Common Mistakes and Some Sentence Corrections

embarrassed/embarrassing
--When my boyfriend came to the party drunk, I was embarrassed.

--During the performance, I fell down. It was embarrassing.


health/healthy

--Smoking is bad for your health.

--Communication is important to any healthy relationship.

brave/bravery

--It was brave of you to tell the boss that he was making us work too hard.

--Bravery is an important quality in every facet of life.

society/societal

--The police force is an important part of society. (Notice it isn't "the society")

--Traffic lights contribute to societal order.


A sentence with mistakes
"We can hear much news talking about old people died for many days, and their family don't care."

How to correct it: "We have heard many news stories about a family not caring that an older family member has been dead for many days." [If you want to stress both the elder and the family, you probably need to use more than one sentence because of how complicated the situation is.]

"Money can change one's attitude and causes jealousy and tragedy may occur."

How to correct it: "Money can change one's attitude and cause jealousy, and tragedy may occur." (We need the verb tense to stay the same.)

Problem:
"it caused the person who does it [to be] hurt. In my opinion every kinds of training, if did properly, should never cause you injury."

How to correct it:
--"it hurts the person who does it. In my opinion no kind of training, if done properly, should ever cause you injuy."

(Notice where to put the negative: "no kind" We use positive forms from then on: "ever cause you." Also, note the verb tense: "done correctly" instead of "did correctly".)