please point out my grammar mistakes, if any.

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

TEACHERS: I use the Spell and Grammar check online. No mistake was found but usually that’s not true. Everytime when my English teachers mark my papers they always say I have to pay attention of my grammar, comma, and period. So now I am looking for a pattern of my mistake so that I can work on it diligently.
I wrote a short story from my imagination.
PLEASE give me your suggestion. Many thanks.

Are you a lucky person? Do you believe in luck?

Most recently I read that in our local newspapers a 80 years old widow had won five million dollars from the lottery. Interestingly, she did not buy the ticket. It was given to her for free as part of the promotion from a new supermarket for the first one hundred patrons entering the store. She told the newspaper that actually she had no intention to receive a free lottery ticket. As a matter of fact, she went there to have a walk and the free coffee. The ticket was given to her as a bonus without any purchase. Everyone is saying that the window is considered lucky to be in the right place and the right time.

On the other hand, can she also consider as unlucky to win such a large sum of money in such a late stage of her life? Has she the time and energy to spend all the money? I would say her children and grandchildren are lucky because they have the potential to inherit million of dollars from her. So what is luck and how we measure it? According to some researchers in human behaviour stated that luck is a form of self-esteem. People with low self-esteem proclaim that they are born unlucky or vice versa. Personally I think luck is a kind of superstition because people will do anything either to get lucky or avoiding unlucky incidents. That includes hanging a heavy horseshoe on their neck to attract good luck, without thinking about the consequence if unlucky that might break their neck.

2

Hi, nobody answered this kind demand. I’ll try. Now I hope a teacher will correct my try as well so as to let me know my mistakes too.

Are you a lucky person? Do you believe in luck?

Most recently, I’ve read in our local newspapers, a 80 years old widow won five million dollars from the lottery. Interestingly, she hadn’t bought the ticket. She was given the ticket for free, as part of the promotion from a new supermarket, for the first one hundred patrons entering the store. She told the newspaper that actually she had had no intention to receive a free lottery ticket.

As a matter of fact, she went there to have a walk and the free coffee. She received the ticket as a bonus, without any purchase. Everyone is saying that the widow is considered lucky to be in the right place at the right time.

On the other hand, I wonder if she can also be considered as unlucky due to her win such a large sum of money in such a late stage of her life? Does she have both the time and energy to spend all the money? I would say, her children and grandchildren are lucky because they have the potential of inheriting a million of dollars from her. So what is luck and how we measure it? According to some researchers in human behaviour, luck is a form of self-esteem. People with low self-esteem proclaim that they are born unlucky, vice versa. Personally I think luck is a kind of superstition because people will do anything either to get lucky or avoiding unlucky incidents. That includes hanging a heavy horseshoe of their neck to attract good luck, without thinking about the consequence that, if unlucky, they might get their neck broken.

3

Not too bad, E2. Unfortunately you’ve corrected one or two things that didn’t need correction. Here are some corrections of your corrections. :slight_smile:
Recently - no ‘most’
given the ticket free - no ‘for’ – though ‘for free’ has become so common in the media that it is now accepted by most people. I’m just not most people.
promotion for a new supermarket - not ‘from’ and no comma after ‘supermarket’.
to have a walk and for the free coffee
be considered unlucky - no ‘as’, unless you are going to place ‘unlucky’ in quotation marks.
due to her winning such a large sum of money
at such a late stage.
no comma after ‘I would say’.
potential for inheriting
how do we measure it?
born unlucky and/or vice versa - as originally written. Your comma does not work.
either to get lucky or to avoid unlucky incidents.
off their neck. - though ‘from’ would be a better choice.
‘they might break their neck’… rather than ‘they might get their neck broken’, in this context.

4

Thank you both for the inputs. I am a lucky man !!

5

Interestingly, she did not buy the ticket.

Why did not buy, is wrong ???

Interestingly, she hadn’t bought the ticket.

had not bought, sounded strange to me. Please explain.

6

E2’s verion: ‘Had not bought’ (also shortened to 'hadn’t bought) is the correct tense for the verb ‘to buy’. The verb ‘to buy’ is irregular and ‘buy’ changes to ‘bought’ in the past tenses. This is the past perfect tense which shows the action of buying (or, in this case, not buying the ticket was complete before another action (possibly the time the draw took place).

Your version: ‘Did not buy’ (also shortened to ‘didn’t buy’) is the correct tense for the verb ‘to do’.

Use of the simple past tense, ‘did not’ is not completely incorrect, but this variation of ‘to buy’, using the past perfect tense is a better option.

7

OK,I’ve got “from” is better than “of”. But,why “off their neck”

Also, now “on their neck” seems good to me.

Would “around their neck” be possible?

Please write complete sentences like examples.

Thanks

8

hello Im hei, Im doing some sound test here , I will record something in some minutes, please let me know if the sound is good or bad… and also, what are my mistakes, actually I`m preparing for the toeic test and I will do the exam on April 19th unfourtenately I dont have any close friend to practice , could you give some advices at the speaking area… sometimes I feel very nervous and My mind would become white and I dont what else to say…

9

hello , Im hei ... Im doing my second recording here

10

hello, I’m hei again here, please someone could review this exercises of the reading part for the toeic test please, because i dont sure is okay or no , I apreciately your help …
1.Following the company’s 8 million loss during the same period last year, a large number of __________investors took…

a. fright
b.frigten
c. frightened
d. frigtening

the right answer is the c, but i dont understand why is this the answer ?

2.Contributors can express personal views that may not be considered _______________by all.
a.legible
b. appropiate
c. collective
d. written

the righ answer is legible but i dont understand why ?

Business Market Today does not guarantee the ______
of the content found on the website.
a. payment
b. readers
c. validity
d. variation

the right answer is validity according to the answer sheet, but i dont understand why ?

  1. An established life insurance company _________
    an executive assistant
    a.sought
    b.seeks
    c.to seek
    d. in seeking

the right answer is seeks but i dont understand why please could you tell me ?

  1. People everywher are becoming concerned about the high energy prices _________
    a.rise
    b.rose
    c.risen
    d. rising

the right answer is rising , but i dont understand

  1. These energy-saving lights remain on in an _______
    room.
    a. ocupy
    b. occupied
    c. occupying
    d. occupancy

I mark the d answer but i dont sure its okay

  1. Many offices now have a policy of keeping the temperature slightly higher in the summer and slightly cooler in the winter than___did in the past.
    a. they
    b. them
    c. he
    d. it
    i mark the a option , but i dont sure its okay

  2. People with SAD begin to notice their moods _____
    as soon as they star
    thinking about the onset of winter.

a. changes
b. changing
c. to change
d. changed

i mark the option b , but i dont sure its okay

8.Once your router is installed please take a … You will need to register in order to receive updates from our _____
system.
a. auto
b. automated
c. automating
d. automatically

I mark the option c but the answer sheet say its wrong. the righ answer is automated . Could you tell me why?

  1. Fortunately , his response_____
    the board members, and the meeting was finally adjourned.
    a. satisfaction
    b. satisfactory
    c. satisfied
    d. satisfactorily.

i mark the option c , but i dont sure its okay.

11

HELLO HEI,

YOU HIJACKED MY THREAD. Please open a new thread for yourself without interupting others.
By the way, your recording is bad. Are you speaking English? It sounded very strange like someone is singing.
This is a honest feed back for you to improve youself.

isorry,
jc

12

I agree that Hei should not have hijacked your thread, but I thought her recording was not too bad. The microphone quality of the first one was bad, but your speech is easily understandable to me. Please post it on a different thread though - there is a separate forum for speaking and listening.

13

Here you mean ‘moving down from’.
‘Of’ is the wrong spelling and carries a different meaning. ‘Off’ is the correct spelling.

‘around their necks,’ is good.

I missed this the first time:
their - plural, so ‘necks’ should be plural too.

14
  1. That isn’t right. The correct answer is a.

2.The correct answer is b) appropriate.

‘Validity’ is correct for your unnumbered question. I suggest you look up ‘valid’ in a learners’ dictionary.

  1. ‘seeks’ is correct because it is present tense - they are looking for someone right now.

  2. Rising is correct because prices are currently going up.

  3. You are not right. ‘Occupied’ is the correct word.

  4. You are right to use a) ‘they’.

  5. You are correct, but the phrase you should use is "I’m not sure it’s okay’
    ‘Don’t’ (to do) is the wrong verb for your statement. You need ‘am not’ (to be).

  6. ‘automated’ - something which has been made to work automatically.

  7. You are correct that the answer is c.

If you are really unsure of all these answers, then I’m sorry but I don’t think you’re ready to try the TOEIC test yet. You need to do a lot more studying of simpler exercises.

15

That includes hanging a heavy horseshoe off their necks to attract good luck, without thinking about the consequence if unlucky that might break their necks.

If necks, plural form.
How about luck or lucks?

A heavy hosrshoe is singular??

That’s is the problem I am having. Whwn and where to put the “s”.

16

‘Luck’ is uncountable. You never need to use ‘lucks’, it would be incorrect.

You raise an interesting point. There are several options here.

a) You can treat the ‘their’ as a singular ‘indeterminate’ pronoun (by ‘indeterminate’ I mean you it is used instead of his or her because the gender cannot be determined in this context). In formal writing use of ‘one’s’ rather than ‘their’ might be considered a neater, though far more formal and ‘stuffy’ solution, but using ‘their’ in a singular form is also risky as it is possible that people won’t realise this is what you mean:
That includes hanging a heavy horseshoe off one’s neck to attract good luck, without thinking about the consequence that if one were unlucky it might break one’s neck.
That includes hanging a heavy horseshoe off their neck to attract good luck, without thinking about the consequence that if they were unlucky it might break their neck.

b) You can treat ‘their’ and ‘horseshoes’ as plural:
That includes hanging heavy horseshoes off their necks to attract good luck, without thinking about the consequencse that if theyone were unlucky it might break their necks.

c) You can treat ‘their’ as plural, but indicate that you are speaking about one instance of this happening by keeping ‘horseshoe’ singular:
That includes hanging a heavy horseshoe off their necks to attract good luck, without thinking about the consequence that if they were unlucky it might break their neck.

Of course, a slight recast of the sentence would avoid the problem entirely:
That includes the idea of a man hanging a heavy horseshoe off his neck to attract good luck, without thinking about the consequence that if he were unlucky it might break his neck.

17

Me again. I couldn’t have found “hanging off” in my on-line dictionaries.

I would be satisfied with the sentence below if it were all right.

1.That includes hanging a heavy horseshoe from their necks to attract good luck, without thinking about the/a consequence that if they were unlucky it might break their necks.

Additional question is about whether the definite or indefinite article should be used before “consequence”.

Breaking their necks could be one of the consequences. They could hurt themselves another ways too, trying to attract some luck with a horseshoe hanging from their necks.

Can I say “a” is possible, but “the” is better? Or both are equally useful.

Thanks

18

‘the’ is better in your example.

This needs recasting:
They could hurt themselves another ways too
It should be:
They could hurt themselves in other ways too.