Hi I am Sonia and welcome to today's lesson. Well if you want to learn English and stop
making silly mistakes, then you need to really focus on this particular lesson extremely
well. Alright because if you look at the title it says, do you make these common mistakes?
Well yes on the board here, I have some very common mistakes that we make regularly in
spoken English and we need to stop doing this right away. So let's not take up any more
time and let's get straight to the board.
The very first example that I have for you; it says amount v/s number. Let’s understand
this through the sentence, alright. So I have a sentence here which says, I have reduced
the amount of tea I drink. Let’s focus on this here. Now why have I said amount of tea?
Well tea is something that you cannot count. Can you count tea? No, you can measure it.
You can say one cup of tea or two cups of tea, right? So that makes us understand that
the word amount is always used with something which is uncountable, alright remember this.
So uncountable. Things like water, sugar, rice, anything which is uncountable, you'll
use the word amount. Look at the same sentence, what if I would have said, I have reduced
the number of tea I drink? How funny would that sound, right? So remember it's always
the amount of tea because tea like other things is uncountable.
The next example it says, the number of participants is high. So here I've used number, why? Because
I'm using a word like participants. So supposing there's a competition, alright and we're talking
about the participants. Can I something like, the amount of participants is high? No I can't
do that because you can participants, either there are two participants, more than a hundred
participants. Whatever the number is, it's countable, alright. So number is used with
something which is countable. Okay remember this. If you can count something, you will
use the word, number with it. So the number of participants is high.
Okay moving on to the next one here. It says among versus between. Now I'm sure you going
to tell me Sonia there's no difference between this. But let me tell you, there is a huge
difference and it is very easy to remember. So between is used for two, okay. For two.
And among is used for more than two. Alright, more than two. Let’s look at the sentences
and understand this. The first one says, we divided the money among ourselves. So imagine
if you've won a lottery and may be five of you friends decided to chip in and buy the
money and you've all won the lottery now. So what are you gonna do? You are going to
divide the money among yourselves. Obviously you'll are more than two people, you are 5
friends, so you can't say, we divided the money between ourselves. No, because you'll
are more than two people, you will say we divided the money among ourselves, alright.
The next example, Tom was sitting between John and Maria. So if you've noticed here,
you are using the word between because we're talking about two people, John and Maria.
Okay Tom was sitting between two people, not between three or more than two, just between
two people. So very easy to remember, please don't make this mistake if you're doing so.
Between is used for two things or two people and among is used for more than two thins
or more than two people. Okay the next one here, this is again very simple and these
are very common words used a lot when we speak every day. Bring and take. So what could be
the difference between these two? Let’s look at the sentence first. Please bring the
documents here. Okay now if I am saying something, okay if I am the speaker, if I am making a
sentence and if I want something to be brought to me, towards me, I will use the word, bring.
So I will say, please bring the documents here. I will not say please, take the documents
here. If something has to come towards the speaker that is me, in this case, I will use
the verb, bring. Okay so please bring the documents here. So you'll use bring when you
want to say, towards the speaker, alright. And the next sentence, take the files away
from my desk. So you are taking something away from the speaker. I'm telling someone
to take the files away from me. So take is when something goes away from the speaker.
There, you go as simple as that. Bring, something that comes towards the speaker and take is
something which goes away from the speaker. So three simple examples here, we will look
at something more and a few more examples like these
So let's have a look at a few more common errors that we make a now a days, alright.
So the next one here, it says, further versus farther. If you notice this, there's just
a slight difference of one letter, right? But the meaning is absolutely different and
even when you pronounce these words, this one is pronounced as further and this one
as farther. So it has a long sound. Let’s look at the sentences and then we'll understand
what they actually mean. The very first one says, do you have any further questions? Now
I'm sure this is a very common line that you've heard, whenever you watch a presentation or
you're in a lecture, you know in college or something like that. A lot of people ask this
question. So over here, do you have any further, further questions. This means do you have
any more questions? So further in this kind of a scenario can be used to mean, more, alright
and farther, how will you we use this? The shopping complex is farther away from here.
Now firstly, do make sure that you don't confuse this with the word, father. Look at the spelling,
it has an r in it. So it's very different, okay. They just sound similar but the meaning
is different. The word, farther is used mainly for distance, alright. So if you want to say
that, a particular place is far away, so you could say, the shopping complex is may be
5 kms farther away from here. So you use this word, when you talk about distance, specifically
not for anything else. So further means more in a situation like this and farther means
when you are talking about distance, when a particular place is very distant from another
place, alright.
And then we have the last example for you, which is fewer versus less. This is quite
similar to the very first example that we saw, alright. So fewer is used for something
which you can count. So fewer is used for countable nouns or countable things. And less
is used for something which is uncountable, alright. So let's look at the very first sentence,
I have fewer projects than her. Now obviously, projects, you can count projects, right. You
can say I have 2 projects on hand or I have 5 projects to complete for the month. You
can definitely always count them. So when you are talking about something like this,
you will use the word, fewer when you are comparing. You can't say something like, I
have less projects, I have fewer projects, that's the right word to use. And then you
have the next sentence, it says, the memory on the smartphone is quite less. Oops, so
memory is something that you can't really count. Can you count memory? Okay you can
measure memory, you can say that the memory on this smartphone is 16 GB or it has a large
memory, it's something which is uncountable. Okay you can't count it like projects and
hence with something like, memory, you will use the word, less when you want to say that
it is not a lot, it is less. So remember, fewer something that you can count and less
is something which you cannot count. It is uncountable.
So yes, these are some of the very common mistakes that have been making for quite some
time now and you've been doing this, I hope that you've understood everything very clearly
and that you stop making these mistakes right away. Alright, this brings me to the end of
the lesson for today, I hope that you enjoyed watching. Do make sure that you practise,
make sure you go through your examples regularly. I'll be back soon with something new, till
then you take good care of yourselves, bye.