Common English Mistakes in Journal Entries by Cantonese Speakers

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

Mistake Example #1

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

Today was a very busy day. I went to the market and bought manylots of fruit and some vegetables. My friend invited me to her house, and she has muchany pets, including a dog and two cats. We had a lot of fun playing with them.

Text corrected by:
Michele A., Boston, Massachusetts; United States

"I adjusted the language with regard to countable and nono-countable nouns. Otherwise, the ideas in this text are clearly expressed."

Today was a very busy day. I went to the market and bought lots of fruit and some vegetables. My friend invited me to her house, and she has many pets, including a dog and two cats. We had a lot of fun playing with them.

Today was a very busy day. I went to the market and bought many fruit and some vegetable. My friend invited me to her house, and she has much pet, including a dog and two cat. We had a lot of fun playing with them.

Mistake Example #2

Overuse of 'very' to emphasize adjectives

Today was an vincrerdibly exciting day! I went to avery beautiful park with my friends, and we had suchavery fun time. The weather was vpery nifecet, and we enjoyed avery delicious picnic under the vtowery bing trees. I felt vetruly happy to spend such a loverlywonderful day with them.

Text corrected by:
Gregg, Los Angeles, CA

"This needed some tweaking to remove and/or replace instances of the word "very.""

Today was an incredibly exciting day! I went to a beautiful park with my friends, and we had such a fun time. The weather was perfect, and we enjoyed a delicious picnic under the towering trees. I felt truly happy to spend such a lovely day with them.

Today was a very exciting day! I went to a very beautiful park with my friends, and we had a very fun time. The weather was very nice, and we enjoyed a very delicious picnic under the very big trees. I felt very happy to spend such a very wonderful day with them.

Mistake Example #3

Overuse of direct translations from Cantonese

Today I went to the park and saw many people doingexerciseing. The weather was very good, so I decided to take a walk and enjoy the fresh air. I feel very happy because I can relax my mind and body, just like the saying, "one stonekill two birdswith one stone."

Text corrected by:
Camille, Maryland, USA

"I have edited the idiom to the US English form. "

Today I went to the park and saw many people exercising. The weather was very good, so I decided to take a walk and enjoy the fresh air. I feel very happy because I can relax my mind and body, just like the saying, "kill two birds with one stone."

Today I went to the park and saw many people doing exercise. The weather was very good, so I decided to take a walk and enjoy the fresh air. I feel very happy because I can relax my mind and body, just like the saying "one stone two birds."