Grammar: 🔄 Review & Consolidation (B2) - Activity: Advanced Error Analysis & Correction

🔄 B2 Activity: Advanced Error Analysis & Correction

Welcome to your final B2 consolidation activity! A crucial skill for any advanced language learner is the ability to perform error analysis¹—that is, to find, understand, and correct your own mistakes. Today, you will be the teacher. Your task is to analyze sentences with common B2-level errors and provide a logical correction².

The Challenge: Find and Fix

Below are six sentences, each containing one significant grammatical³ error related to the advanced topics we have studied. Can you find the mistake and explain why it is wrong before looking at the answer?

1. If I would have known you were in Battambang, I would have called you.
2. By the time I arrived, my friends had been knowing each other for years.
3. After finishing my work, the television was turned on.
4. I was tired, so I stopped to work and went home.
5. My car that is ten years old is still very reliable.
6. The manager demanded that all staff attend the meeting on Saturday.

Ready to check your answers? Look in the "Answer Key" box below!

Answer Key & Explanations

1. Correction: If I had known you were in Battambang, I would have called you.
   Error: Incorrect Third Conditional form. The 'if' clause in a third conditional must use the Past Perfect (had + p.p.).
2. Correction: By the time I arrived, my friends had known each other for years.
   Error: 'Know' is a stative verb and cannot be used in continuous tenses.
3. Correction: After finishing my work, I turned on the television.
   Error: Dangling modifier. The original sentence implies the television finished the work. The subject of the main clause must be the one who performed the action in the participle clause.
4. Correction: I was tired, so I stopped working and went home.
   Error: Incorrect verb pattern. 'Stop + to do' means to pause one action to do another. 'Stop + doing' means to quit an action.
5. Correction: My car, which is ten years old, is still very reliable.
   Error: Missing commas for a non-defining clause. Since a person only has one car (usually), the clause "which is ten years old" is extra information and must be separated by commas. Also, 'that' cannot be used in a non-defining clause.
6. Correction: The manager demanded that all staff attend the meeting on Saturday.
   Error: This sentence was already correct! It correctly uses the subjunctive mood. The verb 'attend' is in its base form, which is required after a trigger verb like 'demanded that...'. This was a trick question to test your confidence!

🧠 Practice Quiz: What's the Error?

Identify the error in each sentence.

1. Sentence: "I wish I can speak French fluently."
   Error: Incorrect verb form after 'wish'. For a present wish, you must use the past simple. Correct form: "I wish I could speak..."
2. Sentence: "He suggested me to visit the museum."
   Error: Incorrect verb pattern. 'Suggest' is followed by a gerund (-ing) or a 'that' clause, not an object + infinitive. Correct form: "He suggested visiting..."
3. Sentence: "The report was well-researched, detailed, and it had a lot of useful information."
   Error: Faulty parallel structure. The list should contain three adjectives. Correct form: "...detailed, and informative."

📝 Homework: The Final Paragraph Challenge

Find and correct the four grammatical errors in the paragraph below.

"Yesterday was a very busy day. If I would have had more time, I would have finished all my tasks. After getting home from work, my apartment was cleaned. It is essential that my roommate helps me more often. I tried to speak to him about it, but he denied to have a conversation."

---

Answers:

1. "If I would have had more time..." → "...If I had had more time..." (Incorrect Third Conditional).
2. "...my apartment was cleaned." → "...I cleaned my apartment." (Dangling modifier).
3. "...that my roommate helps me..." → "...that my roommate help me..." (Incorrect subjunctive form).
4. "...denied to have a conversation." → "...denied having a conversation." (Incorrect verb pattern after 'deny').

Vocabulary Glossary

1. Error Analysis: (Noun Phrase) - ការវិភាគកំហុស (kaa vĭ'phéak kâm'hŏh) - The process of reviewing a mistake to understand why it was made. ↩
2. Correction: (Noun) - ការកែតម្រូវ (kaa kae'tâm'rov) - The action of correcting a mistake. ↩
3. Grammatical: (Adjective) - វេយ្យាករណ៍ (vey'yéa'kɑɑ) - Relating to the rules of a language. ↩
4. Sophisticated: (Adjective) - ល្អិតល្អន់ (lâ'ĭt'lâ'ân) - Having a great deal of worldly experience and knowledge; complex or advanced. ↩
5. Logical: (Adjective) - មានហេតុផល (méan haet'phâl) - Seeming natural, reasonable, or sensible. ↩