A study on common grammatical errors in translating Vietnamese text into English of secondyear Englishmajored students at Thuongmai University

A study on common grammatical errors in translating Vietnamese text into English of secondyear Englishmajored students at Thuongmai University A study on common grammatical errors in translating Vietnamese text into English of secondyear Englishmajored students at Thuongmai University A study on common grammatical errors in translating Vietnamese text into English of secondyear Englishmajored students at Thuongmai University A study on common grammatical errors in translating Vietnamese text into English of secondyear Englishmajored students at Thuongmai University A study on common grammatical errors in translating Vietnamese text into English of secondyear Englishmajored students at Thuongmai University A study on common grammatical errors in translating Vietnamese text into English of secondyear Englishmajored students at Thuongmai University A study on common grammatical errors in translating Vietnamese text into English of secondyear Englishmajored students at Thuongmai University A study on common grammatical errors in translating Vietnamese text into English of secondyear Englishmajored students at Thuongmai University A study on common grammatical errors in translating Vietnamese text into English of secondyear Englishmajored students at Thuongmai University A study on common grammatical errors in translating Vietnamese text into English of secondyear Englishmajored students at Thuongmai University

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS During the process of conducting, I have received a great deal of support and

assistance from the teachers, family and friends who bring me a lot of motivation tocomplete this thesis Thus, I would like to show acknowledgement to them

First of all, I would like to express my deepest and most sincere thanks to mysupervisor, Ms Pham Thi Xuan Ha, who is always willing to help me from the topicselection as well as the completing process of this study With her depth ofknowledge, she convincingly guided and encouraged me to be professional and dothe right thing even when the road got tough Without her persistent help, the goal

of this project would not have been realized

Secondly, I wish to show my gratitude to Thuongmai University andespecially the English Faculty’s teachers, who taught me useful knowledge andlessons about life during 4 years Thanks to the assistance of the college board,principal, and teachers, I have been given the best condition and facilities to finish

my college curriculum

In addition, I would like to give my thank to my second-year English majors atThuongmai University for their warm co-operation during the time I collected dataand information for my research

Finally, I would like to express my indebtedness to my family and friends whoalways stand by me and give me their supports to accomplish this study

Because of limited time, awareness and practical experience, the study couldnot avoid shortcomings and errors Therefore, I look forward to receiving commentsand suggestions in order to improve this study

Hanoi, 10 April 2021

Student

Ha Thi Quy Hong

Nowadays, with the development of the world economy, English has become anextremely important tool in all fields Therefore, translation also becomeindispensable area to help writers convey the message to reader

Understanding the importance of translation, Thuongmai University has puttranslation subjects into operation for students as bachelor of English faculty.However, most of these students met several difficulties in grammar when theyconducted translation This study was carried out to find out the commongrammatical errors in Vietnamese - English translation encountered by second-yearEnglish major students at Thuongmai University The data was collected from 33students of translation class in the second years in English Department.Observation, documentation and questionnaire survey are the techniques incollecting data

The results of the study suggest a number of potential errors students are prone tomaking when translating text from Vietnamese to English The researcher found 100errors in total from nine categories that are subject-verb agreement, tense usage,voice usage, prepositions, articles, adjectives, singular and plural forms, parallelstructure, and word order Then, the study also provides some practical guidelinesfor teachers and students so that they can help students deal with these types oferrors in Vietnamese-English translations

TABLES OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

3 Table 3.1: The students' attitude toward the important of

translation

21

4 Table 3.2: The benefits of students when learning translation 22

6 Table 3.4: Grammatical error classifications 31

7 Table 3.5: Error of subject- verb agreement 32

9 Table 3.7: Error of selecting passive or active form 33

10 Table 3.8: Error of selecting preposition 33

13 Table 3.11: Error of singular and plural forms 34

16 Chart 3.1: The students' attitude toward Vietnamese-English

17 Chart 3.2: Translation level of students 24

18 Chart 3.3: Time of practicing translation 25

19 Chart 3.4: Time of translating a paragraph about 200 words 26

20 Chart 3.5: The importance of English grammar 27

22 Chart 3.7: How to improve English grammar 30

CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1.1 Rationale

Every country in the world has its own language, which creates cultural diversity.However, nowadays, to communicate with each other, they need a commonlanguage and that is English In order for the process of cooperation and exchangebetween countries to take place smoothly, translation into English activity hasbecome people’s urgent need Thanks to English-translated versions, countries canhave a mutual understanding and a sense of global citizenship in the multilingualworld It is considered an effective means to learn how to appreciate differentcountries, cultures, communities, and people Moreover, English translation makespeople understand each other better in the process of diplomatic relations andeconomic cooperation, and other fields when countries tend to integrate forcomprehensive development

In Vietnam, when the country becomes one of the members of the World TradeOrganization, Vietnamese-English translation has gradually become anindispensable and urgent tool, creating the success of individuals, organizations, andeven businesses Because English is considered a second language after only thenative language, Vietnamese students need professional translation skills to meet theneeds of integration into the world economy and cultural exchanges with othercountries The Vietnamese-English translation skill is very useful to help students inanalyzing, producing the document, text for learning, and finding the ideal jobs inthe future

However, translation is not an easy work and is a combination of art and skills Itneeds a comprehension of the structure of both source and target language indeed tomake a good translation result One of the language aspects required in a good andreadable translation is grammar The use of grammar influences the meaning ormessage of the translated text since producing the equivalent message Grammarmistakes that appear in translation will deliver different messages that areunacceptable and incomprehensible to the readership Moreover, it will be a greatproblem if errors occur in academic writing In particular, Vietnamese and Englishare two languages from the East and the West, which have obvious differences in

grammar The existence of different grammar rules in English and Vietnamese ispossibly the reason why students often do errors For instance, English has theconcept of tenses for verb and subject-verb agreement, while grammar inVietnamese does not have any

Regarding the existing problem of grammatical aspect and given that the students ofEnglish faculty at Thuongmai University in particular and other translators, ingeneral, make some mistakes in translating Vietnamese -English text which leads tonot fully convey the meaning of the original to the reader, I have decided to choose

the topic: “A study on common grammatical errors in translating Vietnamese text into English of second-year English-majored students at Thuongmai University”

for my graduation paper The aim of the study is to figure out common errors intranslation from Vietnamese to English and offer solutions for students in improvingtranslation skills I hope the study can help the students have a suitable learningmethod to get the best result

1.2 Previous studies

Learning English and translation is not easy so many students sometimes meetdifficulties and make errors in the translation process To find out and overcome thedifficulties and the errors, research topics on issues of “common errors intranslation” have been studied by many different researchers around the world ingeneral and in Vietnam in particular Relating my graduation paper’s topic, there areseveral previous studies that I have consulted for my thesis

1.2.1 Foreign researchers

The first study was made by Matius Tandikombong, Haryanto Atmowardoyo and

Sukardi Weda The topic was "Grammatical Errors in the English Translation Made by the Students of English Study Program of UKI Toraja" In this study, they

divided the sample of this study into two groups: the six-semester and the semester students to find out the different levels of UKI Toraja After handing outliterature reviews, she has conducted a real survey and used the findings of thesurvey to verify it The grammatical errors were mentioned in that study were thewrong verb, noun, conjunction, pronoun, adjective, adverb, article, and preposition

fourth-In addition, the study showed that the most frequent errors are errors in verbs andthat most of the errors are due to overgeneralization and ignorance of the rulerestriction.

The second study was "Investigating Grammatical Errors in Translation " made by

Muslih Hambali in Sriwijaya University Palembang, Indonesia The sampleconsists of 30 students They were asked about common errors encountered duringtranslating process After conducting the study and using a descriptive quantitativemethod, the research showed that the major types of errors made by the studentswere related to incomplete clauses having no either subject, verbs, or neither both,subject-verb agreement, and the absence of subordinators and plural nouns Out ofthe six types of identified grammatical errors, incomplete plural nouns rankednumber one followed by the absence of verb and subject-verb agreement Throughthis study, the researchers also provided useful information about translation andsome suggestions to correct these errors

1.2.2 Vietnamese researchers

A study was made by Nguyen Thi Thu Hang and Trieu Thu Hang at VNU

University of Languages and International Studies The title was English translation errors made by second-year translation-major students” The

“Vietnamese-researchers identified common Vietnamese-English translation errors made bysecond-year students and propose some suggestions for the improvement of thecurrent practice After conducting the study and using the descriptive quantitativemethod, the researchers discovered the most common linguistic errors were lexicalchoice and other common errors including lengthy and awkward expressions whilesome grammar errors such as misuse of articles, punctuation, and plural or singularforms were not a serious problem for students Thus, they suggested some valuablesolutions to improve these problems

Another one is the study on “Common structural errors in Vietnamese - English translation made by English majored students at Duy Tan University” implemented

by Bui Thi Kim Phung The instruments in the study included documentobservations, questionnaires, and interviews The study indicated that common

errors made by the students included Omission of Subject, Inappropriate Choice ofSubject or Predicate, Inappropriate Choice of Negative Form, and Lack of MainClause in Complex Sentences Noticeably, errors caused by “hidden” elements inVietnamese sentences were the most common The study not only finds commonerrors in translating English text but also figures out factors influencing thestudents’ errors in doing translation and suggests solutions to improve translationskills.

In summary, through these studies above, the researchers investigated somecommon errors in the translating process and some grammatical errors in translatinginto English However, English grammar is extensive and these studies did notcover all problems Therefore, I hope my study can bring full of these errors andcomprehensive solutions to improve this problem

1.3 Aims of the study

Firstly, the main aim of the thesis is to figure out the common grammatical errors intranslating from Vietnamese text to English faced by second-year English majorstudents at Thuongmai University so that they are fully aware of and able to avoidthem The study also classifies the difficulties and explains the causes which lead tothe difficulties in translating processes Secondly, the report also suggests somepossible strategies for students to help them gain the best learning methods toovercome the problems

1.4 Research Subjects

The research subjects of the study are common grammatical errors faced by year students when translating from Vietnamese text to English The study alsooffers solutions for students and teachers to obtain the best learning and studyingtranslation methods

second-1.5 Scope of the study

According to the curriculum of Thuongmai university, students of English major atThuongmai University will take a translation course in the third year However, tomeet the practical needs of students, now second-year students can also register tostudy translation earlier than the program of study In this subject, they have to

study both English-Vietnamese translation and Vietnamese- English translation.Because of the limitation of time, resources, and my knowledge, this study focuses

on analyzing the errors in grammar in the Vietnamese-English translation Thestudy is conducted for second-year students of English faculty who study translationearlier than the program of study at Thuongmai University The reason is that theyhave knowledge about English and have just got a grammar review in the first year.They understand the importance and difficulty level of learning English in generaland practice translating Vietnamese-English in particular The study is conducted insemester 2 of the school year 2020-2021

1.6 Research methodology

To study the grammatical common errors in translating from Vietnamese intoEnglish and get accurate findings, the researcher attempts to address the researchquestions from both qualitative and quantitative approaches, then compare, contrast,supplement, and especially produce the most adequate outcomes

Participants included 34 students from K55N in translation class The quantitativemethod will help the researchers calculate, analyze and evaluate easily theinformation and data source Then, it will give reliable figures which are displayed

in charts or diagrams

- Collected translations from students and tests

The researcher uses mini test papers which help exploit more information anddatabases Besides, some sentences and phrases will be given to them and ask forhelp from them by translating from Vietnamese into English Then, the researcherfinds out the grammatical errors, analysis and corrects them The qualitative method

is used to analyze, synthesize and explain the difficulties of the students

1.7 Organization of the study

This study focuses on four primary following chapters, including:

- The first chapter is an overview of the study The chapter helps readersunderstand generally about the study including seven part: Rationale, Previousstudies, Aims of the study, Research subjects, Scope of the study, Researchmethodology and Organization of the study

- The second chapter is literature review In this chapter, the researcher providesconcepts related to the term of translation, theories concerning Vietnamese-English translation and it is considered a premise for the assumptions anddiscussions in the third chapter

- The third chapter is the research findings In this chapter, the researcherexpresses how to collect and process the data The researcher shows results of thesurvey and analyzes them

- The last chapter is recommendations and suggestions After finding out thedifficulties in translating and showing demonstrations through the results of thesurvey questionnaire, the research offers several solutions for both students andteachers to get the most effective learning and teaching methods in the translationsubject

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Translation theory

2.1.1 Definition of translation

There are many ways to define translation which depends on how scholars viewlanguage and translation There are so many concepts of translation and the severalfollowing definitions are typical ones

According to Wikipedia, translation is the communication of the meaning of asource-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text The text to betranslated is called the "source text," and the language that it is to be translated into

is called the "target language"; the final product is sometimes called the "targettext."

Newmark (1981) indicates that translation is “rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the way that the author intended the text” He also describes

“Translation is as a craft consisting in the attempt to replace a written message and/or statement in one language with the same message and/or statement in another language”

Roger Thomas Bell (1991) says that translation is the expression in anotherlanguage (target language) of what has been expressed in one language (sourcelanguage), preserving semantic and stylistic equivalences The translation is thereplacement of a presentation of a text in one language by a representation of anequivalent text in a second language He focuses on the expression that has beenexpressed in the written text such as thoughts or feelings of the author thattranslators have to take responsibility to preserve semantic and stylisticequivalencies

In the definition of Ghazala (1995), "translation is generally used to refer to all the processes and methods used to convey the meaning of the source language into the target language" The concept focuses on the notion of meaning as an essential

element in translation When translating, understanding the meaning of source text

is vital to have the appropriate equivalent in the target text thus, it is meaning that istranslated in relation to grammar, style, and sounds

In the four above definitions, we can see that the definition of Wikipedia is the mostbasic one The above concepts are aimed at conveying the meaning of the sourcetext to the target text to help the listener fully and completely grasp the main content

of the source text However, compared with the basic concept of Wikipedia, theother three concepts of scholars have different elements In particular, in Mr.Ghazala's translation concept, this concept not only refers to the community of thesource text but also related to the process and method to convey the source text intothe target text The important factor when doing the translation process is to focus

on the grammar and style of the source text This method displays the exactcontextual meaning of the original text in such a way that both the content and thelanguage are easily accepted and understood In Mr Roger's concept, the translationshould reveal honestly the thoughts and feelings of the author The translation notonly makes the reader grasp the main idea of the original text but also must capturethe expressed thoughts and feelings This translation is mainly used in novels thathelp listeners to fully step into the real space that the author has drawn

In summary, although there are many definitions of translation, they support thattranslation is the replacement of a written text or utterance from one language intoanother language, which remains equivalence in content, the purpose ofcommunication, or pragmatic In translation, it emphasizes the “equivalence” of twolanguages, the source language, and the target language

2.1.2 Translation methods

In “A textbook of translation” by Peter Newmark, he has proposed to look attranslation methods as a continuum between the emphasis on Source Language (SL)and the emphasis on Target Language (TL) He considers a scale of eight levels:

(3) Faithful translation Idiomatic translation (7)(4) Semantic translation Communicative translation (8)

Diagram 1: Diagram V Newmark,1988

2.1.2.1 Word-for-word translation

In word-for-word translation, the SL word order is preserved and the wordstranslated by their most common meanings, so translators seek to translate anoriginal word by the same target word as much as possible In addition, the order ofwords of the original language will be followed as closely as possible The main use

of this type of translation is either to understand the mechanics of the sourcelanguage or to construe a difficult text as a pre-translation process

E.g: Tôi biết chơi bóng chuyền

 I know play volleyball.

2.1.2.2 Literal translation

Literal translation is a mode of translation that remains close to the form of theoriginal In other words, “translation which gives priority to lexical correspondencesand results in ungrammatical sentences or it could also mean a translation that is asclose as possible to the original while ensuring TL grammaticality (but notnaturalness)” (Palumbo, Giuseppe)

E.g: He looked up at the Milky Way

 Anh ta nhìn lên con đường màu sữa.

2.1.2.3 Faithful translation

A faithful translation tries to reproduce the precise contextual meaning of theoriginal within the constraints of the target language grammatical structures Ittransfers cultural words and preserves the degree of grammatical and lexical

“abnormality” (deviation from the source language norms) in the translation Itattempts to be completely faithful to the intentions and the text realization of thesource language writer This kind of translation is used for literary translation,authoritative texts, drafts

E.g: He is as fast as a kangaroo

Anh ta nhanh như một con kanguru.

2.1.2.4 Semantic translation

It differs from faithful translation only in as far as it must take more account ofaesthetic value of the SL text, compromising on meaning where appropriate so that

no assonance, word play or repetition jars in the finished version It does not rely oncultural equivalence and makes very small concessions to the readership Whilefaithful translation is dogmatic, semantic translation is more flexible

E.g: She has a sunny smile on her face

 Cô bé có gương mặt với nụ cười tỏa nắng.

2.1.2.5 Adaptation

Adaptation is used mainly for plays (comedies) and poetry; the themes, charactersand plots are usually preserved, the source language culture converted to the targetlanguage culture and the text is rewritten Depending on the language and culturalstyle of the translator, plays and poems are translated differently These works haveoriginal meaning but due to having different writing styles, they make readers havedifferent feelings about each translation

E.g: Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the Milky Way

 Vẫn triền miên như sao trời lấp lánh

Và lung linh trên dải sáng Ngân Hà.

2.1.2.6 Free translation

Free translation reproduces the matter without the manner, or the content withoutthe form of the original Usually it is a paraphrase much longer than the original.Free translation focuses on the content of the target text rather than the form, whichmeans that the same content is expressed in the target text but with very differentgrammatical structures if need be

E.g: The film was beyond any words

Bộ phim không chê vào đâu được.

2.1.2.7 Idiomatic translation

Idomatic translation is where the meaning of original is translated into forms whichmost accurately and naturally preserve the meaning of the original forms Idomaticrefers to being in the common language of average speakers, using the naturalphrases and idoms of the language

E.g: He leads a peasant’s hard life

 Anh ấy sống cuộc sống chân lấm tay bùn

2.1.2.8 Communicative translation

It attempts to render the exact contextual meaning of the original in such a way thatboth language and content are readily acceptable and comprehensive to thereadership The communicative translation is freer and gives priority to theeffectiveness of the message to be communicated It focuses on factors such asreadability and naturalness and is appropriate to translations of “pragmatic” textswhere the actual form of the original is not closely bound to its intended meaning.E.g: Safe stopping distance

 Giữ khoảng cách an toàn

2.2 The factors influence the translating process

In fact, there are many factors influencing the translation, such as SL writer, SLnorms, SL culture, SL setting and tradition, TL relationship, TL norms, TL culture,

TL setting and tradition, the truth (the facts of the matter), and the translator.However, in the Vietnamese-English translation process, there are several factorsthat influence the translation most According to Thanh Thuy (Common errors onverb tenses and word choices in Vietnamese-English translations), there are fourfactors that influence the translating process They are the mother tongue, wordsand choices of word meanings, grammatical structures and context of translation

2.2.1 The mother tongue

The mother tongue is the language we use often in our lives, so it is ingrained in ourthoughts, subconscious and words Therefore, when learning the second language,

we are easily influenced by the mother tongue According Thanh Thuy, “in theprocess of learning a foreign language, the mother tongue shapes our way ofthinking, and to some extent, our use of the target language (word order, choice ofwords)” And the translation is no exception Our mother tongue is Vietnamese, and

we all know Vietnamese is a complex language with a variety of structures,

vocabulary and Vietnamese have many differences compared to English Therefore,when we learn English, the influence of Vietnamese is natural.

E.g: Vietnamese: Tôi muốn mua một ngôi nhà to

English: I want to buy a house big.

Because of the influence of Vietnamese, this sentence is wrong when word order isnot true It should be “I want to buy a big house” Therefore, we must know how touse the similarity between Vietnamese and English, and we must also know thedifference to be able to translate better

2.2.2 Words and choice of words

Words are essential for any language learner to build their vocabulary to get anadvantage in their language learning Vocabulary is a very important factor ofcommunication; It brings with it the ability to communicate effectively Developingvocabulary will open up opportunities for students to learn translation With atranslation text, when learners have no difficulty in new words, they can easilytranslate into the target language and have a good translation On the contrary, they

do not seem to translate Most English words have many meanings; The exactmeaning of a word can only be expressed in context, so choosing the right language

is crucial for a successful translation, as Thanh Thuy said “with a translation text,when learners have no difficulty in new words, it is easy for them to translate intothe TL In contrast, they seem to fail translating

compared to other languages It follows a very strict structure while the Vietnameselanguage is much more flexible There are many tenses in English, they are usedwith a specific structure In the case, if using the wrong structure, readers cannot

understand or misunderstand Therefore, using the correct and appropriate structure

is also an important factor to help you have a successful translation

E.g: Vietnamese: Tôi đã học tiếng Anh 7 năm nay

English: I have learned English for 7 years.

The tense of the verb is the present perfect tense, it shows an action which happened

in the past, and up to now or in the future

In conclusion, grammatical structures in English are so complicated and not easy tomaster It requires the learners have to find an effective way of learning to study andpractice more if they want to limit grammar errors in using English in general andspecifically in translation subject as skilled translators

2.2.4 Context of translation

A language is one of the best ways to see and understand the world It is the vehicle

of our ideas, thoughts and perspectives of our world Because humans areessentially a social animal we perpetually interact with our environment Thisinteraction with the environment is a factor of time and space Whenever andwherever we are interacting determines what actually we are meaning

For example, “Do you see the principal” The word "principal" has a number ofmeanings like a head of an institute, the center of something, a protagonist of amovie or a capital source, et cetera Without certain context, we will translate thesentence as "Bạn có nhìn thấy hiệu trưởng không?" Ad in the movie theater scene,when two people are talking about the movie, the sentence translates as "Anh cónhìn thấy nhân vật chính không?” That demonstrates context also influences ourtranslating process

2.3 Grammar

According to Thornbury (1999), grammar is partly the study of what forms (orstructure) are possible in a language Traditionally, grammar has been concernedalmost exclusively with analysis of the level of sentences Thus, grammar is adescription of the rules that govern how language sentences are formed Grammar is

a term used to mean many different things When teachers and administrators grow

frustrated over error in students’ writing, they often call for a return to “the basic”which they define as grammar (Williams in Andy, 2012).

Another viewpoint said that “Grammar is the structural foundation of our ability to express ourselves The more we are aware of how it works, the more we can monitor the meaning and effectiveness of the way we and others use language T can help foster precision, detect ambiguity, and exploit the richness of expression available n English And it can help everyone not only teachers of English but teachers of anything, for all teaching is ultimately a matter of getting to grips with meaning” (David Crystal, “in Words and Deed”, TES Teacher, April 30, 2004)

Wikipedia also defines that “Grammar is the set of the structural rules that governsthe composition of clauses, phrases and words in any given natural language Theterm refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology,syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics andpragmatics”

Besides, we can see another definition about grammar is that “The whole systemand structure of a language or of languages in general, usually taken as consisting ofsyntax and morphology, etc A particular analysis of the system and structure oflanguage or of a specific language”

In general, grammar is the structure and system of a language, which help usunderstand a language And English grammar is the way in which meanings areencoded into wordings in the English language This includes the structure ofwords, phrases, clauses, and sentences, tenses and right up to the structure of wholetexts

2.4 Error

2.4.1 Definition of error

According Oxford Dictionary, error is the state or condition of being wrong inconduct or judgement Merram Webster also defines that “error is the amount ofdeviation from a standard or specification” In general, error means an act involving

an unintentional deviation from truth or accuracy

2.4.2 Errors in English grammar

According to Corder (1981), the grammatical errors are divided into fourclassifications: error of omission, error of addition, error of selection, and error ofordering

Another model of grammatical errors classification is created by Keshavarz (1994)that classified the grammatical errors into 14 types the collected into two maincategories The first main category is Lexico-Semantic category and the secondmain category is Syntactico-Morphologycal category The first main categorycovers cross-association and false cognate, therefore the second main categorycovers errors in the use of tenses, the use of subject-verb agreement in indirectquestions, the use of quantifiers and intensifiers, the use of prepositions, the articles,active and passive voice, the relative clauses and pronoun, errors in the use of “it is”instead of “there is”, lack of subject-verb inversion in wh-question, wrong use ofparts of speech, errors due to lack of concord, and use of parallel structures andword order

2.4.2.1 Combination between Subject and Verb (Subject-Verb Agreement)

In English, subject-verb agreement is important Unlike in other languages thatrequire that subject and verb agree in both number and gender, English verbs are notconjugated for gender and so require only that they match in number For example,

if a subject is singular, the verb form must also be singular Likewise, if a subject isplural, the verb must also be plural

E.g: Incorrect: She see you

Correct: She sees you.

in which the action is performed): simple, progressive, perfective progressiveaspect.

have/ has + been+ Ved2

Ving had + Ved2 had been + Ved2

Table 2.1: Tense in English

There is no obvious future tense in English corresponding to the time/ tense relationfor present and past Instead, there are several possibilities for denoting future time.Futurity, modality, and aspect are closely related, and future time is rendered bymeans of modal auxiliaries or semi-auxiliaries, or by simple present forms orprogressive forms The errors in tense occur when learners combine two or moretenses that are not synchronic in a sentence or they have difficulty in choosing atense that suits the context of the sentence

E.g: Incorrect: She promised she will not tell anyone my secret

Correct: She promised she would not tell anyone my secret

2.4.2.3 Voice usage

An author may write a sentence in one of two "voices"- active or passive The activevoice emphasizes the performer (or agent) of the action. The active voice is direct,vigorous, clear, and concise The reader knows who is responsible for the action.The passive voice, in contrast, emphasizes the receiver (or product) of the action.The passive voice is indirect and can be weak, awkward, and wordy Passive voiceuses a form of the verb to be followed by a past participle (e.g., dispersed,investigated) and a by phrase The reader will not directly know who or whatperformed the action

However, the active and passive voice are not grammatically correct or incorrect;translator often choose inappropriately which voice to use The passive voice has

the effect of removing the actor from the subject position or from the sentenceentirely This removal is appropriate in certain situations, particularly in science andbusiness Otherwise, you should typically use the active voice.

E.g: Incorrect: I poured the solution into the beaker

Correct: The solution was poured into the beaker

In this example, the active voice would be inappropriate here if this is part of a labreport In science writing, the person performing an experiment should be irrelevant

to the process We should use the passive voice, the "I" can be removed from thesentence

2.4.2.4 Prepositions

According to Cambridge Dictionary, a preposition is a word that is used before anoun, a noun phrase, or a pronoun, connecting it to another word Prepositionsindicate direction, time, location, and spatial relationships, as well as other abstracttypes of relationships

Direction: Look to the left and you’ll see our destination.

Time: We’ve been working since this morning.

Location: We saw a movie at the theatre.

Space: The dog hid under the table.

Unfortunately, there’s no reliable formula for determining which preposition to usewith a particular combination of words Some preposition errors are missing,redundant, or misuse of prepositions

Definite article: the (before a singular or plural noun)

Indefinite article: a (before a singular noun beginning with a consonant sound)

an (before a singular noun beginning with a vowel sound)

For the purposes of understanding how articles are used, it is important to know thatnouns can be either count (can be counted) or noncount (indefinite in quantity andcannot be counted) In addition, count nouns are either singular (one) or plural(more than one) Noncount nouns are always in the singular form

For example, if we are speaking of water that has been spilled on the table, therecan be one drop (singular) or two or more drops (plural) of water on the table Theword drop in this example is a count noun because we can count the number ofdrops Therefore, according to the rules applying to count nouns, the word dropwould use the articles a or the

However, if we are speaking of water in general spilled on the table, it would not beappropriate to count one water or two waters there would simply be water on thetable Water is a noncount noun Therefore, according to the rules applying tononcount nouns, the word water would use no article or the, but not a

2.4.2.6 Selecting adjective

An adjective is a word that tells us more about a noun It "describes" or "modifies" anoun In English, a word can create two or more adjectives with different meanings,especially, there are many adjectives that we have in English that end in -ED or-ING An adjective that ends in -ING is used to describe the characteristic of aperson, a thing or a situation An adjective that ends in -ED is used to describe afeeling (or how a person feels) or an emotion It is used to describe a temporarything

Eg: My girlfriend is bored - (My girlfriend feels bored)

My girlfriend is boring - (My girlfriend is a boring person)

So, if we don't remember it will cause confusion and lead to errors in the use of

2.4.2.7 Singular and plural forms

Singular means only one Plural means more than one In order to make a nounplural, it is usually only necessary to add “s” However, there are many irregularnouns that add “es” The rules for spelling plural nouns are based on the letters atthe end of the word Singulars and plurals are interchangeable depending upon thetense, the amount and the context of the statement However, are you aware aboutthe fact that some singulars are the same even in their plural version

People often make mistake in irregular noun plural forms (e.g woman-women,child-children, knife-knives); some nouns have the same singular and the pluralforms (e.g sheep-sheep, species-species); some nouns are count and non-count;using plural nouns with singular verbs (e.g The news is not good.); use plural nounswith plural verbs (e.g Her scissors are sharp./Those reading glasses are mine).E.g: Vietnamese: Tôi có ba người con

Incorrect: I Have Three Childrens

Correct: I Have Three Children / I Have Three Kids

2.4.2.8 Parallel structure

Parallel structure or parallelism is the rule that words or phrases in a series should

be in the same form Correct parallel structure is important because it makes asentence easier to read and understand Correct parallel structure allows the essaysand paragraphs to flow more smoothly for the reader

E.g: Incorrect: Marisa stopped at the grocery store, the bank and ran to the library Correct: Marissa stopped at the grocery store, the bank and the library

In this sentence, the words in the series are all nouns with the word the before thenoun For this sentence to be correct, the last part ran to the library should bechanged to the library

2.4.2.9 Errors of order

Word order refers to the conventional arrangement of words in a phrase, clause, orsentence Compared with many other languages, word order in English is fairlyrigid

A sentence’s standard word order is Subject + Verb + Object (SVO)

E.g: The dog (subject) + eats (verb) + popcorn (object)

Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs, adding things like time,manner, degree As a rule, an adverb (or any modifier) should be as close aspossible to the thing it is modifying But adverbs are special because they canusually be placed in more than one spot in the sentence and are still correct.Therefore, without knowing the rules of word order in sentences, translators maymake many mistakes when creating sentences, especially the errors in the order ofadjectives and noun phrases in the sentences

E.g: Incorrect: I go to the gym morning early

Correct: I go to the gym early morning.