Common errors in English

الله يسلمك دانة عمان . بسعد عزيزتي بوجودك ومتابعتك وتشجيعك.

اخطاء اليوم بحرف ال q

1- quite- quiet
This is probably caused by a slip of the fingers more often than by a slip of the mental gears, but one often sees “quite” (very) substituted for “quiet” (shhh!). This is one of those common errors your spelling checker will not catch, so look out for it.


2- quote
A passage doesn’t become a quote (or—better—"quotation") until you’ve quoted it. The only time to refer to a “quote” is when you are referring to someone quoting something. When referring to the original words, simply call it a passage.

3- quotation marks

The examples below are set off in order to avoid confusion over the use of single and double quotation marks.

There are many ways to go wrong with quotation marks. They are often used ironically:

She ran around with a bunch of “intellectuals.”
The quotation marks around “intellectuals” indicate that the writer believes that these are in fact so-called intellectuals, not real intellectuals at all. The ironic use of quotation marks is very much overdone, and is usually a sign of laziness indicating that the writer has not bothered to find the precise word or expression necessary.
Advertisers unfortunately tend to use quotation marks merely for emphasis:

“FRESH” TOMATOES
59 CENTS A POUND
The influence of the more common ironic usage tends to make the reader question whether these tomatoes are really fresh. Underlining, bold lettering, all caps—there are several less ambiguous ways to emphasize words than placing them between quotation marks.
In American usage, single quotation marks are used normally only for quoted words and phrases within quotations.

Angela had the nerve to tell me “When I saw ‘BYOB’ on your invitation, I assumed it meant ‘Bring Your Old Boyfriend’.”
British usage tends to reverse this relationship, with single quotation marks being standard and double ones being used only for quotations within quotations. (The English also call quotation marks “inverted commas,” though only the opening quotation mark is actually inverted—and flipped, as well.)
Single quotation marks are also used in linguistic, phonetic, and philosophical studies to surround words and phrases under discussion; but the common practice of using single quotation marks for short phrases and words and double ones for complete sentences is otherwise an error.


Block quotations like this should not be surrounded by any quotation marks at all. (A passage this short should not be rendered as a block quotation; you need at least three lines of verse or five lines of prose to justify a block quotation.) Normally you should leave extra space above and below a block quotation.
When quoting a long passage involving more than one paragraph, quotation marks go at the beginning of each paragraph, but at the end of only the final one. Dialogue in which the speaker changes with each paragraph has each speech enclosed in its own quotation marks.

Titles of books and other long works that might be printed as books are usually italicized (except, for some reason, in newspapers); but the titles of short poems, stories, essays, and other works that would be more commonly printed within larger works (anthologies, collections, periodicals, etc.) are enclosed in quotation marks.

There are different patterns for regulating how quotation marks relate to other punctuation. Find out which one your teacher or editor prefers and use it, or choose one of your own liking, but stick to it consistently. One widely accepted authority in America is the Chicago Manual of Style, whose guidelines are outlined below. English, Canadian, Australian and other writers in British-influenced countries should be aware that their national patterns will be quite different, and variable.

In standard American practice, commas are placed inside quotation marks:

I spent the morning reading Faulkner’s “Barn Burning,” which seemed to be about a pyromaniac.
Periods are also normally placed inside quotation marks (with the exception of terms being defined, see above). Colons and semicolons, however, are preceded by quotation marks.
If the quoted matter ends with a question mark or exclamation point, it is placed inside the quotation marks:

John asked, “When’s dinner?”
But if it is the enclosing sentence which asks the question, then the question mark comes after the quotation marks:
What did she mean, John wondered, by saying “as soon as you make it”?
Similarly:
Fred shouted, “Look out for the bull!”
but
When I was subsequently gored, all Timmy said was “this is kinda boring”!
Finally, I must lament that many standard character sets, including ASCII and basic HTML, lack true quotation marks which curl to enclose the quoted matter, substituting instead ugly “inch” or “ditto” marks. Some browsers can translate the code for a true quotation mark (and true, curled apostrophes), but many cannot

common errors starting with "r

1- rob vs steal

When you rob a bank, you steal its money. You can’t rob the money itself. The stuff taken in a robbery is always stolen, not “robbed."


2-
reticent vs hesitant

Reticent” most often means “reluctant to speak.” It can also mean "reserved,” “restrained,” though conservatives prefer to use it to apply only to speech. If you’re feeling nervous about doing something, you’re hesitant: “I’m hesitant about trying to ride a unicycle in public.” “Hesitant” is by far the more common word; so if you hesitate to choose between the two, go with “hesitant."

3-
reason or because

We often hear people say things like, “the reason there’s a hole in the screen door is because I tripped over the cat on my way out.” The phrase “is because” should be “is that.” If you wanted to use “because,” the sentence should be phrased, “There’s a hole in the screen door because I tripped over the cat.” Using both is a redundancy, as is the common expression “the reason why.” “The reason being is” should be simply “the reason being.”

4-
recent vs resent

Recent,” always pronounced with an unvoiced hissy S and with the accent on the first syllable, means “not long ago,” as in, “ I appreciated your recent encouragement.” “Resent” has two different meanings with two different pronunciations, both with the accent on the second syllable. In the most common case, where “resent” means “feel bad about,” the word is pronounced with a voiced Z sound: “I resent your implication that I gave you the chocolates only because I was hoping you’d share them with me.” In the less common case, the word means “to send again,” and is pronounced with an unvoiced hissy S sound: “The e-mail message bounced, so I resent it.” So say the intended word aloud. If the accent is on the second syllable, “resent” is the spelling you need.

5-
revue vs review

You can attend a musical revue in a theatre, but when you write up your reactions for a newspaper, you’re writing a review.

اخطاء شائعة بحرف ال " s "

1- specially vs especially

In most contexts “specially” is more common than “especially,” but when you mean “particularly” “especially” works better: “I am not especially excited about inheriting my grandmother’s neurotic Siamese cat.” “Especial” in the place of “special” is very formal and rather old-fashioned.


2-
suffer with or suffer from

Although technical medical usage sometimes differs, in normal speech we say that a person suffers from a disease rather than suffering with it.

3-
sometime or some time

Let's get together sometime." When you use the one-word form, it suggests some indefinite time in the future. "Some time" is not wrong in this sort of context, but it is required when being more specific: "Choose some time that fits in your schedule." "Some" is an adjective here modifying "time." The same pattern applies to "someday" (vague) and "some day" (specific).

4-
sense or since

Sense” is a verb meaning “feel” ("I sense you near me” ) or a noun meaning “intelligence” ("have some common sense!” ). Don’t use it when you need the adverb “since” ("since you went away,” “since you’re up anyway, would you please let the cat out?” )

5-
suit vs suite

Your bedroom suite consists of the bed, the nightstand, and whatever other furniture goes with it. Your pajamas would be your bedroom suit.

6-
service vs serve

mechanic services your car and a stallion services a mare; but most of the time when you want to talk about the goods or services you supply, the word you want is “serve": “Our firm serves the hotel industry."