Common mistakes at CAE | Baamboozle - Baamboozle

Could you please tell me where are the restrooms/ where the restrooms are?

In indirect questions (polite questions that start with expressions like Could you tell me… or Do you know…) we invert the subject and verb.

We discussed about adding/ adding additional security measures.

We can talk about something or argue about something, but we can’t discuss about something.

In spite of she grew up/ growing up poor, Melanie became a successful entrepreneur.

We use despite and in spite of followed by a noun or a gerund. We cannot use despite and in spite of followed by a subject + verb.

Due to it was/ Due to the holiday, there weren’t many cars on the road.

We use due to and because of followed by a noun or a gerund. We cannot use due to and because of followed by a subject + verb.

Did you hear the new/ the news about the Kardashians?

News (i.e. information about current events) is a singular noun and ends in an ‘s.’

My father always gives me great advices/ advice.

These non-count nouns often give English learners trouble: advice, help, homework, information, knowledge, proof, equipment, evidence, furniture, luggage, mail,

I stopped to smoke/ smoking several years ago.

f we use stop + gerund, it means the gerund activity stops. If we use stop + infinitive, it means the infinitive activity starts.

We won’t cancel the meeting even though/ even if it snows later.

Even though is for true conditions, and even if is for hypothetical conditions or for conditions that haven’t happened yet.

I had to think about it for a while, but finally I could remember/ was able to remember the name of my first grade teacher.

n positive sentences, we use was/were able to to talk about an ability on a single occasion, and we use could or was/were able to to talk about a general abilit

I made my son to clean up/ clean up his room.

After the causative verbs let, make, and have, we use an object followed by the base form of the second verb. We do not use the infinitive form of the second ve

I’m used to wake up/ waking up early, so I have no problem getting here at 7 a.m

We use to be used to + gerund/noun to talk about something that we are accustomed to. We often use the expression to talk about whether something is a problem.

We have a three-days/ day weekend coming up.

A compound adjective is when two or more words join to modify the same noun. If a compound adjective has a noun, the noun should be singular.

I have much/ a lot of experience with children.

we don’t normally use much with non-count nouns in positive statements. Instead, we use a lot of.

I would never choose to live in another country, but if I do/ did move to another country, it will/would be Spain.

did;We use the first conditional to communicate that a condition is possible. We use the second conditional to communicate that something is impossible, unlikel

We always look forward to relax/ relaxing on the weekend.

We always use the gerund form of the verb after a preposition. In the expression look forward to, the word to is a preposition and not part of an infinitive ver

Thanks/ Thank/ Thank you God I don’t have to work tomorrow.

Thank God is an expression we use to express gratitude to God or to communicate that we are happy about something.

There are 21 millions/ million residents in the state of Florida.

If we mention an exact number, we don’t add an ‘s’ after hundred, thousand, million, or billion.

“I’ll see you in class on next/ next Saturday.”

If we use next or last plus a day of the week, we do not use the preposition on.

Today I prefer/ would rather stay at home.

would rather( used to talk about specific choices, while prefer is used to talk about general preferences)

The ground is all wet. It should/ must have rained.

must ( used to draw a conclusion about the past)

Can you explain me the grammar/ Can you explain the grammar to me?

Explain something to someone

My friend recommended me to buy/ recommended that I buy this car

Recommended that ...

We'd like to invite you to our next event/activity, which will be held in May

event ( social gathering for people to attend)

The amount/ number/ quantity of people suffering from poverty is increasing

number