5 Acceptable English Grammar Mistakes Are you telling me to make these mistakes
Hi.
I’m Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.
Let’s talk about some good mistakes.
It’s true that sometimes native English speakers
make mistakes when they’re speaking English,
and it’s probably true for your native language
as well.
There are two kinds of mistakes that native
speakers make.
One of them is mistakes that are unacceptable.
These mistakes are just really mistakes.
They aren’t thinking straight.
They are not thinking about their grammar,
or maybe they just don’t know the correct
grammar, so they’re incorrectly forming their
sentences.
When they speak, other people know ah, that
wasn’t correct.
They feel a little bit strange.
You know when someone makes a mistake in your
native language, you know that feeling you
get.
Oh, something wasn’t quite right.
The second kind of mistake is a mistake based
on the grammar book, so a grammar book shows
a certain rule, but in reality, native speakers
use another style of speaking, and this kind
of mistake, if native speakers use it while
they’re talking, other native speakers won’t
necessarily say, “Oh, ooh.
That was bad grammar.
Oh, they don’t know how to speak.”
They don’t feel weird about it.
They might kind of notice if they are big
into grammar, and love, studying grammar,
they might know, but it doesn’t feel weird,
like that first kind of mistake, so that’s
the kind of mistake that I want to talk about
today, the mistake that native speakers accept.
These are ones that are perfectly acceptable,
and this is perfectly acceptable in spoken
English.
Make sure that when you’re taking a grammar
test, of course, chose what the grammar book
says is correct, or if you’re speaking in
front of the CEOs of your company, make sure
you use correct grammar, of course, but these
are acceptable in daily life, and native speakers
use these all the time.
Let’s talk about the first mistake that’s
acceptable for you to use in English.
Last week, me and my husband played a three-hour
board game.
Last week, me and my husband played a three-hour
board game.
Did you hear that sentence?
Last week, me and my husband played a three-hour
board game.
Last week, me and my husband played a three-hour
board game.
What’s the correct way to say this sentence?
The correct way is to say, my husband and
I played a three-hour board game, but you
know what?
Native speakers often use me instead of I
as the subject, so it’s often the singular
version, so you could say, “Him and his friend,
her and her friend, me and my husband.”
That singular version, you can use that as
the subject, with someone else.
This is the most obvious mistake out of these
five examples, so if you asked a native speaker,
they would most likely know, oh, yeah.
That’s not correct, but they don’t feel weird
about it, and they probably use it themselves.
For this mistake, and you’re going to see
this as a common theme for the other mistakes
as well, if you use the grammar correctly,
often times, people are going to think that
you are too formal, or maybe a little bit
snobby, so by using the mistake, you’re actually
being a little more conversational, a little
more natural, even though it’s definitely
a mistake in the grammar book.
Let’s talk about the second example, and these
next ones are much more acceptable, even than
the first one.
The second mistake is a greeting, a really
common greeting, so let’s watch a quick example,
so you can see how this is in real life.
Oh, hey.
How’s it going?
Dan: Oh, hey.
Pretty good.
Vanessa: Oh, hey.
How’s it going?
Dan: Oh, hey.
Pretty good.
Vanessa: How are you doing?
Oh, pretty good.
How are you doing?
Pretty good.
In this situation, most people know that it
should be, I’m doing well.
How are you doing?
Well, but if you say well in this situation,
people might roll their eyes, and say, “Ugh,
she is too interested in grammar.”
It’s much more acceptable to use the mistake.
Good.
How are you doing?
Good.
For me, because I care about grammar, not
so much, but enough, that I often just try
to evade this rule completely, and I just
use a completely different word.
You just say something like, “Great.
Fantastic.
Incredible.”
I use a different kind of word, instead of
good versus well, so that’s up to you, but
it’s much more acceptable to say something
other than well.
The third mistake is a lovely example.
Let’s take a look at a quick scene using this
expression.
Dan: If I was a snake, do you think my baby
would be scared?
If I was a snake, do you think my baby would
be scared?
Vanessa: All right.
You heard, “If I was a snake, do you think
my baby would be scared?”
If I was a snake.
Ooh.
What do we got going on here?
In English, there are not many chances to
use the subjunctive form of the verb, but
this is one situation where it is correct
to say, “If I were a snake.”
If you said, “I were happy yesterday,” people
would look at you like you were a little bit
crazy, but when we add the word if, it means
that you’re going to use the subjunctive case,
and that means if I were becomes correct.
In any other situation, I were sounds completely
crazy, but with if, it means, it’s correct,
so the sentence should be, if I were a snake,
do you think my baby would be scared?
In daily life, we use both of these, but we’re
most likely to use the mistake.
If I was a snake.
My theory about why we often use the mistake
is because we’re just not used to pairing
I and were together, because in English, we
don’t use the subjunctive tense very much.
I know in some other romantic languages, like
Spanish, and French, the subjunctive is much
more common, so in your daily conversations,
it is perfectly acceptable and in fact maybe
desirable to say, “If I was a boy, my life
would be very different.
If I was.”
Make sure if you’re taking the test, of course,
you should say, “If I were,” but in daily
conversation, the mistake is more acceptable.
The fourth mistake has to do with our lovely
friends lay and lie.
I know when I learned about this in grammar
class, in the US, I hated it, because I always
felt so confused, and the reason why I felt
confused is because in daily life, we don’t
really stick to the grammar rules, so it didn’t
feel natural or comfortable to me.
I know that my middle school English teachers
tried to impress upon me, use the correct
version, but people are going to say what
they’re going to say, and it’s not often what
the grammar book says that you should say.
Let’s take a look at what is the most common
thing to say, and then we’re going to talk
about what’s actually correct.
Dan: I’m sick.
I’m gonna go lay down.
Yesterday, I laid down because I was sick.
Vanessa: You heard, I’m sick.
I’m gonna go lay down.
Yesterday, I was sick.
Yesterday, I laid down.
Hmm.
Here, we actually have the opposite of the
correct word being used.
The correct version is this.
Dan: I’m sick.
I’m gonna go lie down.
Yesterday, I lay down because I was sick.
Vanessa: Let’s take a look at this in closer
detail.
You might have noticed that the original,
incorrect version, but the most commonly used
version, uses lay in the present.
I’m sick.
I’m gonna go lay down, but the correct past
tense uses lay.
Yesterday, I lay down, so why are we using
the past tense in the present incorrectly?
Somehow this happened in the English language,
and it’s stuck, so that’s, in my opinion,
why lay and lie are just so confusing when
you try to learn them, because they don’t
feel natural.
The grammar book says one thing.
Native English speakers in daily conversation
use another, and in fact, when I asked Dan
about this, I read the sentence to him, and
he said, “What’s wrong?
It’s right, right?”
He didn’t even know that it was incorrect.
If those of you out there are grammar lovers,
and you think, why didn’t Dan know this?
First of all, if you ask most native speakers
that, they’re not going to really feel like
it’s so strange, like it feels bad to say
that.
It just feels okay to say that.
It’s quite natural, even though it’s technically
incorrect.
When you’re talking about taking a nap, you
can say, “I’m gonna go lay down.
I’m gonna go lay down.
I’m gonna go lay down.”
Yesterday, I was tired, so I laid down.
I was tired, so I laid down.
This is perfectly acceptable, and most speakers,
in American English, of course.
That’s where I’m speaking from.
Most American English speakers are not going
to even bat an eye about it.
Bat an eye just means they’re not going to
think twice about it.
Okay.
Great.
Go lay down.
Let’s talk about the fifth and final example.
There’s a lot of children’s books on my shelf.
There’s a lot of children’s books on my shelf.
You just heard, there’s a lot of children’s
book on my shelf.
There’s a lot of children’s books on my shelf.
Books.
Books.
This is plural, so why in the world do we
use there’s?
There’s.
There is.
Is is used with singular things.
What in the world are native speakers thinking?
I think that they’re just really not thinking
about the full sentence when they start the
verb, so it’s okay to say, “Oh, there are
a lot of children books on the shelf.”
There are, but it flows more naturally on
your tongue to say, there’s, instead of there
are.
There are.
It feels a little bit cumbersome and difficult,
but often times we say, “There’s” with something
plural or something singular.
There’s a book on my shelf.
There’s a lot of books on my shelf, so in
fact, you’re going to hear native speakers
say this a lot, and don’t be alarmed.
It’s quite normal, and natural, even though
it’s technically not correct.
If you want to use this in its construction,
don’t worry about it, but make sure that you’re
using the word there.
You can’t say, “They is going to the store.”
Don’t say that.
Only use the word there’s.
There’s.
There’s.
Thanks so much for learning these five acceptable
English mistakes with me.
I just want to emphasize again that if you
would like to use the correct grammar, no
problem.
A lot of these examples came up over the 30-day
listening challenge that just finished in
January 2018, and a lot of the conversation
clips included these mistakes, and I got a
lot of emails from students saying, “Why am
I hearing this mistake?
This person’s a native speaker.”
I wanted to share these mistakes with all
of you so that when you hear them, you realize,
okay.
This is an acceptable mistake.
They’re not just doing something to prove
a point.
It’s something that a lot of native speakers
do, but also for you, if you interact with
native speakers, and you use one version instead
of the other, you’re going to be perceived
in a different way.
I want to make sure that you feel like you
are completely comfortable in a situation,
and understand correctly, and can use English
in the most natural way, which is not always
the correct way.
Let me know in the comments.
Were any of these new for you?
Did you know that these mistakes are generally
acceptable?
Of course, they’re not going to be acceptable
to everyone.
I’m sure someone in the comments will say,
“This is terrible.
Don’t tell students to do this,” but in general,
these are quite acceptable in American English,
so let me know in the comments if any of them
are new for you.
Can you use these mistakes?
Something in my heart tells me this is wrong
to tell you to make a mistake, but you know
what?
That’s the purpose of this video.
It’s okay to make these mistakes.
It’s acceptable, so I hope that this video
was useful to you.
Keep up the good work with English, and I’ll
see you the next time.
Bye.
The next step is to download my free ebook,
Five Steps to Becoming a Confident English
Speaker.
This will help you know what is the next step
in your English journey, to help you really
master English, and speak fluently.
Thanks so much, and I’ll see you later.
Bye.