Some common mistakes

We all make mistakes. Even I make mistakes from time to time.

Here are ten sentences. There is one mistake in each sentence. What is the mistake?

1. Are you speak English?
2. What means "knitting"?
3. I have made many friends from other country.
4. How often do you go to shopping?
5. The weather in Manchester, it is very wet.
6. Manchester people is very friendly.
7. British food very greasy.
8. I came to Manchester before two months.
9. There are lots of differents restaurants in Manchester.
10. I have visited Rusholme last night.

Click to find out the answers:

1. Are you speak English? You have confused tenses here. You need to ask Do you speak English? = present simple or Are you speaking English? = present continuous
2. What means "knitting"? Remember: you need to use do/does + base form  in present simple questions. What does "knitting" mean?
3. I have made many friends from other country. other + plural "I have made many friends from other countries." For singular nouns, use another: "I have made many friends from another country."
4. How often do you go to shopping? go shopping not go to shopping. Also, go fishing, go camping, go running, go walking
5. The weather in Manchester, it is very wet. You have repeated the subject the weather, it but only used one verb is. Say: The weather in Manchester is very wet.
6. Manchester people is very friendly. People is a plural noun, so you need to use are not is. One of the most common errors is to use singular nouns with plural verbs, or plural nouns with singular verbs.
7. British food very greasy. There is no verb in this sentence. Students often forget to use the verb be. In English, we want to see a verb! British food is very greasy.
8. I came to Manchester before two months. Don't confuse before with ago. This is very common with Arabic speakers. I came to Manchester two months ago.
9. There are lots of differents restaurants in Manchester. There are no plural adjectives in English, so you cannot say differents. "There are lots of different restaurants in Manchester."
10. I have visited Rusholme last night. Here we are talking about a completed action in the past, so we need to use a past simple tense: I visited Rusholme last night. We can use the present perfect to talk about life experiences (Aziz: "Have you ever visited Rusholme?" Ryan: "Yes, I have") or to talk about something that happened in the past that also connects to the present (Aziz: "I'm cooking some pasta. Are you hungry?" Ryan: "No, I'm ok thanks. I've visited Rusholme and eaten a curry.")