• g. However, other people’s jobs are more important than ever!
  correct

• h. But Covid-19 has taught us that those kinds of jobs aren’t secure.
  correct

• a. For many years, people such as parents and carers have wanted the opportunity to work from home.
  correct

• d. Maybe managers didn’t trust their workers to work from home, or maybe the computer equipment wasn’t available.
  correct

• i. Fewer people were going to the cinema and the theatre because they were expensive.
  correct

• c. During lockdown, more people have got used to getting entertainment from their home screens.
  correct

• f. They will want to go to bars and nightclubs, and events like music festivals.
  correct

• b. Some have had financial problems and will never open again.
  correct

• j. It’s easier to find the thing you want to buy, and you don’t have to spend time and money travelling.
  correct

• e. Maybe town centres will become centres of art, culture, entertainment and business.
  correct

One of the most common errors I see, even among advanced non-native English speakers, is pluralizing the noun element of a numeral-noun compound—saying things like “a ten-feet pole” instead of “a ten-foot pole”.

In English, multiple words can be used together to form a compound adjective, or adjectival phrase, which are often hyphenated. One type of hyphenated compound adjective is the numeral-noun combination, which bewilderingly always has a singular noun, even if the number suggests that it should be plural.

Numeral-noun adjectives are extremely common, and commonly deal with length, distance, or time. A few examples are as follows:

• a ten-foot pole

• a five-mile walk

• #10yearchallenge

• a six-foot-tall man

• thirty-year mortgage

• three-day weekend

• six-month contract

• three-act play

• three-piece suit

• three-piece band

• fifteen-piece orchestra

• three-car garage

• two-parent household

• two-time champion

• three-course meal

• million-dollar deal

• twelve-mile beach

• five-step process

• five-year mission

• the seven-year itch

• five-year-old child

• 40-year-old virgin

• a fifty-page essay

• a five-minute conversation

(Exceptions to the rule are the Hundred Years’ War and the expression “two weeks’ notice”, neither of which is hyphenated and both of which use the plural possessive form—although both are commonly written without the apostrophe.)

This form of compound is also extremely productive, meaning that while some of the examples listed above are set phrases, new numeral-noun compounds can be (and frequently are) formed using the same model.

While native speakers will always produce these compounds with the noun in the singular form, even very advanced non-native speakers often mistakenly pluralize the noun element of the compound, resulting in expressions like “a two-hours waiting period” (which is wrong). This is especially confusing because in many languages the closest translated equivalent would have the noun in the plural form, as it is even when the expression is reworded in English: “a waiting period of two hours”.

One such area is the use of prepositions. These are notoriously tricky when learning almost any language, as they are often used quite differently. For example: in the park, at the park, on the park, by the park. Depending on your particular language, any of these might be right. In English, in or at can be right, but on is wrong, and by has a totally different meaning than on or at. Prepositions don’t have anything like a 1 to 1 correspondence between almost any two languages (though perhaps if those languages are both quite similar - they might match up quite well). This is true for most languages. Even if there is a good relative match-up between two sets of prepositions in two languages, there will be scores of examples where something totally alien is used. And thus, people have a great deal of difficulty mastering them in almost any language. They’ll make some (sometimes very elementary) mistakes even at high levels. I have advanced students who leave out “to” when they say “listen.” You end up with “I listen music when I cook.” They forget the dependent preposition because there isn’t one in their native language. Or they say “in first street,” when they mean “on first street,” which is a big difference because with the former you might be hit by a car and with the latter there’s probably a lot less chance of that happening.

Another is pronunciation of the “th” sounds. The reason for this is that very few languages have these two phonemes. As a result, most people who have a different first language have great difficulty producing these sounds. To them, they sound like s and z (Europeans and Slavs), or like t and d (Asians), and thus they produce them this way when they speak, and you end up with something like, “zis is ze most sotful book I’ve read zis year,” or “dis is de most totful book I’ve read dis year.”

Consider the difference between the bolded words:
He played the new record. (noun)
She will record her new song next month. (verb)

Exact same spelling, but the noun form has it’s stress on the first syllable, RE-cord versus the verb form having it’s stress on the second syllable re-CORD.

Other similar words:

increase / decrease
Noun: INcrease "There's been an increase in the number of students."
Verb: inCREASE "Numbers are increasing."

Noun: DEcrease "We've seen a decrease in the bird population."
Verb: deCREASE "Numbers are decreasing every year."

discount
Noun: DIScount "Is there a discount on this?"
Verb: disCOUNT "They discounted the theories."

refund
Noun: REfund "I'd like a refund please."
Verb: reFUND "We'll refund you 50%."

permit
Noun: PERmit "Do you need a permit to fish here?"
Verb: perMIT "They won't permit her to leave the country."

conflict
Noun: CONflict "They're reporting armed conflict in the area."
Verb: conFLICT "His opinion conflicted with hers."

contest
Noun: CONtest "She entered a beauty contest."
Verb: conTEST "They contested the results."

insult
Noun: INsult "Your offer is so low it's an insult."
Verb: inSULT "Don't insult me!"

protest
Noun: PROtest "There's a student protest today."
Verb: proTEST "They're protesting against cuts."

rebel
Noun: REbel "He was a rebel when he was younger."
Verb: reBEL "He rebelled against authority."

rewrite
Noun: REwrite "That's a rewrite of an old song."
Verb: reWRITE "She rewrote her story."

update
Noun: UPdate "We've got some updates for you."
Verb: upDATE "We're updating our files."

upgrade
Noun: UPgrade "They got an upgrade on the flight."
Verb: upGRADE "It's time to upgrade our computer."

invite
Noun: INvite "I received an invite to her party."
Verb: inVITE "They invited us to their house."

misprint
Noun: MISprint "There's a misprint in the book."
Verb: misPRINT "He misprinted the word."

insert
Noun: INsert "Put a couple of inserts in this text."
Verb: inSERT "He inserted a few words into her paragraph."

survey
Noun: SURvey "Let's do a customer survey to find out."
Verb: surVEY "They surveyed over 1000 people."

contrast
Noun: CONtrast "There's a big contrast between you two."
Verb: conTRAST "He contrasted the two pictures."

detail
Noun: DEtail "It's just a minor detail."
Verb: deTAIL "The story details their struggle with poverty."

escort
Noun: EScort "You'll need an escort to get through security.
Verb: esCORT "He escorted her out of the door."

reject
Noun: REject "This is one of the rejects from the factory."
Verb: reJECT "He rejected her advice."

upset
Noun: UPset "The victory was an upset in the championships."
Verb: upSET "He upset her with his cruel remarks."

compound
Noun: COMpound "They lived in a compound."
Verb: comPOUND "Current policy is just compounding problems."

contract
Noun: CONtract "Have you signed the contract?"
Verb: conTRACT "The economy is contracting."

conduct
Noun: CONduct "The conduct of the student was unacceptable."
Verb: conDUCT "They're conducting an inquiry."

object
Noun: OBject "He treats her like an object."
Verb: obJECT "She objected to the proposals."

subject
Noun: SUBject "What subjects do you study?"
Verb: subJECT "She was subjected to harsh criticism."

present
Noun: PREsent "He gave her a present."
Verb: preSENT "He's going to present his findings."

project
Noun: PROject "They're working on a project."
Verb: proJECT "He projects himself well."

refuse
Noun: REfuse "The refuse collectors are on strike."
Verb: reFUSE "He refused permission."

desert
Noun: DEsert "They went travelling in the Sahara desert."
Verb: deSERT "The soldiers deserted their post."

Source: Noun and verb syllable stress