English Grammar Test Advanced English Lesson
Hi.
I’m Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.
Are you ready to test your grammar skills?
Let’s do it.
Today I have a fun grammar test for you.
Fun?
Grammar?
Test?
Is it possible?
Yes, it’s definitely possible.
Just watch and see.
In this lesson you’ll learn seven common English
grammar mistakes and how to fix them, but
the trick is, you have to guess what the mistake
is.
Fun.
I’m going to show you seven sentences, and
you need to find one change in each sentence.
Maybe that’s taking something out, maybe that’s
adding something, maybe it’s exchanging something.
Let’s take a look at a quick example.
This sentence, “I love dog.”
There’s one mistake here, can you guess what
it is?
What do we need to change to make this beautifully
correct?
Well we need to say, “I love dogs.”
You need to add an ’s' at the end.
This is a pretty simple example.
So are you ready for some more advanced grammar
sentences?
Let’s do it.
Let’s imagine that we’re in a coffee shop
together drinking some coffee.
Well maybe that’s not such a good idea because,
if I had a cup of coffee, I would be running
around the coffee shop non-stop.
So how about this?
I’m drinking some tea, you’re drinking some
coffee, and we’re having a lovely conversation
together.
And you say to me, “So how’s it been going
lately?”
And I say, sentence number one, “I bought
the new Ferrari yesterday.”
What’s one thing that you can change in this
sentence to make it correct?
This sentence is not correct.
There’s something that’s wrong with this sentence.
Can you guess?
I’ll give you three seconds.
Three, two, one.
“I bought a new Ferrari yesterday.”
You have this image in your head of us sitting
in the coffee shop, do you think that we’re
looking at the car right now?
No.
We’re just kind of imagining this car.
It’s not something specific, it’s something
unknown, so we need to use ‘a.’
Maybe after we have our drinks, we go out
to the parking lot, and I say, “This is the
new Ferrari that I bought.”
This is the new Ferrari.
We’re looking at it, we know which one it
is, it’s right there.
So we need to use ‘the’ to talk about something
known and ‘a’ for something that’s less known.
Test sentence number two: I wanted a Ferrari
because it’s too fast.
I wanted a Ferrari because it’s too fast.
What’s wrong in this sentence?
Three, two, one.
I wanted a Ferrari because it’s really fast.
We only use ‘too’ in negative situations.
The coffee is too hot, I can’t drink it.
I’m too tired, I can’t study.
Maybe I could have said, “My old car was too
slow.”
You can see here that, in all of these situations,
there’s something negative.
The coffee’s too hot, I’m too tired, the car
is too slow.
There’s a problem in all of these sentences,
so I probably want to fix it.
And in the sentence with the Ferrari, I think
that the Ferrari is really fast, so that’s
why I want it.
If you’re curious about some differences between
‘too’ and ‘so,’ I made a live lesson about
this a long time ago, about two years ago,
and you can watch that video up here.
All right.
Sentence number three: when I bought the car,
it costs $300,000.
When I bought the car, it costs $300,000.
That’s a lot of money.
All right.
What is one thing that you can do, to change
in this sentence, to make it correct?
Three, two, one.
When I bought the car … notice this is the
past tense … bought the car, it costs?
This is the present tense.
We need to say, “It cost $300,000.”
The word ‘cost’ is an irregular verb and often
these irregular verbs trip up or trick English
learners.
So we need to make sure that we use the proper
past tense.
It cost $300,000.
Sentence number four.
Maybe after I told you how much the car cost,
you say, “Oh Vanessa.
That’s so much money.
Why would you do something like that?”
And I say, “Well I think I’m going eating
rice and beans for a whole year.
I think I’m going eating rice and beans for
a whole year.”
This means nothing fancy, nothing special,
only rice and beans because I spent all my
money on a car.
What’s the problem with this sentence?
Three, two, one.
“I think I’m going to eat rice and beans for
a whole year.”
Often English learners have problems with
‘-ing’ and ‘to.’
It depends on a lot of different factors,
but specifically for the verb going, when
we’re talking about this in the future.
I’m going to eat rice and beans.
I’m going to study with Vanessa.
I’m going to sleep soon.
Well we need to use ‘to’ plus an unconjugated
verb.
I’m going to study.
I’m going to eat.
I’m going to sleep.
Great.
All right.
Let’s go to the next one.
Number five: for my whole life, I always dreamed
of owning a Ferrari.
For my whole life, I always dreamed of owning
a Ferrari.
What’s the problem in this sentence?
Can you guess?
Do we need to add something, take something
away, switch something?
I’ll give you three seconds.
Three, two, one.
For my whole life, I had always dreamed of
owning a Ferrari.
Why did we add ‘had’ here?
This is the past perfect tense, and I know
it can be tricky for a lot of English learners.
We use the past perfect tense to talk about
something that was continuing for a long time
in the past and now it has stopped.
Do you know why my dream has stopped?
Well because it came true.
I own a Ferrari … of course this is a fake
situation, just imaginary.
But because this dream came true, well we
can say that it has stopped.
So we need to make the sentence, “For my whole
life, I had always dreamed of owning a Ferrari
and now I do.
Now that dream has come true.”
If you’d like to learn more about how to use
the past perfect tense or the future perfect
tense, you can click on this live lesson that
I made up here a long time ago.
There’s one full lesson about the past perfect
tense and one full lesson about the present
perfect tense.
These can be tricky, so please take your time,
be patient with yourself, and study them and
take some notes.
All right.
Let’s go to the next sentence.
Sentence number six: not only is my Ferrari
beautiful, but it is fun to drive.
Not only is my Ferrari beautiful, but it is
fun to drive.
How can we make the sentence better?
Three, two, one.
Not only is my Ferrari beautiful, but it’s
also fun to drive.
We need to add the word ‘also,’ and our key
here is the first part of that sentence uses
‘not only’ and then the second part needs
‘but also.’
This is an advanced phrase, ‘not only, but
also,’ that’s going to make your sentences
more complex.
Instead of just saying simple sentences, “My
Ferrari’s beautiful.
It’s fun to drive,” we can combine those with
a beautiful advanced expression like this,
“Not only is my Ferrari beautiful, but it
is also fun to drive.”
We use ‘not only, but also’ to give some more
information about something, but it’s really
to take it to a higher level, to kind of escalate
something.
So here, “My Ferrari’s beautiful.”
Okay, but the next level is, “Oh, it’s also
fun to drive.
On top of that, it is also fun to drive.”
So you might say, “Not only is this lesson
useful, but it is also fun.”
I hope that this lesson is useful to you,
but I hope it’s not boring, I hope it’s also
fun.
We’re taking it to the next level.
All right.
Let’s go to the next one.
Sentence number seven: if I crashed the car,
I will cry.
If I crashed the car, I will cry.
Can you imagine this situation?
Spending so much money on a car, and then
crashing it and that’s it.
That would be terrible.
All right.
Let’s think about what is the best way to
fix this sentence.
Three, two, one.
This is a hypothetical, imaginary situation.
If you were listening to my quick little explanation,
you might have guessed the correct answer.
If I crashed the car, I would cry.
We use ‘if’ plus ‘would’ to talk about these
imaginary, hypothetical situations.
It’s not happening right now, so we need to
use ‘would.’
If you’d like to learn how to use ‘would’
in other situations or some more in-depth
examples about it, make sure you check out
another test I made, Should, Would, and Could,
and how to use them correctly.
How did you do on this test about my Ferrari?
I hope you enjoyed it.
Now it’s time to do a little review.
Let’s go back and read all of those sentences
using the correct words so that you can visually
see it and also hear it one more time.
I bought a new Ferrari yesterday.
I wanted a Ferrari because it’s really fast.
When I bought the car, it cost $300,000.
I think I’m going to eat only rice and beans
for one year.
For my whole life, I had always dreamed of
owning a Ferrari.
Not only is my Ferrari beautiful, but it’s
also fun to drive.
If I crashed the car, I think I would cry.
How did you do on this test?
Let me know in the comments what your score
was.
And just to let you know, this story is not
true.
I don’t own a Ferrari.
Do you think I seem like the kind of person
who would buy a Ferrari?
Probably not.
I could buy 20 round the world plane tickets
for the same price, and that’s definitely
what I would do if I had that much money.
Let me know in the comments how did you do.
If you enjoyed this test, then maybe I’ll
make some more in the future.
Thanks so much for learning English with me,
and I’ll see you again the next time.
Bye.
The next step is to download my free ebook,
5 Steps to Becoming a Confident English Speaker.
You’ll learn what you need to do to speak
confidently and fluently.
Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel
for more free lessons.
Thanks so much.
Bye.