In this modern era, the use of the English language spoken is both formal and informal ways is a common thing. But unfortunately, there is still a lot of error in the way Indonesians speak English. You may have been in a situation where you heard a friend of you say a word in English but it doesn’t sound right. And for native speakers hearing that might make them confused.
Here are several common mistakes that Indonesians don’t realize when speaking in English.
Worthed or Worth it
The word ‘worth it’ is often pronounced in the wrong way, rather than saying ‘worth it’ Indonesians pronounce the word as ‘worthed’. They don’t mention the word ‘it’ instead they put ‘ed’ at the end of ‘worth’. Which will sound different when being pronounced and has no meaning.
‘worth it’ is only used as an adjective or as a noun in modern English. Meanwhile, the use of ‘ed’ is only used by a verb. In that case, if you want to say something nice it’s better to say ‘worth it’ or ‘worthy’ instead of saying ‘worthed’.
Your Welcome
The most common response when someone says ‘thank you’ is ‘you’re welcome’ which is shorten for ‘you are welcome’. But there are still several people who think the right spelling is ‘your welcome’ instead of ‘you’re welcome’ which sounds the same when being pronounced. It is a fatal mistake when you write ‘your welcome’ instead of ‘you’re welcome’ you might be embarrassed.
Changing To infinitives & Gerund
“I like to drinking coffee” or “I like to watching movies” Do these sentences sound right to you? For sure it is wrong. These two examples are grammatically error which Indonesians usually say. They combined to infinitives with a gerund which is a big mistake.
It would be better if the sentence was “I like to drink coffee” this is an example of a to-infinitive. Or you can say “I like drinking coffee” now this second example is the use of gerund.
Learn more about infinitive and gerund now by taking an English online course at Cakap.
Pluralization Compound Word
A compound word is a combination of two or more words that form into one and has the same meaning. If you’re confused these are some examples of compound word mother-in-law, runner-up, basketball and many more. A lot of us think that to change a compound word from a singular form to plural is by using hyphen the symbol (-), when only the basic word needs to be changed into plural form, not the whole word.
Let me give you an example ‘brother-in-law’ the basic word is ‘brother’ which we only need to change the basic word into plural which will become ‘bothers-in-law’ not ‘brother-in-laws’. Do you get it now?
Advise vs Advice
The other most common mistake Indonesians don’t realize is the pronunciation of advice into advise. To prevent this mistake, you can keep in mind that ‘advise’ is a verb meanwhile ‘advice’ is a noun.
So, if you want someone to give you advice just say “Please advise” and if you want to ask for an advice just say “Please give me advice”.
The use of Articles
Besides that, Indonesian people also like to use articles. Articles are (a, an, the) in an unappropriated way. A or an is only used for a singular noun. Meanwhile, ‘the’ can be used for singular or plural.
‘a’ is used for words in which the first alphabet is pronounced with the consonant sound. And ‘an’ is used for words where the first alphabet is pronounced as vocal as an example “an HR”. but if you say Human Resources then you must use ‘a’ as “A human resources” because the word ‘human’ is read as a consonant.
So, those are 6 common mistakes that Indonesians do when speaking English. Remember don’t forget to keep studying and improving your English pronunciations and spellings. It will be even better if you can take an online course to help you improve your skills to an advanced level.
