Common English Mistakes in Reference Letters by Cantonese Speakers

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

Mistake Example #1

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

To Whom It May Concern,I am writing to recommend Ms. Chan for the position at your company. She has much experience in project management and has demonstrated great leadership skills. Her ability to work under pressure and handle many tasks at once is impressive, and she has received manyuch praises from her colleagues.

Text corrected by:
Jennifer, Detroit, Michigan USA

"Good job! I just needed to change "many" to "much" in the last sentence."

To Whom It May Concern, I am writing to recommend Ms. Chan for the position at your company. She has much experience in project management and has demonstrated great leadership skills. Her ability to work under pressure and handle many tasks at once is impressive, and she has received much praise from her colleagues.

To Whom It May Concern, I am writing to recommend Ms. Chan for the position at your company. She has much experience in project management and has demonstrated great leadership skills. Her ability to work under pressure and handle many tasks at once is impressive, and she has received many praises from her colleagues.

Mistake Example #2

Overuse of 'very' to emphasize adjectives

To Whom It May Concern,I amvery pleased to write this reference letter for Mr. Chan, who is a verytalented andvery dedicated employee. During his time at our company, he has shown verystrong skills in problem-solving and has been a very valuable member of our team. I am veryconfident that he will be avery great asset to any organization he joins.

Text corrected by:
Jennifer, Detroit, Michigan USA

"Overall, this was well-written. I just took out the "verys" because they were not needed."

To Whom It May Concern, I am pleased to write this reference letter for Mr. Chan, who is a talented and dedicated employee. During his time at our company, he has shown strong skills in problem-solving and has been a valuable member of our team. I am confident that he will be a great asset to any organization he joins.

To Whom It May Concern, I am very pleased to write this reference letter for Mr. Chan, who is a very talented and very dedicated employee. During his time at our company, he has shown very strong skills in problem-solving and has been a very valuable member of our team. I am very confident that he will be a very great asset to any organization he joins.

Mistake Example #3

Overuse of direct translations from Cantonese

To Whom It May Concern,I am writing to highly recommend Mr. Chan for thea position in your company. He is very hardworking and always puts his heart into hiswork,—just likehow we say "“add oil"” in Cantonese. His ability to handle tasks is like a fish in water, whichmakinges him a valuable asset to any team.

Text corrected by:
Gregg, Los Angeles, CA

"This needed some tweaking to sound more native and natural."

To Whom It May Concern, I am writing to highly recommend Mr. Chan for a position in your company. He is very hardworking and always puts his heart into his work—just like we say “add oil” in Cantonese. His ability to handle tasks is like a fish in water, which makes him a valuable asset to any team.

To Whom It May Concern, I am writing to highly recommend Mr. Chan for the position in your company. He is very hardworking and always put heart into work, like how we say "add oil" in Cantonese. His ability to handle tasks is like a fish in water, making him a valuable asset to any team.