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Anonymous Posted 18 years ago
Teaching

common mistakes

I teach English and I sometimes wonder how grave certain mistakes made by my pupils are. For instance, congratulations for instead of on. Is it considered a grave mistake by natives? If so, how grave is it. Second question. Being tea an uncountable noun I´m supposed to order two cups of tea but could I say two teas, please?
Thanks for your answer
Carla from Argentina
  

Top answer

(Note: I'm a British English speaker, and there may be UK/US usage differences here. ) I would generally use "congratulations on". In cases such as "Congratulations on/for your marriage", or "Congratulations on/for your recent promotion", "for" sounds wrong to me.

— Mr Wordy

  • (Note: I'm a British English speaker, and there may be UK/US usage differences here.
  • ) I would generally use "congratulations on".
  • In cases such as "Congratulations on/for your marriage", or "Congratulations on/for your recent promotion", "for" sounds wrong to me.
  • But in cases such as "Congratulations on/for doing such a great job", or "Congratulations on/for making this a success", "for" does not seem so wrong (though I would personally still use "on").
  • "Two teas, please" is perfectly natural to me.
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3 Answers
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(Note: I'm a British English speaker, and there may be UK/US usage differences here. There may also be differences in personal preference.)

I would generally use "congratulations on". In cases such as "Congratulations on/for your marriage", or "Congratulations on/for your recent promotion", "for" sounds wrong to me. But in cases such as "Congratulations on/for doing such a great job", or
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HI there. English is not my native but I am married to a native, and English has become our family native language. Language which is evolved from a custom will be different from a textbook based knowledge. I have not heard an Australian saying, two teas. But they do say, "The food is lovely." as opposed to Bristish saying, "The food tastes fanstastic and it was delicious." But that is an everyda
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Hi, I'm a new person on this forum and I'd like to have a practice of english with your help))
By the way, I'm from Russia, Saint-Petersburg...as I understood there are some Russian speaking people as well, am I right?)
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