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EAL · Common Errors
A consolidated checklist of the errors examiners flag most often on essays from Arabic L1 students. Bookmark this - running through it before submitting any essay catches 80% of avoidable mistakes.
The top 10 transfer errors, in order of GCSE-essay frequency: (1) Missing indefinite articles ("She is teacher" → "She is a teacher"). (2) Verb in front position ("Said the boy" → "The boy said"). (3) Simple past instead of present perfect ("I live here since 2015" → "I have lived here since 2015"). (4) Confused prepositions ("in Monday" → "on Monday"). (5) -s missing on third-person singular ("She walk" → "She walks"). (6) Plural on uncountable nouns ("informations" → "information"). (7) "and so" or "and also" as connectors instead of "and" + a comma ("Macbeth is ambitious and also he is loyal" → "Macbeth is ambitious, and he is loyal" or just "Macbeth is ambitious and loyal"). (8) Capital letters dropped on proper nouns ("macbeth" → "Macbeth"). (9) Direct translation of Arabic idioms (use English idioms instead). (10) "Because" used as a sentence opener with no main clause ("Because Macbeth is ambitious." - incomplete sentence; fix: "Because Macbeth is ambitious, he kills Duncan.").
Macbeth is a tragedy that Shakespeare wrote in 1606.
Macbeth مسرحية تراجيدية كتبها Shakespeare سنة 1606.
Article + capitals + relative clause - all correct.
I have studied English for five years.
درست الإنجليزي من خمس سنين.
Present perfect for ongoing action.
Wrong: She is teacher and she teach English since 2015.
Right: She is a teacher and she has taught English since 2015.
Three errors fixed: missing "a", missing -s on "teach", "since 2015" needs present perfect.
Wrong: Said the boy that he will go to school in Monday.
Right: The boy said that he would go to school on Monday.
Fixed: SVO order, "in Monday" → "on Monday", "will" → "would" for reported speech.
Question 1
Fix all the errors.
Which is the corrected version of: "macbeth murder duncan in act 2 and he feel guilty since."