That your bag or Your bag?

 • Let me see that your bag.

It’s not uncommon to hear many people say this. The error in the above expression is caused by the use of two ‘determiner proper' : that and your. To correct the above expression, we say: 

 Let me see your bag.

 Let me see that bag of yours. 

It should be noted that the word ‘that’ can also function as a pronoun. E.g.

 Is that your bag? That is my bag.

 Is this my pen? This is my pen.

Pronouns can usually stand as the subject or object of a sentence, a function not found in determiners. 

ELW Team

• This work is becoming intellectually tasking for her.

The above expression is marred by the use of tasking which has been wrongly used as an adjective. What many intend to say when they mean challenging or difficult is actually taxing

When corrected, we have:

 The work is becoming intellectually taxing for her. 

ELW Team

• Take the bull by the horn.

Many idioms are fixed, and therefore altering them would render the  idioms incomplete or ungrammatical. When corrected, the above idiom which means ‘to face a difficult or dangerous situation with courage' will  be written as: 

 Take the bull by the horns.

ELW Team

• Everyday/Every day

Everyday is an adjective which means ordinary or common. It is used before nouns. Eg.

 We need everyday objects to live in Nigeria. 

 Chinese is an everyday language. 

While every day means each day. It is an adverb and should not be confused with everyday. E.g. 

 We go to school every day.

 My parents buy me canned drink every day. 

Therefore, it will be ungrammatical to say:

We go to school everyday.

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• I will gist you whenever I come back. 

The error in the above sentence is the use of gist as a verb. The word gist is actually  a noun which means the main or general meaning of a piece of writing, speech or conversation. When corrected, the above sentence will be rewritten as:

 I have some gist for you.

 I missed the sermon, can I get any gist from you? 

ELW Team

• The students were kidnapped at the school premises. 

When talking about the surroundings or land of a building, we mean premises. The correct preposition to use in the above sentence is on. So when corrected, we say: 

 The students were kidnapped on the school premises. 

Prepositions, like nouns, verbs and other word classes, have antonyms. 

The antonym of on is off. 

Therefore it is correct to say :

 They were taken off the school premises. 

 My pen fell off the table. This sentence means my pen is no more on the table. 

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• Sorry, it was a slip of tongue, I didn’t mean to call you Ada. 

The above sentence is marred by the omission of the definite article the. When corrected , the above sentence will be rewritten as: 

 Sorry, it was a slip of the tongue, I didn’t mean to call you Ada. 

       It is also correct to say a slip of the pen. A slip of the tongue or pen is an idiom which means a small mistake in something that you write or say.

ELW Team