Learners errors in some specific sentences

[Ely13]

Hi all,

I would like to ask some teachers with experience which are some common errors or difficulties that foreigners have when facing the following sentences:

1. I'm playing tennis with my brother on Saturday
2. On Sundays I usually do housework
3. Her coat's not there - she must have gone home
4. Would you mind opening the window?
5. When we got to the cinema, the film had started.
6. They're probably going to fire him


I underlined the parts of the sentences I am more interested with. I speak Spanish, French and Italian, therefore I can imagine the common errors in these languages. I would like to know if someone is teaching to Arabs, Japanese or Russian: what could be the challenge for them?

Thanks in advance to whoever will take the time to answer and help me with this task.

 

[Tdol]

A couple of comments:

1 A language that does not distinguish between singular and plural night lead to a misunderstanding about why 1 is correct, but wrong if you say Saturdays (without further context).
2 Languages without articles can have problems with nouns like this.
3 Come and go don't work in exactly the same way in Japanese as they do in English, so can cause trouble, especially when compounded with been/gone to add to the verb form.

 

[Ely13]

Hi,

thanks a lot for the time you spared to answer me. I will look more into the Japanese tip you gave me. Very interesting point

 

[Tdol]

It also applies to the first two.