Education

Top 10 Typical English Language Blunders you'll hear from a Nigerian.

In my few years of existence on planet earth, I have committed and heard virtually every Nigerian commit these very blunders.

Before you begin to wonder what they are or pride in yourself that you haven't, I must mention that these blunders are predominantly caused by mother tongue interference. Meaning that a lot of these errors are born out of us using our mother tongue syntax to construct English sentences. 

It is mostly unconscious and it has nothing to do with illiteracy. It requires awareness and conscious effort to correct them like I have done in my case. Now I won't say I speak the English language like a Briton but I have made good effort that has yielded great results.

It's important for everyone to be aware of these and make adequate corrections - teachers, parents and students especially.

 As you scroll through, you might identify about 4 or 5 that are applicable to you. Goodluck!

10. Using honorific titles- if you are Yoruba, you would most likely relate to this because you are forbidden to use a singular pronoun to an elderly person out of respect. Hence, you say "they are calling you". Say that in Yoruba and you'll understand better. 

Solution: Substitute "they" with the person's name or title. E.g "Mr. Ade is calling you".

9. Putting a conjunction between two verbs- I have been trying to trace the origin of this particular blunder and I still haven't discovered it. If you have, do mention it in the comment area. A good example is "go and bring my bag", "come take your book". Perhaps we feel more comfortable inserting "and" between two verbs, sometimes it is not syntactically correct.

Solution: Leave out the conjunction. It is simply "come take your book" or "go get my bag".

8.