(bright music)
- Hello everyone and welcome back to English with Lucy.
Today we are going to be talking
about some common English mistakes
normally made in spoken English
but also sometimes in written English.
Naturally, these tend to be made
by people who are learning English.
But there are quite a few mistakes in here
that native speakers also make.
So you're not alone.
This is a very difficult language.
In this video, I'm going to take the incorrect sentences
and provide you with the correction
so you can really get them into your head.
There's also a free PDF that goes with today's lesson.
It's got everything that we're going to talk about today,
plus a quiz at the end so you can practise
what you've learned
and make sure you don't repeat those mistakes.
If you'd like to download that,
just click on the link in the description box,
you enter your name
and your email address,
you sign up to my mailing list.
The PDF will arrive directly in your inbox
and then every week after that,
you will automatically receive my lesson PDFs
Okay, the first mistake is the misuse of less and fewer.
And this is a mistake that I myself make,
I here, will make it a lot.
I hear my mum make it.
I don't know if it's regional.
I think it's just a mistake
that native speakers make a lot of the time.
If you manage to use less and fewer correctly,
then you can confidently say
that you speak better
than a lot of native speakers including me.
Let's take a look at this sentence.
It's incorrect, I warn you.
Don't write it down.
There are less people than yesterday,
there are less people than yesterday.
This should be corrected to
there are fewer people than yesterday.
Why is this?
Well, we use less with uncountable nouns
and fewer with countable nouns
and people, it's countable noun.
If you find it confusing,
you can think of it this way.
Less is used with singular or uncountable nouns
and fewer is used with plural or countable nouns.
Which one of these is correct?
The baby weighed fewer than two pounds at birth,
or the baby weighed less than two pounds at birth.
I'll give you a couple of seconds, less or fewer?
(clock ticking)
It should be fewer.
Pounds, plural countable noun.
Right, let's move on to three and four,
our next two mistakes.
We're going to be looking at me and I.
Once again, this is a mistake that I have made many times
in the past and every now and again,
I do make this mistake and my dad always corrects me.
The issue is that many native speakers
are taught to be wary of me,
not me in particular, the word me.
We're always told it shouldn't be him and me.
It should be him and I.
But this isn't always correct.
It depends on the placement.
Have a look at this sentence.
They gave it to him and I,
they gave it to him and I,
this is incorrect, it should be,
they gave it to him and me.
Now there's quite a simple trick for checking
if it should be him and I or him and me.
Remove the him and and see if it fits.
They gave it to I doesn't fit,
they gave it to me does fit,
we're going to be focusing on subject verb agreement.
This is one of the first things you learn in English.
But it's hard, it can get quite complicated
and we often make mistakes.
I often hear sentences like this,
one of you are gonna get hurt,
one of you are going to get hurt
and to my ear, it doesn't actually sound too bad
but it is technically grammatically incorrect.
It should be one of you is going to get hurt.
One of you is going to get hurt
because there is is agreeing with one of you,
one of this group of you, one is.
Have a look at this next one,
which one do you think is correct?
Neither car are very fast, neither car is very fast.
Are or is, I'll give you a couple of seconds.
(clock ticking)
It should be is.
Neither means not this one, nor this one.
Neither is singular.
Last one, see if you can get it,
each of the plates are broken,
or each of the plates is broken.
Give you a couple of seconds.
(clock ticking)
It should be is again,
each one, each individual singular is broken.
I personally find those quite tricky.
It might seem absolutely obvious to you
but to me, I really do find that quite hard.
I find strange things quite hard,
like the difference
between take and bring and left and right.
Would you believe it?
It's funny how everyone's brains work.
Let's take a look at the articles a and an.
This is a very common mistake that I hear,
normally made by learners of English.
I might hear them say something like it's a old dress.
It's a old dress
where it should be, it's an old dress.
We use an because the word that comes after the article
begins with a vowel sound, an old, an old,
it's actually hard to say a old, a old, a old,
you need to do a little tiny glottal stop.
Another one, it's a amazing deal.
It's a amazing deal.
It should be.
It's an amazing deal.
I used to live with an Italian girl
who's a very good friend
and she often made the mistake of actually doing this
the other way around.
Because with words that began with an H sound /h/ like hat,
she wouldn't pronounce that consonant sound,
she would start it with the /a/ vowel sound instead,
she would say at instead of hat.
So she said I have bought an at.
I have bought an at.
And I thought that was a very very interesting thing
because she was correctly making the calculations
of whether she should say a or an,
it's just was that
she was pronouncing the following word incorrectly.
There are some dialects and accents like the cockney accent
where they often drop the H's.
I wonder if they would say I bought an hat
instead of I bought a hat.
I'm not sure.
I have to ask someone
because that seems really interesting.
Next we're going to look at the difference
between beside and besides,
these are commonly confused words.
Take a look at this sentence.
She sat besides the river.
This is wrong.
It should be, she sat beside the river,
beside means next to,
besides means in addition to.
Can you tell me
which of these next two sentences is correct?
I could never be a dancer.
Beside, I'm too old now.
Or I could never be a dancer.
Besides, I'm too old now.
Which one do you think is right?
I'll give you a couple of seconds.
(clock ticking)
It is besides, in addition, in addition to that,
I'm too old now.
Next, let's look at a very common mistake.
The mistake of repeating the subject.
I hear this all the time.
Take a look at this sentence.
My friend she's coming with me.
It should be my friend is coming with me.
You don't need to repeat the subject.
It's either my friend is coming with me
or she is coming with me.
By saying my friend she's coming with me,
you are saying the same thing twice.
Another example, my handwriting it's improving.
My handwriting it's improving.
This should be my handwriting's improving,
or my handwriting is improving.
No need to repeat yourself, we got you.
Next, let's take a look at the incorrect use of nobody,
instead of anybody.
Now, I'm not going to say that this is always incorrect
because it forms part of dialects.
It's quite cool slang as well.
But if you're looking to write correct English
in an exam or something like that,
it's important to notice, take a look at this sentence.
I don't need nobody's money.
Now grammatically, this sentence is wrong.
Although it sounds right,
you'll hear in music all the time.
It's like extra emphasis.
But it's actually a double negative.
It should be, I don't need anybody's money.
By saying nobody, you're doubling up on that negative.
Another example, I didn't meet nobody at the party.
I didn't meet nobody at the party.
Technically, it should be,
I didn't meet anybody at the party.
Moving on, let's have a look at would have,
should have and could have.
I actually made a video all about would have,
should have and could have.
I will link it down below because it's very useful.
I know a lot of students struggle with it.
But there is a common mistake used by native speakers again,
because we have the reduction of have,
would have, should have, could have.
This has been misinterpreted over the years
and people are saying would have,
should have and could have.
But this is technically incorrect.
And example is you could have said, you could have said.
It's very hard to hear that slight difference.
It should be could have said
or she shouldn't have done that,
she shouldn't have done that.
It's much clearer to see in written English
or I would have helped you,
should be I would have helped you.
It's a very subtle difference in spoken English,
but there's a very clear difference in written English.
Finally, we have our last two mistakes.
This is one I read on a daily basis
in my comments section.
My lovely students asked me
if I've visited their country
and they asked me, "Have you ever been in India?
Have you ever been in London?
Have you ever been in Italy?"
For example, is the difference
between being in and being to.
To have been in means it's a lasting action,
which is still true.
I've been in here filming for three hours, for example,
and I'm still here.
When you visit or travel to somewhere,
you can say that you've been to that location.
We use it to talk about our travelling experiences.
I've been in London before
should be I've been to London before
Have you been in India?
Have you been to India?
Right, that is it for today's lesson.
I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you learned something.
Now it is time for you to complete the quiz on that PDF.
If you'd like to download it,
all you've got to do is click on the link
in the description box,
you enter your name and your email address.
You sign up to my mailing list
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Don't forget to check out Lingoda
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just click on the link in the description box
and use my code for 20 euros off your deposit.
Don't forget to connect with me on all of my social media.
I've got my Instagram @Lucy
and my website englishwithlucy.co.uk
where I've got an awesome pronunciation tool
where you can click on phonemes
and hear how I pronounce those phonemes
and words containing those phonemes, it's very fun,
/i/, word, no.
I've also got my personal channel
where I document and vlog my life here
in the English countryside
and all of the vlogs are fully subtitled
so that you can use them for listening practise
and to improve your vocabulary.
I will see you soon for another lesson.
(lips smacking)
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