http://www.engvid.com/ What are the most common grammatical mistakes that new English learners make? It depends on the country, but regardless of where you're from, you have probably heard others make these mistakes or you have made them yourself. In this lesson, I look at what's wrong with saying "it's depend," "it depends of," "I took a sandwich for breakfast," "She's learning for go to university," "I am interesting in that," and "Is good! Is easy! Is not a problem!" Check out the lesson, and improve your language accuracy! Take the quiz here: http://www.engvid.com/5-common-mistakes/
TRANSCRIPT 1
Hey, guys. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on "5 Common New English Learner Mistakes". So in this lesson, I'll be looking at mistakes that I have heard in my time as a teacher from students from various parts of the world. So these are mistakes that are made by Spanish speakers, Portuguese speakers, German speakers, Korean speakers, and they might apply to you as well. These are mistakes that kind of cross over and that are very common.
So let's start with the first one. Let's look at No. 1. Okay, so this is, actually, a double mistake that I commonly hear when you're discussing a subject and you want someone to give you an opinion on something. So for example, "Do you prefer Coke or Pepsi?" Or "Do you prefer this or that?" And some people will say, "Well, it's depend." Or "Hmm, it depends of (...)" So "It depends of the season." "It depends of the person." "It depends of the society or the country" or something like this. So what is wrong with this? Well, we don't say, "it's depend". We say "it depends", "it depends". Okay? So we don't say, "it's depend". The correct form is: "it depends". And for this, this is okay: "it depends", right? The only problem is the preposition that you're using. We don't say "of" in English; we say "it depends on", okay? So "it depends on the person." "It depends on the country." "It depends on the time of day." Whatever topic you're discussing.
Okay, guys, let's move on to No. 2. So for the second one, this is, actually, a verb choice error, and maybe languages, when you talk about eating, you use the verb "take". So you can "take a Coke", or "take your coffee in the morning", or you "take breakfast", "take dinner". In English, it's a little different. So here, we have two sentences. The first one says: "I took a coffee this morning." Now, when you look at it, maybe you went to a coffee shop, and you say, "Yeah, I will take a coffee." Okay. Not too much wrong with that. That's okay. However, when you're talking about the act of drinking the coffee, we use the verb "have" in English. Okay? So you didn't "take" a coffee; you say "I had" in the past, right? "I had a coffee this morning." Same thing for the second one. So this one says: "I take dinner around six." Well, in English, we don't really say, "I take dinner around six." We say, "I have dinner", okay? So when you're talking about food, you "have breakfast", "have lunch", "have dinner", "have coffee". You "have pizza". You "have a sandwich". Anything to do with food, use the verb "have".
Now, let's move on to No.3. Okay, so this one is, actually, a preposition error, and it's when people use "for" when they mean to use an infinitive. So for example, "I use it for go to work." Imagine you have a car, and people and you, "What do you use your car for?" You know, do you drive around a lot, or you say, "No, no. I only use it to go to work", right? So we don't say "for go", we use "to go". Now, why do we do this? Well, when you have a verb and you follow that verb with either a pronoun or an object of some kind, the verb afterwards has to be an infinitive, okay? So also, if you look down here, "I need glasses for read." Well, we know it's "to read". And: "She ran for catch the bus." "She ran to catch the bus." Again, there are some verbs, as you know, which are only followed by gerunds, some verbs which are only followed by infinitives. So here, if you want to have a verb and you want to use another verb, another action after that verb -- so "she ran to catch the bus" -- it has to be a gerund or infinitive. An "infinitive" is "to" plus the base verb, okay? So don't say, "I use it for do", "for do something." "I use it to do something." "I need glasses to read", not "for read". Okay? So if you ever have, you know, the desire to have a verb plus another action, either use a gerund or in this case, it's not "for do something", it's "to do" something.
All right, guys. Let's look at No. 4. So this one is, actually, an adjective choice error, and it's the difference between -ing and -ed adjectives. So when you feel something internally, inside -- it's a personal feeling -- you should be using an -ed adjective, not an -ing adjective. So all three examples on the board here are, actually, incorrect. So the first one says, "I am exciting about that."
Can you find the mistakes? "I am student", "I am agree", "Yesterday, I'm go downtown", "He no have money", "I want to meet the downtown". If you don't know, this is the lesson for you! These are mistakes made by students of all levels, so watch this video and learn to avoid these common errors.
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?
