Hello dear students! Today I have for you “7 common mistakes many English learners make.”
They’re basic mistakes that I’ve heard too many times from English learners
that I’ve met along my teaching career.
And it’s funny because I’ve heard these mistakes from students from different countries and at different levels:
beginner, intermediate, and even advanced.
The last mistake on the list is very common,
so make sure you stick with me until the end to discover what it is.
I mean, it's not the end of the world if you make mistakes when speaking...
In fact, at Mosalingua we always encourage our students
to speak the language that they are learning in order to improve.
Therefore, I especially want to help you today, dear student, to improve your English
by being aware of these mistakes so you can get rid of them and speak correctly.
And practice makes perfect.
So let’s get down to it, and make sure you take notes!
1- Who/Which/That
"Who" is used for people. "Which" is used for things, and "that" can be used for both.
However, "that" for people is informal but “that” for things is more common.
Let’s take a closer look:
“My friend who speaks Italian is American” sounds more formal than
“My friend that speaks Italian is American.”
"My friend" is a person, so "who" is correct.
The second option is ok, just make sure you don’t use it for formal writing.
Now, “My friend which speaks Italian...”
No, that’s not correct. That’s wrong because “which” should be used only for things, objects, or animals.
So now let’s change the subject to a ‘thing’... a T-shirt:
“The T-shirt which I bought last week is too small.”
“T-shirt" is a thing, so "which" is correct.
However, using "that" for things is actually more popular.
So you could say: “The T-shirt that I bought last week is too small.”
So remember: “Who” and “that” for people, and “which” and “that” for things.
2- Present vs. Introduce
False friends: I always talk about these guys...
Just make sure you know who they are so you don’t fall for them.
I’m just mentioning one very popular false friend,
and no more than that because these vary depending on your native language.
So, “I’ll present myself..."
No… “I’ll introduce myself.”
By the way, allow me to introduce myself… I’m Lisa-Joy, a language teacher at MosaLingua.
And I would like to invite you to subscribe,
as we, my colleagues and I, are always bringing language learning tips to help you improve.
So "present" is used but with a different meaning.
It refers to receiving an award or a gift. For example:
“They will present me with an award for best actress.”
3- Subject/verb agreement
Basically this means getting your subject and your verb in a sentence to get along, to match.
So, if your subject is in singular, the verb form should be in singular too.
And the same goes with plural: plural subject, plural verb form.
Let’s see some examples:
“The trains (plural) are (plural) late.”
NOT “The trains is late.”
“My mum and dad hate cats.”
Plural subject, plural verb.
NOT “My mum and dad hates cats.”
“My mum and dad” is in plural, because when two singular subjects are joined by "and"
they automatically become plural.
So, “My mum and dad” would be the same as "they."
“They hate cats.”
However, “My mum or my dad IS picking me up.”
NOT “My mum or my dad ARE picking me up."
We would use “is” in singular because with the word “or” it kind of separates “my mum/my dad”
so now “my mum” is treated as a singular and so is “my dad.”
“Or my mum is picking me up / Or my dad is picking me up.”
Let’s do one more example.
“Everybody knows her” and NOT “Everybody know her.”
“Everybody” is an indefinite pronoun, and be careful with these
because they sometimes sound as if they are in plural, but they actually act as singular.
Therefore they would have a singular verb form.
In this last example, we have a subject in the third person of singular.
And this leads us to the next mistake:
4- The final -s
This particular mistake is a mistake that students find hard to let go of for some reason:
So, omitting the -s at the end of the verb in third person singular in present simple,
is such a basic, yet underestimated mistake many English learners make.
You know the rule:
just add an -s at the end of the verb when in third person singular in present simple.
A small detail that makes a BIG difference.
“My sister love music.” → “My sister loveS music.”
So the ‘s’ that you add at the end of the verb, sometimes it might be ‘es’ has a /z/ sound.
Can you help me correct these sentences?
“He go to the farm.” → “He goES to the farm.” (with ‘es’)
“She have an ipad.” → “She haS an iPad."
Remember that the verb "have" has its own form, ok?
“My boyfriend don’t speak English.” → “My boyfriend doESn't speak English.” That’s correct.
“She do her homework.” → “She doES her homework.” (with -es.)
And this leads us to our next mistake on the list:
5- Make vs. Do
When I get up, I make my bed.
Then I brush my teeth and do my hair.
After that, I do some stretching exercises,
then make a delicious breakfast.
I study and do all my homework.
Sometimes, I make mistakes, but that’s ok.
The verbs ‘make’ and ‘do’ are very common in English and they often cause confusion.
Some English teachers might say that there are no hard and fast rules to learn them
and that the only way to do this is by memorizing them as set phrases.
However there are some tips that can help you to decide. Make or Do?
If you still have this doubt, you need to check out Abbe’s video.
My colleague explains it really well,
she gives out some tips and then gives out some sentences for you to practice.
6- Me vs. I:
"I" is always used as a subject. Let’s check out some examples:
I went to the party.
My friend and I went to the party.
“Me" in revenge is used as an object,
so when the person speaking is receiving the action, either directly or indirectly. Examples:
The waiter smiled at me. (I am receiving the smile).
The horse accidentally kicked me.
How about this one: - Give it to me.
You might hear native speakers using "me" in subject position.
I sometimes do that...
However it’s informal and I don’t think it’s even grammatically correct.
I’ll give you some examples:
Me and Bob went to the supermarket.
Should be: “Bob and I went to the supermarket,” correctly spoken.
7- Boring/Bored vs. Interesting/Interested
“She was boring in class.” / “She was bored in class.”
Well, both of them are correct, but what do you intend to say here?
So the adjectives can be ended with -ed or -ing.
Let me quickly explain to you the difference.
When you use the adjective with -ed at the end, you’re describing the feeling of the person.
How did she feel in class? → She felt bored.
When you use -ing (boring) at the end of the adjective, you refer to the CAUSE of the feeling.
So WHY did she feel bored? BECAUSE the lesson was boring.
One more example:
My sister is exhausted with her work. Her work is exhausting.
But my sister is also exhausting
because she complicates my life so much,
therefore, I feel exhausted because of her.”
Got it?
Feel free to go back in the video so you can watch this sentence and analyze it again.
Can you think of any other examples with these adjectives: “exciting" and "excited” or “amazing" and "amazed”?
How about you type them down below, so I can check them out and see if you’re doing this properly.
If you’re still making some English mistakes from the list that I’ve mentioned in this video,
my advice is that you focus on getting rid of them as soon as possible.
Of course, our language courses and apps
can help you getting rid of these mistakes.
If you are not among our users,
you can try our mobile apps or web platform for free.
I’m curious to know which mistake you identified yourself with from this video.
Report them in the comment box and I can check them out later.
We’re here to help!
Thank you so much for watching this video, and I’ll see you next time!
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