MIND OUR SPELLING! One word or two words?

Here are some confusing words in terms of spelling.
These also happen to be some of the common errors in pupils' English.

ALL RIGHT or ALRIGHT? - Both correct 

ALL TOGETHER or ALTOGETHER - It depends...
A) There are five of us altogether. (in total)
B) The classroom has been cleaned altogether. (completely)
C) Can you put us all together in a group. (used when people/things are brought together)


EVERY DAY or EVERYDAY? - It depends...
A) I go to school every day. (each day)
B) Forgetting my bag is an everyday event for me. (daily - an adjective used to describe the noun 'event')

EVERY WHERE or EVERYWHERE? - Everywhere (One word. 'Every where' is wrong)

ANY ONE or ANYONE? - It depends...
A) You can choose from any one of these books. (means 'one of the books', usually used with the word 'of')
B) I will reward anyone who answers the question correctly. (any person)

ANY BODY or ANYBODY? - anybody (one word, means 'anyone')
*same goes to ANYTHING, ANYWHERE, ANYWAY - all one word.

EXCEPT!...
ANY MORE, ANY TIME (two words, one word is considered wrong in British English)

STORY BOOK or STORYBOOK? - Storybook (one word)


*newly added
MAY BE or MAYBE - It depends...
A) I may be short, but I'm taller than you. (means 'it's likely to happen', used after pronouns like I,she,he,they,etc.)
B) Maybe I'm taller than you. (means 'perhaps', used as an adverb)
C) This may be a coincidence, but maybe we should find out more before we decide what to do. 

"PACK YOUR BAGS" versus "PACK YOUR BELONGINGS"

One of the meanings for 'pack up' is to put things in a suitcase, bag or other container so that you may take them with you when you're leaving.
Therefore, when I'm going for a holiday, I'd prefer to say;
"PACK UP MY BELONGINGS" 
instead of
"PACK MY BELONGINGS"
or 
"PACK MY BAGS".

This is because 'pack your/my/his/her/etc. bags' could mean to leave a place or a job and not return (permanently).

*So, are you packing up or packing your bags? ;)

"DAY BY DAY" versus "DAY AFTER DAY"

A)
I get fed up with listening to complaints day by day. - WRONG
I get fed up with listening to complaints day after day. - CORRECT

B)
Day after day the pupils are getting more disrespectful. - WRONG
Day by day the pupils are getting more disrespectful. - CORRECT.


NOTE:
Day after day = repeatedly or continously
Day by day = gradually

"What a beautiful scenery!" - Don't say that!

"What a beautiful scenery!" - may sound correct to most of us but it's grammatically wrong.

"What beautiful scenery!" - may sound awkward but it's actually correct.

 

Do you know why?

So, we cannot say '...a scenery' or 'sceneries'. ;)

*It's simply because 'scenery' is an uncountable noun, just like 'furniture', 'information' and 'bread'.

family is/are? (Singular or plural?)

The family _______ (is/are) cleaning the house.
Which answer is correct? Is or are?

In American English, family is always considered as a singular noun.
Therefore, the answer is 'The family is....'

HOWEVER;

For British English, 'family' can be a singular noun or a plural noun.
When you are referring 'family' as a single unit or think of them as a group, you use 'is'.
When you are referring 'family' to the individuals (family members), it's more common to use 'are'.

For example;
1) My family is big. It consists of 10 members. (singular)
2) My family are having lunch. They are having lunch at the restaurant. (plural)
*you cannot say 'It is having lunch at the restaurant' (singular)

Another example;
1) My family is big. (That means it consists of many family members.)
2) My family are big. (That means the family members are all fat/big.)

BACK TO THE QUESTION ABOVE, WHICH ANSWER IS CORRECT? IS OR ARE?

I knew or I've known (him for years)?

I knew him for years. - This is correct but is used if the person mentioned has died.
I've known him for years. - This is more accurate. It shows that the person is still alive and you still know him until now.

However, can we use "I've been knowing him for years" (Present Perfect Continous Tense)?

Present Perfect Continuous Tense is used to show that something started in the past and has continued up till now.

Therefore, formally, it's correct to say;
- "I've been living here for years"
but not, "I've been knowing him for years."

WHY???
It's because there are some verbs that we do not usually use in progressive (continuous) forms. They are mostly verbs of sensations and mental states.
For example;
 like, love, need, prefer, know, seem, mean, own, hate, want,
wish, desire, see, hear, feel, notice, understand, remember, forget, believe, recognize, appear, possess, contain, consist, etc.

Of course you don't say, "I'm liking the food" when you can just say "I like the food" or "I'm loving/believing/knowing you" if you can just say "I love/believe/know you".

ANYWAY, AS THE VERNACULAR (SPOKEN LANGUAGE), THOSE EXPRESSIONS ARE SOMETIMES USED AND ARE ACCEPTABLE. 

playing football 'ON the field', 'AT the field' or 'IN the field?

Based on my references, it's actually 'on the field'. (British English)

E.g.: The children are playing football on the field. (for a playing field)
BUT; The cows are grazing in the field. (for a field with crops)


*The preposition 'in' is also used for 'playground', 'park' and 'garden'.
*The preposition 'on' is also used for 'beach' and 'farm'.
*The preposition 'at' is also used for 'market', 'school', 'hospital' and 'airport'.

However, when you refer to a meeting point, you can use 'at', for example; "Meet me at the school field."

"mathematic","mathematics","Mathematic" & "Mathematics"

It should be mathematics.
FYI, names of school subjects are not capitalized except for language subjects, specific subjects and special courses.
E.g.:
-science, geography, visual arts, physical education, English language, civics, Malaysia history, etc.

COLOURED PENCILS or COLOUR PENCILS?

They are called as 'coloured pencils', not 'colour pencils'.
A photograph can be described as a 'colour photograph', not a 'coloured photograph' because of its natural colours.

Is it right to say "do correction" (especially for teachers)?

When a student makes a mistake or an error in his/her book, we should put a remark - "PLEASE MAKE A CORRECTION."
Informally, we can say 'Please do a correction'.
If there is more than one error, they need to make corrections.

So, it's wrong to say or write 'please do correction'.

#'Correction' is a countable noun
However, it can also be an uncountable noun if we refer to the general action of 'making something right'.
For example;
'Sentence correction is needed in his essay.'
'There are a few types of geometric correction.'

"Playing with her doll" OR "Playing her doll"??

When we play with something, it's either
-we spend time amusing ourselves with it
OR
- we fiddle/move it about using hands, etc.
"The boy is playing with his pencil." (he's fiddling the pencil in his fingers.)
"She always plays with her doll." (she usually moves her doll with her hands and makes herself amused playing with it)

When we play with someone, that means we play together with him/her.
"I play with my sister."

However, we use play something (without 'with') to show that we 'really take part in that playing activity/game'.
E.g.:
I play the guitar. (NOT 'I play with the guitar.')
I play chess everyday. (NOT 'I play with chess everyday.') 

Think!
Is it 'I play the ball everyday' OR 'I play with the ball everyday' ?

If you play with the ball, that means you take the ball and move it or bounce it without any rules.
However, when you play the ball, it could mean that you play the ball in a game such as football, etc.

GRAMMAR TIPS FOR PMR CANDIDATES!

Here, I've listed 10 grammar items, which as a PMR candidate, you should know about these.
If you do not know any, it's high time for you to figure out and learn!

1)  ARTICLES (a, an, the, zero article)
2)  NOUNS (types of nouns, countable/uncountable, singular/plural forms)
3)  PRONOUNS (personal, possessive, reflexive, relative)
4)  VERBS (including tenses - past, present, future, perfect, subject-verb agreement, modals, etc.)
5)  ADVERBS (different uses of words that describe verbs)
6)  ADJECTIVES (positives, comparatives, superlatives)
7)  CONJUNCTIONS (for example; and, so, although, etc.)
8)  PREPOSITIONS (of position, place, time) *this is the most frequent one
9)  CONNECTORS (logical connectors, sequence connectors)
10)  DETERMINERS (for example; this/those, some/any, etc.)
*you should also have learnt about CONTRACTIONS & PUNCTUATIONS and still remember about them.

This is specially dedicated for my students.  Please make sure your tuition teachers/private tutors stress these rather than the others which are not so important. It's because I don't want your parents to pay them for nothing.