မှားတာတွေကို အရမ်းထောက်ပြရင် အင်္ဂလိပ်စာသင်ယူလေ့လာသူတွေ စိတ်အားလျော့သွားမလားလို့တော့တွေးမိပါတယ် ။ ဒါပေမယ့် ပညာမျှဝေပေးတဲ့နေရာမှာ အမှန်နဲ့ အမှားကိုထောက်ပြပေးမှသာ ပညာဆက်ခံယူသူတွေအတွက်ပိုအကျိုးရှိမယ်ထင်ပါတယ်။ ကျွန်မပြောလေ့ရှိသလို ကိုယ့်ရဲ့မိခင်ဘာသာစကားမဟုတ်တဲ့ တခြားဘာသာစကားကိုလေ့လာရာမှာ အမှန်အသုံးအနှုန်းတွေကတော့ သိကိုသိရပါမယ်။ အမှားကိုသိရင် ပြင်ယူပြီးအမှန်ကိုရောက်နိုင်ပါတယ်။ အားလုံးအတွက် အကျိုးရှိနိုင်ပါစေ။

 

I wrote one article about some very common mistakes by some English learners. With this article, again I am sharing some more common mistakes made by English learners. It is true that making mistakes is part of the learning process. However, it is important that English learners take notice of them so that they will become truly proficient language learners as they progress.

 

1. runny nose vs running nose

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In this context both are adjectives but when you say you have a “runny nose”, you are saying you have caught a cold, and your nose is producing more mucus than usual. One of the meanings of the word “running” used as an adjective means flowing as in water flowing. English learners might have mistakenly thought “a running nose” is the correct usage because it could mean “the liquid mucus flowing out of your nose”. However, a “running nose” is an incorrect usage in English.

 

Example;

I’ve got a runny nose. I hope I am not going down with the flu. ✅

I’ve got a running nose. I hope I am not coming down with the flu. ❌

 

 

2. nowadays vs nowsadays

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“Nowadays” means at the present time, in comparison to the past. It is an adverb. The word “nowsadays” is not a correct usage at all.

 

Example;

Nowadays, almost everyone seems to be using smartphones. ✅

Nowsadays, almost everyone seems to be using smartphones. ❌

 

 

3. luggage vs luggages

 

Luggage is a collective noun that refers to all the bags and suitcases that you are carrying with when you travel. So it may be one bag or a few but it is all called “luggage”. The word “luggages” is an incorrect usage.

 

Example;

Travelling light means not taking much luggage with you. ✅

Travelling light means not taking much luggages with you. ❌

 

Note: In American English, “baggage” is more commonly used but “baggage” cannot refer to the suitcase itself whereas “luggage” can refer to either a suitcase itself or more.

 

 

4. look forward to vs look forwards to

 

We use the expression “look forward to” when we want to say we would like to hear further news or updates from the other end. However, it is incorrect to say “look forwards to” even though the adverb “forwards” does exist, and it can be used with other action verbs such as “move forwards” or “go forwards”. In American English, it is more commonly used as “move forward” or “go forward”.

 

Example;

I look forward to hearing from you. ✅

I look forwards to hearing from you. ❌

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5. grateful vs greatful

 

The adjective “grateful” is used when we feel or show an appreciation for something done or received. “Greatful” is a misspelling of the word “grateful”.

 

Example;

I am grateful to you for what you have done for me. ✅

I am greatful to you for what you have done for me. ❌

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6. study overseas vs study oversea

 

In the context of studying overseas, the word “overseas” is used as an adverb, meaning in a foreign country or in some other countries. Even though the word “oversea” as an adjective may be used interchangeably with “overseas” as in “oversea trip or overseas trip”, it is not correct to use “oversea" as an adverb with some other verbs such as “live overseas” or “travel overseas” etc.

 

Example;

I have always wanted to study overseas. ✅

I have always wanted to study oversea. ❌

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7. close friend vs closed friend

 

A “close” friend is someone you can trust and you can rely on. You feel comfortable talking to him or her with no fear of judgement. It is someone who is always there for you and someone who cares about you. However, the adjective “closed” means being literally not open or being not wanting to accept new ideas or people or etc. Thus, a “closed friend” is totally incorrect.

 

Example;

She is my close friend. She knows about me very well. ✅

She is my closed friend. She knows about me very well. ❌

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8. loved one(s) vs love one(s)

 

The expression “Loved ones” means people that you love, usually your family members or your close friends. Usually, it is plural but you can also use a “loved one” to refer to a person that you love. However, “love ones” is wrong and it cannot be used interchangeably with “loved ones”.

 

Example;

All my loved ones sent me wishes on my birthday. ✅

All my love ones sent me wishes on my birthday. ❌

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