Portfolio 6

The semester is coming to an end and from all the grammar exercises, I find that there are several grammar mistakes that I always make. Here I will list three of them

Firstly, the wrong use of "the" always appear in my essay. The definite article is used before singular and plural nouns when the noun is particular or specific. "The" signals that the noun is definite, that it refers to a particular member of a group. "The" is not used with noncountable nouns referring to something in a general sense. And I always make mistake here. For example, "Intelligence is difficult to quantify." , intelligence here is a general word and "the " shouldn't be used here. The is used with noncountable nouns that are made more specific by a limiting modifying phrase or clause, and it is also used when a noun refers to something unique, eg "the White House".

Secondly, I'm quite confused about the use of preposition. Prepostion is quite different from others words because most of its use is fixed, and we have to memorize it. For one point in time, on is used with days; at is used with noon, night, midnight, and with the time of day and in is used with other parts of the day, with months, with years, with seasons. To express notions of place, English uses the following prepositions: to talk about the point itself: in, to express something contained: inside, to talk about the surface: on, to talk about a general vicinity, at. The use of preporstion is very complex and in order to have a better understanding of it, I think I need to have more practice.

Lastly, the problem exists on the use of countable and uncountable nouns. In English, there is a kind of collective nouns, and their singular and plural forms are the same. Here, the choice of verb form is very important. The rule of pluralizing is that most count nouns pluralize with -s and noncount nouns don't pluralize at all. For a number of nouns, the rule needs slight revision. Certain nouns in English belong to both classes: they have both a noncount and a count meaning. Normally the noncount meaning is abstract and general and the count meaning concrete and specific. For example, I've had some difficulties finding a job. (refers to a number of specific problems) and She succeeded in school with little difficulty. (refers to the general idea of school being difficult).

The errors listed above always appear in my essays and in the future days I'll pay more attention to them.