Tip of the week: June 2015 Suman July 1, 2015

Tip of the week: June 2015

Welcome back to the Tip of the Week round up. This month, we saw tips on many commonly used incorrect usages. Hope these will help you use English more correctly in future.

8th June: Confusing words: Bought and Brought. Bought means buy something. Brought means bring something. The easy was to remember is what you ‘br’ing is brought and what you ‘b’uy is bought. Since both are correct words, spell check will not point out the wrong usage leading to errors if you don’t take care yourself.

15 June: “Myself and wife with children went to the wedding” – What’s wrong with this sentence? It’s an Indianism. 2 things: While listing out people, keep yourself last and always use ‘I’ instead of any other form of pronoun – “My wife, children and I went to the wedding” is correct.

22 june: Usage: “You need a PIN number” or ” I am going to the ATM machine” – What is wrong with these sentences? One word is redundant in each. PIN means Personal Identification Number and hence we don’t need to use number after the abbreviation. Similarly, ATM means Automated Teller Machine. Saying machine at the end of it is pointless.

29 June: Usage: “I look forward to meet you” – What is wrong with this sentence? The phrase ‘look forward to’ has to be followed by a noun or a gerund – verb-ing. So the correct usage should be: “I look forward to the meeting (noun)” or “I look forward to meeting (verb-ing) you”

Do drop me a line if there are any language or usage related tips you want see here.