1. UK or US:
British and American English have plenty of differences – in spellings, vocabulary
and grammar. Choose which one is right for your audience and then use it
consistently.
2. Since and
for: Don't make the common mistake that both of these can be used as a
replacement for the Swedish “sedan.” How to remember which to use when? Use “since
+ a specific point in time” (e.g. I’ve been an engineer since 2012) and use “for
+ a duration of time” (e.g. I’ve been an engineer for 2 years).
3. Exclamation
marks: In English we don’t use the exclamation mark as much as written
Swedish does. Overuse makes it feel like the writer is being indignant,
overly-comical or even shouting. Exclaim
with care!
4. Hyphens:
Check your hyphen usage – it’s different in English. A quick rule of thumb… a compound
adjective gets hyphenated before a noun (e.g. a well-written plan), unless the
first word ends with “ly” (e.g. a thoroughly researched report). One of my clients had a piece of work returned from a publisher with a comment to use hyphens judiciously.
5. GoogleTranslate:
Use with care. Online translation tools are OK for looking up
individual words, but of very little value in creating good texts in English.
Sentence structure comes out wrong, messages are incomprehensible, your carefully
produced Swedish becomes poor English.
It’s worth finding a native English speaker to help you get things
right. Of course I’d say that, but if you want your words to be equally as good
in English as they are in Swedish, it’s the only way.
I’d love to hear whether you agree or not!
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