PREVIOUS GRAMMAR QUESTION

On those short winter days over the Christmas and new year holiday, much people enjoying resting at home and eat traditional ly foods; turkeys and all trimmings, the fruit cakes, the plum pudding, and minced meat pies. To sit by the fire is also a benefit as the weathers usually cold than but some people are liking participating in winter sport.

1. Determiner error: as we are in winter right now, the short days are close at hand, so use “these instead of “those.”

2. Capitalization: New Year is a proper noun, so it needs capital letters.

3. Quantifier error: “much” is used with noncount  nouns; because “people” can be counted, use “many.”

4. Verb form: the correct form of the present progressive verb “rest” is “are resting.”

5. Parallel construction: The word ‘and” joins two equal ideas. When “are resting” is used before “and” then use “eating” after “and”. Note that “are” is understood before the second verb because of parallel construction.

6. Word form error: Before a noun use an adjective not an adverb—change “traditionally” to “traditional.”

7. Plural or singular: Most people need only one turkey and one fruit cake—even one can last a long time—so keep these nouns singular.

8. Word form: This is tricky—the correct word is “mincemeat”—it sounds the same as “minced meat” but is quite different. There is no meat involved, and mincemeat is a mixture of fruit in a sweet sauce.

9. Gerund or infinitive: although “to sit” is grammatically correct, it is more usual to say “sitting” in this context.

10. Noun or adjective: “a benefit” is correct, but the more usual usage here would be the adjective “beneficial.”

12. Word form: “weathers” is not a plural; here the meaning is “weather is” which can be contracted to “weather’s.”

13. Word confusion: when you are referring to a time, use “then;” “than” is a word used in comparisons.

14. Verb tense: When something is generally true use the simple present tense and not the present progressive—change  “are liking” to “like.”

15. Punctuation: “but” introduces an independent clause; use a comma before it.

Suggested solution: On these short winter days over the Christmas and New Year holiday, many people enjoy resting at home and eating traditional  foods; turkey and all trimmings, the fruit cake, the plum pudding, and mincemeat pies. Sitting by the fire is also beneficial as the weather’s usually cold then, but some people  like participating in winter sport.