COMMON
ERRORS IN EVERYDAY LIFE: TALKING ABOUT WORK AND LEARNING
Dear
readers, in the previous post, we discussed the common errors in terms of 'Talking
about Time' that we commit in our daily conversations. In this post, let us
explore more about communicative errors in terms of 'Talking about Work and
Learning'. Some of the important errors that tend to occur naturally in our
conversation are briefed below:
Look
at the following statements:
1.
Congratulations for your promotion.
Congratulations
on your promotion.
Use congratulations with ‘on’ and not ‘for’.
2.
Please fill up the application form.
Please
fill in the application form.
The phrase ‘fill up’ is used to fill up some glasses with
drink and people with food. But, ‘fill in’ is always used with filling
some information in a form.
3.
My sister has gone out of station.
My sister has gone out of town.
‘Out of station’ is an old-fashioned military expression to talk about soldiers leaving ‘station’ or their place of command. Instead, use ‘Out of town’.
4.
I passed out in 2020 from Bharathiar
University.
I
graduated in 2020 from Bharathiar University.
To ‘pass out’ means to ‘become
unconscious, especially after heavy drinking’. Indians probably use this for
graduation because ‘passing out’ also refers to (in British English) officers
finishing off their course at a military college.
5.
He is not able to cope up with work
pressure.
He
is not able to cope with work pressure.
We should not use ‘up’ with cope.
6.
My friend always comes late to class.
My
friend is always coming late to class.
While referring to anything unpleasant as
a continuous state use the continuous form of the verb.
7.
We have to learn English to go ahead in
our career.
We
have to learn English to get ahead in our career.
If we want to progress with our job/studies
we have to use ‘get ahead’ instead of ‘go ahead’.
8.
My father advised me to not worry so
much about the test.
My
father advised me not to worry so much about the test.
In Indirect Speech usually ‘to’ should follow ‘not’. Not is
always followed by the ‘to infinitive’ in a sentence.
9.
Students should write their names on the
top of the answer script.
Students
should write their names at the top of the answer script.
Do not use ‘on’, instead ‘at’ should
be used when we write something on paper.
10.
I will call you again in ten minutes.
I will call you back in ten minutes.
If we want to say that we will make a call later on, we should say ‘call back’ instead of ‘again’.
Reference:
Saumya Sharma.
(2017). Common Errors in Everyday English
Author:
K. Nandhakumar
Assistant Professor of English
Sri Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya College of Arts and Science (Autonomous)
Coimbatore- 641 020
