Common English Mistakes in Business Emails by Cantonese Speakers

This page focuses on errors typically made by native Cantonese speakers from Hong Kong when writing a Business Email in English.

Mistake Example #1

Confusion with countable vs. uncountable nouns ('She has much friends')

Dear Mr. Chan,I hope this email finds you well. I am writing to inform you about the progress of our project. There isare many updates that I would like to share with you. Also, we have received mucha lot of feedback fromour clients, which is very helpful for our improvement. Please let me know if you have any questions or need further informations. Thank you for your attention.

Text corrected by:
Jennifer, Detroit, Michigan USA

"I made some small changes, particularly to much/many. Good work!"

Dear Mr. Chan, I hope this email finds you well. I am writing to inform you about the progress of our project. There are many updates that I would like to share with you. Also, we have received a lot of feedback from our clients, which is very helpful for our improvement. Please let me know if you have any questions or need further information. Thank you for your attention.

Dear Mr. Chan, I hope this email finds you well. I am writing to inform you about the progress of our project. There is many updates that I would like to share with you. Also, we have received much feedback from clients, which is very helpful for our improvement. Please let me know if you have any questions or need further informations. Thank you for your attention.

Mistake Example #2

Overuse of 'very' to emphasize adjectives

Dear Mr. Chan, I am vplery happysed to inform you that our team has madevery significant progress on the project. The results are vquitery impressive, and I am vextremely confident that we will meet the deadline. Please let me know if you have any questions or need vmorery detailed information. Thank you for your verykind support.

Text corrected by:
Gregg, Los Angeles, CA

"This needed some adjusting to correct overuse of the word "very.""

Dear Mr. Chan, I am pleased to inform you that our team has made significant progress on the project. The results are quite impressive, and I am extremely confident that we will meet the deadline. Please let me know if you have any questions or need more detailed information. Thank you for your kind support.

Dear Mr. Chan, I am very happy to inform you that our team has made very significant progress on the project. The results are very impressive, and I am very confident that we will meet the deadline. Please let me know if you have any questions or need very detailed information. Thank you for your very kind support.

Mistake Example #3

Overuse of direct translations from Cantonese

Dear Mr. Chan, I hope you are well. Iam writeing to you ftor discuss the new project proposal. We should add more manpower to the team,; otherwise, we will not catch upwith the deadline. Please let me know if you have any good suggestions. Thank you for your attention.

Text corrected by:
Miss E., Cyprus, Europe

"Just some small changes were needed. "I write to you for discuss" should be "I am writing to you to discuss" and "catch up the deadline" should be "catch up with the deadline"."

Dear Mr. Chan, I hope you are well. I am writing to you to discuss the new project proposal. We should add more manpower to the team; otherwise, we will not catch up with the deadline. Please let me know if you have any good suggestions. Thank you for your attention.

Dear Mr. Chan, I hope you are well. I write to you for discuss the new project proposal. We should add more manpower to the team, otherwise we will not catch up the deadline. Please let me know if you have any good suggestions. Thank you for your attention.