How I correct my mistakes in English sentences?

In this time, I want to write about English because my lecture asked me to increase my English ability. We know that everybody makes mistakes when they learn a language and everybody wants to correct them as much as possible.

Because of that, I will help you to understand why a sentence is wrong and what I do to correct it?Based on the book with its title "Is That What You Mean?" by Paul Hancock (1990), I will explain the wrong statements and then correct it.

1. The first mistake

"Try to phone Michael, He might be at home"

If you use try with the infinitive, it means that the action is something difficult and you have to try very hard because you might not be able to do it. For another examples (1) Try to walk (your leg is injured); (2) Try to sleep (There is a lot of noise in the house).

"Try phoning Michael, He might be at home"

Here you need to use try with the verb in another form, so that it means experiment. It's not a difficult to do. You just do it and wait to see what the result is. so, the verb is in gerund form.

2. The second mistake

"There were very little people in the supermarket this morning"

Little is opposite of much, and is used with uncountable nouns, for example "I have very little time". If you use little with a plural noun, it means small, for example "There are some beautiful little houses near the beach"

"There were very few people in the supermarket this morning"

People is a plural noun, for example "The people are friendly here". With a plural noun you have to use a different word, which means the opposite of 'many'. So, you can use few instead of little.

3. The third mistake

"After the bell rang, the boxers continued hitting themselves"

The reflexive pronoun themselves means that one person is doing something to himself or herself, and the other person is doing something to himself or herself. This is used for sentences such as "The children washed themselves and got into bed"