What was you laughing at? Have I said anything I oughtn't?
Welcome to LetThemTalkTV and today we're counting down our picks for the top 10
grammar mistakes by learners of English in WatchMojo style for this list we've
consulted Gideon an English teacher with over 15 years experience who has kindly
typed out the most common mistakes he comes across in his lessons at the
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#10 EVERYBODY, ALL and "EVERY PEOPLE"
So here's a mistake "Every people know that tigers are dangerous" So firstly
EVERY PEOPLE does not exist. There is no situation where you can say
EVERY PEOPLE it's grammatically incorrect so just say EVERYBODY or
EVERYONE they're both the same, by the way and put it with a singular verb
"Everybody knows that tigers are dangerous", "Everyone loves unicorns." They
all that sounds very natural, Secondly is this correct "All people know that Tigers
are dangerous." It's grammatically correct but that doesn't sound natural at all, We
Don't speak like that. Don't say "all people" use EVERYBODY or EVERYONE yes you
can use ALL sometimes where it's followed by a noun where you're talking
about a specific group of people or things. For example "all the students had
pencils". "All the jugglers had balls". So if you're talking about a specific group of
individuals say ALL but if it's not specific just say EVERYBODY. So "I spoke
to all" that's not correct. "I spoke to everybody."
That's correct but "I spoke to all the musicians" You got it?
#9 counting uncountable nouns.
What's wrong with this sentence. "Have you
got some informations about the new members?"
now there are a number of nouns
that are uncountable in English whereas in other languages they are countable
for example INFORMATION. no you can't say "informations." There's no word in English
"informations" it's uncountable you can't say some information. "Have you got some
information about the new members?" but if you want to count information you need
to use another word a piece of information.
"I've got two important pieces of information to tell you about
the Ambassador." These words are also uncountable: NEWS. a piece or an item of
news. "The news is good ." So news is singular. REMEMBER, LUGGAGE, a piece of
luggage, two pieces of luggage. So you can count suitcases but not luggage. RESEARCH,
EQUIPMENT, LUCK, I had a stroke of luck today never say "a luck." A loaf of bread
don't ask for a bread that's wrong FURNITURE, LIGHTNING, JAM. CREAM, DUST... many
more so if you want to have more information about how to count
uncountable words we've made a video about that link up here somewhere.
#8 Starting a sentence with OR.
What's wrong with this sentence. "Or you
can have a hot dog or you can have a kale salad." In many languages including
speakers of Latin languages when you are offered a choice between two things you
can use an "or.... or" combination that's why I so often hear this mistake.
In English when you are indicating two possibilities you use "either,,,, or". "Either
you can have a hot dog. or you can have a kale salad." "Either we can go to Vienna, or
we can go to Mumbai." "Either you can go out with me, or you can go out with Steve
but you can't do both so make up your mind" - "OK... Who's Steve?"
#7 the difference between SHADE and SHADOW
What's wrong with this sentence?
"The Sun is too strong let's go in the shadow." not correct. "...let's go in
the shade" This is a very common mistake because in some languages you only have
one word where in English you have two words SHADE and SHADOW. If you're talking
about a dark shape that light makes when it hits a surface it's called a shadow
here's a picture of a shadow and here. Shade means a place which is cool and
dark because it's away from direct sunlight. Yes this sometimes means taking
advantage of a shadow something such as a tree to protect you against the sun
but in English it's a different word. So don't confuse those two SHADE
and SHADOW. SHADE of course, also has a second meaning referring to a nuance of
color. "I like this shade of green", "50 Shades of Grey." I'm sure you've heard of
the book or read the book.
#6 Confusing REMEMBER, REMIND and RECALL
What's wrong with this sentence? "This remembers me when I was a child" Remember
means having a memory of something "I remember visiting Stonehenge when I was a kid."
"Do you remember when we used to make
sand castles on the beach?" REMEMBER is an intransitive verb so it's not followed
by a noun or a pronoun. However REMIND is a transitive verb so
it is followed by a noun or a pronoun you can use REMIND when you cause
someone to make a note of something "Can you remind me to feed the cat?" "Could I
remind everybody to switch off all the lights before you leave." REMIND is also
used to talk about something that causes you to remember
something else "this madeleine reminds me of the cakes my mother used to make."
When you talk like that you remind me of your uncle." "This reminds me of when I was a child
RECALL means bring a memory of something
to someone's attention. "I seem to recall you saying that we would not be working
on Saturday and here we are." "I vaguely recall waking up naked on the beach."
So in this context you can always replace RECALL with REMEMBER. RECALL is a bit
more literary so if you're not sure just use REMEMBER.
#5 Confusing SAY and TELL
What's wrong with this sentence? "He said me that he had met the Queen."
what about this? "He said to me he had met the Queen." So the first sentence is
grammatically incorrect you cannot you cannot follow SAY with a direct object
"He said me". "James said them." no no no that's never correct the second sentence;
"he said to me he had met the Queen" is grammatically correct however do we say
that? No, not really what about this? "He told me that he had met the Queen" ah
much better if you're getting confused about when to you say and when to use SAY
and when to use TELL here are two easy tricks to help you remember. Firstly tell is transitive
You have to tell someone. "He told me." "She told the mayor." "The artist
told the banjo player." SAID is intransitive so home with this "Marta
said/told Jacob he was lovely." Which is correct? So in this sentence
who is Marta talking to? why Jacob of course so we put TELL. "Marta told Jacob
he was lovely." What about this? "Marta said/ told she was very angry."
So who is Marta talking to? We don't know we don't know who she's
talking to so we put SAY. So when you say who you are talking to put TELL if not
put SAY. And one more point we use SAY but not TELL for direct reported speech
"The baker said 'where's the yeast.?' "Jeremy said 'goodbye suckers' and stormed out the room"
#4 Named and called
what's wrong with this sentence? I met a guy named Jim."
or "I met a guy whose name is Jim" So this is not technically a
grammatical mistake but I thought I would include it on this list in fact
both of these sentences are grammatically correct.
However, they sound kind of old-fashioned and literary they don't sound natural
in modern English. So how do you correct this? Just use the word CALLED
"i met a guy called Jim." "I saw a film called Rocket Man." Don't say "I saw a film which
is named Rocket Man" no that doesn't sound right so if you want to sound like
a native speaker just use CALLED.
#3 Using will after when (if it's a conjunction)
What's wrong with this sentence? "Give him the book when he will arrive."
The correct phrase is "give him the book when he arrives." In this case
when is a conjunction so we don't follow it with WILL this is the same for other
conjunctions of time such as AFTER and AS SOON AS. "Explain it to me after
you come back." No WILL not after "after you will come back" no no no
However if WHEN is not a conjunction of time you can use WILL such as in a
question "When do you think he will arrive?" and if WHEN is a relative pronoun
just like other relative pronouns; WHAT, WHERE, WHICH, THAT, WHO, WHY you can use
WILL. "I don't know when he will arrive" if you're not sure if WHEN is a conjunction
or a relative pronoun change WHEN to AFTER if the sentence still works
it's a conjunction if not it's a relative pronoun. so in the above example
can you say "I don't know after he will arrive "? no that's wrong so WHEN is a
relative pronoun so it's ok to use WILL. "Give me the book when/after he
arrives" The sentence works with both
WHEN and AFTER so WHEN is a conjunction so no WILL
#2 Using the wrong future tense.
What's wrong with this sentence? what will you do tonight?"
and what about this? "I will fly to Singapore tomorrow." The mistake
using the wrong future tense in this case NOT using the present continuous
for the future. Now when we are talking about our appointments that we've
already made we've ready decided and are in our diaries we use the present
continuous for the future it's also true if you asking questions about someone's
plans so for example "What are you doing tonight?
sounds more natural doesn't it? what are you doing tonight?
answers in the comments. "I'm flying to Singapore tomorrow." I've got the ticket
it's all planned it's all decided so present continuous for a future. "So how
do you use it?" The present continuous with a time reference. That's all "I'm having
lunch with Mohammed on Friday." you can use it in the negative to to talk about
plans you don't have "I'm not doing anything tonight" remember this is only
for fixed plans if it's not a fixed plan use another future. "I'm going to change
my job." Don't know when but that's an intention so I use the GOING TO future
For more information about the president continues for future we have a
video about it up here somewhere
#1 confusing DURING and FOR
What's wrong with this sentence? "I lived in Japan during two years." "I lived in
Japan for two years" Yes that's right the difference is quite easy just put DURING
before a noun. For example "during the day". During the summer."
"During the lesson", "During the flight" etc etc have you got that?
So use FOR to refer to a period of time, a length of time in the present in the
past or in the future it doesn't matter. "He was here for five minutes
and then left." "I will be at my country house for the next week." DURING has the
meaning of time inside time so for example "I went to Ethiopia during the
summer" the how long is that for? A week two weeks? We don't we don't know. "I
went to Ethiopia for the summer" means all the summer.