Englishour's Blog

Accuracy is obviously an important part of speaking a language. Most English teachers would say that not making mistakes is important but at the same time students shouldn’t worry too much about it as long as their mistakes don’t affect understanding. Students though don’t really accept this idea (they want to speak correctly!) and I think rightly so.

People worry about making impressions. Whether it’s a good impression in a first meeting or the impression you give people generally, we have an image of ourselves which we want to portray. And this image is generally positive. We want to be seen as dynamic or successful people. We want to be seen as intelligent and educated people. We don’t want to be seen as someone who makes mistakes. The result of this in the English classroom is students saying ‘please correct me’ to the teacher.

For the teacher there is a little bit of a dilemma here. On one hand they want to correct the learner to promote accuracy in the language. On the other hand they don’t want to undermine the learner’s confidence and correct too much. Correct to a point and let the other stuff go. Tomorrow is another day.

So as teachers, we don’t want to correct students every time we hear a mistake. But there are times we most certainly do correct. And one of those times is when we hear the habitual mistake. These are mistakes which are engrained into learners of particular nationalities. They are mistakes which the same (nationality) learners make again and again. Here are a few examples:

The last week I went to Cork. This is a common habit with the words next and last. Basically, there is no the when next or last refers to now. Last week I went to Cork is correct.

I want one coffee please. Here, the problem is one. In English, one means ‘not two’. What that means is that you only say ‘one’ when the listener is expecting you to say ‘two’ (or ‘three’ etc). Imagine you have been in a bar with your friend for a couple of hours ordering and drinking beer. Every time you order another round you ask for ‘two beers’. Your friend now however, doesn’t want another beer. You decide to have one more for the road. You call the barman over. What does he expect you to say? Two beers! Of course, as this is what you have been ordering all night. But you ask for ‘one beer’. One means not two, and in this case it’s correct. Usually you ask for a beer. Therefore the correct version of the sentence above is I want a beer please.

He’s 19 years. Here, you have an option. You can either say he’s 19 years old, or just simply, he’s 19.

Thanks for all. This is not correct. It should be ‘thanks for everything’. The word all is a modifier used before nouns to mean everything. But it is not a noun itself. All the money, all the world, all Dublin...is correct. Without the noun, you need to say everyone or everything etc.

I cut my hair. Although this is possible it probably isn’t correct. Here you should use the passive form to have/get something done. The idea is that there are things we don’t do ourselves but rather we pay someone to do them for us. Perhaps we don’t do it because we are lazy (I get my grass cut every week) or we don’t have time (I have the dog walked in the evening) or we don’t have the necessary skill to do it (I’m getting my car serviced tomorrow).

I want that he comes to the party. When you want a person to do something the structure is want+person+to+verb...I want him to pay me. She wants me to help her. Therefore the correct version of the sentence above is I want him to come to the party.

Next week I will come back to Italy. Here, the problem is come. Basically you always come here and go there. Come is to where you are and go is to all other places. Italy is there, and so the sentence should read next week I’m going back to Italy. I have also changed the tense to the present continuous as it is a planned arrangement (I have the ticket).

Are there any other common mistakes you can identify? If there are please tell us through our 'englishour' facebook page or contact us through the website. Thanks!

John, August 2012.

"My heart is in Ireland
That’s where I long to be
Her hills and her valleys
Are calling to me”
(Irish folk song by the Wolfe Tones)

I seriously doubt these were the sentiments running through St Valentine’s head as he was being beaten to death and then beheaded in the name of true love: however, that is exactly what was to happen….
There are three contenders for the crown of “The Saint of Love”. Of the third contender, who apparently died in Africa, very little else is known, so let’s discount him straight away.

The first and second were reportedly beaten to death with clubs and liberated of their heads in 269AD on the Flaminian Way, outside Rome. One was purported to be a Christian priest who defied Claudius the Goth (Claudius II Gothicus, then Emperor of Rome), by carrying out secret marriages. **(Claudius blamed the flagging numbers queuing up to join his armies on the fact that the men had too many other distractions - such as wives and children…)**. The other Valentine was Bishop of Terni, a small town 60 km outside Rome. Because of the proximity of the two Valentines and the coincidental timing of their deaths, it is a widely held view that they are in fact one and the same; and that two cults were formed in Terni and in Rome to the same martyr, until over time the facts became distorted.

Fast forward to 1835 when an Irish Carmelite priest called John Spratt went on a pilgrimage to Rome. Spratt was an eloquent speaker, and already had a reputation as a famous preacher in the Holy See, mainly due to some visiting Jesuits who had witnessed his teachings while visiting Dublin. Such was his popularity in Rome that he was endowed with many gifts in recognition of his work, and that of his order, (the Carmelites) on the outer reaches of Europe: most important of these gifts were the remains of St. Valentine. These were bestowed on him by Pope Gregory the XVI; and the letter authenticating the relics as those of St Valentine are kept within the church.

On St. Valentine’s Day the casket with his remains is taken out of its crypt and put on display on the altar. It is a very popular time for young couples to come to the church, and there is a ‘blessing of the rings’ ceremony for those about to get married.

Darren