ESL – English as Second Language speakers have an especially difficult time with blogging: if you can’t write in perfect conversational American English, you will almost never dominate your niche.
I see certain common grammar mistakes being made repeatedly by ESL bloggers. With a simple checklist, you can avoid these mistakes easily.
If English is not your native language (and you want to be a successful blogger for an English-speaking audience) then keep reading: this post is just for you. If you know an ESL blogger who is trying to make it blogging, help them out by sending them the link to this post.
Mistake #1: Advices
There is no such word in English as “advices.” It is always advice. Advice is always correct, “advices” is always wrong. This is one of the most common mistakes I see ESL bloggers making. It’s an easy enough problem to fix, because “advices” is always wrong. You just have look for it in your posts and weed it out.
Examples:
Everyone gave me a lot of great advice.
The advice my blog consultant gave me was excellent.
All the advice in the world cannot take the place of experience.
My advice to you is if it smells funny, don’t eat it.
Mistake #2: Informations
This is the exact same problem as with advice. “Informations” is never correct—ever. There is no such word as informations. The correct word is always information.
Examples:
Your information was not accurate.
There are 4 gigabytes of information on this USB drive.
The information I have is that you weren’t at work on time this morning.
Mistake #3: Loose instead of Lose
Loose means something is not fastened tightly or that something has escaped its bonds. Lose means something has been misplaced or lost, or to fail at a game or competition. The mistake made by ESL blogger is to use loose when they mean lose. This error is also made by English-speaking natives. It’s something we should all watch out for.
Examples:
Incorrect: If I do that, I may loose all my money.
Correct: If I do that, I may lose all my money.
Incorrect: I never loose sight of my goals.
Correct: I never lose sight of my goals.
Correct usage of loose: That lid looks loose, like it will fly off at the slightest bounce.
Correct usage of loose: I don’t know how it happened, but the hens got loose and are running around in the yard.
ESL – Not Easy
English is not the easiest language to learn: it’s full of exceptions to the rule. I’ve seen otherwise perfect English marred by the three mistakes I listed above. If it weren’t for these mistakes, I would never have known the writer had learned English as a second language.
If English is not your native language, check for these three mistakes before you hit “Publish” on that blog post or “Submit” on that comment!
I also notice that there are people who make use of “softwares” when they are talking about more than one software. Also, apart from grammar, avoiding the use of too many words is one of the things which ESL bloggers such as myself should be aware of.
I totally forgot about “softwares!” Thank you for bringing it up. The
correct word is ALWAYS “software,” even if you are talking about more than
one application. Speaking of which, “applications” is correct in the plural
(the singular of which is “application”).
Haven't replied to posts in a while but always appreciate seeing you in my feed reader. Listen, just wanted to chime in to say that this is a very thoughtful topic. May not mean much coming from a native English speaker but I often work with ESL clients in my online work and I think they'll find this post of yours helpful. Thanks!
Thank you very much, please share it with them if you think it will help.
This is great. I have a number of friends who blog in English and it's not their first language. I never want to say anything, because I don't want to hurt their feelings. But I'm going add a link to this post in my weekly mashup tomorrow. Hopefully they'll see it and stop by.
Awesome. My hope is that helps people as much as possible. I think it's
great that anyone in the world can tap into the “American Money Machine,”
but it requires decent English to do it.
English is not my first language, but I've gotten to the point where it's as good as, if not better, than my native language. I have no problem with grammar and such anymore, but this post definitely brings back memories.
I STILL have nightmares about learning English, at times.
Me, too, and I was born here. LOL.
Oh, and what about 'internets'?
A big one that a certain politician made popular, haha.
Ha ha, I see a lot of people doing that on purpose for fun, just to be
cheeky.
Should I write a similar blog post for the tweeters who are targeting a French audience and their French is atrocious?
I don't see why not. Go for it.
English is not my first language and I'm working on it all the time. I always like to see tips from experienced bloggers. Thank you
Thanks Ricardo, I'm glad you find this helpful. Keep up the great work!
LOL at this pic you chose for the post!
Thanks! I had to be careful not to waste too much time over at
http://engrish.com looking for a good one.
I actually went over there after reading this and wasted some time myself. that site has some really hilarious posts
Having a built in dictionary in your browser also help a lot. The grammar might be off but the words are spelled correctly.
There is also a plugin for WordPress called After The Deadline that checks your words meaning and spelling before you post. Unfortunately it seems to only support US English.
http://www.afterthedeadline.com
“After the Deadline looks for commonly confused English words and then decides, using the surrounding context, if another word is a better fit. Sometimes it gets it wrong.”
English is my 2ndary language too and sadly I often made some of these mistake, specially when I am posting in a hurry. Another common mistake is “Stuffs”
Many people say stuffs instead of stuff when they mean lot of stuff.
Thanks for sharing that tip!
Well I also make these mistakes sometimes. I am from Pakistan and English is my 2nd Language.
You (and others like you) are who I wrote this for. The better your English,
the better your blog will do for an English-speaking audience. Mistakes like
these lower your credibility and authority with your audience.
This is a great post!
Years ago I used to teach English and many many of my students would ask “why is this different here than there” and sometimes I would just don´t know! I learned English almost as a first language from kindergarden to 10th grade and many of the rules and exceptions I regularly use I cannot explain…
English is not an easy language to learn but believe me… spanish is a lot harder!!!
Saludos amigos desde Mexico!
JM
English is my 2nd language. My biggest challenges are these darn prepositions. Check them out in a dictionary. For each English preposition there are a few translations. And for each foreign preposition there are a few English translations. Which one to pick? Yikes!
Very useful pointers. As an ESL I find myself looking for the best expression often, and it's not always easy. Some more common mistakes: replacing “their” with “they're” (and vice versa) and “it's with “its”. Thanks
This article covers some of the common mistakes that most people make with Spanish grammar, … Good luck on your efforts to learn Spanish grammar! … The English Phonetic Alphabet is a Tool For English As a Second Language
This article covers some of the common mistakes that most people make with Spanish grammar, … Good luck on your efforts to learn Spanish grammar!
I have a blog and English is my second language. I'm sure my posts are full of mistakes, but I don't want that to stop me from blogging. Thanks for the tips, I'll try to keep improving.
Thanks for sharing this
piss off! that is sooo effing obvious!
Thanks, still working on my “engrish”