Hey guys, I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on five common native
English speaker mistakes. So, these are mistakes that native speakers make in conversation
with other native speakers. So for those of you who are just learning the language, this
is good for you too because you will hear these mistakes being made on the street. And
if you're wondering: "Hey, that doesn't sound correct. Why, why is that person not using
correct grammar?" It's because they might not know that they are using incorrect grammar.
Those of you who are English speakers: well, this is the stuff that drives English teachers
absolutely crazy. So, let's begin with number one: Double Negatives.
Okay, so what's a double negative? There are three examples on the board. We have: "I didn't
see nothing.", "She didn't do nothing.", "They don't buy nothing with trans fats." Okay,
now you see two negative words in each of these three sentences. In the first one: "I
didn't" so "didn't" obviously is a negative word. We have "nothing" which is also a negative
word. So if you say "I didn't see nothing", you actually mean that you saw something.
So you're giving the opposite meaning of what you actually want to say. So what word should
replace "nothing" in these three sentences?
"Anything", that's absolutely correct. So,
you can say, "I didn't see anything.", "She didn't do anything." Or: "They don't buy anything
with trans fats." Okay, so just remember: watch out for those double negatives.
Now, on to number two: "Less" vs. "Fewer". Okay, so this is a question of count and non-count
nouns. Basically, when you use "less", you should only be using it with non-count nouns.
So we're talking about nouns like honey, water, milk -- anything you can think of that you
can't really count like abstract concepts like love or justice, for example. Now, things
that you can count and are in plural form should be using "fewer".
So in these three examples there are three mistakes. We have: "There were less than 50
people at the club.", "There are less reasons to own a home phone today.", "I know less
languages than my cousin." All of these are absolutely wrong because they all use "less",
which you should be using for non-count nouns. But, if you look at this closely: "people"
-- you can count people. You have "reasons" -- you can count reasons. "Languages" -- you
can also count languages. So with all of these, you should actually be saying, "fewer, fewer,
fewer". Now, I know this is a mistake that I hear commonly, especially with relation
to people. "Less people" -- you should actually be saying, "Fewer people, fewer reasons, fewer,"--
sorry -- "fewer languages". So remember: if it's plural, it's countable, you're thinking
"less/fewer". If you can count it, it's plural: "fewer".
Now, let's move on to number three: "I could care less." This is an expression we use when
we want to say that we have almost no interest in something that one of our friends or somebody
has just said. So for example: -"Spain won the World Cup!" And you might, say, hear somebody
say, -"I don't care about soccer, I could care less about this.", -"Dianne bought a
new purse!" -"I don't know Diane, I don't know her very well; I could care less about
Dianne buying a new purse." -"Do you like U2?" -"I could care less about U2." Maybe
because I'm not a fan of rock and roll or I just don't like the band, or I don't like
Bono's political views or something like that. Now, this expression: "I could care less",
actually says that you care a little bit. So what you're trying to say is not exactly
what you're trying to say. If you want to say that you have no interest or this doesn't
affect you in some way, the expression is: "I could not care less." Okay? So let's just
fix this up here and say: "I couldn't care less." This means your interest is so low that there's nowhere
for you to go. If you say: "I could care less", maybe you care this much and you could still
care a little more -- or sorry --, care a little less. Okay guys, so again, next time
you want to show that you don't have any interest in a topic a person is talking to you about,
say: "I couldn't care less." Now let's move on to number four: "Have went".
This is a problem of using the incorrect verb form. So basically in English, you're going
to have three verb forms for each verb. So for example: with the verb "go" we have the
present: "go", the past: "went", and we have the past participle which we use in the perfect
forms of English, which is "gone". So when you use: "have + went", you actually mean:
"have gone" and you should be saying: "have gone".
So I have three examples here. "I've went to Ohio 3 times!", "We should've went earlier.",
"They could've went with us." All of these are wrong because they all use the incorrect
form of the verb "go". So instead of saying: "I've went to Ohio 3 times!" we should be
saying: "I've gone to Ohio 3 times!", "We should've went earlier." --"We should've gone
earlier.", "They could've went with us." --"They could've gone with us." So basically, any
time you have "have" plus the verb "go" in like the past form so: "could have, should
have, might have, would have" or just simply "have", please use the correct form of the
verb, which is "gone". Now, let's move on to the final mistake, number
five: "Is/Are" and "Was/Were". Now, this is a mistake between thinking there is one of
something versus many of something. So for example: normally we use "is" with the subject
"he/she", right? "He is", "she is", or "it is", and we use "are" with which subject?
Well, we can say: "You are" or "they are", right? For the plural "they". However, many
English speakers make the mistake of using "is" when they should be using "are", like
in the three examples I have here. So we have "There's 2 cars in the driveway.",
"There was 3 mice in the kitchen!", and "There wasn't enough students to run the program."
Now, all these three examples have plurals. So we have "2 cars", we have "3 mice", we
have "students"; these all mean plural. So if you have a verb -- a verb, I apologize,
I meant an object --, a noun that is plural, you should be using "are". So we don't say:
"There's 2 cars", we say: "There are 2 cars in the driveway." We don't say: "There was
3 mice in the kitchen!" --"There were 3 mice in the kitchen." We don't say: "There wasn't
enough students", you say: "There weren't enough students to run the program."
Okay guys, so just as a reminder: please, please try and avoid these mistakes. We have
double negatives, "less and fewer", "could care less", "have went", and up here: "is/are,
was/were". If you'd like to test your understanding of this knowledge, you can check out the quiz
on www.engvid.com. Good luck guys, and take care.
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