Grammar Inspector - Some Of The Most Common Mistakes Learners Make Here (Are You One Of Them?) - ESL Blogs

Hello friends,

today I would like to help you little bit and I hope my advice will be useful at least for some of you. You know, I have read many blogs here, no matter what your English level is, and if I sum it up, many times I have come across one mistake, which repeats over and over again. What is it?

Ok let me reveal this mysterious mistake... ehmm... wait, wait.. not now, let me firstly point out that I don´t want to be here in the position of somebody superior, of course we all make the mistakes but since I am aware of it I decided to help others, who might have no idea that they make such mistakes.

Well, guys, time has come, Grammar Inspector woke up inside of me and wants to share something, soooo listen up:

"Dear EC members, please, DON´T DIVIDE ONE WORD INTO TWO INDIVIDUAL WORDS, it might sound little bit weird to understand I know, so for better understanding check kindly the examples bellow:

1. MAYBE

I think the most common mistake. If you want to use MAYBE as PERHAPS – adverb, it must be ONE WORD. The thing is that expression MAY BE also exists but it has totally different meaning.

Examples:

A/ It is nice weather, MAYBE I will go outside. (I am thinking about it, it isn´t so certain, if I should go or not - maybe – perhaps - ONE WORD)

B/ It MAY BE good idea to spend the weekend in the mountains. (Here MAY BE is similar to MIGHT BE – it is VERB - TWO WORDS)

2. SOMEBODY, EVERYBODY, ANYBODY etc.

Especially the word SOMEBODY I have seen many times written here as SOME BODY. Guys, if you divide this word it has totally different meaning or it will become nonsense since the word BODY means human corpus.

Examples:

A/ EVERYBODY in the class is so nice with me. SOMEBODY has stolen my purse. (Here both - everybody and somebody are pronouns - it means they must be ONE WORD).

B/ I was walking at night in the forest and suddenly I saw SOME BODY on the ground. (means for example dead body, here SOME BODY are TWO words - some - pronoun, body - noun)

3. MYSELF, YOURSELF etc.

Even this word I have seen here divided. Here it doesn´t have any special meaning, if you divide it but I have one tip for you, how to remember it. As you can see in such words like MYSELF, YOURSELF etc. appears SELF – so remember that SELFISH people are greedy and they would never ever divide anything – means MYSELF, YOURSELF should be kept as one word. Maybe for some of you silly advice, for others something useful :-)."

Well, that´s all for today I wanted to share with you, dear learners, hope Grammar Inspector explained it clearly and if you have some questions, leave them among the comments. Thanx for reading me :-)

Sorry Afro, I didn't notice your question. And Annah, thanks for putting the same question in my page, otherwise I won't notice it, too.

To answer your question regarding to 'wont', according to several dictionaries mean 'accustomed to'. Let me copy and paste the whole definition in here.

wont

wəʊnt/

noun

formal, humorous

one's customary behaviour.

"Constance, as was her wont, had paid her little attention"

synonyms: custom, habit, way, practice, convention, routine, use, rule
"Paul, as was his wont, was driving far too fast"

adjective

literary

(of a person) in the habit of doing something; accustomed.

"he was wont to arise at 5.30 every morning"

synonyms:

accustomed, used, given, inclined;

in the habit of

"he was wont to arise at 5.30 every morning"

verb

archaic

1. make or be or become accustomed.

"wont thy heart to thoughts hereof"

As you can see, 'wont' in here is totally different from "won't". "Won't" is a contraction of will not. I won't have to explain further on "won't" since all of you are familiar with the word.

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Comments

Akshaya Biswal December 5, 2014 10:41

Thanks a lot for this suggestion. Really it is very useful for us.
Anah Sid © November 18, 2014 14:19

Noa dear, thanks a lot for such detailed comment. Now I clearly know the difference between the "TWO WONTS(WON'T, WONT)" :D
Luci November 18, 2014 13:26

Thank you all so much for nice comments, they made my day, I feel useful little bit :-)

Tara, I take part sometimes in writing prompts and yes I considre them very helpful.

Noas, thanx for explanation btw when I am lazy to type apostrophe I also type wont :-D but it is just my laziness :-/ now I will watch out :-p
Jesson November 18, 2014 8:07

NIce blog LUcci
noaslpls November 18, 2014 5:56
Sorry Afro, I didn't notice your question. And Annah, thanks for putting the same question in my page, otherwise I won't notice it, too.

To answer your question regarding to 'wont', according to several dictionaries mean 'accustomed to'. Let me copy and paste the whole definition in here.

wont
wəʊnt/

noun
formal, humorous

one's customary behaviour.

"Constance, as was her wont, had paid her little attention"

synonyms: custom, habit, way, practice, convention, routine, use, rule
"Paul, as was his wont, was driving far too fast"

adjective
literary

1.

(of a person) in the habit of doing something; accustomed.

"he was wont to arise at 5.30 every morning"

synonyms: accustomed, used, given, inclined;
in the habit of

"he was wont to arise at 5.30 every morning"

verb
archaic

1. make or be or become accustomed.

"wont thy heart to thoughts hereof"

As you can see, 'wont' in here is totally different from "won't". "Won't" is a contraction of will not. I won't have to explain further on "won't" since all of you are familiar with the word.
define custom - Google Search
Anah Sid © November 18, 2014 5:27

Noa I read your comment and now I want to know the difference between "WON'T" and "WONT"

I'm surprised to know that we have "TWO WONTS" in English I want to get familiar with "WONT"

:) thanks
Lady Anne November 17, 2014 20:07

Very useful indeed.....
Tara Benwell November 17, 2014 19:46

Nice work! Also, most of our Writing Prompts are inspired by common errors found on MyEC blogs. Be sure to check these out for tips and reminders.
Estanis November 17, 2014 15:03

I think to MYSELF that I MAY BE wrong when writing these words to SOMEBODY, so thanks for sharing :D
Komala November 17, 2014 10:56

Thanks Luci, this is really helpful to us (Learners) who are eager to improve our English skills.

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