Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Enigma]

One of my high-level adult students asked me the other night if I could talk to them about some of the verbs that students commonly misuse. I told him I'd look on the Internet to see if I could find a list and then we could discuss it. But I've googled a few different variations and I haven't found anything like I was hoping to find. Mostly there are lists of commonly misused words (I'm looking specifically for verbs) or they are low-level verbs like "sit" and "sat". I also came across a wiki list, but it was a list of commonly made errors by native speakers and so most of the verbs included are not commonly used by students.
To give you a couple of examples, I talked to them about "remind" and "remember" and also "procrastinate" and "delay", "put off" and "postpone", all of which I've heard used incorrectly.
Have of any of you come across such a list? Thanks for any suggestions.

[koreatimes]

My guess is what he meant was more to do with phrases/expressions and things like phrasal verbs.

A dictionary should suffice if there is a one to one correspondence. Context next would be used for individual words. We can't know how one word operates alone, we need to see it in context.

[Enigma]

Thanks for the reply.
He wasn't asking about phrasal verbs, though. He was asking specifically about regular verbs (i.e. non-phrasal verbs) that are commonly misused.

[schwa]

I dont know of any extensive lists but one usage that sticks out is Koreans using "expect" to mean "look forward to."

Other common errors tend to follow the same mistakes less educated native speakers make: bring/take, lend/borrow, drink/drank/drunk, lie/lay, etc.

[koreatimes]

[edwardcatflap]

a few more problems with meaning and usage

Prepare (I�m preparing my university exam)
Play (I play with my friends on Saturday)
Wish (I wish you pass your test)
Confuse (I always confuse when I do listening tests)
Enter (I want to enter a foreign company)
Cut (they cut the trees to make a house)
Fire (the arsonist fired the house)
Die (he was died)
Watch/look at
Find/look for
Bring up/grow up
grow/breed/keep
Wear/put on

[overdrive2023x]

The top ESL mistake I hear from Korean students (I work at a language institute in San Diego) is "drunken." They don't know that we use "drunk" to be describe being intoxicated.

[The Cosmic Hum]

The most common group of verbs that tend to cause problems for many students are the emotive verbs.

bored/boring
excite/exciting
confused/confusing
disappointed/disappointing
interested/interesting
shocked/shocking
etc...

[Draz]

[nathanrutledge]

edwardcatflap - most of your list is phrasal verb errors, which the OP specifically said was not what he was looking for.

cosmic hun - I agree with your list. Many of my students mix up their verbs and adjectives like the list you describe. A good lesson on common endings for adjectives and how to use them would go a long way in this endeavor.

[edwardcatflap]

[thegadfly]

I hear the verb form of challenge being used in place of try/do -- "I challenged the test" for trying to take a challenging test.

[SeoulMan6]

Two types of common mistakes...

1. They often use the incorrect collocation. For example, "play swimming" or "say a lie". There are some good collocation books out there.

2. Using nouns as verbs: "I don't English well."

I know these examples aren't very advanced, but you can get the idea.

[BreakfastInBed]

I've found some students have trouble with the distinctions between words like tell, say, and speak. There are a lot of conceptual hairs to split and in my experience even advanced students who understand the differences often have one that they just default to in speech.

Also, no one seems to have learned 'lend,' and 'borrow' is pulling double duty.