Hey guys, I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, andwelcome to this lesson on five common nativeEnglish speaker mistakes.
So, these are mistakesthat native speakers make in conversation withother native speakers.
So for those of you who arejust learning the language, this is good for you toobecause you will hear these mistakes being madeon 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: DoubleNegatives.
Okay, so what's a double negative?
There are two examples
We have:
"I didn't see nothing."
,
"She didn't do nothing."
Okay,now you see two negative words in each of these
two 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 yousay "I didn't see nothing", you actually mean thatyou saw something.
So you're giving the oppositemeaning of what you actually want to say.
So whatword should replace "nothing" in these two
sentences?
"Anything", that's absolutely correct.
So, you can say,
"I didn't see anything."
,
"She didn't do anything."
Okay, so just remember: watch
out for those double negatives.
Now, on to
number two: "Less" vs. "Fewer".
Okay, so this is aquestion of count and non-count nouns.
Basically, when you use "less", you should only be using itwith non-count nouns.
So we're talking aboutnouns like honey, water, milk — anything you canthink of that you can't really count like abstractconcepts 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 phonetoday."
,
"I know less languages than my cousin."
All of these are absolutely wrong because they alluse "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 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."
-"Do you likeU2?"
-"I could care less about U2."
Maybe because
I'm not a fan of rock and roll or I just don't like theband, 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.
Ifyou 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 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 toyou 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.
Sobasically in English, you're going to have three verbforms 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 inthe perfect forms of English, which is "gone".
Sowhen 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 ofthe verb "go".
So instead of saying:
"I've went toOhio 3 times!"
we should be saying:
"I've gone toOhio 3 times!"
,
"We should've went earlier."
—"We should've gone earlier."
,
"They could've wentwith us."
— "They could've gone with us."
Sobasically, any time you have "have" plus the verb"go" in like the past form so:
"could have, shouldhave, 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 finalmistake, 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, Imeant an object — , a noun that is plural, you
should be using "are".
So we don't say:
"There's 2cars", 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".
Goodluck guys, and take care.
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