Five English mistakes that make people laugh
No one learns a new language without making mistakes. And while we'd all prefer to dodge
embarrassing errors, they're hard to avoid entirely. So be prepared to giggle along every
once in a while! Here are some slip-ups that will surely get a smile from listeners.
I cooked my grandma
You're talking about your weekend and say, "My grandma visited and I cooked her." Of
course you didn't cook your grandmother! You cooked FOR her. Verbs can change their
meaning completely when they are followed by a preposition (e.g. find, find out; grow, grow
up, so be careful! Always use 'for' when you're talking about preparing a meal for someone.
Leave it out in reference to food, e.g. "I cooked spaghetti." Whatever you do, don't serve
Grandma Betty for dinner!
I went to hold up my sister at school.
Say this and your listeners will picture one of two things : either you prevented your sister
from falling down or you robbed her at gunpoint. Not likely! What you probably meant
was 'pick up', not 'hold up'. 'To pick up' means 'to take hold of'. But it also means 'to fetch
someone, usually by car. So if you don't want to make your sister mad, remember to pick
her up – not prop her up or rob her!
The chicken was crowded with people.
A chicken is an unusual place to hang out. Or did you mean 'kitchen'? Chicken and kitchen
are examples of English words that contain similar sounds – in this case, 'ch' and 'k'. While
those sounds are placed differently in each word, your tongue can easily trip over them. So
make sure you ask your friends to join you in the kitchen for some chicken and not the
other way around!
We asked our neighbors to eat the cat while we were on vacation.
Your neighbors might think you're very weird if you knock on their door and ask them to
snack on your pet cat. Your cat won't be too happy, either! But that's what would happen if
you mix up the verbs 'to eat' and 'to feed'. The first verb means 'to consume food', while the
second means 'to give food'. Big difference when it involves your pets!
!I'm so boring
Say this to your friend during a film and they'll probably give you a very strange look. Do
you mean that your personality is rather dull, or that you don't find the movie very
interesting? Many English learners make this mistake because they confuse present and
past participles (verb forms used as an adjective). You can say "The film is boring because it
is making me bored."
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