IS or ITS Most Common English Errors English Grammar Pronunciation Mistakes
hello everyone and welcome back to
english with lucy today I’ve got a very
short little lesson but I’m hoping to
correct an error that I hear and see a
lot of you make especially students that
have Spanish as their mother tongue so
this lesson might not be relevant for
everybody you might watch this and say
Lucy do you think we’re stupid but no I
started teaching Spanish students
because I was teaching in Spain and I
always thought that they really really
struggled with this because Spanish does
not have the same structure of English
regarding this particular grammar point
yours however might do so if you get
through this video and you find it a
relevant every grammar topic can be
relevant for everyone before we get
started I just wanted to remind you to
sign up to audible.com you can get a
free 30 day trial and audio book which
is worth rather a lot of money by
signing up clicking on the link below
I’ve given out a couple of
recommendations
I really recommend the Harry Potter
books they are fantastic and also I
found out that you can have the complete
Sherlock Holmes collection read by
Stephen Fry who is one of my favorite
comedians
he speaks with received pronunciation
he’s got excellent pronunciation he
speaks clearly I have left the link for
that particular collection of audiobooks
down below as well I recommended it in a
previous video and you guys seem to
really really like it so I thought I
would mention it again
the one great thing about audiobooks is
you can practice your listening you can
also practice your pronunciation because
you’re listening to a native person read
the book and if you buy the actual book
as well it’s like you’ve got a complete
listening exercise anyway let’s start
with the lesson today I’m going to talk
about the difference between is and it’s
now before we get started I want to just
quickly talk to you about the
pronunciation of these two words because
I hear a lot of people saying if if both
of these are in correct
it should be firstly it a short vowel
sound not e a so that’s the first
mistake corrected if not e a stop the
voice with your throat a e-e-e okay see
if you can guess what I’m going to talk
about next
regarding the pronunciation of the two
words is its is its they end with a
different phoneme even though the
phonemes are represented by the letter S
so in is a voiced sound
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it’s unvoiced sound so if doesn’t exist
it is if it is it now if you apply this
to your speech you will instantly sound
more native now the next error that I
want to correct with these two little
words is the repetition of a subject
don’t repeat the subject Spain it’s
wonderful Spain is wonderful which one
is correct what is the subject of this
sentence the subject is Spain if I say
Spain it’s wonderful I’m actually third
Spain it is wonderful and that means
I’ve got two subjects I have repeated
the subject so that it is not necessary
Spain subject is wonderful now compare
these two sentences today is sunny today
it is sunny what’s the difference
which one is incorrect neither of them
are incorrect both of them are correct
today it is sunny it refers to the
weather today is sunny very slight
different so be careful with that
what does the it refer to another error
that I
here made by Spanish because a lot is no
is okay I had a wonderful wonderful
student an amazing academic if you gave
him anything to do with computers he
would just sort it out it was amazing
but he couldn’t get it into his head
that it’s not no it is it’s not or isn’t
but because in Spanish you say nice
nurse’s eat some people brains want to
say in English no is because it’s also
similar doesn’t it noise noise noise
noise but this isn’t didn’t isn’t case
if I want to say noise no I failed for
example I have to say it’s not him or it
isn’t him I can’t say noise him it
doesn’t exist now for some people that
might seem quite basic it’s hard not to
translate things directly from your own
language nah know if is I can totally
understand why a Spanish speaker would
translate nice as know it but take it
from me it’s not correct and if you want
to speak and sound like a native then
you need to start saying it isn’t isn’t
she isn’t nice it isn’t good it’s not
fair
right so the points you need to take
away from today’s lesson pronunciation
it is it is it is it is together so is
has no subject and it has the subject it
is the subject it is the subject in it
oh this is quite a difficult topic to
explain it seems so simple but actually
it’s not simple the next point be very
very careful when repeating the subject
do you need to repeat it the answer is
almost always no Spain is different
Spain it
different which one is it it is because
Spain is the subject and then the final
point with the negative it’s never know
is it is always it is not it’s not it
isn’t that’s it for today’s lesson don’t
forget to sign up for your free trial at
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will see you soon for another lesson
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you