i`m a newbie, help!

i have started with the basics of SQL.
i am at lesson 3, how to select tables.
now when i give a command as given as in the example and submit the query, i get an message stating invalid charachter used in command, where as i have tried 100 times.
for example in lesson 3:
select first, last, city from empinfo where first LIKE `Er%`;
submit
it gives invalid command whereas the statement goes this way in the same example i`ve typed,
select first, last, city
from empinfo
where first LIKE `Er%`;
submit
it gives results.
where am i going wrong?
is it that i need to divide the statements and give spaces and use 3-4 different lines as shown in example? also some statements work, but most of the time it says invalid charachter, only when i copy paste, it gives a result display of the table. i`ve also copy pasted and writtent the statements as it is, also tried writting ``from`` and ``where`` as it is placed and shown in example,
please if anyone of you can guide me, where am i going wrong?
regards
robbie

I dnt think if you put them in 3 or 4 lines will make any difference.

However, if it works in that way, so just go with multi lines way

Good luck

wriring the query in a single line or two - three lines doesn't make any difference unless it is terminated by semicolon.

Customer
(C-No, Name, City, Balance, Age)
010 Ali ISB 1000 30
0120 Akbar LHR 2000 35
030 John LHR 1500 40
040 Khan PSR 5000 28
050 manji LRH 500 45
Write SQL queries for the following
List out those customers whose balance is greater than 2000.
List names of Lahore-based customers
List out the customers whose balance is less than 2000 and not living in Islamabad.

CUSTOMER(Customer-ID, Customer-Name,Customer_Address)
ORDER(Order-Id, Order-Date, Customer-Id)
Whereas the association name between the above entities is submits