NECO English common mistakes
NECO English · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Underlines no instruction words and produces a pre-memorised essay (for example, a 'national unity' model) even when the prompt asks for a debate, speech or formal letter.
Candidates rehearse model essays and treat the topic as a cue for recitation rather than a task with a specified text type and audience.
What to do instead
Spend two minutes identifying text type, audience, purpose and tense, then write a three-line plan. If the prompt says 'write a letter to the editor', use formal register and address the editor, not a friend.
Uses one letter template for both formal and informal letters: 'Dear Sir' with 'Yours sincerely' but opens with 'How are you?' and uses contractions.
Memorised templates are not separated by register, so candidates mix salutation, address block, tone and subscription.
What to do instead
Keep two skeletons. Formal: sender's address, date, receiver's designation, Dear Sir/Madam, no contractions, Yours faithfully. Informal: address, date, Dear + first name, contractions allowed, Yours sincerely or affectionately.
Copies a full sentence from the passage as the answer to an 'in your own words' question and includes the example rather than the main point.
Fear of losing marks makes lifting feel safe, and candidates have weak paraphrasing skills under time pressure.
What to do instead
Answer one point per mark: locate the relevant sentence, note the key idea, then rewrite it with synonyms and changed grammar. Do not lift unless the question explicitly asks you to quote.
Gives the dictionary meaning of a vocabulary item instead of its meaning as used in the passage, such as 'bank' as a financial institution when the passage means a river bank.
Candidates recall a word's most common sense rather than testing it against the surrounding context.
What to do instead
Read the sentence before and after the item, substitute each option back into the passage, and choose the sense that preserves the passage's logic.
Writes a long summary that includes illustrations, figures, names and repeated ideas, then exceeds the word limit.
Candidates cannot rank ideas, and copying details feels safer than selecting main points.
What to do instead
For each paragraph, write one main-point sentence in the margin. Merge related points, delete examples, statistics and dialogue, then count words and cut adjectives and adverbs.
Introduces personal opinion or new information and writes in the first person, for example 'I think the writer is saying that...'.
Essay-writing habits carry over into summary, where evaluation and personal voice are not required.
What to do instead
Use reporting frames such as 'The writer states that...' or bare point sentences. Include only passage content and no evaluation.
Chooses 'He don't know' or 'The committee have' by ear rather than by concord rule, especially with indefinite pronouns and collective nouns.
Spoken Nigerian English habits override formal grammar rules under exam pressure.
What to do instead
Learn concord groups: everyone/everybody takes a singular verb; a committee takes a singular verb when acting as a unit. Test by replacing the subject with 'he/it' or 'they'.
Picks a synonym in 'nearest in meaning' because it sounds advanced, not because it fits the sentence's collocation, such as confusing 'differ with' and 'differ from'.
Vocabulary is learned as isolated words rather than as chunks with prepositions and typical partners.
What to do instead
Learn words in phrases with their prepositions, use elimination, and insert each option into the original sentence to check both grammar and sense.
Mishandles tense sequence and conditional forms: uses 'would have' for a present unreal condition, or mixes a past tense after 'if' with 'will' in the main clause.
There are gaps in the rule system, so candidates rely on sound and direct translation.
What to do instead
Drill the four conditional patterns. In reported speech, backshift unless reporting a universal truth. Underline time markers before choosing a tense.
Pronounces words as they are spelt: 'comfortable' as four clear syllables, 'vegetable' with a second 'e', or puts stress on the wrong syllable in 'develop' and 'development'.
Spelling pronunciation and first-language transfer override the spoken form learned from a dictionary.
What to do instead
Use a dictionary with IPA and stress marks, practise syllable counting and minimal pairs, and record yourself against a model pronunciation.