Tag «grammar»
Common mistake – “There have a 7-11”

Very often, I hear HK Chinese IELTS candidates say “There have”. For example: “There have a supermarket below my place”. The correct way is “There is a supermarket below my place”. In spoken English, this often shortened to “There’s a supermarket below my place”. I guess the reason for the error is that in Chinese, …
常見錯誤 Common mistake – ‘stop to eat’ vs ‘stop eating’

During one of my group classes, I overheard a student say the following sentence while talking with her classmate about her love of chocolate: I can’t stop to eat it! Later, during the lesson break, I explained to the student that she should have said: I can’t stop eating it! Actually, this is quite a common …
“How to spell?” or “How do you spell it?”
Do you apply the job or apply for the job?

Correct expression: Apply for the job The word ‘apply’ has the following two main meanings: “apply” + object = put on / use …E.g. Apply sunscreen (to your skin) “apply for/to” + object = request …E.g. Apply for job Note: “Apply sunscreen” sounds a little too formal for casual spoken situations. It is more common to say “put …
Have it done, or do it yourself?

A common grammar mistake made by students is to say things like: Sorry I couldn’t answer your phone call. I was doing acupuncture. (針灸) Assuming that the doctor was performing the procedure, you could say: Sorry I couldn’t answer your phone call. I was having acupuncture done. The second way means that the doctor was performing acupuncture on …
常見錯誤 Are you a Hong Kong People?
IELTS Writing – 5 Punctuation Rules for Band 7

Published 11th September, 2018 [fvplayer src=”https://ieltsbucket-seoul.s3.amazonaws.com/free/2018-9-11_writing_5_punctuation_rules/5_punctuation_rules-240p.mp4″ splash=”https://www.hkieltsteacher.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/thumbnail-ielts-writing-punctuation-part-1-commas.jpg” subtitles_en=”https://www.hkieltsteacher.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/subtitles-5-punctuation-rules.en_US.vtt” qsel=”true”] Video defaults to ‘mobile’ quality to save data usage. Switch to SD or HD for faster WiFi connections. Clearing browser cache restores default settings.
常見錯誤 Do you like dog or dogs?

If you like to eat the meat from dogs, then you like dog. If you like to play with/take care of/pat them, then you like dogs. This is the same for other animals which are countable (have a plural form), such as cats, rabbits, chickens, lambs (baby sheep), etc. For example: Whale isn’t sold in most countries because whales are an …
IELTS Speaking: 8 basic grammar mistakes of Hong Kong candidates

IELTS口試:中文考生常犯的八個文法基本錯誤(中文字幕) Published 29th April, 2018 [fvplayer src=”https://ieltsbucket-seoul.s3.amazonaws.com/free/2018-4-10_8_basic_grammar_mistakes/8_basic_grammar_mistakes-240p.mp4″ splash=”https://www.hkieltsteacher.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/GRANTthumb8grammermistakes.jpg” subtitles_zh=”https://www.hkieltsteacher.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/8_basic_grammar_mistakes_subtitles.zh_TW.vtt” subtitles_en=”https://www.hkieltsteacher.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/8_basic_grammar_mistakes_subtitles.en_US.vtt” qsel=”true”] Video starts first time in ‘mobile’ quality to save data usage. Switch to SD or HD for faster WiFi connections. Clearing browser cache restores default settings.