Common English Grammar Mistakes: Incidence Vs Incident

According to Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English:

Incidence defines "the number of times something happens, especially crime, disease etc".
For example, poverty causes the incidence of crime increase in this area.

Incident defines "an event, especially one that is unusual, important, or violent".
For example, apart from the incident in Japan our holiday was completely trouble-free.

Common Mistakes: " Instead of " Vs "Insteads of"

Based on the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English in previous post, we understand that we only use "in terms of" in either plural or singular fact or event instead of "in term of". The latter does not applicable in any sentence.

Again, according to this dictionary, I realize that "insteads of " is also invalid in any sentence. In other words, we only use "instead of".

Although some people may argue that we should use "insteads of" for plural cases, "insteads of" simply do not exist in the dictionary.

Common Mistakes: "Sometime" Vs "Sometimes"

What is the difference between "Sometimes, I study English" and "I study English sometime next month".

According to Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, "sometimes" has a meaning similar to occasionally. "Sometime", on the other hand, can be used when you do not know exactly when the time is either in the future or in the past.  

Common Mistakes: " In terms Of " Vs "In Term of"

Previously, my friend explained that we should use "in terms of" when the thing we describe is plural, and "in term of" when the thing we describe is singular. However, after a simple investigation, I realize that we should always use "in terms of".

According to Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, "in terms of" can be used for describing either plural or singular fact or event.

The Difference between Acronym and Abbreviation

Acronym is a word which created from combining the initial letter of few words. Abbreviation, on the other hand, is a word which created by shortening its original word.

Example of acronym includes:

FYI (For Your Information)

FYA (For Your Action)

WRT (With Reference To)

cc (Carbon Copy)

Bcc (Blind Carbon Copy)

ASAP (As Soon As Possible)

COD (Cash On Delivery)

Lessons from "English for Career Search" Class - An Experience Sharing

Do you like English?

If you ask me this question, the answer will definitely be yes.

I enjoy all of the English classes that I had gone through, especially “English for Career Search” class. I admitted that I select this class due to the reason that it does not require any test or exam. But, later on, I found that the contents that I’m going to learn from this class are exactly what I want and what I need in the near future. I appreciate everything l learnt from it.

List of Links: Self English Learning - Online Resource

In this century, English, cannot be denied, is one of the most useful language in the world, from business, academic research, to the content of a website. However, learning a second language is not an overnight job. It takes time. Besides, to find a good teacher may be another trouble thing in the journey. One of the best way is constantly learning English by yourself in your daily basis. The good news is there are lots of free resources in Internet to help us to learn second language. Therefore, in this post, I would like to share some of my collection, which include video lesson, listening lesson, online dictionary, grammar exercises, writing activities etc, in my English learning journey.

How to distinguish Stationary and Stationery

This is a video from BBC about how to differentiate Stationary and Stationery. Indeed, sometimes it is quite confusing for us about them. The tips given from this video is the E in Stationery means Envelopes, A in stationary, on the other hand, means Attention. So, next time, when you buy stationery, remember to consider envelopes as well.

Difference between Spectra Vs Spectrum Vs Spectra (Singular Vs Plural)

This is a summary of English word usage.

According to the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary:

1. Spetral (Adjective)
- specialized of the set of colours into which a beam of light can be separated spectral light

2. Spectrum (Noun)
-the set of colours into which a beam of light can be separated, or a range of waves, such as light waves or radio waves
-The colours of the spectrum - red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet - can be seen in a rainbow.

English Learning: Criterion Vs Criteria (Singular or Plural)

This is a summary of English word usage.

According to the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary:

Criterion (noun) - Singular
Meaning: a standard by which you judge, decide about or deal with something
Example: The Health Service should not be judged by financial criteria alone.

Criteria = plural of criterion

Free Online Learning: English English - Learn English at BritishCouncil

These are some of the summary from http://www.britishcouncil.org/ which are very useful for everyone who want to improve your English language. A very thank you here for www.britishcouncil.org who have provided various free of charge and very helpful resources to help everyone in this world improve their English language. The purpose for this summary is to record those useful links for everyone's time to time revision.

Free online Learning: Learn English language - Guess a word

In order to increase our English vocabulary, "guess a word" plays an important role on it. It is quite often to heard from somebody who seems know lots of vocabularies, but saying that he or she just guesses the meaning of a word. It is very frustration at the first time for me because I thought they were selfish and not willing to teach me the way he or she have used to memorizing those seldom used vocabularies. Finally, I find out a guild line to guess a word as illustrated below.

English learning: Could Vs Can and Could Vs Would

These are some of the summary from my english lecture today. Albeit these are not a rocket science, I think these will be a good refreshment about our english language.

What is the difference between 'could' and 'can'? For example, "could you please show me their difference?" and "can you show me their difference?". 'Could' has a meaning of possibility and 'can', on the other hand, has a meaning of ability. As a result, the former sentence has a meaning of "Is it possible for you to show me their difference" which is more polite compared to the latter sentence which has a meaning of "You have the ability and show it to me".