Charlie has less girlfriends than Harry
oh that's sad it's true Charlie has less
girlfriends than Harry well that's an
obvious one isn't it any mistakes there
no let's put London to the test with a
[Music]
Isabella yes
I'm going to show you a sentence okay
and it may have a grammar mistake it may not
I'd like you to correct the sentence if
you think there is a mistake okay you
should have been that okay is that correct
the aim of this is to make me look really stupid isn't it
no not at all not at all
thank you very much you should have been there
I would say
you should have been there
can you read it out loud you should have been there
no you should of
you should of been there should of been there okay
can you go ahead and correct it if it needs correcting
all right thank you very much
so they all got this right but this is
actually a really really common
orthographical error amongst native speakers in English
but why do native
speakers commit this error the reason is
because the pronunciation of the
contracted form of the auxiliary verb
have is pronounced exactly the same as
the word of in connected speech
for example instead of going out last night
you should've stayed in instead of
going out last night you should've
stayed in əv əv əv
so in connected speech the of
changes to əv and likewise with the
contracted version of the auxiliary verb have
that changes from av to əv əv using the schwa again
so then when we go to write words
like should've would've and could've
sometimes native speakers get confused
and they write should of would of could of
it's clear that a zebra can't change its stripes
is there a mistake in this one
yes go ahead do okay
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err so first off it's like that it's clear that a zebra can't zebra can't change
is there a correction to be made yes
all right go ahead
I think that's correct I well done man perfect
yeah very good well done Isabella
because it is is grammatically correct so you put the apostrophe there to change it from it is to it's
now you might be thinking this is quite an easy sentence
to correct but actually for lots of native
speakers it's quite difficult and
you might have noticed that some of our
participants in this video did actually
find it quite tricky when it came to
this second its
so we put this in to try
to confuse people because often people
incorrectly put an apostrophe before the
S thinking that the possessive adjective
requires an apostrophe but of course it
doesn't now why do they think this it's
because when it comes to singular nouns and we're talking about possession
we need to use an apostrophe
for example this is Charlie's whiteboard
the girl's bike the president's suit and
then what people do is they incorrectly
apply this possessive apostrophe to the
third-person non gender-specific
possessive adjective like this the
zebra hated its stripes but of course it
should be it's without the apostrophe
the same thing occurs as well with 'whose'
people often put the apostrophe before
the S incorrectly but it should be who's like this
Charlie has less girlfriends in Harry. Charlie has less girlfriends than Harry.
Oh that's sad! it's true. Charlie has less girlfriends
than Harry. Well that's an obvious one isn't it?
Charlie has a less girlfriends than Harry
Any mistakes there? No
Is there a correction to be made? And if so, go ahead! No
May I correct it? All right, going over to the other side
no no no than is a...don't do it! Had less..wait!
No you can do it in present, has less than 'cos you're comparing! 'Than' we're gonna keep it 'charlie has less gfs than Harry
no mistakes unless you spell Charlie a
different way. Ha ha yeah. Or you could say not
as many if you wanted to do that. Assuming
Harry has any girlfriends. Good question, does he?
He's good looking enough.. ha ha
there we go
it should be fewer girlfriends than Harry
okay. And I think the apostrophe's
wrong too isn't it? Yes the apostrophe should
be there 'cos it's plural and that should be fewer
it's like the Sainsbury's queue isn't it?
five items or less
they've changed it now to five items or
fewer there we have it Sainsbury's even
make the mistake as do many natives the
correction should be fewer and it's
because girlfriends is accountable
Charlie has fewer girlfriends than Harry
I'm the monogamous of the two and of
course we had an apostrophe over here
that needs to be removed because it's just the plural of girlfriend
And of course we do not need an apostrophe for plurals
now do we? We're not mental! That's
all for today but thanks for watching
and we hope you have found this both
useful and entertaining if you're a
native English speaker please comment
below if you make any of these mistakes
and if you're an English Learner we hope
this video reassures you that it's okay
to make mistakes if native speakers do
it why shouldn't you please give us a
thumbs up if you want to see part two of
this grammar test and see you again soon
for another video