Post 6

My first most common grammar mistake is the use of prepositions. Preposition shows the relationship between two things, either real objects or conceptual ones, such as the subject and the object in a sentence. Using the wrong word may cause the readers to misunderstand the meaning of the sentence. I have a very typical example:

Many boys like to play basketball to draw the attention to the girls that they like.

This sentence uses the wrong preposition and as a result, the readers will get confused. The correct sentence should be like this:

Many boys like to play basketball to draw the attention of the girls that they like.

In the sentence, we are actually showing possession between attention and girls. Since “attention” belongs to “girls”, we should use “of” to indicate the right relationship between them, rather than “to”.

Another common mistake that I usually make is the use of articles. There are three articles: the, a and an. I always miss out the articles, or use the wrong one. One example is like this:

The professor shows the second research on black holes.

If we use “the”, we are indicating that this research has been mentioned before and it is the second research. However, if we use “a’, the meaning is totally different. “A” indicates that it is the first time that this research is mentioned and it is the second one. Readers will be misguided if I mix up those two cases.

The third mistake happens when I use clauses. This is one example:

Please go to the football field which they are playing.

When the readers first see this sentence, they might be surprised because if we rephrase the sentence, it would be “They are playing the football field and please go there.” How come people can play a football field? The correct sentence would be:

Please go to the football field where they are playing.
Please go to the football field on which they are playing.

I think the best way to avoid such problems is to read more and hope I will overcome them in the future.