Common Grammar Mistakes

[shyreen]

paano ba gamitin yung "is more like it" ? nakita ko ito sa post ng friend ko pero di ko sure if tama ba kasi parang di akma pakinggan.

[marose17]

"Despite of" - it should be "in spite of" or "despite"

[MaitaOfMakeupOnDemand]

^^^ "more like it" is used in comparison to an earlier work or in the context of a correction or an improvement.

Example, you ask a child to make the bed and there's a wrinkle in the middle, you smooth the middle part and perfect their work and you say "Now, that's more like it."

Or when I was a teacher, I'd have a student give me a revised essay. Because it was better than the first draft and closer to the assignment requirements, I tell him or her, "That's more like it."

[sweetylicious143]

I'm not belong to your family or i did not belong to your family?
Paki correct me mga sis. tia.

[rae]

^ Maybe, "I do not belong in your family"

Not sure though

[imyourangel]

^^I'm not belong to your family is wrong. I agree, "I do not" is the correct one

[xtine]

Yung mga tanong na "Did" tapos merong past tense"  such as Did you sang?  Did you cooked?

[sumtingnew23]

pa join po sisses..

[maye2k]

gave and given, sometimes nalilito din ako sa usage

[ohcmon]

^ "Gave" is used alone, 'yung "given", laging may katernong "have".

[sugardrop]

"It was given to me" doesn't have "have".

[entwife]

I could care less.
I couldn't care less.

Which is right? wrong? or usage of each one?

[MaitaOfMakeupOnDemand]

^Both "I could care less" and "I couldn't care less" are correct.

You use "I could care less" when you have so-so feelings about something. "I could care less" means that you could hate something more, so in other words, the thing you could care less about is not so bad.

You use "I couldn't care less" when you are really really indifferent towards something. In other words, sagad na sagad na yung indifference mo for it that you can not like it any less anymore.

[MaitaOfMakeupOnDemand]

^^^ Gave is simple past tense. It is used to talk about something that happened with finality in the past. Used in the active form e.g. "He gave me this bag."

Given is the participle form of the verb give. It used:

1. In passive form (when the subject of the sentence is the object) - This bag was given to me

2. With the auxiliary verbs :

        a. has (active voice); has + been (passive voice) (used with past participle to signify something that happened in the past but still has a bearing on the present) - E.g. He has given her an engagement ring(active voice); She had been given an engagement ring by her boyfriend. (passive voice)

        b. had; had + been (used with the past participle to signify something that happened in the past but has no bearing on the present) - E.g. She had given her house to her brother and left for good (active voice); He had been given his sister's house, he has not heard from her since. (passive voice)

        c. is/are (used when describing the current ongoing truth) - E.g. The valedictorian is given a medal on graduation day; The successful applicants are given a signing bonus.

        d. was/were (used when describing a past truth that is no longer ongoing) - E.g. The winner was given a house and lot in the last raffle; The subjects were given a dose of the test drug everyday for 7 days.

[entwife]

Sis thanks. Naka enroll kasi ako ng ielts ngayon tapos sabi ng lecturer there's no such thing as I couldn't care less daw kasi negative both yung not at less.

I was supposed to defend my answer na merong I couldn't care less kaso di ko sure but I know naririnig ko sya sa films.

Anyway, can you give an example ng scenario or context kung saan gagamitin yung could care less and couldn't care less.

Thanks

[MaitaOfMakeupOnDemand]

Scenerio One

Girl : I really liked the restaurant that Kate took us to last night. That foie gras was really nice, don't you think?

Boy : Well, it wasn't so bad. I could care less about foie gras and fancy French food, I guess.

Scenario Two:

Girl 1 : I can't believe he dumped me. After everything I did for him. That's it! I'm done! I'm never going to let him back in my life after what he did.

Girl 2 : I don't know, maybe he had a good reason?

Girl 1: Whatever! I couldn't care less if he were dying. I hate him.

P.S. Suggestion ko is, pay more attention to the shows you watch. And when you hear the expression "I couldn't care less" make sure that you make a note and find the clip on youTube or something and show it to your teacher. IELTS teachers are not perfect (no one has perfect English) but because we speak a different English from say, Australians, Americans, and Canadians (and they have a different English from each other), we feel like certain phrases and expressions are wrong just because we are not so exposed to them. Even teachers need to be exposed to expressions from different Englishes. (and yes, if "Englishes" sounds weird to you, I promise you it is a word familiar to those with a Linguistics background).

[entwife]

Thank you sis! Big help. I plan to take the ielts on may 17 and need ko ng all 7. So far okay naman ako sa mock exams, medyo pressure lang sa writing.

[sugardrop]

Pet peeve ko talaga is yung improper use ng past and present tense. Kahit dito sa GT (sorry ).

Ex.

"I'm confuse" when it should be "I'm confused". Sino ka, si Confucius or si confuse?

" I need to asked myself" - should be "I need to ask myself" because it's something that you might be doing in the future and not what you have already done.

[Girltalker2]

Bakit ang dami kong nakikita na:

1. Thanks God. 

Dapat Thank God lang or Thanks to the Lord. Hindi ba?

2.  Loose Weight.

It should be Lose Weight. Sana with the show Biggest Loser, mas marami nang tumama.

[PrincessC]

nakikita ko noon sa newspapers (grabe ha!) na mali-mali ang pronouns nila. I remember na lagi kong nakikita na "(Name of female) and his husband", "(Name of male) and her wife" or "(Name of female) and his father"...

tapos, sometimes I overhear people saying "didn't + past tense"