Mistake 28: Search or Search for?

These two verbs are usually confused. However, they have different meanings. Have a look:

When we use the word SEARCH without a preposition, it means we are talking about the area we are looking.
Examples:
I searched the ocean (I swam around in the ocean and went on a boat looking for something).
He searched his car all day long but never found it (He was looking in his car – in the trunk, in the seats, etc – for something)

When we use the preposition FOR after SEARCH, it means we are talking about the actual thing we want to find.
Examples:
I searched for my keys and couldn’t find them (I didn’t know where my keys were so I looked around my apartment for them).
He searched for his car (He had forgotten where he had parked it and was looking to find the automobile).

We can also have two objects after the word search. We first say where we are looking, and then what we are looking for (following the word FOR).
Examples:
I searched my apartment for my keys.
He searched the city for his car.

(Source: https://www.englishwithnick.de/online-english-lessons/search-and-search-for-difference/)

Mistake 27: Good or Well?

When someone asks  ‘How are you?‘, what is the correct answer? ‘I’m good? /I’m well?‘ I have found an interesting article that explains why both answers are correct. You can read it here.

As it is explained in the article, as a general rule, ‘Well’ is an adverb and should modify a verb. Example: She did very well in the exam.

‘Good’ is an adjective and should modify a noun, a noun phrase or a pronoun. Example: She is a good student.

Mistake 26: Two more tickets or two tickets more?

This is a common mistake among Spanish speakers because of the influence of our language. ‘More’ in these types of sentences is an adjective in English and as a result it precedes the noun: ‘Two more tickets‘.

In Spanish, however, it is considered an adverb and used after the noun: ‘Dos tickets más‘.

Have a look at the following picture from Vaughan’s creepy corner:

Mistake 25: See, look or watch?

When is it correct to use See, Look and Watch?

These verbs can be difficult to diferentiate as their meanings are similar.

I have found a webpage where the explanation is quite clear: http://dictionary.cambridge.org/es/gramatica/gramatica-britanica/look-at-see-or-watch

The following picture summarizes the explanation before, so I hope it helps you to remember it better:

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Mistake 24: Very, Very dangerous

In order to emphasize the meaning of an adjective, many people tend to use “very”. But using “very” can be very dangerous. Why?

The reason is that there are two types of adjectives:

1- Base adjectives: These are the normal adjectives and don’t have the idea of ‘very’ implied so they can be graded, that is to say: I can be a bit bored, the book can be quite interesting, a story can be too long or an exercise can be very easy.

2- However, there are strong adjectives or extreme adjectives, where the idea of ‘very’ is implied. Therefore, you can’t use ‘very’ with them. For example: A box can be very small or TINY; a house can be very big or ENORMOUS; I can be very tired or EXHAUSTED, and so on…

If you want to add any emphasis to latter ones, you can add adverbs like: Really, absolutely, utterly... That also have a kind of “extreme” connotation.

Would you like some practice? Try to match the following base adjectives with their corresponding strong adjective in the box. The solutions are in the comment below.