ESL Blogs

Well, well! It seems it was not a good idea to start this year with the test on advanced grammar! OK, your answers made me change my mind and propose you much easier test. Again, you should find and correct all the mistakes in each sentence. There may be more than one mistake in each sentence (their number is in the brackets). You can change the word order if it is wrong, add or delete articles, prepositions, change tenses, voices, but you shouldn't replace or add any other words.

Here is your task:

1. If you will not hurry, we miss the train (3 mistakes).

2. This house had built last year (2)

3. There is windy from the morning (3).

4. When the teacher gave an assignment he recalled that the Monday will be a holiday (3).

5.  He asked can I come the next day (2).

6. I, as well as my wife are the teachers (2).

7. I asked when will the train arrive (2).

8. He said when I had called him yesterday, he took shower (3).

9. She couldn't speak  word in English before she started to learn it (3).

10. It was anyone  home. Everyone left (4).

11. It was little people at the street (4).

12. In the past, he must worked hard to provide to him family (4).

13. I experience to teach (2).

14. He is tall like I (2).

15. If you will not be succeeded for this test, I will go grey for sure! (3).

The deadline is January 30.

After that, I will tell you the correct answers and explain all the mistakes.

January 28

Well, I will post the answers today as we both will be offlive for a few days.

Here are the correct sentences and my explanations.

1. If you do not hurry up, we will miss the train (3 mistakes).

2. This house was built last year (2)

3. It has been windy since the morning (3).

4. When the teacher had given/was giving an assignment he recalled that __Monday was a holiday (3).

5.  He asked if I would be able to come the next day (2).

6. I, as well as my wife am a teacher_ (2).

7. I asked when the train arrived/had arrived/arrives (2).

8. He said when I __ called him yesterday/the day before, he was taking a shower (3).

9. She hadn’t been able to speak a word in English before she started learning it (3).

10. There was nobody at home. Everybody had left (4).

11. There were few people on the street (4).

12. In the past, he had to work hard to provide for his family (4).

13. I am experienced in teaching (3).

14. He is as tall as me/I am (2).

15. If you do not succeed in this test, I will go grey for sure! (3).

Now, I will explain the mistakes.

1. It is a real condition in the future. In such sentences we use the present tenses in the conditional clause and the future tenses in the main clause.
2. The action took place in the past (last year). Besides, the house was constructed by workers. So, the verb must be in the past simple tense, the passive voice.
3. FROM the morning is wrong, but it had to give you an idea what I meant: the wing has been blowing for some time. The verb must be in the present perfect progressive tense. Besides, we say IT IS WINDY.
4. The first predicate can be either in the past perfect or past progressive tense as we can’t be sure WHEN the teacher recalled it. But all people know when holidays are. For example, we all know that January 1 is New Year every year. In this case we should use the simple tense.
5. It is a general reported question. Such a question must start with IF/WHEATHER and there must be the DIRECT word order (no inversion). THE NEXT DAY tells us it was in the past. So, the verb in the subordinate clause must be in the future past tense. We don’t use CAN describing our ability to something in the future/future past. So, CAN/COULD has to be replaced by TO BE ABLE TO.
6. In this sentence, the subject is I.
7. It is a reported question, too. There must be the direct word order. Besides, trains arrive on schedule. In this case, we use the simple tenses meaning the train is/was going to arrive or the perfect tense meaning it had already arrived.
8. Yesterday my friend was taking a shower. It is a process. While he was taking it, the phone rang.
9. It could be yesterday or some day in the past (the day before).
10. For example, when I came to that house, there was nobody. It means that all inhabitants had left before I came.
11. PEOPLE is a countable plural noun. It must be WERE FEW PEOPLE. Besides, people, cars and all the rest on the ground (snow, puddles…) are ON the street.
12. I meant it was NECESSARY for him to work hard and he worked. The correct verb is HAD TO. PROVIDE is followed by the preposition FOR.
13. This sentence means that I have some experience in teaching. Using the passive voice, I can say I am experienced in teaching. TO BE EXPERIENCED is followed by the gerund.
14. If we want to say that two objects are the same, we use the comparison AS…AS.
15.  It is the same as 1.

I will be glad to answer all your questions if you have any. I will go on posting the intermediate tests until you learn the basic grammar rules.

And I am reall happy you have participated  trying to improve your knowledge. Thank you, guys, but don't stop learning!