Welcome to the Good Morning show. In today’s program we’re going to be talking
to Hillary Clinton. Oh, I’m sorry. That’s the wrong picture. We’ve clearly made a mistake. Argh! Hi everyone, I’m Vicki and I’m British. And I’m Jay and I’m American. And this lessons about things you can say
when you make mistakes. Where should we start? Well the first thing we say is often an expletive. She means expletive. Expletive. The pronunciation’s different in British
and American. Say expletive. An expletive is a word that shows you’re
angry or upset. Argh! Argh! Oh…. The next thing you’d say is not polite. Yeah, expletives are generally rude words. I’m sure you know these ones. They’re common curse words. Be careful though because they are very rude. Yes, don't say them to your boss or people
you don't know well. What are some polite alternatives? Hmm. I’ve heard some people say ‘oh bother’,
but that’s normally if it’s a small thing. Oh bother, I’ve spilt my tea. 'Bother' sounds very British. In the US we might say 'shoot'. Oh shoot, I left my wallet at home. Again, we say this for small mistakes. Yes, if you want to add some emotion, I think
‘damn’ is a useful word. Is it rude? It’s a little rude but it’s better than
the curse words if you’re at work or something, and it shows you’re upset. Oh damn. I forgot to put petrol in the car. Damn. I just made a mistake. What? I just sent everyone the wrong dates for the
meeting. Notice that Jay said ‘I just made a mistake’. We use the verb ‘make’ with mistake. In some languages it’s do a mistake’,
but not in English. Yes, so don’t make that mistake with mistake! 'Make' and 'mistake' both start with the letter
m. Perhaps that will help you remember. OK. Now are there other ways to say ‘I’ve
made a mistake’? Yes. We often use phrasal verbs. Let’s see one in action. Oh no, I’ve screwed up again! What have you done? I forgot to press save before I closed the
document. He’s always screwing up like that. The verb is 'screw up'. It’s slang and it’s a bit rude. Again, you probably don’t want to say it
to your boss. But there’s another verb you could use instead
– mess up. Oh. Can I try it? OK but be careful. It's taken me ages to get this far. Don’t mess it up. OK. …
Oh sorry Mess up means to do something badly. It’s a phrasal verb again and it’s
more polite than screw up. And another phrase you can use is 'by mistake'. Urgh! What? I drank your coffee by mistake. How much sugar is in that? 5 teaspoons. I like it sweet. So 'by mistake' means 'by accident'. Hi. Hi. Your pay check has arrived. Oh good. Hey! Somebody’s already opened this. Yeah, sorry, I opened it by mistake. You didn’t earn as much as me last month. So by mistake - by accident. By mistake means you didn’t intend to do
it. Or did you? Now the word mistake is a noun here, but it
can be a verb too. And then it means you think one thing is another. For example, you have to keep your pills safe
because children might mistake them for candy. Mistake is an irregular verb – mistake,
mistook, mistaken. Oh Mary. Do we know each other? Oh sorry, I mistook you for someone else. No problem. I mistook you for someone else means I thought
you were one person, but you were another. Yes, it sounds a little formal to me. I think normally I’d say it differently. Oh Mary. Do we know each other? Oh sorry I thought you were someone else. No problem. That sounded more natural. Yes, and there’s another thing we often
say when we’ve made a mistake. What? Sorry. Let’s look at how we do that. Who designed these calendars? Oh I did. Do you like them? How many copies did you print? I don’t know. I ordered 500. Is there a problem? Yes. Look at February. There are 30 days. Oh, it’s a mistake. I’m so sorry Kathy. It’s my fault. I didn’t notice. It’s my fault too. I didn’t check it before it went to the
printers. We’re both at fault. Yes. 30 days! Now here’s a very useful phrase. When we say ‘it’s my fault’, we’re
saying we’re responsible. We accept the blame for what went wrong. We admit we did the wrong thing. And if we don’t want to accept responsibility,
we can use the negative. You need to do this again. Why? It’s full of spelling mistakes
It’s not my fault. My spell checker doesn’t work
Then use a dictionary. Humph. So ‘it’s not my fault’ means it’s
not my responsibility. Don’t blame me. Fault is an uncountable noun here, so it has
no plural form. But the word fault has other meanings where
it’s countable. For example? Well, people can have faults. Good luck with your presentation. Are you nervous? No, I’m going to be fantastic. They’ll love me. Jay may have some faults, but lack of confidence
isn’t one of them. So here faults is plural and it means the
bad or weak parts of someone’s character. I don’t really have many faults. Yeah right. And faults can also mean other things that
are wrong. Machines can have faults. Faults are things that stop them working correctly. A fault in the design. A structural fault. You need to use the other copier. This one’s not working. Really? Why not? They think it’s an electrical fault. Hmmm. Told you. OK, I think it’s time to review, don’t
you? Yes, let’s see what you can remember. When we make a mistake, the first thing we
say is often an expletive. Or an expletive. An expletive is usually a swear word or curse
word. But there are some more polite alternatives. For example in the UK we could say 'Oh bother!' And in the US we could say 'Oh shoot!' Here’s a really useful one: Oh damn! We usually use the word mistake with the verb
make. And we use phrasal verbs too like 'I’ve
screwed up'. And we can also say 'I’ve messed up'. If we think we’re responsible for a mistake
we’ll say ‘It’s my fault’. And if we think we’re not responsible we’ll
say ‘It’s not my fault'. And that’s it. Now you know what to say when you’ve screwed
up and made a mistake. If you’ve found this video useful, please
share it with a friend. And make sure you subscribe to our channel. See you next Friday everyone. Bye Bye. Bye.
