If your job or profession involves speaking English then you will know how stressful it could be if you worry about making errors in front of colleagues and clients. These might be mistakes with grammar, vocabulary, or pronunciation.
Of course, while learning second language errors are natural but in a working surrounding you want to show that you are confident with your English because it seems more professional. Therefore, restricting the mistakes as much as possible must be your goal.
In this article, Ms. Sonu Goel, Founder and Director of Café Converse, Delhi’s Top Institute for Learning Spoken English is going to highlight some of the most common mistakes one sees and shows you how to fix them. All of these errors are in the context of business English.
Uncountable Nouns
So, the first common error is with uncountable nouns. While most nouns in the plural form contain an ‘s’ at the end, uncountable nouns do not have them.
Error: Can I get some extra information regarding the product?
Correct: Can I get some extra information regarding the product?
Error: The company has bought plenty of equipments.
Correction: The company has bought plenty of equipment.
If you need to provide a number of something and it is an uncountable noun you will use (piece/pieces of + noun)
Error: I did 3 researches on it.
Correction: I did 3 pieces of research on it.
Equipment, information, research are the words where some of the most common uncountable nouns.
Can you vs Could you
In an attempt to get on well with colleagues and clients, it is essential to learn how to be polite in English, specifically, when making requests. If you ask your colleague, boss, or client to do something for you, it is best to use the conditional form because ‘can’ will make the request sound more like an order.
Error: Can you see if the clients replied?
Correction: Could you see if the client replied.
The Conference Went Good
Probably one of the most common errors one sees while using adjectives instead of adverbs. The correct sentence must replace ‘good’ with ‘well’. This is due to ‘well’ is describing the verb ‘went’ in the sentence and therefore should be an adverb.
Error: The conference went good.
Correction: The conference went well.
The Wrong Usage of Prepositions
One of the most frequently make mistakes in English is the tendency to use incorrect prepositions.
Error: I am working in a big project.
Correction: I am working on a big project.
I Have Worked Here Since 5 Years
When one uses the present perfect tense and mentions a time you have to use either ‘for’ or ‘since’. The rule is:
For is with periods of time, for instance, I have worked here for 5 years.
Since, is with certain points, for instance, I have worked here since 2016.
So this brings you to the end of some of the list of business English mistakes. Are you making any of these mistakes? Do not worry if you are, it is better to learn them late than never and Café Converse can help you in that.
Ms Sonu Goel is a professionally acclaimed certified ESL trainer from British Council having 15 years of strong background for teaching English language in both online and physical classes. She is dedicated to the teaching of English in an interactive and practical way, whereby learners feel enriched with knowledge and experience the language hands-on. She uses creative ideas and aids to let the learning happen as organically and efficiently as possible. Ms Goel has travelled various European countries and experienced an array of cultures and linguistic skills for the English language.
