hey Aubry how's it going I'm great how are you Jess God I'm wearing um my favorite new
sweatshirt I have been living in this sweatshirt that's a great idiom and speaking part one
um if you are asked about um clothes and what you wear or shopping uh favorite piece of clothing
item of clothing um that is a great idiom right to describe something that you really love and
you wear a lot say I live in this sweatshirt so I'm wearing a fun exaggeration to say you hear
it all the time I live in it so I'm wearing a bright yellow Adidas hoodie and it's my new
favorite thing in the world it looks so cozy it looks really comfy you guys let us the best color
check us out on YouTube and you can see it IELTS energy TV
some very extremely important grammar advice for you guys yes we have seen some mistakes lately
I mean we've always seen this mistake but I just feel like they're popping up a lot lately in mock
speaking tests we do for the IELTS exam essays that we're giving feedback on it's just such an
easy mistake to make well several we're going to share several easy mistakes to make that if
you're aware of them you can avoid making them and hopefully keep your grammar score at that
six or maybe a seven there these are mistakes that that are worth that little bit of extra
attention completely because so not knowing these common uncount nouns that we will teach you not
knowing those and then making the mistake of pluralizing them it's not just about making
the word form mistake which is a vocabulary error but that also causes you to make multiple grammar
mistakes subject verb agreement and pronoun dis pronoun agreement you make those grammar mistakes
as well so really these very common errors bring down both vocab and grammar scores in a number of
ways exactly right and we did get a really good question on a video that's related that we have
on YouTube so first of all don't miss this YouTube video it's um let's see don't make these uncount
noun mistakes on ieltso's episode 1287. no that's this episode Where's the name oh here it is IELTS
grammar don't mess up these discount non-count nouns new title for you so you can find that on
YouTube and I'll read the question we have fun sorry I'm probably not saying your name right
really good question asked what about the word handful can we use handful as an uncountable
phrase first of all shout out to this listener I love that we you know we had a list we had a
bunch that we shared that are very common like research information advice knowledge children
and I think this is taking it a step further to think okay what other what other nouns might trip
me up what other nouns might I see problems with and to ask about yes right throw your questions
on YouTube or on social media because then you have all the answers you need on test day
exactly so um those uncountable nouns just to tell you guys those again
you can see them in that in that uh YouTube video research information advice knowledge and children
so these are all inherently pluralized okay so that means they are uncountable you do not
add s they are treated grammatically as a singular noun okay so that is the only information you need
to know to understand all of the mistakes that we will talk about today but you do need to memorize
that list because those are the most common uncount nouns that we see people make mistakes
with all the time all right and to quickly answer ahmed's question handful is interesting because we
do make it plural we say this handful of berries or these handfuls of berries and that might sound
a little strange to you but we do add an S to Handful make it plural yes but you cannot use
handful with these uncountable nouns I cannot say a handful of research a handful of advice
okay so handful must only be used with plural countable nouns all right but that's a great
question because that is a idiomatic quantifier instead of saying some or a few right um handful
that is such a slanging natural way to say some so a handful of times I have eaten there for example
nice awesome okay let's dive in we're first of all going to share a few of the errors that we have
seen recently so that you kind of have an idea of these very common errors to look out for to
avoid and the first one when we're talking about uncount nouns article errors right so for example
I'm looking for an advice hopefully you're hearing the error there you can't say an advice because
it's already plural it's not something you count we would just say I'm looking for advice with no
it's a zero article there should be no article no and no the exactly exactly so write this down guys
you have to follow these rules for better grammar scores on IELTS okay so yes no articles before
uncount nouns because articles are only for things you count so that makes sense a or and means one
if you want a quantifier to say like this happened once or this one thing then you
have to add a word different words collocated for each one right so a piece of advice for example
um uh a piece of advice let's see um a what a piece of knowledge can we say that or a bit we
often will say a bit right I'm looking for a bit of advice or a bit of knowledge oh that's so good
so good so good all right I got one more mistake I saw recently same mistake really
um I heard someone say I sell softwares and software we it's already plural you're not
going to add that s we would just say I sell software no article don't make it plural right
it's already plural software exactly or if you are talking about specific uh pieces of software those
would be programs right I sell software programs and that's what you pluralize all right so we have
two more grammar mistakes to watch out for guys again I hope you are taking notes because these
are super common mistakes that we do not want you to make on your own exam in both speaking
and writing right so we talked about articles now the next most common mistake here is subject
verb agreement of course because subject is a noun right and we are talking about uncountable
nouns so if you pluralize them by adding an S then you're going to use the wrong verb
with it you're going to use r instead of is for example yes an example that I saw very recently
or I heard rather in a speaking example someone said the football team are playing and because
team you can see it's got to be the football team is playing It's Tricky it's such an easy mistake
to make totally a team yeah it's a collection of people and I think that's a great way to
remember why we call these collective nouns right people Family Team these are all groups of things
um yes that's a great example and then another example if you do assign a countable noun to this
right we said piece of advice software program if you do a sign a noun like the group of actors
are amazing but what is the subject there what is the main subject It's Not actors it's group
right which is an uncountable noun so the group of actors is amazing you could say the actors
are amazing but here group is the main subject right so is has to be used and you can see why
this Mystique is made so often and that you often wouldn't catch it when you preferred your essay if
you're only looking at the noun right before the verb you're gonna think oh actors are boom perfect
right you have to really be thinking about what is actually being said what is being written the
the subject is group oh it should be the group of actors is amazing so you have to also be aware to
look for those when you're proofreading yes oh my gosh this is so tricky okay now the final grammar
mistake that um a lot of teachers won't address and this isn't something you see talked about a
lot because guys I mean I I think you might have seen some other teachers or forums or
you know whatever grammar websites talk about the problems that students have with collective nouns
and group nouns but here's something that you will not see a lot another problem this causes
is pronoun issues okay because think about it guys if you are pluralizing a noun that should
not be pluralized then that means you're also like choosing a pronoun that is incorrect right
um or you could be using a plural pronoun for a group noun instead of treating it as a singular
noun remember we said these group nouns must be treated as a singular noun grammatically okay
um so if I'm saying like according to research people spend four hours a day on screens they
also reported that maybe I think research okay now research is research is just it's a bunch of
studies so I should use a a pronoun that is plural so I'm gonna say they to reference the research
you know because you're thinking about it too much and you're making a mistake exactly but it
actually should be it it also reported that right because research whenever you say This research
happened it was interesting the pronoun will be it right exactly and another here's another example
right if we say people should only get advice from trusted experts friends and family might give them
uneducated ones oh hopefully you heard the error there so um I love using the pronoun reference one
um remember this can refer to people and it can be very formal like I said instead of
saying you should not do that in your essay right we can't talk directly to
the examiner that's informal so we use the formal pronoun one one should not do that
but here now I am referring to the advice in the previous sentence right but I think
oh you know it's not just like one piece of advice I'm talking about I'm talking about
advice in general I'm talking about all the advice so I'm gonna say ones plural
because I'm talking about all the advice wrong wrongo that's not a word I'm just having fun
so again guys we are going to refer to these nouns with singular pronouns like it or one
all right great grammar episode today Aubry yes exactly this is so tricky guys we recognize this
is difficult you've heard us say a lot don't Focus too much on grammar and we stand by that
but there are some some things that if you are just aware of it you'll make the mistake less
you'll find it more when you're proofreading and this is one of those things a very common error
that lots of English language Learners make now you're aware of it you'll be able to keep an eye
out for it as you practice avoid making these mistakes look for it when you're proofreading
your essays don't let it trip you up or slow you down when you're getting your ideas out but
look for it when you proofread and catch some of these errors totally totally great advice Aubry
all right we'll be back on the mic tomorrow guys we'll see you then see you tomorrow bye [Music]
thanks