Missing a pronoun or relative pronoun; unclear pronoun reference or wrong use of a pronoun. Missing relative pronoun The relative pronouns (e.g. “who”, “which”, “that”, “whom”) cannot be omitted when they are the subject of the relative clause. It is okay to omit the relative pronoun when

Wrong preposition, missing preposition or no preposition needed. See also Word Choice. Wrong preposition In example 1, you listen “to” something, not “on” something.   WRONG RIGHT Listening on music can help with mental health. Listening to music can help with mental

Transitive verbs should be used with an object. Intransitive verbs cannot be used with an object. Wrong: *I bought there.Right: I bought my phone there. Object(s) missing after transitive verb  In the examples below, direct objects are missing after transitive verbs.  

Similar to wrong word choice, wrong phrasing refers to a mismatch of words at phrasal levels.   WRONG RIGHT As schools were very care about their rankings… As schools care greatly about their rankings… On the one hands, the government… On the one hand,

When two or more phrases are put together using a conjunction (e.g., “and”, “or”), they should belong to the same category (i.e. noun phrase, verb phrase, adjectival phrase, etc.) (see also Word Class). In example 1, the verb phrase “will be distributed” is in the passive form of the simple

Modals should be followed by a bare infinitive. Wrong: *She can comes. Right: She can come. In example 1, the verb in the simple past form “found” cannot be used because bare infinitives (i.e. “find”) should be used after modal verbs (i.e. “can”).   WRONG

Chinese learners tend to use the pronoun “it” without clearly referring to an immediately preceding noun. In English we normally use “this” or a noun phrase instead. In example 1, “it” can only refer to an immediately preceding noun (“the top”). If we

An uncountable noun cannot be made plural. See also Singular/ Plural Noun. In example 1, “media” is already a plural noun, representing the plural form of medium.  In example 2, the uncountable noun “research” appears in the plural form.   WRONG RIGHT Today’s teenagers have grown up

Chinese learners tend to overuse topic-comment sentence structures in English. These are typically introduced by “FOR”. Wrong: *For the students, they think it is better to have more internship opportunities during their study. Right: Students think it is better to

Misuse the upper-case instead of the lower-case or vice versa. Wrong capitalisation WRONG RIGHT  “The most people hula-hooping simultaneously is 4,183 and was achieved by the Department of Health and the Ministry of Public Health (both Thailand) in Bangkok, Thailand,

Choosing the right verb tense depends on the perspective the writer adopts in connection with time. Usually, current events are narrated in the present tense (e.g. “I am at the office right now.”). Past events are narrated in the past tense (e.g. “I

See also Word Choice. The auxiliary form of the simple present tense is “do/does”. The auxiliary form of the passive voice (the present tense) is “is/are”. The auxiliary form of the present perfect tense is “have/has”. The auxiliary form of the past tense is

Wrong article / missing article / no article needed. The use of articles is determined by what we refer to in each context. The following table shows the possible choices of articles in different contexts: Indefinite article Definite article No article (ø)

Agreement errors include problems with subject-verb agreement, modals followed by a main verb and determiners. The subject and the verb in the same sentence should agree in person and number. Modals should be followed by a bare infinitive. In a noun phrase, the determiner should agree with the