Common mistakes ‘I’m not strong for…’ v. ‘I’m not good at…’

To express the idea of skill, use the phrase ‘good at…’ and then add the verb in the ‘ing’ form. For example, ‘I’m not good at cooking, so I eat out every night’. Another example, ‘Even though I’m not very good at singing, my friends make me go to kareoke’.

A common mistake I hear in Japan is ‘strong for/not strong for’ when ‘good at/not good at’ should be used.

The phrase ‘strong for’ appears when we are talking about physical properties, and then it appears with the word ‘enough’. For example, ‘This bridge is not strong enough for a heavy load’ or ‘Paper is not strong enough to use as a rope’.

An interesting sidenote is for when we want to talk about our own skill. We often add a modifier, like ‘pretty’ or ‘quite’ to the phrase ‘good at’. This helps give an impression of modesty. For example, ‘After taking evening classes in Italian cookery, I got pretty good at making pizza’ or ‘I worked in Spain for ten years, so I got quite good at conversing in Spanish’.