Improve Your English – Lesson 17: COMMON/POPULAR
COMMON/POPULAR
The words common and popular are often incorrectly interchanged by English students.
Popular means to be liked, appreciated, and accepted by many people.
Common means to be prevalent and occurring often. Many common things are not well liked and occur often, but this does not make it popular.
Heart disease is common among older people, but it is not very popular!
- Don’t say: Traffic accidents are very popular in Kenya.
- Do say: Traffic accidents are very common in Kenya
