Hi, my friends! Our dear Onee-Chan asked me to post the blog “Find and correct the mistakes” as a continuation of Tanya’s and my previous blogs with the same title. For those who haven’t taken part in such tests before, I will give some explanations. Each of the given sentences contains one or more grammar mistakes. They may be articles, prepositions, tenses, participles, gerunds, wrong forms of a pronoun, modal auxiliaries, whatever. You should find and correct all of them. You shouldn’t change the vocabulary, it is correct, but you may change the word order if it is wrong.
Here are the sentences for you to correct:
- Neither my wife nor I go nowhere today.
- He climbed on the top of the tree to look on the covered by the snow forest.
- He got twice more scores on the test.
- The higher rose the plane, the coldest was there.
- Being discussed article had written few months ago.
- In the room the door was opened on the river.
- She don’t approve him drive so fast.
- He didn’t greet me and I thought he mustn’t notice me.
- If I thought, I will be misunderstood I would have made myself clearest.
- She denies that she fools by him.
The deadline is January 30. After you all are done, I will tell you the correct answers and explain all the mistakes.
January 28.
Well, my friends! I will tell you the correct answers today as both Tanya and I will be offline for a few days.
There you go!
- Neither my wife nor I am going anywhere today.
- He climbed up to the top of a tree to look at the forest covered with (the) snow.
- He got twice as many scores for the test.
- The higher the plane rose, the colder it was.
- The article being discussed was written a few months ago.
- In the room was a door opening to the river.
- She doesn’t approve of his driving so fast.
- He didn’t greet me and I thought he couldn’t have noticed me.
- If I had thought, I was going to be misunderstood I would have made myself clear(er).
- She denies being fooled by him.
Now, I will explain the mistakes.
1. If we speak about our plans for the nearest future, we use the present progressive tense. If NEITHER…NOR… used as a subject, a verb must be in the person of the last noun/pronoun. Neither…nor… is negative, so we must use ANYWHERE.
2. The top of a tree is ABOVE us. So, he climbed UP in the direction of the top (TO). We always look AT something. The participle phrase must follow the noun.
3. If we use some multiplier in a comparison, the construction must be: …AS many/much (AS)…
4. This comparison must be:
The + comparative adjective + subject+predicate
in both parts. Besides, we say “IT is cold”.
5. BEING DISCUSSED is a participle phrase that must be after a noun. Some months = a few months. And, of course, the predicate must be in the past simple tense, the passive voice.
6. If we start a sentence with the modifier of place, it must be immediately followed by the verb. It is called the inversion of a predicate. Besides, a door opens somewhere. It is the active voice. So, we need a participle in the present active form, i.e., OPENING.
7. The verb APPROVE must be followed by OF and a gerund. A pronoun/noun before the gerund must be in the possessive form.
8. If we want to say that most probably something happened in the past, we say:
It must have happened.
If we mean that most probably it didn’t happen, we say:
It couldn’t have happened.
9. It is the unreal condition in the past. In the conditional clause the verb must be in the subjunctive perfect form. If the action in the second subordinate clause relates to the future past, we use TO BE GOING TO as a predicate. Besides, there is the wrong form of an adjective at the end of the sentence.
10. The verb DENY must be followed by a gerund. And, of course, in this sentence the gerund must be in the passive form.
I will be glad to answer all your questions on this test!
Thank you all! I hope you will go on taking part in our tests improving your grammar.
Comments
Sure, Elen, but in the message, OK?
Never mind, Danny. Could you please tell me the right forms of them? Because I don't think I can find them.
Oh, now I see what I forgot to answer! Sorry, dear! And sorry again as they are still wrong
Ok Danny, I read some grammar from the link that you gave me, I read your explanations, I tried a lot and here are my new answers:
1. Neither my wife nor I am going anywhere today.
2. He climbed to the top of the tree to look at the forest covered with the snow.
3. He got twice scores in the test.
4. The higher rose the plane, the colder it was.
5. Having been written few months ago, the article is now being discussed.
6. There was a room by the river, with open door.
7. She doesn’t approve his fast driving.
8. He didn’t greet me and I thought he might not noticed me.
9. If I had thought I will be misunderstood, I would have made myself clear.
10. She denies that she was being fooled by him.
I am sure that I have mistakes but I hope not so many again!
Onee, I hope very much, you will! Don't make your teacher go grey! Hahaha!
Teacher Danny,
Thank you so much for your explanation. I will 'try' remember my mistakes.
Please, read my explanations below.
Dear Asanka! Glad to meet you. I can accept No8 as it is correct, but I meant the wrong modal auxiliary and the wrong form of the infinitive after it.
All the rest are wrong
Neither my wife nor I go anywhere.
He climbed to the top of the tree to look at the snow covered forest.
he got twice more score from the test.
4.
5. The few articles had being discussed months ago
6. The door was opened to the river in the room.
7. She doesn't approve drive so fast.
8. He didn't greet me and I thought he didn't notice me.
9.
10. She denied that she was fooled by him
Well, well, my dear learners! I think I will start explaining the sentences so that you can learn something from this test.
1. "Neither... nor... " is negative. So, we can't use "nowhere". What should we use in a negative sentence? This sentence describes my plans for today, so the tense is wrong.
2. The top of a tree is much taller than a man. He climed in the direction of the top. There must be two prepositions. A participle phrase must be after a noun. "Look on" is incorrect. "Covered by" is incorrect.
3. There is a wrong comparison and a wrong preposition.
4. There is a wrong comparison and wrong structure in the last part.
5. The sense of the sentence is: we are discussing the article that was written some months ago.
6. In the room was a door. If one opened it, one saw the river. There is a wrong participle, a wrong preposition, wrong word order.
7 and 10. These verbs must be followed by the gerund. If the gerund relates to the person different from the subject, that person must be mentioned before the gerund in the possessive form. In 10 is also a wrong voice.
8. There is a wrong modal verb and a wrong form of the infinitive after it.
9. It is the unreal condition in the past. Only the last verb is correct. Besides, there is a wrong form of the adjective.
I hope, it will help you a little.