COMMON ERRORS IN EVERYDAY LIFE: TALKING ABOUT WORK AND LEARNING

 

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