Hi. I'm Rebecca from www.engvid.com. In the past 30 years, I've worked with thousands
of students from all over the world to help them improve their English
communication skills. In the past year, I've been researching the
most important errors and the most common errors made by English learners. And what I've done is I've put all of
this information together into a course. It's called: "Correct Your English
Errors in 10 Minutes a Day". I'm very excited to tell you about this course,
because I really think it's an easy, quick, fast way for you to improve your
English and take it to a higher level. All right? But first what I want to do is tell you: What
are the points you have to keep in mind when you are trying to
improve your English? What do you need to know about
correcting your errors? So, let me share a little bit of my results
from my research so it can help you. Okay? And then we will look at specific types of
errors, and do a little quiz to see where you stand.
Okay? Let's get started. So, first, when you're correcting your
English, really, you can do two things. Right? When you're improving your English, you can
do two things; you can learn what's right or correct what's wrong. Now we're talking about this area
where we correct what's wrong. So, in order to correct what's
wrong, what do you need to do? First, you need to
know what's wrong. So, when I get an essay or I get an
email to correct, what's the problem? It's not that the person was
trying to make mistakes. They weren't trying to make mistakes;
they're trying to do their best. Right? That's what you do. Every time you write or every time you speak,
but you didn't know that something was wrong. So, first you have to
know what's wrong. Then you have to
understand why it's wrong. Why is it this word
and not that word? Why is it this verb tense
and not that verb tense? And so on and so forth.
Okay? Then you have to learn
how to fix it. Okay? Is it a spelling change? It is a punctuation error? What kind of mistake is it? That's what we're going to be
looking at - the types of mistakes. Because once you understand and correct a
type of mistake, you will correct lots of mistakes all at once.
Okay? And that's what I want you to do; to
make quick progress, fast progress. Okay. Then what you need to do, which many
students do, is to practice it immediately. So, for example, if I teach you something
in this lesson or in any one of my engVid lessons, after you watch it, what you need to do
is to practice something with that immediately. That's why we usually have a quiz-right?-so
that you can go there right away, do some more practice to put that information really
into your head; and not just to put it passively there, but to use it. Right? To use whatever you've
learned in a practical way. So, you need to practice it immediately,
but sometimes that's where students stop. They practice it right away, and then they
don't touch it after that, and they think: "I did it.
I know it", but not quite. So, what's also very, very important in terms
of our brain, in terms of how we learn, in terms of how we remember is this point, here:
That you need to review it frequently. Review anything that you learn often;
otherwise, it's not going to stay with you. So, for example, in my course, what we have
are we have daily quizzes, we have weekly tests, we have monthly reviews
with the same material. Okay? So that after a while, you
say: "Of course I know that. I know how... The difference between
'it's' and 'its'. I know the difference between
'affect' and 'effect'. That's not a problem",
because you've reviewed it. If you don't review it, then
it's going to drop away. Okay? So this is an essential part of brain-based
learning, of very smart learning. Not just hard learning,
but smart learning. And then you need to
know what's important. So, let's say you get back your essay
and there are twenty corrections. So, are they all
equally important? No. Some are critical. If you make some mistakes, you can get very
low marks on your IELTS or TOEFL, you could lose a job possibility-right?-you could
have a very low grade in university. But some other mistakes are not so serious;
they're very advanced kind of technical mistakes that even English
learners might make. Those are not as serious. But if you make basic mistakes with verb tenses,
if you forget to use a verb, or something like that, if you don't use an article - then
those mistakes are more fundamental and more serious. And that's what I made sure is in the course
and also what I'm going to tell you about right now. Okay? So, let's do that. Okay, so let's go through
these common mistakes. Number one: "Everyone is here"
or "Everyone are here"? What's correct? This is a question of
subject-verb agreement. So, what do you think it is? It should be: "Everyone
is here." Okay? "Everyone", "someone", "anyone", "no one" -
these are all singular, and that's something that is always true. Okay? So, it's something that once you learn that,
you know that you can apply it always. All right? Here we go. Number two - this is a preposition error:
"I've lived here since two years" or "I've lived here for two years"? Which is correct? Do you know? It should be: "I've lived
here for two years." Okay? Do you know why? Remember I said it's not only important to
know that it's wrong; it's important to know why it's wrong. All right? And the reason why is because we use
"for" plus the period of time; how long. Okay? For how long? For two years. And we use "since" from
the point in time. So, let's suppose it's 2010 now. It's not, but let's suppose it was 2010 now, then
we can say: "Since 2008", two years before that. Okay? But "for" plus the period of time, so that's
a kind of an error that, once you understand it, it will be much easier to apply,
and especially once you practice it. Next, number three - this is a mistake in
verb tenses, potentially: "We visited Niagara Falls yesterday" or "We have
visited Niagara Falls yesterday"? Okay? So, here we have the simple past,
here we have present perfect. Which is correct in this
sentence, or are both correct? Well, it should be: "We visited
Niagara falls yesterday." Why? Why can't we use the other one? Because we have the word,
here: "yesterday". "Yesterday" is a finished time. Once you have a finished time that's mentioned
in the sentence, then we can only use the simple past or past simple;
we can't use present perfect. We can use present perfect
if no time is mentioned. If it only said: "We have visited
Niagara Falls" or otherwise not. Okay? Or if you want to
say: "this week". We can use it with a time
that's not finished. "We have visited Niagara Falls this summer",
"We have visited this week", "this month", "this year". Okay? A time that's not
finished we can mention. All right. Next, this is a question of word order: "He
arrived at 7:00 at the airport" or "He arrived at the airport at 7:00"? And you're saying:
"It doesn't matter. I don't care." I know, I know. But in English, it does matter. Okay? So, is there a rule
you can follow here? There is. So, which one, first of
all, do you think is right? So, the correct one is: "He arrived at
the airport at 7:00", and this is wrong. And why? Again, the principle. The principle is that we have
to mention place before time. Okay? "I arrived at the party at 7:00", "I arrived
at the airport at 7:00", "I arrived at the office at 7:00", okay? And not the other way around. So, once you understand the principle, you'll
be able to apply it when you're speaking and when you're writing. All right. Number five, this is a question of comparative
adjectives: "The weather is better today" or "The weather is
more better today"? Which is right, or
are both right? Both are definitely not right in this case;
and in fact, one of them is always wrong. Which one is always wrong? This one. This is the only correct option. So, if you ever hear anyone saying:
"more better", it's always wrong. Okay? And that's because
that's the only form. You have "good", "better",
and "the best". There is nothing else. Okay? So, some of these you learn by just knowing
that there is never a case, there are no rules that sometimes you use this one and
sometimes you use that one - no. That's the only option. All right? Now let's look at five
more from my course. All right, let's do number six. So, here, we are
talking about a car. All right? And let's look at this mistake. This is a mistake in writing. The first one: "It's tires need to be
changed" or "Its tires need to be changed"? So, here we have "it's" and
here we just have "its". So, which is correct? All right? Got it? So, it is this one, without the apostrophe,
and this one is wrong because this: "it's" is short for what? Short for: "It is tires
need to be changed." No. We want to use the possessive form of
"it", which is "its" with no apostrophe. This is different from
lots of other words, okay? So: "Its tires need
to be changed." So, this is an example
of a homophone. These are words which... Words which sound the same, but their meaning
and their spelling is often different. All right. There are many of these, and these can cause
a lot of confusion, and they are responsible for lots of mistakes in writing. Okay. The next one is an example of word
choice; incorrect word choice. For example: "We won the other
team" or "We beat the other team"? Which is it? Okay? You got it? Okay, I'm going to
write the answer now. Ready? "We... We beat the other team", not:
"We won the other team". All right? Although people might say
that, but that's not right. So, you beat the other side, the other player,
your opponent, and so on; but you win the game, you win the championship. Okay? That's how you... You win the match. All right? So, "win" is used with the game, or the match,
or the championship; and you beat the other side. So, there, it's an example of you
had to choose the right word. Okay? And you have to know that's
more of a vocabulary issue. All right. Number eight, we're talking
about the correct word form. So, you know, like every
word, there is a family. Right? Every word has a family; there's a noun, there's
a verb, there's an adjective, there's an adverb usually, and sometimes
people use the wrong one. So, let's figure out if you
can get this one right. Number eight: "Can you advise me?", "Can
you advice me?" or "Can you advices me?" Which of those is correct? Now you had a choice of three. Okay. So, it should be:
"Can you advise me?" Not "advice" and
definitely not "advices". Why did I say: "definitely
not 'advices'"? Because this word is just
wrong; it doesn't exist. All right? It's not part of the family. It is... It doesn't exist. This is just a mistake
that people make. That is not the
plural of "advice". This is the noun:
"advice", and even... You can't make it plural by adding
"s"; it's a non-count noun. So, here we wanted to use the
verb, so the verb is "advise". I know it's written with an "s", but
it's pronounced with a "z" sound. "Can you advise me?" Good. Next, so this one is just confusing words,
confusing grammar-okay?-let's call it. "It's so a beautiful day" or
"It's such a beautiful day"? What's right there? It should be: "such a beautiful day", because
after "such", we're looking for a noun or we're looking for a noun phrase. Okay? And after "so", we're usually looking
for an adjective or an adverb. So, we could say: "It's so beautiful
today" or "It's such a beautiful day". Okay? Again, each of these
points you have to master. I'll talk to you about
that in a second. And the last one is just
expressions that we use. So, which of these expressions
is correct: "Good evening. How are you?" or "Good night. How are you?" So, is there a difference between saying:
"Good evening" and "Good night"? In some languages, I believe it's not; there's
no difference, but in English, there is a difference. So, which is correct here? Got it? Okay. We should say: "Good evening. Good evening. How are you?" Okay? Because: "Good evening" is a
greeting when we meet somebody. And we can use it. We can say: "Good morning. How are you?", "Good afternoon. How are you?", "Good evening. How are you?" But: "Good night" is only said when
you're leaving and you're going away. So, you're not going to say: "Good night", and
then say to somebody: "How are you?" because it's, like, the end
of the conversation. You can't say: "Bye. Okay. See you tomorrow. Good night." And you're not talking anymore;
you're just going away after that. All right? So, there's nothing else. But: "Good evening" is when you arrive,
and you say: "Good evening, everyone. How are you?" Okay? And now you're going to start the evening; and
here, you're ending it, so there's nothing more to say. But, again, that's something
you have to learn. And why is it important? Because, here, we've talked about just 10
kinds of errors, but actually there are many kinds of errors, and in my course we cover
more than 100 of them, and the most important thing is we cover
them only one by one. Here, in case you didn't get them all immediately,
it's because we did a lot in one time, and I understand that. And maybe you understood them right now, but the
question is: Will you remember them tomorrow? So, by doing... By focusing on just one at a time, you can
master it, and then you can review it at the end of the week, at the end of the month,
at the end of the course, and so on. Also, I've particularly chosen those errors
that are the most common, that are the most embarrassing, that will lead to misunderstanding
- so if you use one word instead of the other, people might misunderstand,
they might get confused. "What does he...? What does he mean? What is she saying?" So those are the kinds of errors that I've chosen,
and also these are the most serious errors. Okay? They make you look bad, or they make you
get lower grades and things like that. So, by focusing on them and by mastering them once
and for all, then you're done; you've got it. And your English will have improved so much,
because little by little, you corrected all the different types of errors
that really matter. Okay? So, if you'd like to know more-okay?-click
on the link that's either below or above the video, and I wish you all
the best with your English. Bye for now.
