Hello. My name is Emma,
and in today's video, I am going to teach you about some
mistakes a lot of students make. So, I've been teaching English for
about five years now, and the mistakes I'm going to teach you today, I've
seen students make many times in both their speaking, as well as their writing. Okay? So
these mistakes are mistakes students make when they're talking
about people. So, I'm going to give you some
examples of some of these mistakes. The first one I want to show you:
"Some Canadian people hate winter." It's true, I'm one of those
people; I hate winter. So, "Some Canadian people hate
winter." There's a mistake, here. I want you to take a moment to look,
and think: What could the mistake be? "Some Canadian
people hate winter." I'll give you a hint: The mistake
is somewhere here. If you thought "people" is the mistake, you're correct. "Canadian
people", it's redundant. We don't need the word "people", because "Canadian"... If we add
an "s" here, this means "Canadian people". Okay? So, instead of saying "Canadian
people", we would say "Canadians". "Some Canadians hate winter." It's the same if we wanted to talk
about Americans. We would not say: "Some American people hate winter." We
would prefer to say: "Some Americans" -with an "s"-"hate winter". So, let's look at another example. "Many Brazilian
people are learning English." So, there's a mistake, here. What's the mistake? "Many
Brazilian people are learning English." If you said the mistake was "people", you're
correct. When we're talking about nationalities, we do not use the word "people".
So, what can we do to fix this? We can get rid of the word "people", and what can we do
to the word "Brazilian", because there's more than one? We can add an "s". So, now it's: "Many
Brazilians are learning English." Okay? So, I'm going to give you another example,
this time not on the board, but I'm just going to say it. "Many Asian people like spicy food.",
"Many Asian people like spicy food." Now, how would you fix this sentence?
If you said: "Many Asians like spicy
food." you'd be correct. So, when we talk about nationalities, we do
not need this word; this word is a waste of space. We just need the
nationality with an "s". So, I have another common mistake students
make over here: "Muslim people". So, Muslim is a religion. Okay? "Muslim people fast"-"fast"
means they don't eat-"during Ramadan". "Muslim people fast during Ramadan." It means
Muslim people do not eat during their holy month, their religious month of Ramadan.
So, there's a mistake, here. What do you think
the mistake is? If you said, just like this, "people" is
the mistake - you're correct. When we talk about religion and we're talking about Muslims,
Christians, Jews, Hindus - you don't need the word "people". We could just change this to:
"Muslims". So, "Muslim" here means a whole... All Muslims, it's like Muslim people,
but we don't need the word "people". Here's another example: "Christian
people celebrate Easter.", "Christian people celebrate Easter."
How can we fix this sentence? We can get rid of the
word "people", and just add an "s". We can do the same thing for Hindus.
"Hindus are often vegetarian", we could say. "Many Jews live in Israel.", "Many Buddhists
live in Asia." Okay? So, instead of saying: "Jewish people", "Hindu people", it's easier
just to say "Hindu" with an "s" or "Jews" with an "s". All right, so let's look at
some other common mistakes students make. Okay, so another mistake I often see students
make in their writing especially, and also sometimes in their speaking is with "most",
"some", and "a lot" when they're using these words with "people". Okay? So, the first example:
"Most of people have cell phones these days." I see students use: "Most of people" a lot in
their essays. So, what's the mistake, here? I'll give you a minute to think about it.
"Most of people". The problem here is "of". Okay? We don't need "of"; "of" is incorrect
here. We would just say: "Most people". "Most people have cell phones these days."
Okay? "Most people love Chinese food.", "Most people like to play sports." You don't need
"of". If you had: "Most of the people", that would be okay, but you need "the" here, although
that's not as common. You know, that actually gets a little bit more into complicated grammar,
so the easy rule... Okay? The easy rule is just don't use "of": "Most people".
Okay? What about the next one? "Some of
people enjoy watching movies.", "Some of people like going
shopping." What's the mistake, here? If you said "of" is the
mistake, again, you're right. It's just like: "Most of". We don't
say: "Some of", we say "Some people". "Some people stay up really late.",
"Some people enjoy learning English." Okay? So, a lot of people enjoy learning English, I guess. Okay,
so, again, "of" is the problem. Now, here's where it gets a little bit strange. So,
we have the rule "Most people", "Some people". Can we say: "A lot people"?
"A lot people study English"? No, that would be incorrect. With the word "a lot", you do need the word
"of". Okay? So that's why it's a little bit challenging, because for "most", we don't
need it; for "some", we don't need it; but for "a lot", we do need it. "A
lot of people study English.", "A lot of people like
listening to music." Okay? So, when you're writing, be very careful
with this. I want you to always look at your writing, double check it, and
make sure you don't have "of" after "most" or "some", and you do have
"of" after "a lot". Okay? So, let's look at another
common mistake I see. Okay, so another common mistake I see
students make is with the words: "Every people", "everybody", "everyone",
"all people", "all person". Okay? These are a lot of common mistakes
I hear. So, let's look at some of them so you can see what
I'm talking about. The first sentence: "Every people should get an
education." Is this sentence okay? "Every people should
get an education." If you think it's not okay, and of
course if it's on this board it probably is a mistake, why do you
think it's a mistake? The issue here is with the
words "every" and "people". These words don't go together. Okay? What
we could say instead of "every people", we can use the words "everybody" or we can also
use the words "everyone". So we can say... Write this a bit better. "Everyone". Or: "Every
person", okay? So, "every" should go with a singular, like: "everybody", "everyone",
"Every person should get an education.", but we don't usually say "every people".
Okay? Another example of a mistake: "All
person need water to survive." So, take a moment and think about:
What do you think the mistake here is? "All person need
water to survive." Okay, this is the opposite mistake of this.
When we have the word "all" and we're talking about people, we usually don't use the word
"person", we use the word "people". Okay? So, you can imagine this, like... A couple.
Okay? "Every" is the boyfriend, "body" is the girlfriend. Okay? Or "everyone", okay?
These two go together. Similarly, down here, "all person" never go together. We have "all"
as one, "people". So it's just memorizing which words go with which words.
"All people need water to survive.", "All people need
to breathe." Okay? "All people should have
their rights respected." Okay? So, just some examples. Okay, here's another example of a mistake a lot
of students make: "People likes my cooking." Okay? So, what's
the mistake here? Well, one mistake is nobody
likes my cooking-okay?-so that's the first one. People don't like my
cooking. But the real... The grammar mistake is with the verb, "likes". A lot of students,
when they see people, they think, you know, people... It's many, so they like to add an
"s" here. It shouldn't be that way. It should actually just be: "People like". Okay? So it's
kind of like: "They like", "People like", so imagine "People" as "They". The subject-verb
agreement should be without an "s". "People need to eat.", "People like
shopping.", "People play sports." So, if you use... If you use the word
"people", there's no "s" on the verb. Okay, and then the final mistake I see
a lot: "Everybody like my cooking." What's the mistake here? Okay, so it's similar to what the mistake
is here: "Everybody", in this case, we need an "s" because of
subject-verb agreement. "Everybody likes
my cooking." Okay? So, "Everybody", you always need an "s" on the
verb if you're talking, like, in the present; whereas for "people",
there is no "s". So, be very, very careful with these different
mistakes. Again, you know, it's really important to think about which words "every" goes with,
which ones "all" go with, that "people" never has an "s", and that "everybody" does have
an "s". Okay? So, check your own writing. I really encourage that, if you're writing
essays, if you're writing some sort of... Something for your teacher. It's always good
to take a minute and look for these specific mistakes, because many, many students make
these mistakes, so just take a moment to check your work, and make sure you're
not making these mistakes. I hope you've enjoyed this video. I also hope
you come visit our website at www.engvid.com. There, you can see a lot more
videos on all sorts of things, from vocabulary, to
grammar, to pronunciation. I also hope you subscribe
to my channel. And until next time, take care.
