Editing Checklist for Chinese Speakers
(*= wrong)
1. Check all verb tenses
a. present perfect, past perfect, and future perfect.
I have lived here seven years
I had been a student for two years before I decided a major.
I will have been a student for five years when I graduate.
b. present progressive, past progressive, and future progressive.
It is raining.
It was raining when the accident happened.
It will have been raining for two weeks tomorrow.
2. Check BE verbs.
* I busy.
*She very happy.
3. Check articles (a, an, the).
4. Check plurals on nouns.
*I have two sister.
5. The Chinese language doesn’t have the “subjunctive mood.”
* I suggest to come earlier. ---> I suggest (that) you come earlier.
* If I am you, I won’t go. ---> If I were you, I wouldn’t go.
* I wish that you can come.----> I wish you could come.
6. Chinese also doesn’t use “do.” Be careful of sentences like these:
*How many brothers you have? ---> How many brothers do you have?
* I didn’t finished my work yesterday. ---> I didn’t finish my work yesterday.
7. Chinese doubles its conjunctions. English uses only one. Be careful of sentences
like these:
* Although he was tired, but he went on working.
* Because I didn’t know him, so I didn’t say anything.
8. Noun modifiers always come before the noun in Chinese In English, you can have
modifiers that come after the noun. Be careful of sentences like these:
*This is important something. -----> This is something important.
*This is a very difficult to solve problem. ----> This is a very difficult problem to
solve.
9. Check subject/verb agreement.
Look at the subject. What pronoun can you substitute for it? He/she/it?
Use verb + s