| Book of the Month | ||
|
Common mistakes in English (New Edition) | |
Longman
Author: T.J. Fitikides
200 pages.
£8.95
IBSN 0582 344581
This book on English was written in Cyprus, printed in Malaysia, and is sold all over the world. You might think this is an example of how international English is becoming, but in fact the first edition of this book was written in 1936. In the sixty years since, it has been reprinted about every ten years and has been purchased by hundreds of thousands of English learners.
This pocket-sized volume has two hundred pages, of which forty or so are exercises, another fifteen are the index and a list of irregular verbs, and the remainder contain examples of typical mistakes in English - five hundred and fifty of them. The writer admits that there are many more mistakes that it is possible to make, but after teaching and taking notes of mistakes for many years, he decided these were the most common. The mistakes are divided into five categories . The first is misused forms, such as wrong preposition or tense (e.g. 'She asked my book' is a common mistake where 'She asked for my book' is the correct version.). There are also incorrect omissions, unnecessary words, misplaced words and confused words. Some of the confused words are also confused by native speakers, for example asking for the cost of something instead of its price.
There are no pictures at all in the book, which is a pity as some of the errors could have been illustrated with amusing cartoons. Instead, every error is described in the same form. First the incorrect usage is given, then the correct usage, then (in very small type) the grammar explanation. Occasionally a page is taken up by a grey box entitled 'Have another look at..', and this goes into more detail about why some mistakes are made. For example one box describes the use of negatives and double negatives, and the use of negatives in question tags.
Who is this book for? Anyone needing to improve their English could find it useful to have a look at the errors, if only to see that there are some errors that they do not make! One problem is that different nationalities have problems with different areas of English, so a book that concentrates on the difficulties of each language group would be more useful. Nevertheless, teachers and students would find this book a useful addition to the library.
Verdict: Interesting, but not essential
Assessment 7/10