“One of …” the common English mistakes
As humans, we’re going to make mistakes. It’s what makes us human, and most of the time, the most effective way of learning is from a mistake - Nash Grier
We use one of in almost every sentence/ conversation we have with the people around us in almost any context. But I have noticed some using them are grammatically incorrect. Here are some examples
- One of the key in my keyboard is not working. It sucks!
- You know what one of my colleague kept picking his nose in the meeting. And it was just so disgusting.
- One of the reason I left my job was him.
- He is one of the good person I have known in this industry.
All of these sentences are grammatically incorrect.
The point here is when we feel the need to begin a sentence/use ONE OF in a sentence referring a subject then, it should be followed by a word that is in its plural form.
In a given context, the subject here which we might think is very unique compared to others and we just want it to get the importance, then it is just one among so many. Right?
We can correct it by doing this:
[ONE OF + PLURAL of that NOUN/ PRONOUN which is a part of a collection]
The sentences above can be corrected as follows
One of the keys in my keyboard is not working. It sucks!
There are so many keys in a keyboard in general. And one among them say a Ctrl key is not working. And I’m complaining about that one key.
You know what one of my colleagues kept picking his nose in the meeting. And it was just so disgusting.
There were so many of my collegeues that attended a meeting with me. And one among them was so disgusting. And I’m highlighting that person.
One of the reasons I left my job was him.
There can be so many reasons I that made me leave my job. And one among them was a person (he was often annoying, may be).
He is one of the good people I have known in this industry.
There are so many good people in the industry that I know. But, this particular person has made a special impact on my career. I’m not sure why, but I can remember that person so distinctly for a few reasons.
I hope you got it right!
In fact, you even use Grammarly if you’re not aware of it, it is an amazing plugin that can be integrated with the browser, outlook, and other MS Office products so that it can prevent us from any grammatical mistakes and embarrassments while writing a blog or an email. Plus, it helps improve the language.
