Hi and welcome back to Love English. Today's lesson is particularly important
to me because it is something that drives me crazy and actually it's not
you guys that are to blame but did you know that in fact many native speakers
of English American British English Australian English in fact their grammar
is pretty shocking in fact it's likely that these grammar
mistakes I explained to you you would already know and you probably don't make
them these are ground mistakes that native speakers make these are grammar
mistakes that I will see my friends my family not my colleagues because they're
all teachers but I will often see these grammar mistakes while I'm scrolling
through Facebook or on Instagram or even in whatsapp messages from friends it
drives me crazy and the worst thing is I'm not supposed to correct people
should I correct people on their grammar should I be correcting English native
speakers it drives me crazy it makes me want to yeah it's that bad so in today's
lesson I'm going to share the top 10 most common grammar mistakes that native
speakers make yes native speakers get these things wrong frequently and I
don't believe they are typos typing mistakes these are mistakes but natives
make because they just haven't got a clue about grammar in fact I would say
that non-native speakers people that have learnt English from the beginning
that have learnt the grammatical structures and the rules probably have a
better grasp of the English rules than native speakers so you guys are amazing
today's lesson watch it enjoy it and then if you've got any native English
friends make sure you correct their English let's get started the 10 most
common grammar mistakes made by native speakers
that make English language teachers crazy right guys here we go starting
with number 10 I'm gonna work my way up to the number one most common grammar
mistake that I find the most infuriating I mean I'm not just crazy I'm furious
I'm just livid with anger when I see this mistake made so number 10 let's get
started I was fat I was fat now for those of you that have studied at the
past continuous you'll know this doesn't make a lot of sense
grammatically I was sat on a bench when the phone rang you know that it should
be I was sitting so the verb to be was all
were if you've got a plural noun and of course the verb in the ing form ok the
present participle so fitting in this case now let me be fair this is actually
acceptable in spoken English so in spoken English I'll let you get away
with it but in written English this really does look very bad particularly
if it's in an email or even a text message it drives me crazy so you don't
want to say I was fat it should be I was sitting so that was number 10 not I was
sat but I was sitting number 9 overuse of reflective pronouns what is a
reflective pronoun I hear you ask me myself you yourself
they themselves she herself he himself so essentially a reflexive
pronoun is when the subject and the object are the same so I like myself I
think wrong with that I do I like myself but we would use myself because it is
reflecting if your play if you play with that knife you'll hurt yourself don't
hurt yourself so there it's you hurt
yourself you do the action to yourself there we go
so it's a reflective pronoun however what I often hear is people using
overusing the reflexive pronoun because they think they sound more intelligent
Timothy and myself went to the theatre Timothy and myself had a lovely evening
at the restaurant what is wrong with a normal pronoun Timothy and I am using
Timothy because it sounds a little bit posh for an English name
so instead of saying Timothy and myself had a lovely evening in the restaurant
you would say Timothy and I Timothy and I you need a subject pronoun I not me
we're coming to that in a minute so Timothy and I had a lovely evening
in the restaurant wherever you were so don't overuse the reflective pronoun it
doesn't make you sound more intelligent it makes you look a bit stupid
especially to an English teacher okay number eight and again this is often
spoken but because of that you're also finds that people make the mistakes when
they're writing you're shopping you're with a friends I really want them jeans
I want them I want them jeans now then obviously it's the object pronoun so
they would be the subject pronoun them it would be the object pronoun but what
you should be saying is I want those those is the plural form of that okay we
usually use it when it's at a distance so these would be close by but those
would be further away so I really want those jeans you wouldn't say I really
want them jeans really simple really basic do not use the object pronoun them
use the plural form of that that those if these it's not difficult so number
seven and this is a bit harsh of me it's a little bit hard I'm being a bit mean
here too and now sometimes this is a typing mistake
however when the same person keeps typing the same mistake you kind of
wonder whether they paid attention in English class so if somebody says I
wanted to go to I wanted to go to in this case it should be T double O
meaning also to can be used to mean also and also to mean too much I ate too much
so it's not I wanted to go to but if I wanted to go to if you have I wanted to
go to the preposition it's referring to some kind of movement you need to put an
object I wanted to go to the shots I wanted to go to meaning I also wanted to
go say to and to typo or didn't pay attention in English class number six
me versus I this is such a simple one if you hear me say sabra and I would like
to thank you for your support and for subscribing to the channel this would be
correct if you hear me say sabra and me would like to thank you for subscribing
to the channel then this would be incorrect me is an object I is a subject
now polite English suggests that that you should put the other person's name
first that's why sabra and I but sabra and me
would probably come at the end of the sentence thank you for being so kind to
Sabra and me there we are that's correct me
because I am the object in that sentence saber and I would like to thank you I
would like to thank you I cannot say me would like to thank you I sound like a
caveman if that's how I speak so pay attention make sure that you use that
correctly saber and I coming at the beginning of the sentence referring to
the subject of the sentence but saber and me coming normally at the end of the
sentence referring to the objects simple I think
so number five possessive pronouns I don't
want to get into too much grammar this is people adding apostrophes where they
don't need to be so we've got mine that is a possessive pronoun yours hers
there's ours his okay his doesn't count because you don't have the extra s but
you get the idea if people say it's yours
and if they type it and they add the apostrophe really really wrong okay this
is not correct you don't need to add the apostrophe here you need to add the
apostrophe where basically you have a name so for example say Burrus coat or
the girl's coat now be careful because when you have a plural noun a plural
noun like girls or boys and you want to refer to more than one okay so the girls
bags then you need that apostrophe to be that's right it comes after the S so
before the S with a plural noun is indicating that it's one girl or one boy
or one cat whatever it is but after implies more than one we don't know
exactly how many to 3/100 it doesn't matter it's referring to more than one
so the cats dinner the cats dinner lots of cats the cats dinner one cat that's
it simple number four it's or it's okay it's that simple it's
that simple where does the apostrophe go so in this case it's it is okay it's
lovely out today meaning the weather is lovely but it is referring to possessive
so strangely in this case adding the ass you do not want to add the apostrophe
you do not want to use this in possessive sense it's is possessive okay
so for example if we refer to a cap as it okay so we don't necessarily have to
refer to the cap by their name we can refer to it so it's dinner the cat's
dinner whereas it's dinner in this case no apostrophe it is possessive that's
right where's the cat's dinner it's in the garden I don't know why it would be
in the garden but it's in the garden so there we have it it's with an apostrophe
it is without is possessive number three we're nearly there
but these top three ones are really infuriating so when I see this mistake
whether it's on social media whether it's in a text message I really do want
to correct people I don't care if they're native or they're non-native
there is no reason to make this mistake number three your your okay we have two
choices here you can either have your you are you're so beautiful you're so
kind you're so sweet to have subscribed to our channel but your is possessive
your bag your hat your house your husband it's referring to the thing that
belongs to you it is that simple it's not more complex than that and of course
there are sometimes going to be typing mistakes sometimes predictive text does
weird and wonderful things check your message before you send it and
especially if you're sending it to me you're you are your belongs to that's it
it's easy number two similarly homophones they sound the same but their
meaning and spelling is different there there and there
there is indicating a place a direction where are your sunglasses they are over
there there is referring to possession again
like your it's their bag it belongs to them is a possessive adjective their
bags their keys and then we have there they are they're going out there at the
cinema they are nice and easy not too difficult no reason to make those
mistakes and to be honest I haven't even noticed that with those ones it can't be
a typing mistake it's not a typo if you get it wrong it's because you are not
paying attention to what you're writing so just look next time you're texting
don't watch the TV see what you're doing don't make me crazy right number one I
don't know why I'm smiling it's a nervous smile number one really makes me
do this that's right because it is such a terrible grammar mistake it's a
mistake that is made because of the contraction because when we pronounce
these words as they come out it does sound like should of could of would of
but it doesn't exist none of these structures exist in
English you don't say would of it is half okay so when we're speaking we
could say I would have gone to the shops if I'd had time I could have helped you
if you told me what was wrong I should have asked him
I might have helped there you can see that we use have it's contracted when we
speak because it sounds more natural it sounds more fluent that's absolutely
correct as you speak it sounds like this but for native speakers who haven't
studied third conditional I'm not going to get into the grammar now but if you
are a language student then you know what third conditional is then they
wouldn't know the difference and there you have it those are the ten mistakes
that make me scream that drive me crazy so why don't you comment below have you
come across any other very simple common grammar mistakes that people often make
I would love to know comment below and let me know I like how that rhymes thank
you so much for watching and please check your spelling and your autocorrect
on your phone when you are texting or sharing on social media don't make me
crazy you don't want me living like this in the next lesson