[ SECRET POST #1756 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #1756 ⌋


Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 07 pages, 165 secrets from Secret Submission Post #251.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 1 - broken links ], [ 1 2 - not!secrets ], [ 1 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeats ]
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments and concerns should go here.

Comments

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

As for me, I would guess basic ESL mistakes involve trying to use the right word that nuance indicates is best (i.e., "I have to tell you" or "I need to tell you" - which aren't that different, but it depends on the situation ... nuance); and maybe articles and modifiers that make flow go better? Just a guess.

[delwynmarch.livejournal.com]

Yes, nuance is a common one. I've been told a few times that I used a word that was either too weak or too strong for the situation I was describing, and that it was jarring.

Articles can be a problem for native speakers of languages that don't use them. I could always tell when my Slovenian ex-husband was getting tired or too excited while speaking to French friends, because he would start dropping all his articles. He doesn't make that mistake in English because he's fully fluent in English, but that's a common enough problem with some other ESLs.

Difficulties with phrasal verbs is a very big sign. Either getting the wrong meaning when reading, or using the wrong verb/preposition when writing is extremely common among ESLs. Also, making mistakes on when to use an -ing form, when to drop a "to", and so on ("I want helping you", "I want help you", "I want for help you", you get the idea :P )

Tenses can trip even the most fluent ESLs, especially according tenses between the main clause and a subordinate clause. I don't think I've ever met an ESL who didn't get their tense wrong every once in a while - even down to getting a well-known irregular form wrong, when we get tired or are in a hurry, as in "I've went somewhere". My main current baffling issue on that matter is failing to remember the past form of "to seek". At some point, my brain just erased it, and it was only thanks to my spell-checker that I realised that "seeked" isn't right...

Using the wrong word/expression is a classic. I'll never not blush in embarrassment when remembering how, back when I was still a fresh exchange student in Canada, I once exclaimed to a friend at a church dance "You are so nice!" when I meant "You look so nice!" He looked at me funny and the girls there giggled, and I figured I'd said something wrong again, but I only figured it out a few months later. It becomes funny when you can spot a fellow native whatever because of such a mistake :P It's less funny when you end up saying something offensive because of it ("coloured" and "of colour" technically mean the same thing, but use the wrong one when talking about people, and watch the internet explode in your face.)

Punctuation can be another sign, especially in fics. When people are used to writing in their own language and start writing in English, they sometimes keep using the same punctuation, which can be anywhere from weird (up and down dialogue tags, no tags at all...) to downright grammatically wrong. Like, I didn't know that comma-split sentences were wrong in English; they are fine in French...

And in general there is the matter of wonky sentences. Not necessarily grammatically wrong, but just not what native speakers would say.

And this/that, at to a lesser extent here/there. I know I'm not the only one who can never get these right :D

Of course, this is just what I can think of off the top of my head. I'm sure there are other typical ESL mistakes, but none of them are along the lines of confusing "your/you're" or saying "should of" instead of "should have", because to an ESL who learned English the formal way, "your" and "you're" are very different things even if they somewhat sound the same, and "should of" just makes no freaking sense at all :P

[nusuth.livejournal.com]

This! I can always spot French speakers thanks to our unfortunate tendency to use commas where in English you'd use periods :)

[delwynmarch.livejournal.com]

I've always been a Queen of Paragraph-long Sentences, so I had a terrible time dropping that habit of writing split sentences :P Even worse: now I spot them when reading in French, and I can't help but feel that it's wrong :D (Also, that's my main argument concerning how hard it is to find good betas: I had several betas before finding one who calls herself a Grammar Fiend, and who told me right from the very first fic she beta-ed for me about my comma splits. I was like, "How come nobody ever told me about that before D: ??")

Personally, I tend to spot fellow French speakers because of the verbs they use, and how they use them, somehow. Less phrasal verbs, tons of faux-amis or not-quite-right verbs that feel very deeply familiar :P , use of simple past and present where continuous/perfect is called for, things like that.