Mistakes regarding english

One of the reasons to write this wiki is to practice english. I'm keeping in here a list of common doubts and mistakes that very often I make or have.

I'm going to draw a parallel here between admission exams and the certificate of proficiency in english. Scoring high on admission exams does not mean that you are better than people who score low. It means that you answered more questions right. The same happens with certificates of language. The certificate of proficiency is an exam and passing at it with a high score does not mean that you are better than somebody else who passed with a lower score. I once had a teacher of english who had the perfect score on the proficiency test and she told in a class that she could not communicate with native speakers unless the speaker was an old person.

Years ago I was thinking on that certificate of proficiency. But over time I began to question what I'd do with it. In the beginning my goal was to have it as it's a pre-requisite to do postgrad abroad in many places. As it turned out, I'm already writing and reading way more that I'd ever write or read to prepare for that exam. In addition, I dropped out of undergrad. I mean, there are stories out there of taxi drivers who learned english without attending any school of english. What would a certificate mean for a taxi driver?

Grammar

• Rather than vs Instead of

In / At / On the plane?. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartesian_coordinate_system Seems to be "in the plane"

You look at the Cartesian plane

"Because of" vs "Due to" https://web.ku.edu/~edit/because.html

The function is going to zero because of ...

The function's behaviour is due to ...

Into / In something

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/grammar/british-grammar/in-into https://www.grammarly.com/blog/into-vs-in-to/ https://www.thoughtco.com/in-and-into-1692749

Level surface vs. Surface level

The inverted order of the words is caused by the translation from another language to english.

On to / Onto

https://www.grammarbook.com/blog/definitions/on-to-vs-onto/

Do / Does

I've lost count of how many times I confuse the two. Even english speakers confuse it all the time!

http://www.differencebetween.net/language/grammar-language/difference-between-do-and-does-2/ https://www.ecenglish.com/learnenglish/lessons/do-or-does

Larger / Greater / Bigger / Higher / Wider

According to wikipedia, a square is larger than another.

Would have

https://ludwig.guru/s/that+would+have+otherwise+been

View / See / Picture

Most of the time we can use either interchangeably.

Issue / Problem

Infinite / Infinity

Infinite is an adjective, a quality. Infinity is a noun, a quantity, object or something that has no end or limits.

• Need vs require

In mathematics, do we need a condition or is a condition required to prove something? Both are right. But for some cases there is a difference. Pre-requisites mean that something is really required, it's necessary. A function need not to be always positive to be crescent. It's not wrong to use need like this.

https://www.englishcurrent.com/grammar/difference-need-require-verbs/

Couple / Few

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/couple-few-several-use

Questions When / What / How / Which + Do or Does

• Just - Present perfect x past simple

Looking up the formal grammar rule states that "just" is to be used with present perfect. The explanation is that the word "just" means "a short time before". It's something that began in the past and has some implication in the present. For example: I have just arrived; He has just left. However, modern english seems to break that rule because it's not wrong to say "I just did it" or "He just left". The explanation is that the interpretation has been changed over time, from "a short time before" to "the action or event took a short amount of time, which has already ended in the past".

To maker things a bit more complicated, it's not only a matter of time in the past. We can also use "just" to refer to the future. For example: I'm just about done; I'm just going to do it; I'll just eat this before doing that.

Reference:
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/just
https://jakubmarian.com/i-just-did-it-vs-i-have-just-done-it-present-perfect-or-past-simple/
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/grammar/b1-b2-grammar/just-yet-still-and-already