Standard English 03

Standard English is about choosing the right word to make a sentence understandable.

This quiz focusses on a few specific common errors which you should avoid if you'd like to speak and write in Standard English. One of these is a confusion between the verbs "teach" and "learn". In modern English, "to teach" means that the subject is imparting knowledge or helping someone else to learn. By contrast, the verb "to learn" means that the subject is gaining new knowledge or skills. In Standard English, it is not correct to say "I'll learn him" or "That'll learn him". Although you can KNOW a person, you can't really LEARN them! Instead, it would be correct to say "I'll teach him" or "That'll teach him".

Another common error which occurs in some dialects is to say "it were". As you know, subjects and verbs need to agree in person and number. "It" is singular, rather than plural. It is also third-person. Just as it would not be correct to say "she were" or "he were", it is also not correct to say "it were", at least in Standard English.

Practise, practise, then practise some more with English. A good solid grasp of English will set you on your way in the world. Here is the third quiz in our Standard English series.