COMMON ERRORS IN EVERYDAY LIFE

 COMMON ERRORS IN EVERYDAY LIFE: TALKING ABOUT FAMILY

    Dear readers, so far in the previous posts we have discussed in detail about the English Language and its phonetic sounds, namely, vowel, consonant sounds, and word stress patterns. In this post let us explore more about the common errors that we commit unknowingly in our daily conversations. Today’s post deals with communicative errors in terms of “Talking about Family”. Some of the important errors that tend to occur naturally in our conversation are briefed below:

Look at the following statements:

1.   Meet Magizhan. He is my older brother.

Meet Magizhan. He is my elder brother.

It is appropriate to use elder  before noun. You can use older and oldest after a connecting verb as predicative adjective. Usually -er followed by than is used in comparative degree.

Example:  Magizhan is older than me.    

                 Murugan is older than my sister.       

 

2.   My brother-in-laws are studying at Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya.

My brothers-in-law are studying at Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya.

The correct plural form to mention brother/sister-in-law is adding ‘s’ with brothers/sisters, but not in ‘law’.

 

3.   Henry married Mary last week.

Henry got married to Mary last week.

In spoken English, it is advisable to use ‘got/get married to’ somebody.

 

4.   My uncle lives in abroad.

My uncle lives abroad.

Do not use prepositions ‘in’ or ‘at’ before abroad.

 

5.   We are living in a joint family.

We are living in extended family.

The expression ‘joint family’ is an Indianism. ‘Extended family’ is the appropriate equivalent.

 

6.   Ranganathan is my cousin brother.

Ranganathan is my cousin.

It is grammatically incorrect to use ‘cousin brother/sister’ in a sentence.  Instead of making a compound noun, it is advisable to use ‘cousin’ to describe both male and female persons.

 

I hope the present post will be useful to you. Let us discuss more about our common mistakes in the upcoming posts.

 

 

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