For this volume, we first look at a few common misconceptions from Course 1 in more depth, that still tend to give people problems. Then, we look at some more general phrases that are confused! Here’s 2 examples:

Realise is similar to the verb understand that was also covered in Misconception 1. The difference between realise and notice though is that realise describes becoming aware, or gaining the understanding of something.

In this case, notice the change that the subject undergoes. That is, he didn’t understand or become aware of his mistake immediately. Instead, it was only after the teacher that this change and gaining of understanding occurred. He didn’t know he made a mistake before, but then he learned about his mistake and understood it after the teacher told him.

However, notice simply means to observe, or pay attention to something. Importantly, it implies an ability, or being able to do something.

This has a completely different meaning. Using notice only means that he was able to observe his mistake, or know that it existed. So, the subject may not understand how or why he made the mistake here. Instead, the subject only knows that the mistake exists, and was able to observe it.

Now for a test of the most common mistake using realise and notice! Is the following correct?

No, this is incorrect! Importantly, you cannot use realise with conditionals like can. This is because realise implies the act of becoming aware, or understanding. However, it’s a bit strange to say that someone is unable to, or cannot become aware of something. That is, everyone is capable of becoming aware, or gaining understanding of something. Realise simply describes if this process occurs or not.

Compare this to notice. Is the following correct?

Remember that notice implies an ability, or being able to do something. So, you can definitely use can with notice. Since notice describes being aware, or paying attention, the following sentence means that my students are able to see, or able to observe the errors in their work. However, unlike with the sentence with realise, this doesn't imply that they understand their errors. Instead, they can only see that the errors exist.

This is a very common phrase used by Japanese speakers. However, native speakers never use it, and it definitely sounds unnatural! Instead, let’s look at a few alternatives to using come to be able to.

In general, Japanese speakers often use this phrase to describe a process, and being able to do something in the present, that they couldn't do before.

For example,

There are numerous alternatives to this, but here’s the simplest.

The simplest phrase is with the simple present tense! In addition, by using the time phrase now with the present tense, this implies that the subject I was unable to use phrasal verbs before, but after Nic-sensei’s lesson, I can use them now.

Here’s one more example, and an alternative!

Just like in the first example, this describes something that is true now, but wasn't true before. That is, before the class I didn’t like cooking, but not I do like the class.

Although we could use I like cooking now, here’s another great alternative:

This is very common for English speakers. We use a verb like begin or start to describe when a fact is first true. In this case, using begin or start with the infinitive form to like describes when you first liked cooking, which is after taking a class.

There’s lots more alternatives to the phrase come to be able to in my textbook as well!

Volume 2 is an expansion of the previous course, and describing a situation with there and it. However, we go even more in depth, and look at describing people, places and the world more naturally! There are lots of misconceptions related to this topic, and here are 2!

This section is actually part of a larger section, where we cover other phrases like here vs there. In fact, it may be one of the most common misconceptions of all! Here’s a quick lesson!

This - in the context of space and time, this is a pronoun used to refer to something relatively close to the speaker, such as the most recent event, or something physically near the speaker.

We use this to refer to the closest weekend in time, which is the upcoming or weekend of the current week.

Since I'm referring to a dog very close to me, by my own foot, this is used to emphasise this close physical distance.

That - once more, we use that as a pronoun. However, that is used to emphasise something that is not close in space or time, such as something far away from us, or occurred a long time before or will occur a long after the present time.

In this case, that weekend is a bit unclear. However, what is clear is that the weekend you are t referring to did not occur recently. That is, the party occurred a relatively long time ago in the past.

In this case, it’s not clear how far away the dog is. However, it is clear that the dog is closer to the other person, and farther away from the speaker. For example, if this was a conversation, the dog would be closer to the person being talked to, and farther away from the speaker!

This section is part of another larger section, covering other verbs like bring and take, as well as get and be.

Go - used to describe movement away from the speakers current or usual location.

Notice that we use go here to emphasise travelling away from our current location. That is, we are not at work now, and are not usually at work, but we will travel there in 1 hour.

Come - used to describe movement towards a location near, or common and familiar to the speaker.

The key information here is home. Since home is a common or familiar location for the speaker, it is the place they live, we use come to refer to movement towards this location, and away from work which is a less common or familiar place.

Here’s a common mistake:

Remember who the speaker is in this sentence. Here, the speaker is asking the other person to travel to their home. That is, the speaker wants the other person to travel to their own home, towards themselves. So, we use come to refer to movement towards a location near or at the speaker’s location.

For this volume, we focus on adjectives and adverbs. There are a surprising number of misconceptions related to their use, especially regarding adjective structure.

Aside from this and that, using so is one of the most commonly confused words in English!

This is because its use is related to context.

Normally so has 2 common uses:

1. to describe an extent, or how one thing affects the other. This is commonly used with another clause and the relative pronoun that.

This sentence shows the result of the person being tired. That is, he is very tired, and he is unable to walk as a result of his tiredness.

2. emphasis in informal sentences.

In this case, so is used the same way as adverbs like very or really, to emphasise the degree that I am hungry.

The most common misconception is related to 2. This is because of context and use. This is only used in informal sentences or situations. Also, so is very strong, and usually only used to refer to how we feel, rather than actions.

For example,

Notice that so refers to late here. However, late is referring to the action of staying late. This is unnatural.

This is the difference between using so with feelings compared to actions. Notice that it’s fine to use so angry, as angry is an adjective describing my opinion of staying late.

This is not a misconception, but rather a way to make your writing simpler and more advanced. It’s common to use some nouns as adjectives. We cover many ways in the textbook, but the most common way is using locations.

In general, we can use the larger location or place something is located as an adjective. That is, if something is located within something else, we can use the larger object, or the object that contains the other object as an adjective. This commonly replaces prepositions like of or in

This is easier with examples:

Instead of using of to connect these nouns, notice that the noun university is larger. That is, the university contains the library. So, we can write the following:

Here’s one more example:

Again, notice that the object bench is located inside a larger area, which is a park. So, we can more simply write:

There are many rules for this type of simplification in English, and it’s one of the best ways to make your writing more natural! We cover them all in the course!

Volume 4 is focused on sentence structure. We focus on making your sentences more natural by changing the structure. In addition, we look at ways of making structure simpler, and thus more natural! One of them is actually a continuation of our look at adjectives in Volume 3.

Here are 2 ways to make your writing more natural by changing your structure!

Here’s a topic that may be unfamiliar for many Japanese speakers. In English, we can actually use proper nouns as adjectives.

Remember that proper nouns are names for individual people, places, organizations or other unique objects, that are referred to with a capital letter. For example, Nic is a proper noun, because it’s the name of an individual person: me!

So, a common misconception is the following:

Notice that Fruitful Company is a proper noun. It’s written with a capital letter, and Fruitful is the name of an individual company. So, rather than using of to connect the noun shop with the company that the shop belongs to, we can write the following:

Without using a preposition, we can use Fruitful Company as an adjective by placing it before the noun shop.

Here’s one more:

Notice that we can simplify this even further. Not only can we replace the preposition by this time, but also the verb make as well!

There are a few more cases of using proper nouns as adjectives as well, that we talk about in more detail in the text!

This is a common mistake, and one that is very important to avoid. This is because it can lead to misconceptions in meaning!

Let’s look at a sentence. What does the following mean?

if you use not to refer to difficult first in the sentence, before the adjective good, this means that the negative form not also refers to good. This is because you use the conjunction and. So, the meaning of this sentence is the same as the following:

If you think about the meaning, this is a bit strange! Not difficult to understand is a probably good for a presentation, so also saying the presentation was not good is strange!

Instead, this is what the writer meant to say:

There are many other examples of this, and writing positive and negative information in sentences. We also compare the use of the conjunctions or and and when writing sentences with positive and negative verbs! This is another common misconception!

For our last volume, we look at ways to create emphasis in your writing. There are many ways to do this, and we already looked at using adjectives before in Volume 3.

However, we will look at ways to create more focus on the subject, and to emphasise meaning.

Here are 2 great ways.

In terms of grammar structure, this is by far the most commonly confused subject by Japanese writers.

How many times have you written sentences like the following:

Do these sound natural? They shouldn’t! Can you tell why?

There is one common element between these sentences: we. Remember that we refers to yourself, and a group of 2 or more people. However, who is being referred to with we here? Exactly! It’s not clear. In fact, it doesn't matter who is being referred to. In these sentences, it’s not important who the action. Instead, the most important part is the action itself.

This is where we use the passive voice:

There are many more examples and uses of the passive voice, and more misconceptions! We cover lots of them, and I guarantee by the end of my course that you'll have a much greater understanding of this frequently confused topic!

Similar to our look at the passive voice, there are many, many uses for possessives. However, one of the most natural ways is to use possessives to replace phrases like to someone or for someone. We’ll look at only one case here, but it’s perhaps the most commonly used. The only problem is, it’s not the most natural way to phrase this sentence!

Have you ever written the following?

This is acceptable, but not the way a native speaker would phrase this. In general, we try to place important information first in the sentence. An example of ‘important information' is who or what information relates to.

In the above sentence, the information first time to visit/visiting Canada refers to the person speaking. That is, it refers to me. However, we can place this information earlier by using the possessive:

This is much better! By using my first in the sentence, the reader more quickly knows who the reader is referring to: themselves. Then, the information about the writer comes after. Notice that only the gerund form visiting is used, to refer to an action that occurred in the past.

We look at other uses of the possessives, mainly to simplify and make your writing more natural!

I hope this brief introduction helped you learn a little bit. Do you have any of the misconceptions that I mentioned! That’s OK if you do! Making mistakes is the only way to learn! Remember that this is only a small part of my course, so I'm looking forward to looking at even more misconceptions, and showing you ways to make your writing more natural!