In this series of blog posts, we introduce interesting lists that can help non-native speakers of English write more natural-sounding English.

Borrowed English Words and Phrases in Your Own Language

Many languages use borrowed English words or phrases. This may cause confusion for non-native speakers when they go to countries like the US or England where the English phrases they used in their homeland may not be understood in these countries.

Formatting

The most common formatting mistakes by non-native English writers are as follows: 1. Incorrect title centering, size, or capitalization 2. Unconventional fonts or line spacing 3. Inconsistent paragraph formatting (block formatting vs. first line indent)

Spelling

Our Pcanpi team compiled some of the most common spelling errors by English learners and organized them into categories.

Word Order

Our Pcanpi team compiled some examples that contain common word order mistakes to help non-native speakers learn how to place their words in the correct sequence.

Misplaced Modifiers

Once you get the hang of the basic grammar rules in English, you may want to start adding some variation in your sentence structure, including adding modifiers to your writing.

Apostrophe Misuse

The most common use of an apostrophe is to show possession. What if the noun ends in an -s or -es? This has been a long debated matter, but now, you can either simply add an apostrophe after the word or add an ‘s after it.

Parallelism

International learners of English may have trouble at first noticing errors in parallelism that they make, but much like subject-verb agreement, parallelism is a relatively consistent rule that is easy to execute.

Fewer vs. Less

Fewer is used for quantities that can be counted with finite numbers (whole numbers like 1, 2, 3). Meanwhile, less is used with uncountable nouns and continuous amounts.

Negative Questions and Agreeing With Negatives

Suppose there was a table with apples on it, but you happened to not take any of the apples. Would you answer yes or no to this question?