Common English Mistakes in Instagram Captions by Cantonese Speakers

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

Mistake Example #1

Overuse of direct translations from Cantonese

FI'm feeling so happy today! JI just finished eating lunch with my family, and the food itasted very goodtaste. HI hope everyone haves a nice day, like me! 😊 #FamilyTime #GoodTaste

Text corrected by:
Gregg, Los Angeles, CA

"Changes I made were mostly to improve fluidity and readability. "

I'm feeling so happy today! I just finished eating lunch with my family, and the food tasted very good. I hope everyone has a nice day, like me! 😊 #FamilyTime #GoodTaste

Feeling so happy today! Just finished eat lunch with my family, and the food is very good taste. Hope everyone have a nice day like me! 😊 #FamilyTime #GoodTaste

Mistake Example #2

Overuse of 'very' to emphasize adjectives

Feeling very happy today! The weather is vextremely nice, and the sky is vebryight blue. Had an verspecially delicious lunch with friends, and—it was veryso much fun. Hope everyone is having a verygood day, too! #HongKongLife #VeryHappy

Text corrected by:
Gregg, Los Angeles, CA

"This needed some changes to reduce overuse of the word "very.""

Feeling very happy today! The weather is extremely nice and the sky is bright blue. Had an especially delicious lunch with friends—it was so much fun. Hope everyone is having a good day, too! #HongKongLife #VeryHappy

Feeling very happy today! The weather is very nice, and the sky is very blue. Had a very delicious lunch with friends, and it was very fun. Hope everyone is having a very good day too! #HongKongLife #VeryHappy

Mistake Example #3

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

Enjoying a beautiful day at the beach with so much sand andmany sunshine! 🌞🏖️ Can't believe how much fun we are having with all the great people here. Hong Kong has so manyuch beautiful scenery to explore! #BeachDay #HongKongAdventures

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

"I just replaced a word or two to make the English sound more natural. Overall, the ideas in this text are clearly expressed."

Enjoying a beautiful day at the beach with so much sand and sunshine! 🌞🏖️ Can't believe how much fun we are having with all the great people here. Hong Kong has so much beautiful scenery to explore! #BeachDay #HongKongAdventures

Enjoying a beautiful day at the beach with so much sand and many sunshine! 🌞🏖️ Can't believe how much fun we are having with all the great people here. Hong Kong has so many beautiful scenery to explore! #BeachDay #HongKongAdventures