Hey,
it's Annemarie with Speak Confident English,
and this week we're focused on grammar. I know that that sounds a little bit
boring, but I have a question for you.
When you're speaking in English, do you sometimes have that little voice
in the back of your mind that asks, did I say that right?
Is that the right grammar tense? And then you get stuck.
You get frustrated because you're afraid that you've made a mistake and in the
end you just stop speaking or you stay quiet if you said yes to that question.
In today's lesson is for you, we're going to talk about five of the
most common grammar mistakes that I hear and some really simple strategies that
you can use to fix them. Now,
before we dive into those five common grammar mistakes,
I want to talk a little bit about why those mistakes happen.
The truth is you've been studying and using English for years,
and when we do something with repetition,
we create habits. Those habits can be fantastic for
helping us learn to use common expressions and useful vocabulary that
we need for our daily life, but we can also form bad habits and
that's what we want to focus on breaking today.
In fact, you might listen to someone else
speaking English and recognize all the little mistakes that they make,
but you might not hear it when you make them.
Our goal today is to learn how to recognize those mistakes and use some
simple strategies to fix them so that you don't have to worry about that
little voice in the back of your mind asking if you did it correctly,
and if you can fix these mistakes, it will take your English to the next
level so that you sound like you're in control and you know exactly what you
want to say. And the good news is the strategies that
I share with you today can actually be used to help you resolve any mistake
that you make with English grammar regularly.
But today we're going to focus on the five most common that I hear.
So let's get started with mistake number one.
I want you to review these sentences and see if you can identify the mistake
that's being made there. Hopefully you noticed there's that tiny
little -s that's missing on those verbs when it's in writing.
It seems so simple and clear, but when we're speaking,
it's much harder to notice and correct the mistake and there are a few reasons
for that. Number one,
we're focused on so many different things.
Trying to find the right word. Think of the right grammar tense.
We have a lot going on in our mind at that moment and we have that little
voice that's distracting us and asking is that right? And perhaps we've created some bad
habits so we no longer recognize that we're making mistake and that's what we
want to focus on today. So here are two really simple strategies
that will help you recognize this mistake and fix it.
The first strategy is all about repetition because repetition is what
helps us create habits. So using some repetition drills and
choosing a verb that you might use regularly and simply repeating the he
she and form with that final s sound and making sure that s sound is clear.
For example, he loves,
she loves, it loves, he goes,
it goes, she goes.
Just repeating those verbs regularly for just a minute or two every day while
you're driving, walking your dog,
doing the dishes. That little repetitive action can help
to create that positive habit that we want with this grammar tense.
The second thing that you can do is use one of my favorite strategies for
building confident, fluent communication. In fact,
this is a strategy that I use with all of my students.
I want you to record yourself speaking and listen to it,
and here's a simple way that you can do that with a focus on this final s sound
while you're watching a video or a TV show.
I want you to turn off the sound just for a moment or two.
Get out your smartphone and start recording yourself as you talk about
what actions you see. So you might describe a man in his
apartment, he walks down the hallway,
he opens the door, he sees the postman,
etc. etc. Then after a minute or two, you can stop speaking out loud,
but go back and listen to your recording and evaluate how you did.
Did you use the s sound with all of those verbs when you used he,
she or it? This method is effective for two
reasons. Number one,
it has that repetition that will help you build that good habit.
And number two, it gets you focused on listening to
yourself, recognizing your own patterns.
If you don't know what mistakes you're making,
you can't fix them, and this strategy when you listen to
yourself, helps you to develop the ability to hear
yourself speak so that you can break those bad habits and build those new
ones with mistake number two, once again,
I want you to look at this list of sentences and see if you can identify
what's missing. You probably noticed that we have ing
verbs, but we're missing that extra verb that
we need the verb to be. For example,
instead of going to work, it should be,
I am going to work. One of the reasons this is an easy
mistake to make and not recognize is because if you listen to native speakers
communicate, they don't really say things like I am
going to work, or he is taking her to the station. Instead we use the contracted forms and
those sounds blend together, which means they're a little bit more
difficult to hear, so if you're listening to a lot of tv
shows or in conversations with native speakers,
you might not hear that verb so clearly. Instead,
you're going to hear, I'm going,
I'm going to work, or he's taking her to the station and as
a result it's a little bit easier to make this mistake,
but we want to avoid it. And once again,
building that new habit is all about repetition and recognizing the mistake.
So an easy drill that you can do while you're working around the house.
Simply talk about what you're doing. If you don't mind talking out loud to
yourself. For example,
right now I'm vacuuming or I'm doing the dishes.
I'm recording this video. Simply take a couple of minutes every
day and talk out loud about what you're doing so you build in that repetitive
habit and secondly, you can also use that strategy of
recording yourself to really focus on whether or not you're making this
mistake regularly and work on fixing it so you could record yourself talking
about what your friends, family members or coworkers are doing
today. My mom's gardening,
my dad's going to work, my best friend's getting her haircut.
Then when you're finished, go back and listen and evaluate how you
did. Mistake number three is a little bit
more challenging because it deals with prepositions and you and I both know
prepositions in English are a total nightmare because we have no strict
rules. Instead,
we have all these patterns that you have to learn,
but one of the most common mistakes I hear is using the preposition to in
sentences like this. He told to her or he asked to me.
The truth is when we use the verbs, ask and tell,
we don't need that preposition to. Instead the verb is followed immediately
by a personal pronoun or a person. For example,
he asked sam or she asked me, my sister told him,
we can just eliminate that preposition to with mistake number four. I want you to see if you can recognize
the error in this sentence and I want you to imagine that I still live in
Chicago now. I haven't left.
What do you think? What's wrong with that sentence?
Hopefully you noticed that the verb have was missing from that sentence and here
we're dealing with the present perfect. Which is particularly challenging in
English. In fact,
some languages don't have this particular time tense,
so it's a little bit difficult to understand and use and as a result it's
easy to form those bad habits, but let's take a closer look at the
present. Perfect.
If I say I lived in Chicago for two years,
the verb lived is in the past. It means it's over.
It's finished. I left.
I'm not there anymore, but the truth is I still live in
Chicago. I haven't left,
so I need some way to express that in english. We use the present perfect to help us do
that. When I say I have lived in Chicago for
two years, it means I arrived two years ago and I'm
still there now. I haven't left.
Nothing has changed. That time tense helps us communicate
that and we use this tense for things like where you work now you might say,
I have worked at this company for 10 years,
20 years, six months,
or if you have a hobby that you started 20 years ago and you still do it.
For example, I've played piano for 20 years.
Once again, that lets your listener know that it
started in the past and it's still true today.
Now I know that the present perfect is particularly challenging,
so I've got some extra practice activities for you in the online lesson
after you watch this video. Be sure to check those out in addition
to that online practice that I have for you with the present perfect.
The other thing that you can do to help fix this mistake is to look at some of
the examples I have given you and I want you to think about how you could use
this form in your everyday conversation. If you think about an introduction that
you have to make in a business meeting or talking about how long you've worked
at your company, you probably use some of the same
sentences every day at work or in your introductions,
and I want you to focus on using the present perfect form correctly.
One great way to do that as you now know,
is to record yourself. Practice giving an introduction and make
sure that your time tenses are correct. And finally,
mistake number five. Recently I was talking with one of my
students about a situation she has with a colleague at work that's let's say a
little difficult or tense, and she asked me,
do you have any advice for me? I mean,
advices, um advice?
I'm not sure. have you ever felt like that with words
like advice, information,
coffee, water.
You're not sure if it should be water or water,
coffee, coffees?
It's really tough to know. What makes it really difficult is most
nouns and English have a singular plate or plural form plates,
cup cups, plant plants,
but we do have some nouns in English that don't have the two forms.
We call them noncount nouns. For example,
the word advice in that question that my wanted to ask me,
the correct answer was advice. Do you have aNy advice for me now to fix
this common mistake so you don't have to worry about it and question yourself in
conversations? I have a list for you of the 20 most
common noncount nouns in the online lesson.
I want you to review that list and then using our strategy of repetition to
create good habits. I want you to create a few sentences
using those words, but here's the thing.
I want you to create sentences that you would use in your real life.
Think about what you do at work every day and the people that you talk to.
Think about your conversations with your neighbors.
I want you to create sentences that you regularly use,
but with the correct form of the non count noun and use it often.
Repeat it to yourself so that when you're in a conversation,
you can use it without questioning yourself or worrying about whether
you're making that mistake and with that you have the simple strategies that you
need to fix those five common grammar mistakes.
If you use those strategies just for a little bit of time,
every day, you'll build those good habits that you
need so that you don't have to worry about that little voice in the back of
your mind asking, did I do that right? You can totally ignore that voice or
just stop asking that question because you'll automatically use these grammar
tenses correctly from those positive habits that you've created.
If you enjoyed this lesson, I'd love to know,
and there's three great ways that you can tell me.
Number one, give this video a thumbs up on youtube
and subscribe to this channel so that you never miss a future lesson.
Two: If you've got a friend or colleague who
struggles with some of the basics of english grammar,
share this lesson with them on facebook or by email,
and finally make sure that you go to the online lesson.
Check out the practice opportunities that I have for you,
and at the end of the lesson I have some challenge questions as well.
You can share your answers, thoughts and questions with me in the
comment section. At the end of the lesson,
I always provide feedback and it's a great way to learn from others in the
Confident English Community. With thAt,
have a fantastic week. Thank you so much for joining me and
I'll see you next time for your Confident English.
