Please spot out the mistakes for me ...

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A guy keeps saying that he is so good at English. Everyone in the forum argues with him. Then I wrote a note to him, but he pointed out all the mistakes that I've made. However, I don't think some of them are mistakes. Please help me to check it. The note is as follows ...
The words with bold form are the mistakes that he pointed out.

Dear Jeepmax2002, we will all be glad if you could keep your mouth shut forever. If you are so intelligent, you must know that you have gone out of topic. I know your aim is to distract the readers' attention so that they will no longer remember the fact that you were trying to spread bot. (Come on! If you have done it just admit it. What is the point to deny?) However, your intention has been so obvious.

The major difference between the Chinese and the foreigners is the personality. Many of the Chinese have always been so proud of themselves even for minor achievements. You are the best example that I have ever seen. Sometimes, being humble is one of the most important things that one should learn in life.

Well, if you don't want to accept the fact that everybody in this forum are disgusted with you, then I would advise you to register a new account. Bear in mind, although you can always do so in here, it may not be that easy for you to start a so-called "new life" in the real society. I hope you are not some social losers who come here to talk nonsense.

I am not living in Taiwan so I am not going to criticize your view on politics.

One more thing, memorising fixed phrases is the worst method to learn a language. (Well, I didn't say that you are.)

P.S. I am writing to you in English not because I am good at it. In fact, I am really bad at English. I hope you can understand that when somebody ask you something in English, it would be more polite for you to give a reply in English, too. (I hope it won't hurt, but your written Chinese is really bad and I find it difficult to comprehend. If you are going to give me a reply, please use English, which you are really good at, thank you)

1. He said I cannot use "Dear somebody" at the beginning of the post if I am not close with him.
2. He said "We will xxx if you could xxx" (Line 1) is incorrect.
3. He said I cannot use "if" in the sentence "If you are so intelligent, you must xxx" but he didn't say the reason.
4. He said it is "readers' attention" instead of "the readers' attention"
5. He said I use too many "has been" and it is incorrect.
6. He said some sentences are too long and it is wrong. However, I don't really know this person and I want to show my politeness. Is it okay?
7. He said it is "major differences" instead of "major difference" (add a s)
8. He said it is "personalities" instead of "personality" (plural)
9. He said "proud" cannot be used with "achievements"
10. He said I should not add "Sometimes" in front of "being humble is one of the most important thing in life"
11. He did not understand the word "politics" and he said that "view on politics" is incorrect.
12. He said that it is "memorizing" instead of "memorising"
13. He said it is "your writing Chinese is really bad" instead of "your written Chinese is really bad".
14. He said the word "comprehend" is not suitable.

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Re: Please spot out the mistakes for me ...
I'm no English scholar, but I am English. I'll have a go at the items about which I am semi-confident:

Skyshr wrote:

1. He said I cannot use "Dear somebody" at the beginning of the post if I am not close with him.

I get letters from my bank all the time which start "Dear Mr Duke" and I don't think I'm particularly close to any of their employees. Perhaps the use of "Dear" is too formal for a post in an internet forum? Even so, my humble opinion is that "dear" was possibly unnecessary, but not incorrect.

Quote:

2. He said "We will xxx if you could xxx" (Line 1) is incorrect.

I always get this wrong myself. I believe that "would" is a better word here. "Could" implies that the capacity for the action is there, but not necessarily that the action is carried out. "Would" implies both the capacity for action, and the completion of the action itself.

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3. He said I cannot use "if" in the sentence "If you are so intelligent, you must xxx" but he didn't say the reason.

I can't see what is wrong with this. Anyone else see it?

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4. He said it is "readers' attention" instead of "the readers' attention"

I would say that either is correct.

Quote:

11. He did not understand the word "politics" and he said that "view on politics" is incorrect.

"View on politics" looks okay to me.

Quote:

12. He said that it is "memorizing" instead of "memorising"

"Memorizing" is the American spelling, and "memorising" is the British spelling. For someone from China, I imagine that either is correct (as long as you are consistent in use).

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13. He said it is "your writing Chinese is really bad" instead of "your written Chinese is really bad".

You were correct. It could work if you use "your Chinese writing", but that sounds incorrect in that context.

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14. He said the word "comprehend" is not suitable.

Nothing wrong with "comprehend" in that context, IMO.

I can't decide about the others, so I'll have to let someone else fill in the blanks (and correct any mistakes I've made!)

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1. The other guy is wrong. Grand Duke is correct; the English convention is to begin a letter with the salutation "Dear X", even to complete strangers; this has no connotation of affection or intimacy whatsoever. Many (not all) people feel that formal salutations are unnecessary for e-mails and net forums - so if this can be called a mistake at all it is because it is too formal, not too friendly!

2. The other guy is right. The verb moods should match: it should be either "We will if you can" or "We would if you could"

3. The other guy is wrong. Not only is it perfectly OK to use "if" in the sentence "If you are so intelligent, you must ", I really can't think of any other word you could use instead.

4. It depends on context. If you mean "any possible readers", "readers in general", you should not use "the". But if you mean to refer to an already-defined group of readers, e.g. "the members of this forum", then "the readers" is correct.

5. It's silly of him to say that you use "has been" too many times; if that's the correct tense for your meaning, it's correct no matter how many times you use it. Certainly "the Chinese have always been so proud" is correct; but I would say that "your intention has been so obvious" is wrong; "was" would have been better here.

6. The other guy is wrong. It's true that very long and complicated sentences can be confusing to the reader, and should be avoided except by skilled writers, but I don't think your sentences are especially long. (But you are mistaken in thinking that long sentences show respect; maybe this is true in Chinese but not in English.)

7. The other guy is wrong. You mention only one difference, and so of course "difference" is singular, not plural.

8. The other guy is wrong. In this sentence "personality" is an abstract concept, and can only be singular.

9. The other guy is wrong. "Proud of oneself" and "proud of one's achievements" are both utterly standard English phrases.

10. He has a point. Putting "sometimes" right at the beginning of that sentence makes it govern the whole statement, so it means something like "being humble is one of the most important things that one should learn in life, but this is only sometimes true". It might be better to say "knowing how to be humble sometimes is one of the most important things", or even "knowing when to be humble is one of the most important things".

11. The other guy is wrong. "Your view on politics" is grammatically perfectly OK, and it is quite appropriate if you were referring to a specific opinion of his that he had stated. (If you meant his outlook and beliefs in general, "your political views" would be slightly better.)

12. As Grand Duke says, this is a difference between British and American English.

13. The other guy is wrong. "Your written Chinese" is a correct idiom, just as "your spoken English" is correct.

14. The other guy is wrong. "Understand" is perhaps more usual, but "comprehend" is certainly not wrong.

However, there actually some mistakes in your note that he has not mentioned, and perhaps it would be helpful to list them:

A. "What is the point to deny?" is wrong: "what is the point" is always followed by "of", not "to", and "deny" is a transitive verb and must have an object. "What is the point of denying it?" would be correct.

B. It should be "the Chinese and foreigners", not "the foreigners", because you are talking of foreigners in general, everywhere, not a defined group.

C. It should be "everybody in the forum is disgusted", not "are disgusted", because "everybody" takes a singular verb.

D. "I hope you are not some social losers" is wrong - there is only one of him and so it should be "some social loser".

E. It's "when somebody asks you", not "when somebody ask you". ("Somebody", just like "everybody" and "nobody", is singular).

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just a couple of quick comments from me. when you start a note by saying Dear so-and-so, and then immediately start criticizing, it sounds sarcastic. If that's what you were trying to do, then you succeeded. Smile

also, while personality, a singular noun, is correct, it reads better if you change it from "the personality" to simply "personality".

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syntinen wrote:

2. The other guy is right. The verb moods should match: it should be either "We will if you can" or "We would if you could"

Quote:

"Dear Jeepmax2002, we will all be glad if you could keep your mouth shut forever. If you are so intelligent, you must know that you have gone out of topic"

I'd say "off topic" but I must allow that other dialects of English COULD use "out of topic".

I disagree, slightly, with Syntinen on 2. There is no grammatical reason that "[T]he verb moods should match", at least in this case where the situation is not a clear counterfactual.

All the modals used or that could be used have a future reference.

In modern English the modals could and would, [historically past tense forms, but now tenseless], are used to discuss unreal/counterfactual situations but they are also used for real situations.

In this case, I'd say that the 'could' is not an epistemic [possibility] modal use but a deontic [social] modal use. In other words, it's a polite request, so it is a possibility.

Also, in the title,

"Please spot out the mistakes for me ...",

we don't use 'out' with 'spot'.

Point out the mistakes for me.

OR possibly,

Spot the mistakes [for me].

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Please spot out the mistakes for me ...

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