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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