3 Most Common English Mistakes
Hi.
I’m Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.
Do you make these three common English mistakes
when you speak?
Let’s talk about it.
First of all, I want to say, if you make these
mistakes, native English speakers will still
understand you.
Don’t beat yourself up over making these mistakes.
Beat yourself up means be hard on yourself,
be upset and angry that you make these mistakes.
Don’t be worried about them, but I want to
help you to perfect your English.
This doesn’t mean to speak perfectly, but
this means to improve your English.
The first mistake that I often hear beginner
English learners make, and I have actually
received some emails with this expression,
it is, I played a board game yesterday night.
Yesterday night.
It makes sense, yesterday at night, but this
is not the correct word that we need to use.
Do you know what we should say instead?
I played a board game last night.
Last night.
Great.
It’s a quick fix, and it’s going to make your
English sounds much more natural.
The second mistake that I often hear intermediate
English learners make has to do with general
countable items.
If you live in the mountains, like I do, you
might say, “I like mountain.
I’m a big fan of monkey.”
But, there’s something wrong in both of these
sentences.
That final word, that final thing that we’re
talking about, mountain, monkey needs to have
an S. For these countable items, mountains,
monkeys, we need to say, “I like mountains.
I’m a big fan of monkeys.”
This is going to be the most natural way to
talk about something general that is countable
that you like.
What if we have something that’s uncountable,
like tea or air conditioning?
In this situation you can say, “I like tea.
I’m a big fan of air conditioning.”"
It’s really hot in this room right now, but
if I turn on the air conditioning, it’s going
to be too loud and you won’t be able to hear
me.
So after this is over, I’m going to turn on
the air conditioning because I am a big fan
of air conditioning.
These are uncountable things.
Of course they are going to be some exceptions,
but the general rule is that with countable
items, I like mountains.
Great.
This is going to be with an S.
The third mistake that I hear even advanced
English learners make is with two famous words,
since and for.
I often hear, “I have been living here since
three years.”
You used a great verb, have been living here.
That’s beautiful, but the final part of the
sentence has a mistake.
You should say, “I have been living here for
three years.”
I want to tell you the quick difference between
since and for.
If you say, “I have been living here for three
years,” for three years is talking about the
length or the duration of time, for three
years.
You could say, “I have been living here since
2015.”
This is the start of the time when I moved
to the city.
In 2015, I moved here, so I have been living
here since 2015.
You can use this to talk about your English-learning
skills and your English-learning journey.
I have been learning English for 10 years.
This is the duration of time.
Or you could say, “I have been learning English
since 2010.”
Great.
This is going to be clear statement, and it’s
going to be advanced English.
If you’d like to really master using since
and for, I recommend watching the live lesson
that I made about these two words up here.
You’re going to learn a lot of different situations
where you can use these words.
By the end of the lesson you’ll feel confident
about using them correctly.
And now I have a question for you.
Let me know in the comments below this video,
do you make any of these common mistakes?
I hope that now you can say last night, I
like mountains, and I have been learning English
with Vanessa for at least four and a half
minutes now.
Thanks so much for learning with me, and I’ll
see you again next Friday for a new lesson
here on my YouTube channel.
Bye.
The next step is to download my free e-book,
Five 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.