Dear Mr Vandelanotte,
Dear Sir/Dear Madam/Dear Sir
or Madam used to address people
you don’t know or haven’t met
• form of address: “Hello, …”, “Hi, …”
before
• form of address: “Dear sir”
too informal
• full text of an e-mail: “I’d just like to know when the exam
will take place…”
far too informal and impolite