Predict your own errors
Before your teacher shows you the list: name the three mistakes you think you have been making most often. Write them down.
Learners who can predict their own errors correct them roughly twice as fast. If your prediction matches the list, that is a good sign, not a bad one.
Before you predict your own errors, match each pattern name to what it is about.
The five that keep coming back
Collected across Lessons 1–5. These are patterns, not slips.
Error patterns
| Pattern | What you say | What it should be | Why it happens |
|---|---|---|---|
| Missing there | Have a concrete driveway. | There is a concrete driveway. | Portuguese tem needs no subject |
| Agreement with uncountables | There are gravel. | There is gravel. | Gravel looks plural, is not |
| Material after object | a wall of wood | a wood wall | Portuguese muro de madeira |
| Compound stress | retaining WALL | reTAINing wall | Portuguese stresses the second element |
| Doubled prepositions | above of the pad | above the pad | acima de carries a preposition; above does not |
Check you can name the pattern, not just fix the sentence.
1. "There are gravel between the walls" is an example of which pattern?
2. "A wall of wood" is an example of which pattern?
Prepositions that travel alone
No of required
| Portuguese | Wrong in English | Right |
|---|---|---|
| acima de | above of the pad | above the pad |
| abaixo de | below of the deck | below the deck |
| perto de | near of the fence | near the fence |
| dentro de | inside of the garage | inside the garage |
| em frente a | in front the house | in front of the house |
The awkward one. In front of keeps its of, and so does on top of, out of and because of. There is no rule that predicts this — the four exceptions have to be learned as items. Everything else in the table above drops the of.
Match each Portuguese preposition to its correct English form.
Fix them
Every sentence is a real error pattern from this unit. Rewrite each one correctly.
1. Have three retaining walls along the rear boundary.
2. There are gravel between the boulder walls.
3. The client wants a fence of wood on the north side.
4. The deck is above of the concrete pad.
5. There is a surface drain near of the steps.
6. The gas meter is in front the garage.
One word per gap, or leave it blank if no word is needed. Type — for a deliberate blank.
The upper deck sits above concrete pad. There gravel in the planting beds and there four boulder walls holding the grade. The electrical panel is on the side the house, in front the gas meter.
Say it again, correctly
Task card
Your recording from Lesson 5 homework
Listen back to your own run 3, stop at every error you can now hear, and say the sentence again correctly.
- Your teacher stops the recording; you do the correcting.
- If you cannot hear the error, your teacher names the pattern — not the fix.
- Count how many you catch yourself. That number matters more than the total.
Complete this reminder before you listen to your recording.
If you hear a sentence starting with have instead of there, the fix is to add " ". If you hear a doubled preposition like above of, the fix is to drop the " ".
Prediction versus reality
Compare the three errors you predicted in Phase 01 with the five in the table. How many did you get right? The gap between what you think you do wrong and what you actually do wrong is the most useful thing you will learn today.
One more round — new sentences, not the ones from Phase 04.
1. Have four dry-stacked boulder walls at the rear.
2. The panel is inside of the garage.
Before the next lesson
Homework. Pick the one error pattern that annoys you most. For the next week, catch yourself doing it — in speech, in email, anywhere — and write down each instance. Bring the count.
One check before you go.
1. How many error patterns should you actually track for the homework?