Common Error: "How do you call…?"

Hello everyone, and welcome to Mistake Mond… uhm, Mistake Tuesday! Monday was a national holiday here in Costa Rica, so we didn’t have to go to work. That was great, but it seems to have melted my brain a bit, and I completely forgot about Mistake Monday. But better late than never, right?

Anyhow, today’s error is very common among my students and even my coworkers. I often don’t even notice it anymore, but I still told my students I’d talk about it on the blog. It’s when someone says, “How do you call…?” to ask for an unknown vocabulary word. Confused? Let’s take a closer look:

Common Error: “How do you call…?”
DON’T say this:	~~How do you call a person who collects trash?~~ ~~I don’t know how to call my amazing new invention.~~
WHY?	-When people say this, they’re probably just translating “Cómo se llama” in Spanish, “Wie heisst es” in German, or a similar equivalent in another language. In English, though, you should say “What* do you call…”* if you’re asking for the name of an unknown object or person. -Technically, you could say “How do you call…” but then you’d be asking for a method of calling. If my students ask a question with “How do you call…” I usually respond, “With a telephone!” (Because I’m a mean teacher!)
INSTEAD, SAY THIS:	-“What do you call a person who collects trash?” -“I don’t know what to call my amazing new invention.” -“Can you help me? I don’t know how to call the telephone operator to ask for a telephone number.”

So, that’s it for today. I wasn’t really sure what to call today’s post, but I hope it was clear. If you have any comments or questions, please leave a comment or contact us. Thanks for reading, and have a great week!

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Sitzman

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Hey! I’m Ryan Sitzman, the person in charge of Sitzman ABC. If you want to know more about me, you can check out my profile on Google or go to my personal site, RyanSitzman.com. You can also click on any of the redundant little boxes to the left and it should take you to my profiles for all kinds of social networks. Thanks!

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by Sitzman
Uncategorized
April 12th 2011

2 Comments

Diego C
On April 12, 2011 at 2:53 pm Reply

I don’t know what to call this mistake but if I had problems with it, I know how to call you for help.
Sitzman
On April 12, 2011 at 8:03 pm Reply

Haha, perfect, Diego! 🙂

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