Lesson Transcript

Hi, everybody. My name is Alisha. In this video, I'm going to talk about 10 common mistakes that English learners make. For this lesson, I have chosen 10 very common mistakes that are grammar-focused, and we're going to talk about what they are and how to fix them. Let's get started. Okay.
The first mistake I want to talk about is forgetting the ends of contractions. Forgetting the ends of contractions. A contraction is two words together. Like, for example, "I am" becomes "I'm." Or, "he will" becomes "he'll," for example. So, the mistake that I mean here is that learners sometimes forget to pronounce and to write the ends of these contractions. So, oftentimes, in text, I will see instead of "I'm," I see just "I." Or, instead of "I'll," I see "I." Or, with other examples, for example, instead of "he's," I see "he" or "they're" becomes "they." So, don't forget these end parts of your contractions. And, also make sure to pronounce these clearly when you're speaking. Native speakers do say these just very, very quickly. Like, "I'm happy to see you." There's still an M sound in that "I'm." So, make sure that you don't forget the ends of these contractions. This is a very common mistake.
Okay, mistake number two. Mistake number two is using "will" for all future-tense situations. Instead of using "going to," or the progressive form of a verb. I think this mistake happens because the "will" future tense sentence pattern is very easy for many people to remember. And so, people tend to use the one that's easiest and shortest, but that doesn't mean it's always correct. Yes, there are some times when you should use "will" when it's very natural to use "will." But, you shouldn't use "will" in every single future tense example sentence. Let's take a look. Let's compare these.
Here, "Will you come to class tomorrow?" This sentence sounds unnatural. This sentence uses "will." The reason this sounds unnatural is because the person is asking the question about tomorrow's plans, the other person's plans for tomorrow. We don't usually use "will" when we're talking about someone's determined plan, something they've already decided. Instead, this is an example of a situation where we should use "going to" or we're using the progressive form.
For example, "Are you going to come to class tomorrow?" Or, "Are you coming to class tomorrow?" These sound much more natural because these grammar choices show that we recognize it's some plan the other person made already. So, remember this. We shouldn't use "will" unless we're talking about a decision we made in the moment or maybe a decision we're not sure about. Using these two grammar points shows that we're sure about the decision, it's already been decided. I have a video about this topic "will" and "going to" on the channel, so you can take a look at that from more information. Okay. Let's go to the third point.
The third point is using the wrong adjective forms. What I mean by this is mixing up the -ed and the -ing forms of adjectives. So, we use the -ed forms of adjectives when we're talking about our emotions and our feelings. So, we use them when we're talking about ourselves people, right? We use these -ing ending adjectives when we're providing a description of something else. So, because there are two forms of these adjectives, these sometimes get mixed up. So, let's look at an example. Sometimes, I hear "I'm exciting." "I'm exciting," when someone is looking forward to something. This is incorrect. This -ing adjective use is incorrect. It should be, "I'm excited." "I'm excited." So, the -ed ending is used for our emotions, our feelings with people.
Here's another example, the opposite problem. "The movie was interested." "The movie was interested." This is incorrect. Again, we use these -ed ending adjectives when we're talking about emotions and feelings. This is a movie, right? So, it should be "interesting," "The movie was interesting." We're using this adjective because we're describing something outside of us. So, this is another very common mistake that I make. Mixing up the -ed ending and -ing ending adjectives.
Okay. Another very common one. Number four here, forgetting S at the end of conjugated present tense verbs. Forgetting the S. By this, I mean forgetting to write it, of course, to write the S ending. And, forgetting to pronounce it in speech, as well. What does this look like? For example, "He go to school." "He go to school." This sentence should be, "He goes to school." "He goes to school every day." The mistake I see is learners forget this S sound in speech, and they forget to write the S, or the -es, as appropriate ending in their homework. So, not "He go to school," but "He goes to school." Another example uses "she." So, remember, we use this pattern with he, she, and it subjects. "She eat lunch." "She eat lunch." This is incorrect. We have to change this verb because of the subject of the sentence. "She eats lunch." "She eats lunch." So, again, this is an issue in pronunciation and in written English as well. So, don't forget that little S sound. It's very important. Okay. Let's go to number five.
Number five is a word order problem. So, the problem here is using "I should" instead of "should I" when you're making help and offer questions. So, this kind of pattern looks like this, this mistake pattern I see. For example: "I should come?" "I should come?" When the correct sentence or the correct question would be, "Should I come?" "Should I come?" So, when you're making an offer like that, you're making an offer like to help someone or to do something for someone, use this "Should I?" "Should I?" So, "Should I come?" Here's one more example: "I should help?" should be "Should I help?" So, this is a very common word order issue that I see. Sometimes, I see this here and there with other modal verbs. Like, I see it sometimes with "could" and with "would" as well. So, you may also consider it the same issue for those words, too. "Should," "could," and "would." But, this is the one that I see the most often. Okay, let's move along to number six.
Mistake number six. Forgetting "to" before destinations or using "in" instead. So, this is a preposition point. Another issue relating to this, another problem, is using "to" before "there." So, let's look at what I mean. Here's an example of a very common error. "I have been in France." "I have been in France." This preposition choice is incorrect. "I have been to France." We use "to" before the destinations of our travels. "I have been to France." Here's another example what I mean before, "there." "I have been to there," is incorrect. We use "to" before our destination, our specific destination. "There" does not mark a specific destination. It refers to a place we mentioned before. But, unless you use the title of the country, unless you use the title of the city, the name of the city, whatever it is, you can't use this pattern. You cannot say, "I have been to there." You can say, "I have been to," city. "I have been to," country. "I have been to," state. Great. But, you can't say, "I have been to there." So, this is another very common one that I see. Sometimes, people forget the preposition, or sometimes people just use "in" in place of "to." So, don't forget this one. "To" comes before your travel destination. Okay.
On to the next one, number seven. The next one is adding "didn't" before a past tense verb. Adding "didn't" before a past tense verb. So, let's look at some examples and break down what the problem is here. Here 's one a common example: "I didn't ate." "I didn't ate." This person is trying to make a simple past tense sentence. But, the problem is that we don't need to change both parts here. So, "I didn't ate" should be "I didn't eat." "I didn't eat." So, when we make these past tense, in this case, a negative past tense sentence, we don't need to change the root verb. This is the part, "I did not eat," this is the part that we change. We do not need to change both "didn't" and use the past tense form of the verb. Sometimes, I see people using both changes in their sentences and this is incorrect. Let's look at another example. "She didn't worked." "She didn't worked." Same problem. This verb is in past tense, but this part is to already telling us the past tense grammar. We don't need this part here. The correct sentence is "She didn't work." "She didn't work." So, pay attention to this when you're making those past tense sentences. Yeah? So, "She worked" is fine for a positive past tense sentence. But, in these negatives, "She didn't worked" is incorrect. So, try to keep this in mind. Okay. Let's move along to number eight,
Number eight. Number eight is using "maybe" when "might" is appropriate. I think that learners tend to use "maybe" a lot because they feel that there are a lot of different positions, sentence positions where it feels okay to use "maybe." And, since "maybe" is a pretty easy word to understand, a lot of people tend to think they can get away with just putting it in any place. But, there are some places where it's natural to use it, like as a response to a question. But, there are also some places where it feels less natural to use it.
So, let's take a look at some examples. Here's one: "I'll maybe go." "I'll maybe go." So, this is an example of a situation that generally doesn't present a communication problem. We can understand, no problem, what this person is saying. But this sounds very unnatural. "I'll maybe go." We would probably say, "I might go here." This sounds much more natural as a response to a question for example. Like this one, "Are you going to come to class tomorrow? I might go." This sounds much more natural than "I'll maybe go." We generally don't use them in this way. Here's another one, "He will maybe come." "He will maybe come." We would probably say, "He might come," instead. "He might come," or perhaps "He may come," if you want to sound a little bit more polite.
So, yes, it's true that we use "will" in situations where we're not sure. But, in these cases, we tend to use "maybe" at the beginning of the sentence. Like, "Maybe I'll have a salad for lunch today." So, try to think of this kind of position thing with "maybe." Like, "maybe," it tends to come closer to the beginning of the sentence, like usually at the beginning of the sentence because we're starting off with that unsure feeling. It sounds quite unnatural to put it here before the verb. "I'll maybe go," you might hear. And, "Maybe I'll go," perhaps. But, keep this in mind. Don't be afraid of using "might" and "may" to express different levels of certainty. Okay, great. Let's go on to number nine now.
Number nine is forgetting "do" and "does" in questions. So, remember we need to make questions in order to continue the conversation, right? To continue our communication. But, one common thing that I see is learners forget this "do" and "does." They forget these helping words. For example, instead of the correct sentence, "What does she do?" sometimes, I see "What she do?" Something like this, "What she do?" It should be, "What does she do?" Or, another example, "Where you work?" "Where you work?" should be "Where do you work?" So, don't forget these little, tiny, tiny little things, but they're very, very important. I know they seem small and they kind of help the grammar of the sentence along, but it's very important to include them. So, don't forget these when you're making your questions. You can find some tips and some information about this in the videos that we have available already. I've made some videos about these kinds of grammar points as well. So, you can look for these kinds of grammar points in past videos. For example, about simple present tense, and you can also find them in videos about simple past tense. So, check those out if you're looking for some more reference material and some practice points.
Okay. Let's go to the last one number ten. Number 10 is a little bit more advanced, but it's a very, very common error. It's not moving the "be" verb in embedded questions. Not moving the "be" verb in embedded questions. What does this mean? Let's look at an example sentence. Here's a very common error I see. "Do you know what is the password?" "Do you know what is the password?" The correct sentence, or question rather should be, "Do you know what the password is?" "Do you know what the password is?" These are examples, and this is an example, of what's called an "embedded question."
An embedded question is a question inside another question. So, here, we see "Do you know?" that's the first question. And, the second one, "What is the password?" So, in these situations where we have one question inside another, we need to move the "be" verb if we use one to the end of the sentence. We cannot keep this grammar pattern here. So, yes, if I want to ask you directly, "What is the password?" This sentence is perfect. However, when we use this grammar of a question inside another question, the "be" verb goes to the end of the question. "Do you know what the password is?" This is correct. Let's look at one more example. Here's the mistake, "Does he know where are the kids?" "Does he know where are the kids?" So, again, "Does he know?" is our question. "Where are the kids?" is the question inside it. We have a "be" verb here, "are. " To fix it, we move it to the end of the sentence. "Does he know where the kids are?" And then, it's perfect.
Thanks very much for watching this lesson, and I will see you again soon. Bye!

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