Hi. I'm Rebecca from engVid. Do you think you speak good English?
Well, let's find out.
In this lesson we're going to look at 10 common errors made by English students, and let's
see if you know the difference between right and wrong. Okay? Let's get started.
So, here's the first one: "Whose this?" or "Who's this?"
Now, these are homonyms. That means they're two words that sound the same
or almost the same, but they're spelled differently
and they have different meanings. So which one is correct in this question?
Okay? Think about it.
So I hope you said that this is correct. Okay? Because this one is the word
we use when we're talking about possession. Okay? "Whose bag is this?",
"Whose book is this?" Like that. Okay? But: "Who's this?", "Who's" means: "Who is this?"
Okay? Let's go to the next one.
"Its Maria." or "It's Maria." Another homonym. A lot of people get this wrong, so look at
it carefully. What should it be?
I hope you said that this is correct and this is wrong.
Okay? Because this again means: "It is Maria." And the other one is the possessive form.
Okay? Now, you'll have a chance to understand all of these in more depth-okay?-more clearly.
I'll tell you exactly where to go because we have lessons on every single one of these
points in case you get them wrong.
Okay, next: "I think you're beautiful." or "I think your beautiful." Two more homonyms.
Which one is correct? Ready?
Okay, so it should be... This is right, this is not. Okay? Because
again, you want to say in this sentence: "I think you are beautiful", not "your", which
is the possessive form, like: "Your bag is on the table." Like that. Okay? This is a
very common error made, unfortunately, also by English speakers.
But you don't want to do that because you know better.
Next: "Can you advice me?" or "Can you advise me?"
Now, here the pronunciation was a little bit different,
but which one is correct? Which word do we need here? What do you think?
It should be this one, not this. This is the verb. Okay? "Can you advise me?" It almost
has a "z" sound, and this with the "c" is the noun. "Can you advice", so that's not
right. We can't say: "Can you advice me?" You need to say: "Can you give me some advice?"
That would be fine. Then we use the noun, but in this sent-... This question, we say:
"Can you advise me?"
Last one on here: "Bring this file over there." or "Take this file over there."
Which one is correct? Very common error, kind of a vocabulary issue here.
So, the correct answer is: "Take",
this is wrong, because we said: "Take this file over there." Okay? So the difference
is you take something away from you, and you bring something towards you. Okay? So because
we had the word "over there", the direction is away from you, so you needed to say: "Take".
Next we'll look at five more. All right?
Okay, number six: "Did you lose your keys?" or "Did you loose your keys?" Okay? You see
that there's a spelling difference. There's also a slight pronunciation difference in
those two words. So which is the correct answer?
It is the first one. Okay? Because this is
the verb, "lose", it has one "o", l-o-s-e, and the other word is the word "loose", as
in: "His pants are loose." or "His shirt is loose." Okay? So that's not what you want
here. You want the verb.
Next. Here you have a choice of three. Okay? See if you can find the right one.
"They're going home." or "Their going home." or "There going home."
Okay? Again, these are homonyms,
three of them that sound almost exactly the same so you must know which word is the right
word to use. So, which one is it?
I hope you said this one. Okay? These are not correct,
because this is a contraction which is two words which are shortened into one, which
stands for: "They are going home." Okay? This one: "Their", t-h-e-i-r is a possessive form:
"This is their house." And "there" is the opposite of like "here", "there", that kind of thing. Okay?
Number eight. "George lived here five years ago." or "George lived here five years before."
Okay? Which one is right?
This is a common mistake as well.
Okay. The correct answer is: "five years ago".
Because if you said "before", then you have to say something after
that, like: "George lived here five years before I did", or "before he went to college",
or "before he got married", or something like that. Okay? We can't just let it hang like
that, the word "before". So the correct answer here is "ago".
Number nine: "I know you will succeed." or "I know you will success." Which is right?
Okay. Again,
this is the verb: "succeed", and this: "success" is the noun. So you don't
want the noun in this case, you want the verb. All right? Also be very careful of the spelling
of this word. This is one of the most commonly misspelled words in the English language. Okay?
S-u-c-c-e-e-d, s-u-c-c-e-s-s.
Okay? Make sure that you really know how to spell that word
if you're going to use it on an exam or a test because many people get that wrong.
And the last one: "Sylvia drives slow." or "Sylvia drives slowly." Which one is right according to you?
Okay. So, again, what you're looking for is the adverb that describes how
she drives. Okay? So, "slowly", most adverbs have an l-y at the end, that's how we know
that they're adverbs very often. And this is really in adjectives, like:
"She's a slow driver." Okay?
Now, those were 10 basic errors in English. If you got them all right, congratulations,
that's super. In case you got even one wrong, it's really a good idea to correct that mistake
because these are pretty basic errors. And luckily there's actually a video that I had
recorded for each and every one of these, so if you go to our website at www.engvid.com,
you can find a lesson on each and every one of these. So if you got something wrong, like
let's say you got this one wrong, just go, go to the website, look for this one, and
we'll have some links there that you can follow, and you'll be able to watch a full video just
on that point. Okay? So that you really understand it and you don't make that mistake ever again.
Okay? So, good luck with your English and see you later.
Bye for now.