Common Mistakes in English--IV

31) Beside and Besides

It is easy to confuse ‘beside’ and ‘besides’, but they are not one and the same thing. ‘Beside’ is a preposition, whereas ‘besides’ works as both a preposition and an adverb, and although ‘besides’ is sometimes used in place of ‘beside’, they have distinct meaning.

‘Beside’ means ‘by or at the side of’. He stood beside his new car proudly.
 As a preposition, ‘besides’ means ‘in addition to’ or ‘apart from’. What are you working on besides the research project? As an adverb, it means ‘furthermore’. He was not selected because he did not have a good grasp of his concepts. Besides, he did not seem very keen.

As mentioned above, the distinction between the two words is sometimes ignored. ‘Besides’ can never mean ‘at the side of’, but ‘beside’ is often used in place of ‘besides’. This can lead to misunderstanding, though; the sentence There was no one beside him in the hall could mean that ‘he’ was all by himself, or that there was no one next to him.

32) Was and Were

 The basic difference between ‘were’ and ‘was’ is obvious: ‘were’ is used when the number of objects or entities exceeds one, as in We were late for the dinner; ‘was’ is used when only one object or entity is being referred to, as in I was late for the dinner.

There are, however, nuances in their use. For example, Everyone was well-dressed seems incorrect because ‘everyone’ refers to more than one person. However, here the implication of the pronoun comes into play; ‘everyone’ refers to all the members of a group individually, as do ‘none’ (None of us was well-dressed) and ‘each’ (Each of us was well-dressed). Hence, ‘was’ is used after these words instead of ‘were’. On the other hand, ‘all’ refers collectively to the entire group (All of us were well-dressed).
This does not mean, however, that ‘all’ and ‘were’ necessarily always go together. When ‘all’ is used with countable nouns, it is correct to use ‘were’, as in All the apples were stale. However, when it is used with non-countable nouns, which are in the singular form, ‘was’ must be used, as in All the milk was over.

What about The examination was failed by all the students? This, too, can be confusing. After all, here ‘all’ refers to the collective student body but ‘was’ is used. This is because the verb ‘was’ acts on the singular ‘examination’, not on the phrase ‘all the students’. If the subject (‘examination’) were to be pluralised (‘examinations’), ‘was’ would have to replaced by ‘were’.
Lastly, the use of ‘were’ as the past subjunctive of the present ‘to be’ is important. A subjunctive is used to express possibility, hope, supposition, etc, rather than to state a fact. Hence, we say If I/he were famous... instead of If I/he was famous...

33) Double Negatives

A double negative is when two negatives used in a sentence cancel each other out to make a positive. This must not be misunderstood to mean that double negatives are an accepted grammatical device; they are grammatically incorrect and must not be used.

How does one avoid double negatives? It is quite simple. When using the negative form of a verb (e.g. aren’t, don’t, won’t, etc), do not follow it up with a negative determiner/quantifier (e.g. nowhere, nothing, never, etc). Consider the following sentences:
They aren’t going nowhere.
They won’t never stop. Both of the above employ the double negative, and are hence grammatically incorrect. Formerly, the double negative was a device for emphasis, but the effort to make English conform grammatically to formal logic has rendered it unacceptable today. Logically, the meanings of the above sentences, deduced by applying the formula negative + negative = positive, are:
They are going somewhere. (aren’t + nowhere = somewhere)
They do something. (don’t + nothing = something)
They will stop. (won’t + never = will)
The ban on multiple negatives also applies to combination with adverbs such as hardly and scarcely. It is therefore regarded as incorrect to say I couldn't hardly do it or The vehicle has scarcely no fuel.

34) Could, Would and Should

‘Would’, ‘should’ and ‘could’ are auxiliary verbs, meaning that their function is to assist main verbs. For example, in the sentence, ‘I would like to meet him’, ‘like’ is the main verb that is assisted by ‘would’. They can be defined as the past tenses respectively of will, shall and can, but each has many uses that sometimes even express the present tense. It is important to be able to differentiate between the three so as not to use them incorrectly. We shall discuss some of the common functions of the three words here.

Would

1. To ask questions:
   

Would you like to see the doctor? = Do you want to see the doctor?

2. With ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘when’, ‘where’, ‘why’, ‘how’:
   

How would he react?
What would she do?

In both sentences, ‘would’ is more or less interchangeable with ‘will’.

3. To make polite requests:
   

I would like more salad, please. = I want more salad, please.

4. To show a different response if the past had been different:
   

I would have done something if I had known you were in trouble. = I didn't know that you were in. This is why I did not do anything to help.

5. To explain an outcome to a hypothetical situation:
   

Were I to win a million dollars, I would go on a world cruise. = If I win a million dollars, I will go on a world cruise.

6. To show habitual past action:
   

The dog would howl whenever its owner would leave it alone at home.

Think of ‘would’ as ‘did’.

7. To show preference between two choices, used with rather or sooner:
   

I would sooner face the punishment than lie and escape it. = I prefer speaking the truth to lying.

8. To show intention:
   

He said he would do it. = He said it was his intention to do it.

Should

1. To ask questions (it is generally interchangeable with ‘ought’ in such cases):
   

Should I submit my assignment now? = Am I supposed to submit my assignment now?

2. To show obligation:
   

You should brush your teeth twice a day.

Here, too, ‘should’ can be replaced with ‘ought to’, but in this context it is used to make a persuasive statement.

3. To express a hypothetical situation:
   

Should you wish to do so, you may. = If you wish to do so, you may.

4. To express what is likely:
   

If you take the highway, you should be there in two hours.

Here ‘should’ means something like ‘probably will’.

Could

1. As the past tense of can:
   

There was I time when I could run a mile without breaking a sweat.

2. To ask questions:
   

Could I submit my assignment now? = Am I allowed to submit my assignment now?

3. To show possibility:
   

You could do a lot better. = You have the potential to do a lot better.

4. To express tentativeness or politeness:
   

I could be wrong. = I may be wrong.


35) Of and Off

The words ‘of’ and ‘off’ are used so frequently in modern English that people often confuse them. For example, the sentence, ‘He took off without a word’ could be mistakenly written as ‘He took of without a word’, and the meaning would be lost. Let us discuss the distinctions between the two words.

The word ‘of’ has several functions, but it is most in use as a preposition that denotes various relations described in the sentence. For instance, it indicates a point of reckoning: ‘South of the border.’ It is also commonly used to point out what something is made of or what it contains: ‘Heart of gold’ (this is metaphorical, of course), ‘Cup of tea’. Another relation frequently described by ‘of’ is that of possession, as in ‘Queen of England.’

‘Off’ is also a very common word with large number of functions as well, but it is most frequently used as an adverb or a preposition. As an adverb, it is used usually to describe a state of discontinuance, or suspension: ‘Turn off the light.’ As a preposition, it is used to indicate the physical separation or distance from a position of rest, attachment or union, as in ‘Take it off the table’ or ‘The gas station is just off the corner ahead.’

36) Till and Until

English speakers are often found asking for the difference(s) between the words ‘till’ and ‘until’. The fact of the matter is, however, that when ‘till’ acts as a preposition or conjunction, there is no difference between the two words.
To clarify, ‘till’ has multiple meanings: it works as a noun, verb, preposition and conjunction. ‘Until’, on the other hand, works only as a preposition and a conjunction; in these capacities, both words mean exactly the same thing and are thus entirely interchangeable. ‘Till’ is actually the older word. ‘Until’ was formed by the addition to it of the prefix ‘un-’, meaning ‘up to’. Today, as the first word in a sentence, ‘until’ is generally preferred.

37) In and Inside

‘In’ and ‘inside’ are words that are more or less synonymous as prepositions, and can be used in most cases interchangeably. There is a subtle difference, however, which explains why ‘inside’ cannot replace ‘in’ in phrases like ‘in the thick of it’.

‘Inside’ is generally used to contrast with ‘outside’; therefore, it carries with it the strong suggestion of being physically enclosed. For example, to say ‘We were inside Russia’ sounds wrong, doesn’t it? This is because there is sense of being surrounded by walls, or tangible boundaries on all sides, when one says one is ‘inside’ something. It is almost strictly locative, which in grammar/linguistics refers to words that indicate location. For example, to say ‘The clothes are inside the cupboard’ sounds correct.

 On the other hand, ‘in’ is used more generally; it carries no such suggestion. To go ‘in’ can mean simply to participate in something (I’m in the group), or to be at a place (I’m in Chennai); it does not conjure images of enclosures or walls, or being physically surrounded.

38) Do and Does

The difference between ‘do’ and ‘does’ is very basic. ‘Do’ is a verb (see Auxiliary Verbs), and ‘does’ is its third person singular present tense.

Thus, when the subject is represented by the pronouns ‘I’, ‘you’, ‘we’, or ‘they’, we must use ‘do’.
I do not know the way.
Do you they know the way?
On the other hand, when the subject is represented by the pronouns ‘he’, ‘she’ or ‘it’, we must use ‘does’.
He does not know the way.
She does not know the way.
It does not look like the right way.


39) Will and Going to

 ‘Will’ and ‘going to’ are the two forms of simple future used in English. They are used more or less interchangeable, but there are certain subtle differences between them that even many experienced English speakers are not aware of. The main rule to keep in mind is this: if the decision to act was made before the time of speaking, ‘going to’ must be used; if not, ‘will’ must be used.

Will
There are two primary distinct uses for ‘will’:
1.      To express voluntary action. Voluntary action refers to the following:

a.       Any action that the speaker offers to perform.

I will take you up on that offer.

I will get you your breakfast in bed.

b.       Any action that the speaker declines to perform.

I will not (won’t) be able to come for your party.

I will not do your work for you.

c.       Any action that the speaker requests the listener to perform.

Will you come home on Friday night?

Will you take me to the amusement park?

2.      To express a promise.

I will come back to work as soon as I make a full recovery.

I will call you later tonight.

Going to
There is one primary distinct use for ‘going to’: it is used to express plans, i.e. the intention of the speaker to do something in the future. This can take two forms:
1.      To state such an intention:

I am going for the match on Thursday.

I am going to ensure that we have fun on this trip.

2.      To ask about such an intention:

Are you going to watch the match on Thursday?

Are you going to Jaipur with the others?

Will/Going to
Both ‘will’ and ‘going to’ can be used when making predictions about the future.
            It looks like it will rain today. = It looks like it is going to rain today.
            I don’t think he will do it. = I don’t think he’s going to do it.

40) Allusion and Illusion

 Allusion is a noun which means an expression where an object is referenced to, without mentioning it clearly.
           1.     The novel she was reading made multiple allusions to the Bible.
           2.     His speech was basically an allusion of the speech made by Martin Luther King.

Illusion is a noun which means an untrue idea or a belief.

1.      A magician’s task is to create illusions.

2.     Indian education system is based on the illusion that marks are more important than learning.

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Common Mistakes in English--III

21) Dairy and Diary

‘Dairy’ works as an adjective, meaning anything that is derived from milk, and a noun, meaning an establishment that produces dairy products. I am allergic to dairy products.
‘Diary’ is a noun, referring to a written record of one’s personal experiences. I write in my diary every 
night.

22) Each and Every

‘Each’ and ‘every’ are determiners, words that are ‘used with singular nouns to indicate quantity’. There are differences between the two that are important to grasp for usage, though.

1. ‘Each’ is used when there are two objects; here ‘every’ is not used. For example,

•   He wore multiple bracelets on each hand (note: singular noun).
•   There were two of them. They each carried backpacks, and each backpack (note: singular noun) contained invaluable souvenirs.

            In case there are more than two objects, either of the two may be used.

•    He wanted each/every item on the catalogue.
•    There is a bathroom in each/every room.

2. ‘Each’ can be used as a pronoun, but ‘every’ cannot. Note the difference between the following sentences:

 

• The students were waiting for the question sheets to be handed out. Each was in a state of great nervousness.
• The students were waiting for the question sheets to be handed out. Every student/one of them was in a state of great nervousness.

Clearly, ‘each’ replaces the noun ‘student’. ‘Every’ does not; it requires to be followed by the noun, or by ‘one of them’.

3. With adverbs (practically, nearly, almost, etc), only ‘every’ in used. In the following sentences, ‘every’ cannot be replaced by ‘each’:

 

• She knew practically every detail of his daily routine.
•  Nearly every fruit on the cart was spoilt.

 

4. ‘Every’ is used to refer to repeated, regular events, as in the following cases:

•  We meet every so often
•   I get a health check-up done every six months.
• I had to take a water break after every other set.

            In the above examples and any similar instances, ‘each’ cannot be used.

23) Do and Make

‘Do’ is used as follows:

1. For daily activities.

Do the dishes.

2. In general reference, ie, when one does not have a specific activity in mind.

You are doing too much for one person.

3. In standard expressions, ie, collocations (verb + noun combinations) that have become standardised through usage.

Do a favour.

‘Make’, on the other hand, is used:

1. To describe an activity that produces something tangible.

Make coffee.

2. In standard expressions.  Make room.

 24) Hear and Listen

 To any layman, ‘hearing’ and ‘listening’ may appear to be one and the same thing, but there is a subtle difference between the two words.
At one level, they are of course both functions of the ear that involve receiving sounds and processing them. However, herein lies the difference: any sound that is received by the ear and noted by the brain can be said to have been ‘heard’; it is only when a conscious effort is made to hear something that ‘listening’ comes into play.
For example, if the sounds from a conversation carry to you, but you make no effort to understand what is being said, you must say that you ‘heard’ the conversation. On the other hand, as soon as you make a conscious effort to understand or pay attention to what you are hearing, you are ‘listening’. Therefore, we do not ‘hear’ songs, we ‘listen’ to them (unless, of course, they are simply part of the background and we aren’t actually paying attention to them).
It must be noted that ‘hear’ can be used in place of ‘listen’ sometimes, but ‘listen’ should not be used in place of ‘hear’.
 25) Much and Many

‘Much’ and ‘many’ are both determiners that suggest an unspecified quantity, with more or less the same basic meaning: ‘in great quantity’ or ‘in large number’. There is, however, a distinction in their usage.

‘Much’, not ‘many’, is used for uncountable nouns, which are in singular form.
I have much faith in him.

On the other hand, ‘many’ is used for countable nouns, which are in plural form, and here ‘much’ cannot be used.
            Many youngsters today are taking to atheism.

26) See and Watch

‘To see’ something is simply to look at it or spot it; it may be unintentional, ie, you may not have been looking for it. I saw a man up ahead.
‘To watch’ something is look at something closely or intently, generally because it is moving. I watched the movie.


27) Loose and Lose

 ‘Loose’ is generally used as an adjective, the opposite of tight or contained.
            The dog is running loose in the streets.
            These jeans are loose around my waist.
‘Lose’ is a verb that means to suffer the loss of, to miss.
            Don’t lose the car keys.

28) Have and Has

‘Have’ and ‘has’ are both used to denote possession, form the perfect tense, and the past tense of both is ‘had’, but they are used differently.
‘Have’ is used with

• the following pronouns: I, you, we, they. I have a pencil. We have a big house.
• pluralised nouns: Doctors must have a rough time, dealing with illnesses all the time.

‘Has’ is used with the third person singular (he, she, it).
 29) Some and Any

 Both ‘some’ and ‘any’ are used to refer to indefinite quantities, ie, when it is not necessary to specify a number. There are important differences between the two that must be grasped for usage, however.
 
Some
‘Some’ is commonly used in affirmative statements, such as I would like to have some fun.
‘Any’ is hardly ever used in such statements, except to emphasise that the quality of the object does not matter. For example, I would like any apples suggests that the speaker does not care what kind of apples they are (indicating a desperate need or desire for apples), whereas I would like some apples does not suggest anything about the quality of the apples or desperation of the speaker.
 
Any
‘Any’ is commonly used in negative statements, such as We do not have any apples. Here, ‘some’ may not be used.
‘Any’ is also used in affirmative statements, if the statements contain negative words such as ‘hardly’, ‘barely’, ‘never’, ‘without’, ‘little’, etc. For example, We hardly have any apples cannot be rewritten as We hardly have some apples.
 
In questions
While both ‘any’ and ‘some’ can both be used in questions, ‘any’ is more common and natural in this form.
Do you have any apples? can be rewritten as Do you have some apples? However, ‘some’ is not always applicable. For example, in the case of Do you have any idea what the score is?, ‘any’ cannot be replaced by ‘some’.
‘Some’ is more commonly used in offers and requests, such as Would you like some tea?
 
If clauses
Both ‘some’ and ‘any are common in ‘if’ clauses, with similar meanings, as in If you need some/any assistance, feel free to give me a ring.

30) Tell and Say

Both ‘tell’ and ‘say’ refer to the act of communicating verbally with someone, but they are used differently. It is important to keep the differences in their usage in mind, for the two words are not interchangeable.

With direct speech, we use ‘say’. ‘Tell’ is only used with direct speech that is commanding or informative.
She said, ‘I must leave.’
‘Let me go,’ I said.
He told her: ‘Leave.’
‘It is that way,’ he told her.

With reported speech, either of the two words may be used, but as you may have noticed above, ‘tell’ is followed by a pronoun. The object must be specified when using ‘tell’. Thus, you say something, but you tell someone something.
She said that she had to leave.

 
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Common Mistakes in English--II

11) 'Myself'

You may have come across many people introducing themselves by saying, “Hi, myself Harish.” This is wrong. Instead, say, “I am Harish.” 'Me', 'I' and 'myself' are all used to refer to the same person (that person is you) but cannot be used interchangeably. Understanding their usage is an important part of learning English. 

The first thing to understand is that ‘myself’ is neither a replacement for me, nor for I. The word ‘myself’ is a pronoun and is used to lay emphasis. Take a look at the following sentences.

1. I will do it.                                I will do it myself.
   
2. I cleaned the house.            I cleaned the house myself.
   
3. I fixed the car.                         I fixed the car myself.
   

All the three examples make sense and mean the same with or without the use of ‘myself’. As stated earlier, it is used only for stress and never alone. Also, myself can never be used with ‘me’, which is an object pronoun.

12) Elicit and Illicit

 ‘Elicit’ and ‘illicit’ are homophones, but they have different spellings and meanings and one must be careful about using them.
On the one hand, ‘elicit’ means to draw something out of someone, by coaxing or pleading or urging. For example, the sentence - His father was unable to elicit a response from him on the matter  means that the father could not extract the information that he desired from his son.
On the other hand, ‘illicit’ means illegal, or forbidden. Examples: Theirs was an illicit relationship because their parents were opposed to inter-caste marriages, or He was thrown into prison for smuggling illicit weapons into the country.

13) So and Such

 It is easy to get confused about the usage of ‘so’ and ‘such’, as their structures are quite similar. However, they are not one and the same in terms of meaning or usage. For example, the sentence He is so good friend is glaringly wrong, as is The sky is such beautiful today. The difference can be illustrated using a simple formula:

1. ‘So’ is followed necessarily by an adjective. In technical terms, it takes the adjective phrase.
   
   • Formula: ‘so’ + adjective + ‘that’.
     
   • For example: The movie was so scary that I couldn’t watch it till the end.
     
   • ‘that’ is optional. Therefore, the above sentence would work just as well without ‘that’: The movie was so scary, I couldn’t watch it till the end.
     
     
2. ‘Such’ is followed by an article, the adjective, and then the noun. In technical terms, it takes the noun phrase.
   
   • Formula: ‘such’ + article + adjective + noun + ‘that’
     
   • For example: We chose such a scary movie to go for that I couldn’t even watch it till the end.
     
   • Again, ‘that’ is optional. If ‘that’ in the above sentence were to be replaced with a comma, it would still work.
     
   • Note: the article after ‘such’ is used when the noun is countable; that is to say, when it is something that can be expressed in numbers. For example, ‘car’, ‘dog’ and ‘book’ are countable nouns, as there can be a number assigned to each, such as ‘5 cars’ or ‘2 dogs’. For uncountable nouns, such as ‘food’, ‘milk’ or ‘water’ or ‘air’, the article is dropped.

14) Threw and Through

• ‘Threw’ is the simple past tense of ‘throw’, when the latter is used as a verb.
  
  • meaning(s): to hurl or cast something from the hand or to project one’s voice. He threw the ball at the stumps, looking to run the batsman out.
    
    
• ‘Through’ is generally used as a preposition. Meaning, in brief:
  
  • to get into something from one end or side and come out the other. Example - The sunlight coming through the window woke me up.
    
  • to travel over or across or in something. Example - The plane hurtled through the air at supersonic speed.
    
  • to go past or beyond something. Example -The fugitives went through three red lights before the cops finally caught up with them.
    
  • to go from one to another of, or between or among individual members of something.

15) When and If

‘When’ and ‘if’ are both used while referring to the future, as in I will be able to see you in the evening when I get off work and I will be able to see in the evening if I get off work. The difference between the two words is very basic and easily understood:

• ‘When’ should be used while referring to something that one is certain will happen. The ‘when’ in ‘I will be able to see you in the evening when I get off work’ implies that the speaker is sure that s/he will get free from work in the evening.
  
  
• ‘If’ should be used while referring to something that might or might not happen. The ‘if’ in ‘I will be able to see you in the evening if I get off work’ implies that the speaker is not sure that s/he will get free from work in the evening; it is a possibility, not a certainty.
  

However, it must be noted that ‘when’ and ‘if’ can be used interchangeably as well, in case the situation being referred to is predictable or repetitive.

16) Advice and Advise

‘advice’ acts as a noun, defined as ‘opinion about what could or should be done about a situation or problem; counsel’, and

‘advise’ acts a  verb, meaning ‘to give advice’.

Therefore,
His father’s advice was for him to give the matter thought before reaching a conclusion about what to do. = His father advised him to give the matter thought before reaching a conclusion about what to do.
The ‘c’ in ‘advice’ is pronounced like the ‘s’ in ‘sip’, whereas the ‘s’ in ‘advise’ is pronounced like the ‘z’ in ‘zip’.
In American English, this distinction between the two words is not always maintained.

17) Adapt and Adopt

To ‘adapt’ is to become or make something suitable to an environment or condition.
            It took me a long time after college to adapt to life in the office.
To ‘adopt’ is to take something and use it as or make it your own.             I adopted his policy of neutrality and stayed out of trouble.

18) Adverse and Averse

‘Adverse’ and ‘averse’ are not only spelled similarly (with the ‘d’ in ‘adverse’ being the only difference), they are also both adjectives with negative connotations, and hence easily confused.
‘Adverse’ means, roughly, ‘unfavourable’, or ‘harmful’. Therefore, if a sportsman is said to perform well in adverse conditions, it means that he or she performs well in conditions that are not easy to play in. It is used in reference to things, actions or events, rather than people.
‘Averse’ describes a strong disinclination. It is used of things and people, but we never speak of an averse thing or person. It is most often used in the form averse to, as in I am averse to speaking in public.

19) Bought and Brought

They are the past tenses of two different verbs.
‘Bought’ is the past tense of ‘buy’: I bought a new car last week.
‘Brought’ is the past tense of ‘bring’: I brought him a glass of water.
The difference can be remembered easily too, as ‘bring’ shares the its first two letters with ‘brought’ (‘br’).

20) Compliment and Complement

Both function as noun and verb, but are quite distinct in meaning.
As a noun, ‘compliment’ refers to an expression of esteem, admiration or praise. For example, to call someone handsome/beautiful is to pay him/her a compliment, and the verb refers to this action, ie, the paying of a compliment.
On the other hand, as a noun, the ‘complement’ of something supplies what that something is missing, ie, completes or perfects it. For example, wine can be said to complement a meal.


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Common Mistakes in English--I

1) Their, There and They're

‘There’, ’Their’ and ‘They’re’ has confused many speakers of the English language and knowing how to use these three words correctly is an important step in learning English.

The words ‘There’ and’ Their’ are homophones, two words that are spelt differently but pronounced the same. It is a common mistake to replace one for the other.
‘There’ will always refer to a place, whether concrete or abstract whereas ‘Their’ shows belonging or possession.
The word ‘they’re’ is a contraction of the word they and are and should not be confused with their and there.

To avoid confusion, replace the word ‘there’ with ‘here’, ‘ their’ with ‘our’ and ‘they’re’ with ‘they are’. If the sentence makes sense, you’ve got it right.

2) Can and May

The key difference between ‘can’ and ‘may’ is that ‘can’ talks about ability and ‘may’ talks about permission. 

CAN
Can is used in two cases:

To talk about ability.

• I can finish my homework by 5 pm.
• Can you finish your homework tonight?

To ask or give permission informally.

• Can I use your pen? (To a friend)
• You can use my pen. (To a friend)

MAY
May is generally used to ask or give permission formally.

3)  Accept and Except

The words, ‘accept’ and ‘except’ are homophones which are often confused by English speakers. ‘Accept’ is a verb which means ‘to receive’ or ‘to agree’. Most of the time ‘except’ is used as a preposition which means ‘excluding’.

4) Effect and Affect 

‘Affect’ is used as a verb and means ‘to have an influence on’ and ‘Effect’ is used as a noun and means ‘the result’.

AFFECT

The dropped catch did not affect the result of the game.
The heavy rainfall affected the grains kept in the old warehouse.

 EFFECT

The effect of the tsunami was devastating.
The side effect of the cough syrup was drowsiness.

5) It's vs Its

‘Its’ and ‘it’s’ are often mistakenly used in written English. Refer to the article on contractions: ‘it’s’ is a contraction for the words ‘it is’. On the other hand, ‘its’ is a possessive noun.


The following examples will make the usage clear.

IT’S (CONTRACTION FOR ‘IT IS’)	ITS (POSSESSION)
It’s quite hot today.	The dog is wagging its tail.
It’s going to be a long day.	The baby is sleeping in its cot.
Please go back to class immediately. It’s not right to skip classes.	The table is useless now. Its legs are broken.

6) Since and For

 There is a simple rule to follow to differentiate between the usage of these two words.  SINCE is used to talk about time from a specific period while FOR is used to talk about a length of time.


7) Who and Whom

Both ‘who’ and ‘whom’ are interrogative pronouns. The key difference between ‘who’ and ‘whom’ is that ‘who’ is used in place of the subject of the sentence and ‘whom’ is used in place of the object of the sentence.

‘WHO’ REPLACES THE SUBJECT OF THE SENTENCE 
Who hit Sanjiv?
 
‘WHOM’ REPLACE THE OBJECT OF THE SENTENCE
Whom are you talking about?
8) Where, Were and Wear


The word 'where' is used when asking a question related to a location.
On the other hand, the word 'wear' has a couple of meanings.
It is used to refer to an article or clothing that a person has put on or is ‘wearing’. Let us look at some examples.
The other meaning of the word 'wear' is to denote deterioration (exhaustion) or to produce something by friction. (Past tense- worn)

The word we’re is a contraction of the phrase 'we are'.
The word ‘were’ is used to refer to something that happened in the past.

9) 'I' and 'Me'


‘I’ is a pronoun and hence must be the subject of a verb ('I' is the first person singular subject pronoun and will always refer to the person performing the action of a verb).

On the other hand, ‘me’ is a pronoun that must be the object of the verb (me is an object pronoun and will always refer to the person that the action of a verb is being done to.)

10) 'Then' and 'Than'

The word ‘than’ is used to show comparison and is a conjunction (A conjunction is a word that joins two sentences).

On the other hand, the word ‘then’ is used either to show a sequence of events or a sense of time. Read the examples carefully to understand.

 Note:- When confused, think about what you’re trying to say/write. Only if you’re comparing will you use ‘than’, for every other situation, use ‘then’.

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Source : http://www.englishleap.com

Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil

 

Narcotic drugs have inspired much storytelling and literary dreaming, if rather less actual writing. Of those few novels that slide out of the smoke on to paper, we assume addiction is a requisite for authenticity and yet an enormous hindrance to productivity. After all, it is hardly playing by the rules of decadence and dereliction to find the willpower and tenacity to finish a manuscript. But a tiny number do convince the public that theirs is a genuine account of an addiction whose clutches the writer escaped for long enough to scribble down a compelling narrative: think William Burroughs's Junky, or Thomas de Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium Eater.

Does Jeet Thayil's Narcopolis, a tale of opium dens and heroin addiction in Mumbai, join that select club? It is not an easy task. And there's another challenge: many books by foreign-educated Indians read as though they were written in a New York penthouse suite, the author having spent a couple of weeks researching a multi-generational, sprawling saga of Mumbai lowlife by chatting to the house servants of their relatives on the phone.

The story opens in Rashid's opium house on Shuklaji Street sometime in the 1970s. We meet the owner himself, his regular clients and Dimple, the eunuch, who prepares his pipes. Very gently, we are drawn in to their languorous world. Thayil is an accomplished poet and that sensibility serves him well. We slide in and out of characters' lives, emerging occasionally inside a vivid drug-induced recollection: like that of Mr Lee, a former soldier who fled communist China and gives us as sharp a portrait of that country in the late 1940s as one could wish for.

We move onward with the years. Hippies arrive and begin to appreciate the quality of Rashid's opium, the attention to detail in pipe preparation, the warm cocooning charm of it all. This is an India that itself was dreaming, wrapped up in Gandhian ideals of self-sufficiency and simplicity, ignoring the tsunami of change that would not strike until the 1991 economic liberalisation. I was in Mumbai in those days, on my first trip to India, sleeping in shoddy dives and living on cheap street food. He pins down that world perfectly; he even pins down us shabby western travellers with a few painfully precise words: "interloper[s] from the future come to gawk at the poor and unfortunate who lived in a time before antibiotics and television and aeroplanes".

For Rashid and Dimple that change arrives in the form of heroin, a drug that seems to herald a new world order, one more savage and hopeless than anything that went before. All the regulars switch. As the city disintegrates into communal riots, murder and mayhem, their own lives are in freefall too, and the story of that fall becomes an epic tragedy written with grace, passion and empathy. Thayil unpicks the complexities, contradictions and hypocrisies of Indian life with surgical elegance: the good Muslim selling heroin while complaining about brazen women, the queenly beggarwoman who makes the street her living room, and the Hindu praying in church, an action that saves her from the mob but not her fate.

There is a subplot about a murderer that doesn't add much to the story, and a dud note is struck when Dimple starts to opine on Baudelaire and Cocteau. However, I wished that this book, like some long and delicious opium-induced daydream, would go on and on. The end, sadly, does eventually come. India has been reincarnating behind the blue smoke of the last pipes. We catch its reflection in the gleam of the heroin user's silver foil and then there it is: the new country, standing hard and metallic and just as crazily conflicted and mired in melancholy as the last version of itself. In a shiny nightclub full of plastic and aluminium, Rashid's son stares at the scantily clad women. He sells cocaine. He dances. He is a good Muslim in his own eyes. He might consider becoming a suicide bomber when the time is right.

 

Narcopolis is a blistering debut that can indeed stand proudly on the shelf next to Burroughs and De Quincey. Thayil is quoted as saying that he lost almost 20 years of his life to addiction, but on this showing the experience did not go to waste. We can celebrate that he emerged intact and gave us this book.

SOURCE : http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/feb/17/narcopolis-jeet-thayil-review 

How to recceive Mail Alerts through SMS on Mobile Phone?

To reduced the time you are spending just to check whether you have received a Mail or not?, you can use the free services which can give a notification on your mobile phone through SMS. The Message includes the sender address and subject.  But before that make sure that you have deactivated the DND service. Just follow the simple steps : 

1)  Create an account on http://site2.way2sms.com/jsp/UserRegistration.jsp?id=IqvqvOHB2uQz1QxitXg085Hpp7tPxLCZ

2)  Click on Mail Alerts Tab.

3)  Logon to your Email account.

4)  Click on settings & then click on 'FORWARDING/POP/IMAP' option

5)  Select 'Forward a copy of incoming mail to" option & Enter your Way2SMS Email ID -------@way2sms.com there.

6)  Your mail server may send a verification code to -------@way2sms.com. 

7)  Check your Email confirmation code from adjacent Inbox tab  Or You will receive gmail confirmation mail alert on your mobile with subject line containing confirmation code.

8)  Copy and paste the verification code in Gmail verification box.Click On Verfy.

9)  Finished. You will now receive alerts for every incoming mail that arrives in your gmail id( You can filter alerts by  choosing which emails you want to alert, and when you want to receive them ).

So gear up your Mobile Phone Inbox to receive the Email Notification.

What Is RAID?

RAID (redundant array of independent disks, originally redundant array of inexpensive disks) is a storage technology that combines multiple disk drive components into a logical unit. Data is distributed across the drives in one of several ways called "RAID levels", depending on what level of redundancy and performance (via parallel communication) is required. 

RAID is now used as an umbrella term for computer data storage schemes that can divide and replicate data among multiple physical drives. The physical drives are said to be in a RAID array,[5] which is accessed by the operating system as one single drive. The different schemes or architectures are named by the word RAID followed by a number (e.g., RAID 0, RAID 1). Each scheme provides a different balance between three key goals: resiliency, performance, and capacity.

Following is a brief textual summary of the most commonly used RAID levels.

RAID 0 (block-level striping without parity or mirroring) has no (or zero) redundancy. It provides improved performance and additional storage but no fault tolerance. Hence simple stripe sets are normally referred to as RAID 0. Any drive failure destroys the array, and the likelihood of failure increases with more drives in the array (at a minimum, catastrophic data loss is almost twice as likely compared to single drives without RAID). A single drive failure destroys the entire array because when data is written to a RAID 0 volume, the data is broken into fragments called blocks. The number of blocks is dictated by the stripe size, which is a configuration parameter of the array. The blocks are written to their respective drives simultaneously on the same sector. This allows smaller sections of the entire chunk of data to be read off each drive in parallel, increasing bandwidth. RAID 0 does not implement error checking, so any error is uncorrectable. More drives in the array means higher bandwidth, but greater risk of data loss.

Pros: Better performance – data replicated across drives, no storage overhead as drives are utilized 100%
Cons: Possibility of losing entire data on failure of a single disk
Minimum Disks Required – 2  

 

In RAID 1 (mirroring without parity or striping), data is written identically to two drives, thereby producing a "mirrored set"; at least two drives are required to constitute such an array. While more constituent drives may be employed, many implementations deal with a maximum of only two; of course, it might be possible to use such a limited level 1 RAID itself as a constituent of a level 1 RAID, effectively masking the limitation.[citation needed] The array continues to operate as long as at least one drive is functioning. With appropriate operating system support, there can be increased read performance, and only a minimal write performance reduction; implementing RAID 1 with a separate controller for each drive in order to perform simultaneous reads (and writes) is sometimes called multiplexing (or duplexing when there are only two drives). WARNING: RAID 1 is not necessarily safe. In PC systems most HDD are shipped by manufacturers with "write cacheing" turned on; this gives an illusion of higher performance but at the risk of data not being written; failure for some reason (eg. power) can leave the two disks in an inconsistent state and even make them unrecoverable.

Pros – Guard against disk failure as data is replicated across disk drives
Cons – Replication creates storage overhead as the same data is copied across drives
Minimum Disks Required – 2 

In RAID 2 (bit-level striping with dedicated Hamming-code parity), all disk spindle rotation is synchronized, and data is striped such that each sequential bit is on a different drive. Hamming-code parity is calculated across corresponding bits and stored on at least one parity drive.

In RAID 3 (byte-level striping with dedicated parity), all disk spindle rotation is synchronized, and data is striped so each sequential byte is on a different drive. Parity is calculated across corresponding bytes and stored on a dedicated parity drive.

RAID 4 (block-level striping with dedicated parity) is identical to RAID 5, but confines all parity data to a single drive. In this setup, files may be distributed between multiple drives. Each drive operates independently, allowing I/O requests to be performed in parallel. However, the use of a dedicated parity drive could create a performance bottleneck; because the parity data must be written to a single, dedicated parity drive for each block of non-parity data, the overall write performance may depend a great deal on the performance of this parity drive.

Pros – Reduced storage overhead (actually we need only a single disk here to store parity). E.g. if you have 3 disks, parity can be stored on 3rd. So your overhead is only 33% in terms of storage.
Cons – Still suffers from a performance perspective
Minimum Disks Required – 3 (anyways 2 doesn’t make sense and the more no. of disks you have lesser would be your storage overhead)

RAID 5 (block-level striping with distributed parity) distributes parity along with the data and requires all drives but one to be present to operate; the array is not destroyed by a single drive failure. Upon drive failure, any subsequent reads can be calculated from the distributed parity such that the drive failure is masked from the end user. However, a single drive failure results in reduced performance of the entire array until the failed drive has been replaced and the associated data rebuilt. Additionally, there is the potentially disastrous RAID 5 write hole. RAID 5 requires at least three disks.

Pros – Good Performance, Good failure protection
Cons – Not as good when your requirement is only performance or only failure protection (parity doesn’t come for free).
Minimum Disks Required – 3

 RAID 6 (block-level striping with double distributed parity) provides fault tolerance of two drive failures; the array continues to operate with up to two failed drives. This makes larger RAID groups more practical, especially for high-availability systems. This becomes increasingly important as large-capacity drives lengthen the time needed to recover from the failure of a single drive. Single-parity RAID levels are as vulnerable to data loss as a RAID 0 array until the failed drive is replaced and its data rebuilt; the larger the drive, the longer the rebuild takes. Double parity gives additional time to rebuild the array without the data being at risk if a single additional drive fails before the rebuild is complete. Like RAID 5, a single drive failure results in reduced performance of the entire array until the failed drive has been replaced and the associated data rebuilt.

RAID Comparison

RAID level	Min disks	Available storage capacity (%)	Read performance	Write performance	Write penalty	Protection
1	2	50	Better than  single disk	Slower than single disk, because every write must be committed to all disks	Moderate	Mirror
1+0	4	50	Good	Good	Moderate	Mirror
3	3	[(n-1)/n]*100	Fair for random reads and  good for sequential reads	Poor to fair for small random writes fair for large, sequential writes	High	Parity (Supports single disk failure)
5	3	[(n-1)/n]*100	Good for random  and sequential reads	Fair for random and sequential writes	High	Parity (Supports single disk failure)
6	4	[(n-2)/n]*100	Good for random and sequential reads	Poor to fair for random and sequential writes	Very High	Parity (Supports two disk failures)

 where n = number of disks

  

RAID 0+1: striped sets in a mirrored set (minimum four drives; even number of drives) provides fault tolerance and improved performance but increases complexity.

The key difference from RAID 1+0 is that RAID 0+1 creates a second striped set to mirror a primary striped set. The array continues to operate with one or more drives failed in the same mirror set, but if drives fail on both sides of the mirror the data on the RAID system is lost.

    RAID 1+0: (a.k.a. RAID 10) mirrored sets in a striped set (minimum four drives; even number of drives) provides fault tolerance and improved performance but increases complexity.

The key difference from RAID 0+1 is that RAID 1+0 creates a striped set from a series of mirrored drives. The array can sustain multiple drive losses so long as no mirror loses all its drives.

Pros: Best in terms of performance & guards against potential failures.
Cons: Costly in terms of storage overhead
Minimum Disks Required – 4 (and for > 4 you must have even number of disks)

    RAID 5+3: mirrored striped set with distributed parity (some manufacturers label this as RAID 53).

Whether an array runs as RAID 0+1 or RAID 1+0 in practice is often determined by the evolution of the storage system. A RAID controller might support upgrading a RAID 1 array to a RAID 1+0 array on the fly, but require a lengthy off-line rebuild to upgrade from RAID 1 to RAID 0+1. With nested arrays, sometimes the path of least disruption prevails over achieving the preferred configuration.

•       In RAID 5, every write (update) to a disk manifests as four I/O operations (2 disk reads and 2 disk writes)

•       In RAID 6, every write (update) to a disk manifests as six I/O operations (3 disk reads and 3 disk writes)

•       In RAID 1, every write manifests as two I/O operations (2 disk writes)

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID