Common slip-ups

Many native speakers don't know this! 10 common English mistakes

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We all slip up from time to time, but it turns out that some errors are more common than others, especially when it comes to reading and writing. Of course, there is no "unique" way to use language, but even if we've spoken English since childhood, there are still common "mistakes" that native speakers tend to make. Read on to see if you make any of these too!

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Ever received a message that reads, "I love they're new house"? Homophones are words that sound the same (or very, very similar), and this is the case with "there," "their," and "they're," which is why many native speakers tend to confuse them.

However, these three words have quite different meanings and functions. "There" can be used with the verb to be, as in "There's a problem with your order," or as an adverb to indicate place: "I found the cat; it's there!" On the other hand, "their" functions as a possessive, indicating ownership, as in "I love their new house." Finally, "they're" is a contraction of "they are," as in "They're a lovely couple."

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You've probably written or read something like "I think your right about that" or "I'd love to meet you're parents." These usages are considered incorrect, but don't worry—you’re not alone! Like the words in the previous entry, "your" and "you're" are homophones, meaning they sound identical when spoken.

To understand them better, remember that "you're" is a contraction of "you are" (pronoun + verb), as in "You're the best friend I ever had." Meanwhile, "your" is a possessive adjective, which indicates that something belongs to "you."

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This case is different from the previous ones. The common confusion between "fewer" and "less" has nothing to do with pronunciation but rather with meaning, as both are quantifiers used for comparisons and indicate a smaller quantity.

The key is knowing which type of noun each word should be used with. "Fewer" is used with countable nouns (things you can count individually), as in "He made fewer mistakes this time." On the other hand, "less" is used with uncountable nouns (things you can't count individually, as they are considered a whole), such as in "You drank less water today than yesterday."

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Another case of commonly confused words is "affect" and "effect." In addition to their similar pronunciation, these two terms also have related meanings, making it even more challenging to distinguish between them.

"To affect" is a verb meaning "to cause a change" or "to influence." For example, you can say, "Cold weather affects my mood." On the other hand, "effect" is a noun that indicates the consequence of an action or change, as in "The storm had a devastating effect on the city." To simplify: "affect" is the action, while "effect" is the result.

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Many times, we tend to say things like, "The teacher gave an assignment to Lily and I." While that's quite common, it's actually a grammatical error.

We know it’s difficult to tell them apart: both are pronouns used to refer to oneself. However, each has a different function. "I" is used as the subject of the sentence (the one performing the action), as in "Sarah and I went to the store." "Me," on the other hand, is used as the object of the sentence (the one receiving the action), as in, "The doctor told Lucas and me to drink more water."

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Another pair of very, very similar words: lose and loose. The key to distinguishing them is understanding what kind of word each one is.

"Lose" is a verb, meaning it always indicates an action (and can be expressed in the past, present, or future tense). For example: "I don't want to lose my keys" or "Joan lost the remote control." On the other hand, "loose" is an adjective, meaning it describes the characteristics, state, or condition of something, as in "I prefer loose pants; tight ones make me uncomfortable."

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"I slept well last night" or "I slept good last night"? (Spoiler: it's the first one!) But why? While both "well" and "good" are used to describe something positively, they are different types of words.

"Well" is an adverb, meaning it describes the verb. In the sentence "She sings well," the adverb modifies the verb "sings." Meanwhile, "good" is an adjective, so it describes a noun, as in "She's a really good singer!"

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The confusion between "could have" and "could of" is so widespread that many of us sometimes don’t even notice it. This error usually occurs because of the way they sound when pronounced.

When said quickly in conversation, "could have" can sound like "could of." But there's only one correct form: "could have" ("could of" has no grammatical meaning). For example, "I could have done better on the test" is correct, while "I could of done better on the test" is not.

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Ok, homophones really can cause chaos, and this is the case with the words "lay" and "lie," which also have similar meanings. We must warn you: If you say, "I need to lay down," you're officially guilty!

While both words have to do with position, "lay" requires a direct object (something being placed), whereas "lie" does not. In other words, "lay" means to put something down (it needs an object), while "lie" means to recline or rest (no object needed).

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Finally, we have a word that has often been used incorrectly or exaggeratedly in recent times: "literally" — or just "lit" if you're really cool.

According to the dictionary, "literally" means something happened exactly as stated, without exaggeration. However, in modern slang, it's often used to emphasize or dramatize a situation. For example, you might hear someone say, "I literally died laughing." Of course, if they're saying it, then luckily, they didn't literally die!

Ready, set, vocabulary!

Learn these 10 sport-related expressions and win hands down!

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Popular idioms appear in conversation all over the English-speaking world every minute of the day and we hardly ever stop to think about where they come from. Have you ever heard someone say "I'll have to start from scratch"? Have you wondered what "in the nick of time" means? What all these expressions have in common is that they originated in the world of sports. Want to know more? Get the upper hand and discover all those phrases you often say but didn’t know are related to games and sports!

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Down to the wire is an idiom used to describe a situation, sporting or otherwise, whose outcome is not decided until the very last minute. This expression comes from horse racing and experts suggest it originated in America in the late 19th century.

Before the days of televised sports, racetracks would string a wire across the finishing line above the riders’ heads. A steward would then be placed at a vantage point, looking down the line so that a winner could be more easily established during neck-and-neck finishes. The first written record of the phrase can be found in an 1889 article from Scribers Magazine and since then it has been widely used, even today.

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You’ve probably used this expression many times, but did you know it has a sport-related origin? The phrase can be easily traced back to the 19th century when sporting referees, who usually wore hats, would raise one into the air, alerting competitors to be ready. Then, they would drop it to signal the start of the event. The method was commonly used in boxing and horseracing, where the races or matches were considered started "at the drop of a hat".

Nowadays, the phrase is used to imply something would be carried out immediately, without delay. It is sometimes thought to be of American origin but the practice has long been used by English-speaking people on both sides of the Atlantic.

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To have the upper hand implies that a person has the advantage or control over someone or something in a particular situation. In sports, when a team goes first in a game we say they have the upper hand. But where exactly did this expression originate? Well, there are many theories and none are definitive.

Some suggest that this phrase dates back to the 15th century and is related to an obsolete pastime. In this game, the first player grips a shaft at the bottom end while the next places their hand just above it until the upper end of the shaft is reached. Finally, when the last person takes the last grip, it means they have the "upper hand".

Later, in the 20th century, this method of finding a random winner was often used in baseball and cricket when hands would be placed on a bat and the last to take a grip got to play the game first.

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Have you ever embarked on a foolish and hopeless search for something unattainable? Then probably, even figuratively, you were involved in a wild goose chase. A wild goose chase is a fruitless pursuit with no hope of a successful outcome and was coined in England in the late 16th century.

Back in the 1500s, it was an expression used in relation to a kind of equestrian sport in which all the competitors had to follow accurately the course of the leader at definite intervals, like a flight of wild geese. The term was regularly applied to the sport but it appears to have been Shakespeare who altered the meaning to one of hopeless pursuit.

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Nowadays, to start from scratch is a saying we use to illustrate starting again from the beginning, regardless of how much we have already achieved of a task. However, in medieval times it had a more literal meaning.

Back then, in certain sports like cricket, horse racing, or boxing, a line or mark was "scratched" into the ground by either a sword or a javelin to indicate the point from which competitors had to start. If they cut corners, they would have to start again from this scratch.

Over the years this idiom has been shortened to from scratch and is also used to indicate that we are going to start something with no assistance, for example, a recipe that we make using every ingredient raw instead of processed foods.

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When something gets done in the nick of time it has been done at the very last possible minute, before it was too late. Achieving things just at the critical moment can make us nervous, but when it comes to sports, scoring just before the clock determines the end of the game can change the mood of more than one fan.

In this case, nick is used in the sense of "the precise moment of an occurrence or an event." However, the literal form of the phrase dates from the late 16th century when a tallyman would keep the scores for team games. This person would carve a nick or dent in a piece of wood each time a team scored and if the winning nick was added during the last minute it was known as the "nick in time."

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When someone has lost their bottle they have lost their nerve and their bravery. Contrary to what you may think, this expression has nothing to do with liquor courage. In fact, this phrase originates from the world of bare-knuckle prizefighting during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

In a fighter’s corner, one of his seconds was known as "the bottle man" and his job was to supply water to a fighter between rounds. Without water, a fighter was unable to continue and sometimes it was known for cornermen to be asked to walk away and leave when a fighter was taking a beating, to provide an excuse for him to drop out. The phrase "lost his bottleman" was later shortened and popularly used to describe cowardly behavior.

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This is a widely used expression in the world of sport but it has extended to all aspects of life. To win hands down suggests a very comfortable, easy victory. Its roots can be found not in poker but in horse racing. In the 19th century, winning hands down meant that a jockey was so certain of his victory in the closing stages of a race that he could lower his hands and relax his grip on the reins.

Even today, when a jockey is winning comfortably he can gallop down the finishing straight without using his whip to encourage the nag along. The shortened version hands down is a metaphor of ease extended beyond the domain of horse racing and is used today to convey "without a doubt, no question."

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If someone's name, an idea, or a story are bandied about it means they are being discussed frequently by many people in a casual or informal way. What you probably didn't know is that this phrase originated in France and is related to the world of sports.

The game of Bander was an early form of tennis and involved hitting a ball to and fro. Later, in the 1600s, the Irish invented a team game, a hockey predecessor, that required a group of people bandying a ball between them. They called the sport Bande after the French game because of the similarities between the two ideas. Also, they used a crooked stick that later led to the term bandy-legged to refer to those with bow legs.

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Simply put, across the board means all-encompassing, wide-ranging, and applying to all. Like many of the idioms included in this article, this one also has roots in horse racing. In the U.S., this expression referred to a bet in which equal amounts were staked on the same horse to win, place, or show in a race.

In the 19th century, large boards would be used to display the odds on a horse to come first, second, or third in a given race. A popular bet was to place an even amount of money on just one horse for every possible outcome. This was known as an "across-the-board bet".

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