Remember that you need to use an adverb (-ly) when describing how an action is done or when modifying an adjective.
Category Archives: Advanced
They seek him here, they seek him there
To ‘seek’ is another of those words that are very similar to a much more everyday Dutch equivalent. It therefore gets heavily overused in Dunglish.
Sensitive to
A nice simple one today: it’s “sensitive to” and not “sensitive for”.
Brackets for alternatives
“A five-point scale of (strongly) disagree, neutral, (strongly) agree.” That makes no sense in English, where brackets add detail rather than expressing alternatives.
Superlative for two
Dutch says “the biggest” of two things (superlative), but English says “the bigger” (comparative).
Well-equipped
This mask is equipped with an elastic band. This playground is equipped with a slide. This jacket is equipped with large pockets. What’s wrong with “has”?
Comma splices
Separate sentences shouldn’t be glued together with commas, this is poor style.
Playing for keeps
There are a few small words that bespeckle native English yet are rarely used by non-natives. A very useful one is “keep”.
An Officer and a Gentleman
Nothing tricky about this one. A role or profession in the singular requires an article: “he is a teacher” or “she is the CFO”.
Power, force and strength
Three concepts with distinct, interrelated meanings in physics. And lines that are blurred in everyday usage in differing ways in the different languages. Tricky.
Advanced Dunglish 