What are serious mistakes for native English speakers?

1. 79

   nemanjaboskovposted 13 years ago

   I'm very curious to know what the natives think about this.
   I have been studying English for a long time, and I'll probably be a lifetime learner of the language as I am not a native speaker. On the other hand, I often think that even the native speakers will never stop learning new things about their own language, regardless of how good of a command they have over it.
   Now, what are the mistakes you feel should be considered as grave in writing, and what are the ones you feel should be ignored and regarded simply as mishaps?
   For example, I can never understand why I native speaker would make the mistake of putting an apostrophe with the third person singular (make's, wonder's...), or with it's when its is a possessive pronoun; why people do not understand the difference between their, they're and there; and so on...

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   1. 61

      rbe0posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Assuming whoever owns FOX News also speaks English with their native tongue, just tune in to FOX News and you can see horrible mistakes made on a daily basis by a native English speaker.
      
      For example, they even messed up the English language when deciding what to name their television channel. It should have been named FOX Propaganda.

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2. 70

   Cagsilposted 13 years ago

   Most commonly misused English words.
   
   http://hubpages.com/search/most+commonl … lish+words

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3. 84

   WriteAngledposted 13 years ago

   Zdravo Nemanja
   
   Ni sam znala da je neman "dragon"!
   
   I consider any grammatical mistake to be a serious mistake, which immediately makes the author lose credibility in my eyes.
   
   One error that really grates on me is the use of "of" instead of "have" as in "I would of done it" instead of "I would have done it". This screams "illiteracy" as far as I am concerned.
   
   The only "mistakes" that do not impact on me are obvious typos, particularly in forum posts or other informal channels of communication.
   
   Bok!

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   1. 74

      IzzyMposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      That one really gets to me too, and I see many published authors, who have editors, making the same mistake.

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   2. 60

      daywriterposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I couldn't agree more!

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4. 92

   wordscribe43posted 13 years ago

   My biggest pet peeve is this:  "Where's it at?"  It makes me cringe, literally.  While there are some cases where it's okay to end a question with a preposition, this isn't one of them.  You shouldn't add the preposition if it's not necessary, that's the basic rule.  "Where is it?" suffices, the "at" doesn't add to the meaning. 
   
   I can't say double negatives are any less irritating to me.  The whole "can't hardly" business makes me throw up in my mouth a little.
   
   I'm done. 

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   1. 78

      lobobrandonposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Seriously!! I have never heard anyone use those crazy phrases

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   2. 80

      Rising Carenposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Funny. One of my pet peeves is when people say you can't end a sentence with a preposition.
      
      Back when English was finally being regulated, they consulted people they thought were authority figures on "good English" (which really meant applying as many latin rules to English as possible). They greatly followed the advice of this one guy whose name I can't remember right now. He originally made that rule and then retracted it - he realized how silly it was to have a rule that prevented people from speaking naturally.
      
      Yet, we're still taught to use it. Well, I'm going to move to any place I want to live in (and not move to any place in which I want to live), and I'm going to drive any where I want to (and not drive to where I want), and I'm going to enjoy life for what I want to live for (and not enjoy life for that for which I want to live).
      
      That being said. "Where's it at?" is kind of silly, but only because the "at" is unneeded - not because it's at the end.
      
      Back on topic, just google "common mistakes". Most common mistakes are made by natives, and most articles pointing out common mistakes are made for natives.
      
      I personally hate "I should have went". It's a disease....

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      1. 92

         wordscribe43posted 13 years agoin reply to this

         So with you on the "I should have went" disease.  Or, "I should have wrote."  Eek!
         
         One colloquialism I frequently here in the Pacific Northwest is:  "My house needs roofed (or painted)."  Or, "My grass needs mowed."  It used to send shivers up my spine for some reason.  Where the heck is the "to be?"  But, I've heard it so much now I don't notice it anymore.  In fact, I think it's cute.

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5. 74

   IzzyMposted 13 years ago

   It seriously bugs me when writers don't know the difference between 'lose' and loose' and I see that mistake being repeated all over the place.
   "loosing my mind instead of losing my mind", that kind of thing.

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   1. 78

      lobobrandonposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Izzy their just loosening up their minds to make it more flexible all that they're doing is trying to get more info to fit inside - kind of an elastic mind

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6. 70

   Pearldiverposted 13 years ago

   "I have been studying English for a long time, and I'll probably be a lifetime learner of the language as I am not a native speaker. On the other hand, I often think that even the native speakers will never stop learning new things about their own language, regardless of how good of a command they have over it.
   Now, what are the mistakes you feel should be considered as grave......"
   
   Ummm.. Most of what has already been said +
   
   perhaps, more importantly - Never pass 'wind' in a crowded restaurant... Unless you are able to immediately deflect the attention away from your table, by Pointing at someone who obviously doesn't have English as a first language... Shaking your head from side to side and Saying, "Eeeeewwwwww!"

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7. 74

   IzzyMposted 13 years ago

   Coming from Glasgow, I am well used to hearing people getting their spoken English really wrong.
   
   So long as they don't write like that.

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   1. 84

      WriteAngledposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Here in the Valleys, we have "Wenglish". This can mean English words creeping into Welsh sentences, however it also manifests as English sentences being given the structure they would have if they were said in Welsh. This is even the case with people who were not brought up speaking Welsh.
      
      This comes up in my Welsh class, when we have difficulty with some grammatical structure or other. The teacher will sometimes say, "Oh, but it's more or less the same in English, when we say: ....... (Wenglish construction)", at which point I (an infiltrator from across the Severn Bridge) say, "I've never said that in my life!". This exchange has become a bit of a ritual and causes much hilarity

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8. 65

   Lisa HWposted 13 years ago

   Some real "classics" are:
   
   "Me and Fred went to the store."
   
   or, of course...
   
   "Fred and me went to the store." 
   
   THEN, though, there's the companion grammar-mistake that happens when people know that "Fred and me" would be incorrect in the above examples, but they don't really understand (or care) why; so they say something like..
   
   "Tom went to the store with Fred and I."   
   
   (Ages old rule for anyone who isn't sure whether to use "me" or "I":  Pretend Fred isn't a factor at all, and ask what you'd say if you weren't including Fred (or anyone else) in the sentence.)
   
   While those are examples of ones that bug me, the following is an example of one that makes me absolutely cringe:
   
   "He don't want to go to the store."  This one is right up there "I would of.."  Another biggie:  "irregardless".   For anyone who doesn't know this already,  "irregardless" is not a word.   "Regardless" is all that's needed.

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