Witch are the Top 10 most useful English words?

I suspect i am a dyslexic. I am scoring poor grades for my English.?

• Hi all, Since young, i am always scoring poor grades for my languages, especially english. For O level, i scored all 4As and 1B for my math, science and humanity but i got a D for English. I can't speak fluent English and sometimes even my first language, Chinese. I don't know much about vowel like q, g, u and etc so people often don't understand what i am trying to say. I can't pronounce while combining those vowel together such as "gri", "yur", "claud" and etc. I get nervous when I am speaking to teachers, church members, friends and sometimes, my family. Often, I can't speak very well as I wanted to. Consequently, I am very quiet in English lesson and unable to speak proper English spontaneously in other lessons as well. I also have problem in writing. I am often heavily penalised by my grammatical errors, spelling and my sentence don't make sense. Admittedly, I am a hardworking student, i read lot of newspapers, model essays and storybooks but i just can't express myself in words from i learnt. I usually take quite a long time doing English essays and summary. I am cautious for not making any grammatical mistakes while doing English essay every time but i always repeat the same stupid mistakes like missing words like "a", "the", "s" and etc, spelling, tenses switching like crazy, sentences which do not make sense to the marker. My teachers always comment or rather complain that they find it hard to read my essay. They say i have realistic points but my poor expression make my argument points fragmented. Recently, i hired a General Paper tutor. She taught me some writing skills and useful words to tackle essay questions. One day, she gave me spelling and asked me to construct sentences from those words. Honestly, i had a hard time constructing sentences even i know the meaning of the words. Then she got frustrated after she marked. She tried to explain to me and asked me to construct a good sentence again, I failed her. i took a long time maybe 10 min to construct a sentence using the "imperative". Next, she gave me dictation. I keep missing some the words she say and wrote the wrong words. She did spell verbally some unfamiliar words for me but i feel that she spelled too fast for me to catch. There were times that she asked me to spell verbally some words too, I were hesitant and even said some wrong alphabets. Also, I mentally know she say "pleasant", "enable" but i wrote "present" and "unable". At first, she thought that i am not paying attention then she became suspicious. Then, she asked me to read 1 particular page of Euid Blyton's book. Of course, I can't read in semi-tone and a few words but i just bomb. She taught me to combine and pronounce some vowels like "claudine" but i can't pronounce when this word come again in the passage. She suspects that i have dyslexia. I feel so upset about myself and people surround me. I always make them disappointed about my English grade. Despite of my hardworks, i still didn't make any improvement yet. What wrong with me? How in the world my friends whose parents also don't speak English at all, yet able to score well in English? How i wish i can be like them. I am going to consult a psychologist tomorrow, I wonder whether i am a dyslexic. It is hard to accept as i am 18 years old this year. I need to pass A level GP in order to get into local universities.

• Answer:

  So i suppose you are from singapore? As i flunked my GP and it was saddening as i can't get into any local universities. (and i scored B3 for O Level) Your writing seems to be good seriously. Well i wish you weren't diagnosed to be dyslexia. Also, general paper is not only about good english since some of my friends who are imcompetent in english language had scored decent grades (like B) for GP consistently. All they did was writing down the points from the model essays, categorising them into topics and memorising them. And they were seriously dillligent by reading newspaper everyday. I wish to hire a GP tutor too, where did u find yours? haha. I think you should just speak up, don't be afraid. My english grades are not good but still i have no difficulty talking to my friends, tutors and even strangers. Just voice your opinions and you will realise you are improving. So, good luck in your studies and i wish you all the best.