20 Common English Speaking Mistakes Do YOU make these with QUIZ

hello everyone and welcome back to

english with lucy today

we are going to be talking about some

common english mistakes normally made in

spoken english but also sometimes in

written english naturally these tend to

be made by people who are learning

english but there are quite a few

mistakes in here that native speakers

also make so you’re not alone this is a

very difficult language in this video

i’m going to take the incorrect

sentences and provide you with the

corrections so you can really get them

into your head there is also a free pdf

that goes with today’s lesson it’s got

everything that we’re going to talk

about today plus a quiz at the end so

you can practice what you’ve learned and

make sure you don’t repeat those

mistakes if you’d like to download that

just click on the link in the

description box you enter your name and

your email address you sign up to my

mailing list the pdf will arrive

directly in your inbox and then every

week after that you will automatically

receive my lesson pdfs along with all of

my news course updates and offers before

we get started i just have a quick

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finish right let’s get started with the

speaking mistakes okay the first mistake

is

the misuse of less

and fewer and this is a mistake that i

myself make i hear will make it a lot i

hear my mum make it i don’t know if it’s

regional i think it’s just a mistake

that native speakers make a lot of the

time if you manage to use less and fewer

correctly then you can confidently say

that you speak better than a lot of

native speakers including me let’s take

a look at this sentence it’s incorrect i

warn you don’t write it down there are

less people than yesterday there are

less people than yesterday this should

be corrected to there are fewer people

than yesterday why is this well we use

less

with uncountable nouns and fewer with

countable nouns and people

it’s a countable noun if you find it

confusing you can think of it this way

less is used with singular or

uncountable nouns and fewer is used with

plural or countable nouns which one of

these is correct the baby weighed fewer

than two pounds at birth

or the baby weighed less than two pounds

at birth

i’ll give you a couple of seconds

less or fewer

it should be fewer pounds plural

countable nouns right let’s move on to

three and four our next two mistakes we

are going to be looking at me and i once

again this is a mistake that i have made

many times in the past and every now and

again i do make this mistake and my dad

always corrects me the issue is that

many native speakers are taught to be

wary of

me not me in particular the word me

we’re always told it shouldn’t be him

and me it should be

him and i but this isn’t always correct

it depends on the placement have a look

at this sentence

they gave it to him and i they gave it

to him and i this is incorrect it should

be they gave it to him and me now

there’s quite a simple trick for

checking if it should be him and i or

him and me

remove the him and

and see if it fits

they gave it to i doesn’t fit they gave

it to me

does fit they gave it to him and me

these next three we’re going to be

focusing on subject verb agreement this

is one of the first things you learn in

english but it’s hard it can get quite

complicated and we often make mistakes i

often hear sentences like this

one of you are gonna get hurt one of you

are going to get hurt and to my ear it

doesn’t actually sound too bad but it is

technically grammatically incorrect it

should be

one of you

is going to get hurt

one of you is going to get hurt because

the is is agreeing with one of you one

of this group of you

one is have a look at this next one

which one do you think is correct

neither car are very fast

neither car is very fast

are or is i’ll give you a couple of

seconds

it should be

is

neither means not this one nor this one

neither is

singular last one see if you can get it

each of the plates are broken or each of

the plates is broken give you a couple

of seconds

it should be is again

each one each individual singular is

broken i personally find those quite

tricky it might seem absolutely obvious

to you but to me i really do find that

quite hard i find strange things quite

hard like the difference between take

and bring and left and right would you

believe it

it’s funny how everyone’s brains work

let’s take a look at the articles ah

and anne this is a very common mistake

that i hear normally made by learners of

english i might hear them say something

like it’s a old dress it’s a old dress

where it should be it’s an old dress we

use an

because the word that comes after the

article begins with a vowel sound an old

an old it’s actually harder to say ah

old owld

ah old you need to do a little tiny

glottal stop another one it’s an amazing

deal it’s an amazing deal it should be

it’s an amazing deal it’s an amazing

deal i used to live with an italian girl

who’s a very good friend and she often

made the mistake of actually doing this

the other way around because with words

that began with an h sound her like

hat

she wouldn’t pronounce that consonant

sound she would start it with the a

vowel sound instead she would say act

instead of hat

so she said i have bought an at i have

bought an at

and

i thought that was a very very

interesting thing because she was

correctly making the calculations of

whether she should say ah or an

it just was that she was pronouncing the

following word incorrectly there are

some dialects and accents like the

cockney accent where they often drop the

h’s i wonder

if they would say i bought an at

instead of i bought

i’m not sure i have to ask someone

because that seems really interesting

next we’re going to look at the

difference between beside and besides

these are commonly confused words take a

look at this sentence

she sat besides the river she sat

besides the river this is wrong it

should be she sat beside the river

beside means next to

besides means in addition to can you

tell me which of these next two

sentences is correct i could never be a

dancer beside i’m too old now

or i could never be a dancer besides i’m

too old now

which one do you think is right i’ll

give you a couple of seconds

it is besides in addition in addition to

that i’m too old now

next let’s look at very common mistake

the mistake of repeating the subject i

hear this all the time take a look at

this sentence my friend she’s coming

with me

my friend she’s coming with me it should

be my friend is coming with me you don’t

need to repeat the subject

it’s either my friend is coming with me

or she is coming with me

by saying my friend she’s coming with me

you are saying the same thing twice

another example

my handwriting it’s improving

my handwriting it’s improving

this should be my handwriting’s

improving or my handwriting is improving

no need to repeat yourself we got you

next let’s take a look at the incorrect

use of nobody

instead of anybody

now i’m not going to say that this is

always incorrect

because it forms part of dialects it’s

quite cool slang as well but if you’re

looking to write correct english in an

exam or something like that it’s

important to know this take a look at

this sentence i don’t need nobody’s

money

i don’t need nobody’s money now

grammatically this sentence is wrong

although it sounds right you’ll hear it

in music all the time it’s like extra

emphasis but it’s actually a double

negative it should be i don’t need

anybody’s money by saying nobody you’re

doubling up on that negative another

example i didn’t meet nobody at the

party i didn’t meet nobody at the party

technically it should be i didn’t meet

anybody at the party moving on let’s

have a look at would have

should have and could have i actually

made a video all about would have should

have and could have i will link it down

below because it’s very useful i know a

lot of students struggle with it

but there is a common mistake

used by native speakers again because we

have the reduction of of would have

should have could have this has been

misinterpreted over the years and people

are saying would of should of and could

of but this is technically incorrect an

example is you could have said you could

have said it’s very hard to hear that

slight difference it should be could

have said or she shouldn’t have done

that she shouldn’t have done that it’s

much clearer to see in written english

or i would have helped you should be i

would have helped you it’s a very subtle

difference in spoken english but it’s a

very clear difference in written english

finally we have our last two mistakes

this is one i read on a daily basis

in my comments section my lovely

students ask me if i’ve visited their

country and they asked me have you ever

been in india have you ever been in

london have you ever been in italy for

example it’s the difference between been

in and been to to have been in means

it’s a lasting action which is still

true i’ve been in here filming for three

hours for example and i’m still here

when you visit or travel to somewhere

you can say that you’ve been to that

location we’ll use it to talk about our

traveling experiences i’ve been in

london before should be i’ve been to

london before have you been in india

have you been to india right that is it

for today’s lesson i hope you enjoyed it

and i hope you learned something

now it is time for you to complete the

quiz on that pdf if you’d like to

download it all you’ve got to do is

click on the link in the description box

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don’t forget to connect with me on all

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lucy and my website

englishwithlucy.co.uk

where i’ve got an awesome pronunciation

tool where you can click on phonemes and

hear how i pronounce those phonemes and

words containing those phonemes it’s

very fun

e

word

no

i’ve also got my personal channel where

i document and vlog my life here in the

english countryside and all of the vlogs

are fully subtitled so that you can use

them for listening practice and to

improve your vocabulary i will see you

soon for another lesson

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