Need help with completing CELTA pre-application task

Hello everyone,

I'm in the process of completing this assignment and I'm facing some difficulties.

The task requires the following:
Read the following sentences
i) Spot the errors – they can be errors of grammar or vocabulary.
ii) Correct the sentence
iii) How would you explain the nature of the error to the student?

Example
How much people does he know?
a) How many people does he know?
b) ‘much’ is used with uncountable nouns such as water, sugar etc.
‘many’ is used with countable nouns such as pencils, children etc.

1. I’ve lived here since three years.
a) I’ve lived here for three years
b) ‘for’ is used to refer to the duration of a period of time.
‘since’ is used to refer to when a period of time commenced.

2. He was wounded in a car accident.
a) He was injured in a car accident.
b) 'wound' is a kind of injury generally involving broken skin. Thus a broken arm and a cut finger are both injuries, but only the cut finger would be called a wound. 'injury' is more commonly used in the context of some form of accident.

3. He bought a Swedish designer blue big sofa.
a) He bought a big blue Swedish designer sofa
b) ??? (I'm not sure how to best explain the error. Something to do with incorrect adjective and noun placement? How do i elaborate on this?)

4. She asked me where did I come from.
a) ??? (Am I missing something here? Looks fine and sounds natural to me...)
b) ???

5. The cricket ball pierced the window.
a) The cricket ball smashed the window.
b) 'pierce’ is commonly used to describe puncturing.
'smash’ is more accurate as it means to break something brittle violently.

Any help on these would be greatly appreciated. Much thanks and respect!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mrputun

Hello everyone,

I'm in the process of completing this assignment and I'm facing some difficulties.

The task requires the following:
Read the following sentences
i) Spot the errors – they can be errors of grammar or vocabulary.
ii) Correct the sentence
iii) How would you explain the nature of the error to the student?

Example
How much people does he know?
a) How many people does he know?
b) ‘much’ is used with uncountable nouns such as water, sugar etc.
‘many’ is used with countable nouns such as pencils, children etc.

1. I’ve lived here since three years.
a) I’ve lived here for three years
b) ‘for’ is used to refer to the duration of a period of time.
‘since’ is used to refer to when a period of time commenced.

2. He was wounded in a car accident.
a) He was injured in a car accident.
b) 'wound' is a kind of injury generally involving broken skin. Thus a broken arm and a cut finger are both injuries, but only the cut finger would be called a wound. 'injury' is more commonly used in the context of some form of accident.

3. He bought a Swedish designer blue big sofa.
a) He bought a big blue Swedish designer sofa
b) ??? (I'm not sure how to best explain the error. Something to do with incorrect adjective and noun placement? How do i elaborate on this?)

4. She asked me where did I come from.
a) ??? (Am I missing something here? Looks fine and sounds natural to me...)
b) ???

5. The cricket ball pierced the window.
a) The cricket ball smashed the window.
b) 'pierce’ is commonly used to describe puncturing.
'smash’ is more accurate as it means to break something brittle violently.

Any help on these would be greatly appreciated. Much thanks and respect!

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For somebody who is pre-CELTA, you have made a made a good attempt at these. You spotted what what was wrong in #3. OK, you can't elaborate on it yet - that's one of the things you'll be loking at on your course.

I can't give you any more help for two immediate reasons.

1. The course provider may be using this assignment to judge whether your command of English grammar is sufficient for you to be accepted on the course. For us to help you would be wrong.

2. You may have an interview, face-to-face or on the phone, and the interviewer may want to discuss some of your answers with you. S/he wants your reactions to the problems, not ours.

Do not worry. The answers you have given so far suggest to me (a former trainer) that you have the knowledge and common sense to show the course providers that you are the type of applicant who has the potential to complete the course successfully. They don't expect you to know everything before you start!

Good luck.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fivejedjon

For somebody who is pre-CELTA, you have made a made a good attempt at these. You spotted what what was wrong in #3. OK, you can't elaborate on it yet - that's one of the things you'll be loking at on your course.

I can't give you any more help for two immediate reasons.

1. The course provider may be using this assignment to judge whether your command of English grammar is sufficient for you to be accepted on the course. For us to help you would be wrong.

2. You may have an interview, face-to-face or on the phone, and the interviewer may want to discuss some of your answers with you. S/he wants your reactions to the problems, not ours.

Do not worry. The answers you have given so far suggest to me (a former trainer) that you have the knowledge and common sense to show the course providers that you are the type of applicant who has the potential to complete the course successfully. They don't expect you to know everything before you start!

Good luck.

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Thank you very much for the encouraging advice. I do appreciate that spelling out the answers would not be wise. In any case, I am at a loss as to where I might conduct further reading to better understand errors such as the one in #4. Am i missing the obvious? Again, thanks.

I've spotted the OBVIOUS error in #4.

It seems that an entire sleepless night does no good for pre-CELTA task preparation. :lol:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mrputun

I've spotted the OBVIOUS error in #4.

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:up:

#3- Order of Adjectives - Articles - UsingEnglish.com

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tdol

#3- Order of Adjectives - Articles - UsingEnglish.com

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Thank you very much indeed!

:up:

I too am taking CELTA and i know the answer for the fourth sentence. it should be "She asked me where I came from". The structure " Where did I come from" can only be used as a question with a question mark in the end as in "Where did I come from?". If the structure is used in a sentence which is not a question and doesnt use a question mark, it changes to "where I came from" structure.

Examples :

She asked me where have i been to. - wrong
She asked me where I have been to. - right

She asked me where shall I be going now. -wrong.
She asked me where I shall be going now. - right.