The use (and misuse) of English in urological papers

At the request of the Editor-in-Chief, in this article I highlight some common mistakes in the use of English that are often made by authors who do not have English as a first language (and by those who do!). As is immediately apparent to those ‘learning English as a foreign language’, the basic rules are relatively simple, and many of the complexities in other languages (varied verb endings and forms, effect of gender, changes in plurals, etc.) are absent. However, because English has developed from many languages (Norse, Anglo-Saxon, Norman French, Latin, Greek, etc.) it has not only richness of expression and a vast vocabulary, but a bewildering variation in spelling, pronunciation and idiomatic usage.