Nonnative English grammar and spelling?

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Doggie

Doggie

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Helsinki, Finland
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Khoira
I have been wondering about this. Since most of the posters on this forum are native US, is there some common little mistakes at grammar that just makes you want to correct us nonnative english speakers? I know for a fact that I frequently correct Finnish speaking people at Finnish boards if they rape my language...

Now I (and most of european residents), speak and write quite good english, since we have studied it since 3rd grade as a mandatory lesson, but I still think that even I need a dictonary or someone telling me what I am doing wrong. For example I am seem to have a habbit of making my sentence's veeeery long, when posting in english...

So is there some common mistakes? Feel free to judge and correct spelling errors here, that is why I made this topic.
 
You write well. Your written english is a lot better than most people I know at school and even some adults.

Don't worry about your sentences being long and etc. As long as you use your grammar well enough for us to comprehend, you'll be fine.

But, Habit is spelled with one B. :D
 
"sentence's" should be plural , not possesive. Other than that and "habbit", your grammar is excellent, and like Omnis said, better than some native speakers. Besides, the occassional mispelling/typo is no big deal, everyone does it from time to time.
 
well, actually, a habit is something you do often, and a habbit is what nuns wear
 
If someone nitpicks your post because it isn't perfect grammar, tell them to screw off.

Gladly, most of out U.S. members don't do this because they know not everyone here leaves in a country that speaks English.
 
*McLaren*
If someone nitpicks your post because it isn't perfect grammar, tell them to screw off.

Gladly, most of out U.S. members don't do this because they know not everyone here leaves in a country that speaks English.
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See what I was talking about, Doggie?
 
Well, I see no general problem with your post either.

There are a few Finns at this board that speak english very well. It must be in your blood or something. :p
 
Your english is fine Doggie...
I didn't really learn english untill 6th grade.
But since I joined GTP I've learned more english on GTP than in school :scared:
Anyway...Welcome Doggie, have fun 👍
 
Omnis
See what I was talking about, Doggie?
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He, Yes I do :) Since I 'm just a junior, can't be bothered to correct him. :)

And seriously, I have been writing habit with one B all of my life. It rhymes similar to rabbit, so never bothered to check it out... well live and learn. I was thinking of dropping a few mistakes on my first post deliberately, just to get the posting going, but seems like I didn't have to :)

Anyway, enough about my grammar, other purpose of this thread was to ask if there are annoying and common mistakes made by others? Something like in the lines of your and you're? Probably not the best example, but you 'll catch the drift.
 
Doggie
Anyway, enough about my grammar, other purpose of this thread was to ask if there are annoying and common mistakes made by others? Something like in the lines of your and you're? Probably not the best example, but you 'll catch the drift.
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You wan't to see those ''common mistakes''? Well, I suggest you to read some of TVR&Ferrari_Fan's posts.

:dunce:

Edit : Or just go to the Drifting Forum in the GT4 section :sly: That'll do it.
 
Everyone else has already said it, but your English is very high quality. You really don't need to worry.

Doggie
Anyway, enough about my grammar, other purpose of this thread was to ask if there are annoying and common mistakes made by others? Something like in the lines of your and you're? Probably not the best example, but you 'll catch the drift.
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There's a lot of apostrophe abuse around. People using apostrophes for plurals mostly.
 
Cosmic
I didn't really learn english untill 6th grade.
But since I joined GTP I've learned more english on GTP than in school :scared:
Anyway...Welcome Doggie, have fun 👍
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Thanks Cosmic. I have been here a quite a while, but only recenly started to post... 6th grade? I always thought that you swedish had a similar schooling system to us... Finns have to take a foreign language as mandatory lesson at 3rd grade, and it will continue as long as you stay in school. Something like 95% take English...

Now my svenska is horrible, trust me :)
 
Doggie
Thanks Cosmic. I have been here a quite a while, but only recenly started to post... 6th grade? I always thought that you swedish had a similar schooling system to us... Finns have to take a foreign language as mandatory lesson at 3rd grade, and it will continue as long as you stay in school. Something like 95% take English...

Now my svenska is horrible, trust me :)
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You see, I'm Hungarian. I learned a few thing in english there in the 3rd and 4th grade, but then I moved to Sweden. I had to learn Swedish, and after a year in Sweden I got in a normal Swedish school in 6th grade, by then, I've forgot almost all english I've learned. So I had to learn the basics from the beggining.
Long story... =)
 
Cosmic
You wan't to see those ''common mistakes''? Well, I suggest you to read some of TVR&Ferrari_Fan's posts.
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The sad part is that he's actually a native English speaker!!!!
You non-natives put him to shame! 👍
 
Your English is very good Doggie, it's better than some people's *cough* TVR&Ferrari_fan*cough*
 
Bah, Smallhorses put a hyphen in non-native before I could mention it. ;)

One thing that does annoy me is people using hyphens instead of dashes. Still, there isn’t a dash on the keyboard, so I understand.
 
GTRacer4
Your English is very good Doggie, it's better than some people's *cough* TVR&Ferrari_fan*cough*
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Agreed 👍 and agreed 👍

I wish my french was as good as your english ;)
 
I thought I was capable of writing posts with fairly good grammar. But I started to realise that my posts often are written in different "times" if you understood what I meant.
Hehe;);)
But, for about a month now, I have tried to fix that problem.

And sometimes I have to look up some words on wikipedia, or a translating site. But that is just part of it, posting on forums with a foreign langauge.
 
Almost everytime I write something, I feel it's not really grammatical, so I just change my entire sentence.

Like Niels, I also need to look for some words, but I'm usually too lazy and I just change the whole sentence.
 
I find that most people (90%) who learnt english as a 2nd language and then have the confidence to post/browse an english forum are fundamentally better at english than many other native english. I think this is because you are taught the basics and fundamentals/rules of english 1st, so your grammer and sentaces are generally of a very high standard. Correct me if im wrong but you learn to write/spell the words before you learn to speak them? However I learnt to talk english as a child via pronounciation and hearing, then write/read it 2nd (grade 1), so some habits were already in place, which carried over to my writing, so while i can talk English extremely well, and have no trouble verbally, my written/grammer/spelling is just as good as most "overseas" guys who learnt it from grade 3, maybe a little worse.

I'm always amazed at how good you european guys can type/spell english, considering its your 2nd/3rd language.
 
I think also, as it's their second or third language, they think more before they type thus probably why they have better grammar than us native speakers where English comes to us automatically, so we don't have to think as hard.

I always try my best though. :p
 
gooseter
well, actually, a habit is something you do often, and a habbit is what nuns wear
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Nope. A habit is both of those things.
 
gt_masta
Almost everytime I write something, I feel it's not really grammatical, so I just change my entire sentence.

Like Niels, I also need to look for some words, but I'm usually too lazy and I just change the whole sentence.
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Jep I do that too. Or if I need to check spelling for a specific word, I just let google correct me.

So you speak French as a native language?
 

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