7 common mistakes in English that we make when communicating with foreigners

Do you remember the anecdote about Stirlitz, in which nothing betrayed the Soviet intelligence officer, even a dragging parachute and budenovka? About the same story regularly happens with our compatriots when communicating with native English speakers. American Daniel on the channel online school Skyeng told what phrases and mistakes give us foreigners, as well as how to avoid it.

Immediately make a reservation - here we are not talking about the incorrect use of forms of verbs and not about the flaws in pronunciation. Even those who are well versed in English times and pronounces all sounds correctly often stumble on the same complexities. We have collected a magnificent seven of the most common and common mistakes.

1. How is your mood?

Let's start with greetings. In Russia, when they meet, people often ask “How is the mood?”. Many literally translate it into English and ask How is your mood? This is a very typical mistake of the Russian speakers.
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Of course, an American or an Englishman is likely to understand what you mean, but in English this phrase sounds strange and unnatural. Better not to be wise and just say How are you? And if you want something more original, then here are a few more options:

How's it going?
How's everything with you?
What's up?

2. OK - this is not normal

In Russia, the question "How are you?" Is usually answered - "Everything is fine, thank you." In general, the word “normal” in Russian is used very often - it is a neutral answer to the question “How are you?”, “How was your day?”, “How do you like the film?” And thousands of others. “Normal” is neither good nor bad, and so, the middle for half, nothing special.

Therefore, in English, Russians often try to use the word normal in this sense.



But in fact, in English, normal has a completely different meaning. Normal means standard, expected, not surprising. For example, It's normal to feel tired after a long flight . “It’s normal (that is to say, not surprising in such a situation) to feel tired after a long flight.”

There is another normal value - mentally normal, sane.

Imagine that you ask someone - “Well, how are you?”, And he tells you, “Thank you, I'm not crazy,” or you tell him, “How are you?”, And he tells you, “No wonder.”

If you want to say “normal,” say fine or okay , and everyone will understand you correctly.

3. I touch , I feel ...

Almost all Russian speakers make this mistake and say I feel myself - “I feel myself”.

This is a copy of Russian expression, but in English, the word myself is completely superfluous here.



Moreover, this expression can be perceived as if the speaker literally touches himself, and can be interpreted as something not quite decent. They speak English - I feel well, I feel tired, I feel sorry .

4. Native language

You can often hear from the phrase the phrase native city , native language . Obviously, this means “native language”, “native city”, but generally the British and Americans themselves do not say that. My native city is an understandable but not quite typical phrase for carriers. This is not a mistake, but the Americans will say - my hometown , and the town in this word does not mean that we are talking about a small city, it can be a metropolis and village, it does not matter, just the place where you come from. And instead of my native language it is much more natural to say my first language .

5. How! = How

Russian speakers often confuse the question words What and How in sentences like “How will it be in English?”, “What do you think?”. How is usually used to clarify how something happens. For example, How do I get to the train station? - "How (how) can I get to the station?".

Asking How do you call it in English? You are actually interested in how a person moves a tongue to pronounce the right word.
And if you really need to learn the English term, there is the word What - "What's it called in English?"

6. No Today morning

Russians often say today morning when they want to say that something happened this morning. A native speaker will never say that. It is quite natural to say yesterday morning or tomorrow morning , but the phrase today morning somehow did not take root among Americans. Usually they say this morning .

7. Place please excuse

Often in the Russian language the same word is used for different situations. Russian speakers are trying to transfer this experience to English and are trapped. For example, in Russia they say “excuse me” or “excuse me” when they want to attract attention or really apologize. In English, however, to attract attention, they use Excuse me , and for the apology - I'm sorry .

The same story with "please." In English, this is Please , if you ask for something, and you're welcome , if you want to just politely respond to someone's gratitude.

The example with the word "place" is indicative. You can say in the cinema "This is my place", complain, being in cramped, that "There is little space" and in general, wherever you are - indoors or outdoors - you can call it "a beautiful place." And in English 3 different words are used for this.

A seat in a cinema, bus or plane is a seat . A place of which there is little or a lot - room : for example, There isn't enough room - “There is not enough space”. A park, a forest clearing, the foothills of the Alps and a restaurant on the corner are all place .

For those who are too lazy to read everything

Quickly summarize:

1. How are you feeling? - How are you? / How's it going? / How's everything with you? / What up? / How you doing? but surely not How is your mood?
2. Normal is fine or okay , and normal is normal, expected or adequate.
3. I feel good / bad - I feel good / bad - without myself.
4. My hometown is my hometown, my first language is my native language. Forget native .
5. How do you say it in English? /What do you think? - What's it called in English? / What do you think? . How to use only to clarify how something happens and get instructions.
6. This morning - this morning , but you can say yesterday or tomorrow morning . But today morning do not say. So we are illogical.
7. We attract attention or politely ask again, if you have not heard - Excuse me , we apologize - I'm sorry . A place can be translated in 3 different words - seat (armchair), room (space) or place (institution or locality), depending on what is meant.

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