6 :: Common Grammatical Mistakes

This module has made me realise some of my grammatical errors which were left uncorrected over the years!

My first common error lies in the usage of articles. To make my sentences concise, I often omitted articles which must be present. Perhaps this habit came from note-taking, when we often construct incomplete sentences, especially with missing articles. Take the following sentence as an example:

High cost of living has caused a large number of people to immigrate.

I often missed the article ‘the’ in front of High cost. Since ‘high cost’ here is a singular, countable noun, and requires a specific reference, ‘the’ is required. Otherwise, ‘high cost’ could be changed to a plural form, because no article precedes an uncountable noun. Specific reference is required as the noun ‘high cost’ in this case was further elaborated.

My next common error is the sloppy use of pronoun references. While constructing sentences, I do not pay close attention to the subject of my pronoun reference, formally known as antecedent of the pronoun reference from the grammar notes. An example would be:

The need for a rental of lockers has brought much inconvenience to the rugby players. Furthermore, they are in a poor condition.

The use of the pronoun reference ‘They’ in the second sentence is vague and not appropriate. It seems to refer to the rugby players who were in a poor condition. A proper pronoun reference for the lockers should be ‘it’.


My last common error is in using the forms of verb, especially in the usage of has, have and had. These words depend on both the tense and whether the subject is singular or plural. If I do not recall the tenses and the forms that match, I will make the mistake. Perhaps this error stems from my usage of Singlish, when we often use ‘got’ to substitute for any of the forms. Here are some examples of the mistakes I would make:

1) She have been trying hard to pass her ‘O’ level Physics.
2) She had been trying hard to pass her ‘O’ level Physics.

‘Have’ is used with plural subjects or with I/you/we. ‘Has’ is used with singular subjects such as he/she/it. These two forms are used for present tense. Hence, for case 1, ‘have’ should instead be ‘has’. For past tense usage, ‘Had’ can be used with all subjects .Case 2 is correct grammatically if it is a case of the past. However, if we were to refer this as a present ongoing case, we should use ‘has’ instead.