Hey, everyone. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on five more common
English learner mistakes. So if you have watched my other video on five common English learner
mistakes, this is a follow up to give you five more. So let's not waste time and get
right to it. Here we go with No. 1.
So this first mistake is common because in many languages, when you discuss jobs or your
station in life, you don't use articles even if you come from a country where there are
articles in the language. So for example, "I am student." "He is engineer." If I ask
you, "What do you do", you need to use an article because "student" is countable; it's
singular; and "engineer' is countable and it's singular. So you have to say, "I am a
student." "He is an engineer." Now, let's move on to No. 2.
Okay. Here, we have two sentences on the board. We have, "I am agree." "Are you agree?" So
in this situation, "agree" is a verb. We don't say, "I am agree." You can just say, "I agree."
If it's negative, "I don't agree" or, "I disagree." And the question is not, "Are you agree?"
It's, "Do you agree?" Now, if you are set on wanting to say "I am" and use "agree" in
some way, you would have to say, "I am in agreement." This is very formal, but it is
possible. Otherwise, you say, "I agree" or, "I disagree" and, "Do you agree?" Now, let's
move on to No. 3.
This next mistake is about the use of the past tense. For new English speakers, because
they can't form the past tense, sometimes they use the verb "to be" with the verb. So
I have heard, "I'm go downtown yesterday." Or, "He was see his cousin." If you are speaking
in the past, make sure you simply use the past simple verb. In this situation, we don't
say "I'm go". The past of "go" is "went". "I went downtown." We don't say "he was see".
The past of "see" is "saw". So this is about using the past simple form of the verb to
speak about the past. Never say "I'm go", "I'm do", "I'm make". "I saw"; "I made"; "I
did"; "I played". Okay? Now, let's move on to No. 4.
Now, this mistake is about using negatives. In many languages, whether they're European
or Latin, Spanish, I hear this frequently. So you might hear, "He no have money" or,
"They no like chocolate." So if you are making a sentence in the sent simple, and you want
to make it negative, you have to use "doesn't" and "don't". So not "he no have" but, "He
doesn't have." Okay? Not "they no like chocolate" but, "They don't like chocolate." So make
sure you learn how to make negative sentences. "He doesn't"; "I don't"; "we don't"; "they
don't"; not "he no", "she no", "I no". All right? Now, let's move on to No. 5.
Finally, here we have a word choice error. And this is because maybe speakers translate
from their own language, and many languages, you can use the verbs "meet" or "know" to
talk about going to places and getting to know cities and towns, for example. So, "I
want to meet the city" or, "Yesterday, I knew downtown." Now, in English, we don't really
use the verbs "know" and "meet" to talk about getting to know a place. You can use the verbs
"explore" or "get to know" or "visit". So you can say, you know, "I want to explore
the city." I want to go around the city." "Yesterday, I knew downtown" -- "Yesterday,
I traveled around downtown." And you can also use terms like "get to know" a place. You
can visit a place. You can explore a place. Okay? But you can't meet a park. You can meet
a person, but you can't meet a place.
Now, let's review all five of these mistakes one more time.
All right. So to review, No. 1, "I am a student." If you want to talk about your status in life.
Are you a student? An engineer? Are you a teacher? Etc. you need to use an article to
talk about jobs, professions, talk about your station in life.
No. 2, "I agree, not "I am agree"." Do you agree?" Not "are you agree?"
No. 3, "I went downtown." "I saw my cousin." So remember, memorize those past tense verbs.
Not "I was go" or "I am go". "I went"; "I saw"; "I did". All right?
No. 4, "He doesn't have money." Memorize your negatives, especially in the present simple
and past simple. "I don't have"; "he doesn't have"; "we don't have"; "they didn't have"
-- in the past.
And finally, "I want to get to know the city." "I want to visit the city." "I want to explore
the city. Walk around the city." Not, "I want to meet the city" or
"I want to know the city intimately."
So if you want to test your understanding of this material, as always, you can check
out the quiz on www.engvid.com. And don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel.
Thanks, guys. Bye.