What are grammatical errors?

In the process of acquiring a language, the error has been described as an interference or an indicator of imperfection in linguistic knowledge, so it must be avoided. However, this conception has been controversial thanks to the notion of interlanguage, in which the error is understood as a reflection of the efforts of a student during his process of learning a language. Understood in this way, the error is assumed as one more mechanism when learning a language.

Definition and classes of grammatical errors

A grammatical error is one in which the correct use of grammatical categories (noun, verb, article, adjective, pronoun…) is not taken into account , and which leads to errors in the meaning of the expression. They can be morphological or syntactic.

Morphological grammatical errors

Morphology is the part of grammar that studies the structure, variants, and functions of words . Any morphological deviation from the language constitutes a morphological grammatical error, which can occur in the following situations.

• Use of nouns. Nouns are words that designate beings, objects, qualities, properties, feelings, states, among others. A frequent mistake when using nouns is to mention them with the wrong number.

Example. In the sentence "it is recommended that in winter people increase their consumption of vegetables and go outside warmly" there is an error, because people are a plural noun, so the correct sentence is "it is recommended that in winter the people increase the consumption of vegetables and go out into the street warmly.” 

• Use of the article. Articles determine, identify, specify, and clarify nouns. Errors in the use of the article may be caused by excess or deficiency of the article or by not discerning the contexts in which it is applied.

Example. In the sentence “ next summer we are going on vacation ” there is a defect in the use of the article, because the sentence should be “ next summer we are going on vacation.”

• Use of conjunctions. Conjunctions are words or sets of words that join elements of a sentence or two or more sentences. Errors in the use of conjunctions occur when ” but” is used instead of ” but”, “while” instead of ” during”, “and” instead of ” e” , ” or” instead of ” u” , “ because” instead of “ how” , among others.

Example. In the sentence "Ernesto, because he was very sensitive, he wanted to help everyone in need" there is an error in the use of the conjunction because , taking into account that the sentence should be "Ernesto, since he was very sensitive, he wanted to help everyone." people in need."

• Use of determiners. Determiners are words that accompany nouns and specify their meaning; they also agree in gender and number with the noun. Errors in the use of conjunctions can occur when they are used without taking into account variations conditioned by gender or by the location of the conjunction before or after the noun.

Example. In the sentence "the number of students in any university is quite high" there is an error, because the determinant refers to the number of students and not to the universities, so the sentence should be "the number of students in any university is fairly tall."

• Use of prepositions. Prepositions are words that introduce a term with which an ordered set of words is formed. Some prepositions are: to, before, under, fits, with, against, from, from, during, in, between, towards, until, through, for, by, according to, without, so, on, after, versus and via . One of the errors in the use of prepositions occurs when omitting the preposition between nouns and subordinate words dependent on them.

Example. In the sentence "the tragedy marked one of his friends for life" there is an error, because the preposition a is missing before the direct object of person, so the sentence should be "the tragedy marked one of his friends for life". life." 

• Use of pronouns. Pronouns are words that replace the noun in the sentence; They also designate the grammatical persons I, you, you, you, he, she, we, we, you, you, you, they and they . Some errors in the use of pronouns are the use of who / whom always in the singular and the confusion of the forms or functions of the pronouns, especially in the case of the pronouns what and which .

Example. In the sentence “ what topics are you going to choose for the seminar?” there is an error, because which ones is used to choose elements of the same category; this question is about choosing different topics. For this reason, the sentence should be “ what topics are you going to choose for the seminar?”.

• Use of verbs. Verbs are words that express actions, states, or processes that occur at a certain time. Some errors that can occur in the use of verbs are:

1. the indistinct use of ser/estar/haber.
2. the confusion of the use of participle (for example, hablando, sentando, mirar, callando …) with gerundio (for example, hablando, sitado, mirado, callado ).
3. the incorrect use of the preposition with + infinitive (for example, with ir ), instead of the gerund (for example, yendo ).
4. the confusion of endings between the first and third person singular in the indefinite.
5. the confusion of the uses of the imperfect tense (for example, we were ) and the simple past tense or indefinite past tense (for example, we were ).
6. the incorrect use of verb periphrases (for example, deber que instead of tener que ).

syntactic grammatical errors

Syntax is the part of grammar that studies how words and sentences are combined to express meaning . Some syntactic errors can occur in situations:

• Syntactic order , which determines the location of the components of a sentence. In this case, errors occur such as including a complement between the pronoun and the verb. For example, “this government and this year have done very positive things.”
• Double negative , in which it is taken into account that, when in a sentence there are expressions such as never, never, neither , nobody , nothing and none that go before the verb, it is not accompanied by the word no , otherwise, it is incurs a double negative. For example, “I don’t like that plan and my sister does n’t agree either .”
• Functional redundancy with pronouns , which occurs, for example, by not reduplicating the direct object with the pronoun, when this direct object is placed before the verb. For example, “This method should be used by teachers in your class ” instead of “This method should be used by teachers in your class.”
• Incorrect use of distributives , which occurs when using expressions such as the most – the most, instead of the most… the most. For example, “ the more he thought about it, the more he worried” instead of “ the more he thought about it, the more he worried”.
• From incorrect application of comparisons, which occurs when introducing a second term of the comparison with that instead of the expression of. For example, “that’s more than I ever imagined” instead of “that’s more than I ever imagined.”

Sources

Hernández, A. Linguistic error, a basic element for language specialists . Magazine of Sciences of l’educació . 1:29-39, 2013.

Santiago, G., Reymóndez, I. Minimal error grammar . Analysis of Spanish errors produced by Slovenian learners . Ljubljana, Slovenia: REPAR REPROSTUDIO, 2004.