COMMON MISTAKES (ADVANCED)

1. I’ll ask you in case I need help.

2. It’s ages since she’s arrived.
3. The police is looking for him.
4. I have big respect for her ideas.
5. She passed her exams, what surprised everybody.
6. Let me give you an advice.
7. I’ll be home since 6 o’clock.
8. Let’s go & have coffee to Marcel’s.
9. According to me, it’s an awful film.
10. I’ll try to know when it starts.
11. She said me she’d be slightly late.
12. Despite of the rain, they went out for a walk.
13. In spite of I was feeling really tired, I went to the party.
14. You never will improve unless you practise regularly.
15. Our flat is decorated this week.
16. The Mont Blanc is 4808m high.
17. It’s Sunday – I mustn’t get up.
18. I can’t think of anyone whom I’d like to invite.
19. We all have to live in the society.
20. What live in those little holes?
21. It mustn’t be the postman – it’s only 7 o´clock.
22. I wish you feel better tomorrow.
23. When I cooked the lunch, I did some gardening.
24. When I had opened the door, the dog ran in.
25. Stefan can never return back to his country.
26. I didn’t have to drink so much last night – I feel awful
today.
27. I don’t know why you didn’t go. If I were you, I should
have gone.
28. She recommended me that I take a few days off from
work.
29. Kate claims that if she got an MBA after finishing her
bachelor’s degree, she might have been considered for the
position
 30. Kevin says he stopped to travel internationally because
of his family.
31. We regret informing you that your application has been
unsuccessful.
32. I’m so glad that he spoke in my behalf because I felt
awful that I couldn’t make it to the event.
33. At first I studied engineering in college, but I ended
getting a marketing degree.
34. It was a frustrating situation because we were
uncapable of helping.
35. The interview was broadcasted live over the internet.
36. I tried to explain him the problem, but he had difficulty
understanding me.
37. They had managed a few crisises in the past, so they
were able to handle this situation fairly well.
38. When the bill came, I tried to pay but John told me to
put away my wallet and insisted on paying for dinner.
39. The four participants discussed it between themselves.
40. We thought we were going to expand this year, but we
actually have less people now than we did two years ago.
41. Unfortunately, the species has got extinct due to human
activity.
42. She’s trying to concentrate herself on finishing her
degree.
43. I’m a little afraid to do this by my own.
44. He told me that he had never been in that restaurant
before.
45. If you would’ve told me, I would have given you my
honest advice.
46. Never before I had seen anything quite like that.

.
1. She recommended me that I take a few days off from work.

We need to use the subjunctive in this example. An excellent

explanation of the English subjunctive can be found here. The
subjunctive form in this example is the infinitive without “to” (go,
eat, do, run, etc.).

Common expressions followed by the subjunctive:

recommend that
insist that
demand that
request that
asked that
suggest that

Examples:
They demanded that we lower the price.
They demanded us that we lower the price.
They demanded that we lowered the price.
My boss requested that I use my vacation days before the end of
the year.
My boss requested me that I use my vacation days before the end
of the year.
My boss requested that I used my vacation days before the end of
the year.

For practice, try these subjunctive exercises.

2. I tried to explain him the problem the problem to him, but he had

difficulty understanding me.
Some verbs can be followed by the indirect object and then the
direct object. For example, we can say I gave John the
book. John is the indirect object and bookis the direct object.
However, not all verbs follow this pattern. Recommend,
explain, and describe are three common verbs that take the
following form:
recommend/explain/describe + what + to whom

Examples:
We explained the situation to the client.
We explained the client the situation.
Could you describe the problem to our IT manager?
Could you describe our IT manager the problem?

3. I don’t know why you didn’t go. If I were you,

I should would have gone.

To talk about a hypothetical past, we can use would/might/could +

have + participle. We do not use should to talk about a
hypothetical past. We use shouldto criticize past actions or
express regret.

4. Kate claims that if she got had gotten an MBA after finishing her

bachelor’s degree, she might have been considered for the
position.

To talk about a hypothetical past, we need to use the past perfect

in the if clause. For more information on conditionals, see
this conditionals guide.

Examples:
What would you have said if you had been there?
What would you have said if you were there?

 
5. Kevin says he stopped to travel traveling internationally because
of his family.

We can use the verb stop with both the gerund and the infinitive.
When we use stop with the gerund, it means that someone was
doing something and then stopped. When we use stop with the
infinitive, it means that someone stopped an action in order to start
doing something else.

Examples:
Kevin stopped working at 6 p.m. last night.
Kevin stopped to work at 6 p.m. last night.
At 10 AM, Lucy and Fernando always stop to take a coffee break.
At 10 AM, Lucy and Fernando always stop taking a coffee break.

For more verbs that can be used with both the infinitive and the
gerund, see this page.

6. We regret informing to inform you that your application has been

denied.

Regret is normally used with the gerund. However, to

communicate bad news (usually in writing) we use regret +
infinitive. For more verbs that can be used with both the infinitive
and the gerund, see this page.

7. The interview was broadcasted live over the internet.

Broadcast is an irregular verbs. It doesn’t change in the simple
past and participle form, just like the verbs let, bet, set, put,
cut, and shut.

8. I’m so glad that he spoke in on my behalf because I felt awful

that I couldn’t make it to the event.

This is a collocation with on that students typically have difficulty

with. We say speak on someone’s behalf. For practice, try this in
vs. on collocations exercise.

9. At first I studied engineering in college, but I ended up getting a

marketing degree.

We use end up instead of end to talk about something that

eventually happened after other things happened first.

Examples:
We couldn’t decide on where to go for dinner, so we ended up
eating at home.
We couldn’t decide on where to go for dinner, so we ended eating
at home. 

10. It was a frustrating situation because we were unincapable of

helping.

Overusing the prefix “un” is a common mistake. See this page for a

more complete explanation of how to correctly use negative
prefixes.

 
11. When the check came, I tried to pay but John told me to put
away my wallet and insisted that he paid pay for dinner.

See explanation to number 1.

12. They had managed a few crisises crises in the past, so they

were able to handle this situation fairly well.

Many words that end in “is” have an irregular plural form that ends
with “es.” The plural form rhymes with the word “cheese.”

Examples:
crisis – crises
diagnosis – diagnoses
hypothesis – hypotheses
analysis – analyses

For more irregular plurals, see this page.

13. If you would’ve had told me, I would have given you my honest

advice.

To talk about a hypothetical past, the if clauses takes the past

perfect. We use would/might/could + have + participle in the
result clause.

Examples:
What would you have done if you had been there?
What would you have done if you would have been there?
If I had known the weather was going to be so bad, I might have
chosen a different day for the party.
If I would have known the weather was going to be so bad, I might
have chosen a different day for the party.

Note that we could also use the inverted form of the third
conditional here (Had you told me, I would have given you my
honest advice).

14. The four participants discussed it between among themselves.

We need to use among here because we are talking about more

than two things that are not distinct items. For a good explanation
on when to use between and when to use among, see this page.
Note that amongst would also be correct, but it is not as commonly
used as among.

15. We thought we were going to expand this year, but we actually

have less fewer people now than we did two years ago.

Although using less before count nouns (cars, people,

resources, etc.) is becoming more acceptable, the rule is that we
use fewer before count nouns and lessbefore non-count nouns
(time, patience, determination, etc.).

Examples:
We have fewer candidates for this position than we expected.
We have less candidates for this position than we expected.
Carl has less stress now that he has started working out after
work.
Carl has fewer stress now that he has started working out after
work.

16. She’s trying to concentrate herself on finishing her degree.

We don’t use reflexive pronouns (myself, yourself, himself, etc.)

after the verb concentrate.

Examples:
We need to concentrate on the task at hand.
We need to concentrate ourselves on the task at hand.

17. Unfortunately, the species has gotten become/gone extinct due

to human activity.

We can often use get to communicate that  something has

changed or transformed (get angry, get depressed, get scared, get
excited, etc.). However, we can’t always use get (get famous, , get
available, for example). See this page to learn about
using turn, become, get, and go to talk about changes and
transformations.

18. I’m a little afraid to do this by on my own (or by myself).

We have the expressions by myself and on my own. By my
own does not exist.

19. He told me that he had never been in to that restaurant before.

We say been to, not been in to communicate places that we have

visited (countries, cities, towns, restaurants, stores, etc.). Note
that If we are talking about a specific room, we would use in.

Examples:
Have you been to Italy?
Have you been in Italy?
I can’t believe you’ve lived in Paris for 10 years but haven’t been to
the Louvre.
I can’t believe you’ve lived in Paris for 10 years but haven’t been in
the Louvre.
I’ve been to his house, but I’ve never been in the basement.
(specific room = in)
I’ve been to his house, but I”ve never been to the basement.

20. Never before I had had I seen something quite like that.

We use subject-verb inversion when we start a sentence with a

negative adverb (never, hardly, seldom, etc.). For more examples
of when to use subject-verb inversion, see this page.

 
WORDS THAT ARE DIFFICULT TO SPELL

 absence
 acceptable
 accessible
 accommodation
 accomplish
 achievement
 acquire
 address
 advertisement
 advice – (noun)
 advise – (verb)
 amateur
 apartment
 appearance
 argument
 athletic
 attendance
 B
 basically
 beginning
 belief – indicating the noun
 believe – indicating the verb
 beneficial
 business
 C
 calendar
 campaign
 category
 cemetery
 challenge
 characteristic
 cigarette
 clothes
 column
 committee
 commitment
 completely
 condemn
 conscience
 conscientious
 conscious
 controversy
 convenient
 correspondence
 criticism
 D
 deceive
 definitely
 definition
 department
 describe
 despair
 desperate
 development
 difference
 difficult
 disappointed
 discipline
 disease
 E
 easily
 effect
 eighth
 either
 embarrass
 encouragement
 enemy
 entirely
 environment
 especially
 exaggerate
 excellent
 existence
 experience
 experiment
 F
 familiar
 February
 finally
 financial
 foreign
 foreigner
 formerly
 forty
 fourth
 G
 general
 generally
 genius
 government
 grammar
 grateful
 guarantee
 guidance
 H
 happily
 height
 heroes
 humorous
 hypocrite
 I
 ideally
 imaginary
 immediate
 incredible
 independent
 influential
 insurance
 intelligent
 interference
 interrupt
 introduce
 island
 its – for possession
 it’s – for “it is” or “it has”
 J
 jealous
 jealousy
 K
 kneel
 knowledge
 L
 later
 legitimate
 length
 library
 lightning
 likely
 loneliness
 lose (verb)
 loose (adjective)
 lovely
 luxurious
 M
 maintain
 maintenance
 manageable
 management
 manufacture
 marriage
 married
 millionaire
 misspell
 mischievous
 money
 mortgage
 muscle
 mysterious
 N
 naturally
 necessary
 neighbor / neighbour
 ninety
 noticeable
 nowadays
 O
 obedient
 obstacle
 occasional
 occurred
 official
 opinion
 opportunity
 opposition
 ordinary
 originally
 P
 particular
 peculiar
 perceive
 performance
 permanent
 personal
 personnel
 physical
 physician
 piece
 pleasant
 possession
 possible
 possibility
 potatoes
 practically
 prefer
 privilege
 professor
 professional
 pronounce / pronunciation
 psychology
 psychological
 Q
 quantity
 quality
 questionnaire
 queue
 quizzes
 R
 realistic
 realize
 really
 receipt
 receive
 recognize
 recommend
 religion
 religious
 remember
 representative
 restaurant
 rhythm
 ridiculous
 roommate
 S
 sacrifice
 safety
 scared
 scenery
 schedule
 secretary
 sentence
 separate
 similar
 sincerely
 strength
 surprise
 suspicious
 success
 successful
 T
 technical
 technique
 temperature
 temporary
 their (possessed by them)
 there (not here)
 they’re (contraction of “they are”)
 themselves – not themself
 U
 undoubtedly
 unforgettable
 unique
 until
 V
 valuable
 village
 violence
 violent
 vision
 volume
 W
 weather – indicating climate – The weather is nice today.
 Wednesday
 weird
 whether – (indicating if)
 which
 woman – (singular)
 women – (plural)
 worthwhile
 width
 writing
 XYZ
 yacht
 young