5 Simple Yet Very Common Grammatical Mistakes Part 1

Super Duper to the Max Repetitious Redundant Expressions (A Grammar Police Special Report)

Yup, the title is intentional. It’s supposed to be an irony or a sarcasm.

Image courtesy of fixation.com

The grammar police is signing in once again, this time to awaken our common sense and realize how repetitive some of our expressions are. Yes, they irritate me. Yes, I feel smug when I hear them. And yes, I know my grammar isn’t perfect. Yes, I feel like I am doing our society a favor by posting this. No, I INSIST that I have a right to write as though my grammar were impeccable even though I know it isn’t. So here goes:

Ka-dorm mate/ka-batchmate – I often hear this among college students, but in fairness, rarely in UPLB. I think that the Filipino prefix “ka-” means “co-” in English, as in “co-worker” or “co-teacher”. Prefix “co-” means “with”, while “mate” means “companion”. Just say ka-dorm or better, dorm mate. [Read more...]

5 Simple Yet Very Common Grammatical Mistakes Part 1

Yes, they irritate me. Yes, I feel smug whenever I hear them. And yes, I know my grammar isn’t perfect. Yes, I feel like I am doing our society a favor by posting this. No, I INSIST that I have a right to write as though my grammar were impeccable even though I know it isn’t.

Image courtesy of uncyclopedia.wikia.com

So, here goes:

Cashier: “Ay Ma’am, baka po may 50 cents na lang sila…”
I feel like saying: ”None, and if I do have one I won’t give it to you in exchange for your one peso because 50 cents is approximately 20 pesos.”
Explanation kung hindi mo pa rin gets: cents is to dollar as centavos is to peso.
Kuya Kim: “At ito ho ang pinaka-latest ngayon mula sa PAGASA tungkol kay Bagyong Blah Blah Blah…”
I feel like saying: ”Ang pinaka ay nagmula sa Tagalog na ang ibig sabihin sa Ingles ay most o puwede rin itong pamalit sa suffix o hulapi na -est “.
Explanation kung hindi mo pa rin gets: Pinaka-latest is equivalent to most latest, which is a double superlative.
Mostly newbie conyos: “I will gonna buy this.”
I feel like saying: ”I will gonna correct you muna ha, ‘coz like, you have mali.”
Explanation kung hindi mo pa rin gets:In forming future tenses, there are two options: the will form and the be verb*+going to form. You may interchange the uses, but don’t mix them! You may say, “I will buy this” or “I am gonna (slang for going to) buy this.
Even good English speakers: “I have already taken cared of it.”
I feel like saying:“The past tense has already been taken care of by the verb take. Pero OK lang yan, medyo mahirap talaga ‘yan. Just read the explanation below”:
Explanation kung hindi mo pa rin gets: In the phrase take care, care does not function as a verb but rather functions as a noun (as in “Handle this computer with care.”) so it can’t have a past form (Is childed the past form of child? Is catted the past form of cat?). Thus, just say, “I have already taken care of it.”
Stores: Laboratory equipments and home furnitures for sale!
I feel like saying: I don’t think you have them!
Explanation kung hindi mo pa rin gets: There are no equipments and there are no furnitures…only equipment and furniture exist. These two words are always singular; to form their plural, they must be preceded by a phrase such as pieces of.

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Yes, I know that there are so much more grammatical errors that we Filipinos commit in everyday conversations. But I chose these five because they are, in my opinion, among the most common despite the fact that they’re so easy!

*be verbs include am, is, are, was, were

Super Duper to the Max Repetitious Redundant Expressions (A Grammar Police Special Report)