Improve Your Writing Skills

Improve Your Writing Skills

IMPROVE YOUR WRITING SKILLS

A/ AVOID BASIC MISTAKES

Articles / - indefinite: sing. / a/an / I'd like a cup of tea.
- general: sing/pl. / No article / I'like tea/apples
- particular: sing/pl. / the / I don't like the tea in this tea shop
Conjugation / Interrogative and negative forms / Always with an auxilary / Do you like tea? Would you like some tea?
He won't/will not believe you.
Be V-ing / Present
Past
Present perfect
past perfect / He's working.
He was working.
He has been working all morning.
He had been working all morning.
Present simple / S (third person sing.) / She sings very well.
Past simple / -ed (regular verbs)
- 2nd column (irregular verbs / She worked yesterday.
She sang at the concert yesterday.
Temps composés / HAVE + past participle / Have you seen him today?
I hadn't thought about it.
“Depuis” / For + duration
since + starting point (+present perfect or past perfect) / He hasn't worked for 2 hours.
He hasn't worked since 2 o'clock.
Passive voice / BE + past participle / He was beaten to death.
Modals / Modal + Verb base / He mustn't reveal the secret
Modal +have +past participle / Probability in the past / He must have revealed the secret.
He can't have done it.
Gerund / Verb-ing / used as a noun (after a preposition, as a subject, after stop or start...) / I'm fed up with (your) shouting.
(Your) shouting gets on my nerves
Stop shouting!
Infinitive / to+verb / The action is not done yet / I'd like you to stop shouting.
He stopped watching the film to help his mum.
“Il y a” / Existence / There is+sing/there are+pl / There's a new student in our class.
Are there many students in your school?
Time marker / … ago. (simple past) / He arrived two days ago.
Subject pronouns / I you he she it
We you they / Before a verb / We went out yesterday.
Object pronouns / Me you him her it
us you them / After a verb / Lend him this book please!
Possessive / Possessor's (sing.)
possessors' (plural) / Your father's car
Your parents' car
Possession / Possessive adjectives / + noun / My, your, his, her, its
our, your, their
Prossessive pronouns / Without a noun (Your car is blue whereas mine is red) / Mine, yours, his, hers, its
ours, yours, theirs
Reflexive pronouns / Myself, yourself, himself, herself itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves / She was looking at herself in the mirror.
The children did it themselves; nobody helped them
Relative pronouns / Subject / Who, which, that / The man who is at the door...
The car which/that is parked in front of the door...
Object / No pronoun or who(m), which, that / The man Ø/that/who(m) you can see at the door....
The car Ø/that/which you can see...
possession / whose / The man whose car is parked in front of the door.....
Adjectives / Always singular / adj+noun / Short curly black hair
Comparative / Superiority
▲Irregular / Short adj-er (than)
more + long adj (than)
▲ good-> better
▲ bad-> worse
▲ far-> farther/further / My brother is more athletic than me but I'm slimmer.
Equality / As + adj + as
so+adj+as (only negative) / His hair is as curly as mine but it is not so long.
Inferiority / Less + adj + than / He is less tidy than me and less organised.
Superlative / Superiority
▲ Irregular / The + short adj-est
The most + long adj
▲ good-> better
▲ bad-> worse
▲far-> farther/further / This is my youngest brother, he is the most talented in the family
Inferiority / The least + adj / I am the least hard-working.
many/much / Many + pl
much + sg / Did you see many people at the concert?
There isn't much cheese left.
Few /little / few + pl
little + sg / There were few people at the concert.
There is little milk left
Linkwords / (see worksheet)

B. No more typical mistakes:

People / persons
People are (sg) / Some people is are waiting at the bus stop.
These (pl of this) / this
Those( pl of that) / that
w.o. after what / ex I don't know what is the problem is.
to (purpose) / for to do this …
Children / 2 Children(s)
A child / A child(ren)
Who -> that / … a car who is red -> THAT/WHICH
Must + BV / He must to do that
Want + subject + to / He want that you do He wants you to do
Every +sing / I play tennis every Sunday(s)

C. Understand and correct your mistakes

X / omission / oubli
???? / meaningless / incompréhensible
3rd p. / third person singular / “s” 3e personne du sing.
art / article / pb article
aux / auxiliary / pb auxiliaire
comp / comparative / comparatif
for/since / for/since / traduction de depuis
Fr / French / gallicisme
GC / grammatical category / nature grammaticale
il y a / ago/there is/there are / traduction de “il y a»
awk. / akward / Maladroit /mal dit /lourd
Ing / gerund / gérondif
int. / questions / forme interrogative
inv / invariable / invariable
irr. / irregular form / irregulier
LK / linking word / mot de liaison
mod. / modal / modal
neg / negation / forme negative
pass. / passive voice / voix passive
poss / possessive / cas possessif
poss. adj. / possessive adjective / adjectif possessif
prep / preposition / préposition
pron. / wrong pronoun / problème de pronom
rel / wrong relative pronoun / problème de relatif
sg/pl / agreement / pb accord
sp / spelling / orthographe
Span. / Spanish / hispanisme
sup / superlative / superlatif
tns / tense / temps
voc / vocabulary / lexique
W.O. / word order / ordre des mots