Why Do Native Speakers Make These Grammar Mistakes? - 3 English Grammar Rules

hi I'm Lisa do you ever hear native speakers making grammar mistakes is it okay to sometimes make grammar mistakes maybe you studied English for a long time and you know the grammar rules very well but occasionally you hear some native speakers not following those rules this is an important topic these are questions that my students regularly ask me and I'd like to give you my perspective on that in this video you will meet three different Americans and one German person who is fluent in English I asked them some grammar questions and I want you to listen to their answer and their perspective also I think this video will be really helpful to you first I'd like to tell you that I think it's very important for you to use correct grammar especially if you would like to have a professional job even native speakers for example I have a friend in Los Angeles she applied for a job that she really wanted and the company gave her a grammar test and then they didn't hire her why because they didn't think that her grammar was good enough she would be representing the company by writing email to clients and speaking on the phone to clients and they only wanted to hire a person who used grammar really well so even though we will talk about some grammar mistakes that are considered acceptable today I want you to follow the grammar rules of English that you have studied that's very important so keep that in mind as you watch this video I decided to interview some native speakers in Los Angeles before the coronavirus started I was at the YouTube studios I decided to ask some youtubers how they speak English I gave them examples of some sentences and I wanted to ask them which sentence sounded more natural to them which sentence are they likely to say I wanted to give you an idea of how native speakers talk I asked them the question about the verbs lay and lie have you studied those verbs do you know how to use them correctly if you studied lay and lie in your grammar classes then you know that lay is a transitive verb and lie is an intransitive verb what does that mean transitive and intransitive transitive means that you must have an object intransitive there's no object so for example I lay something somewhere so that something is the object I lay the blanket on the beach so to put something down or to place I lay the Box on the floor to put how about lie with lie there is no object so you can say I lie down on the sofa I lie in bed right now I would like you to hear how native speakers answered my question regarding lay and lie the first people you will listen to are Brody and Cody and they have a channel on YouTube called her a perfect and you remember Drake from my previous videos I spoke to him also and when I was at the YouTube studios I also met Jeremy Jeremy is from Germany he has a very popular YouTube channel he's got over a million subscribers and I could see why he's successful he specializes in talking about fragrances different perfumes and he gives advice about which fragrances you should buy I recommend that you check out his channel I've really been enjoying watching his videos and I think it's interesting to get a perspective also from a non-native speaker who's fluent let's listen to their answers regarding lay and lie which sentence are you more likely to say I want to lay down or I want to lie down I want to lay down I want to lay down I want to lie down I want to lay down I'm gonna lay down hi what's your name my name is Jeremy fragance I'm deleting fragance influenza Oh fantastic where you from Germany which sentence would you feel more comfortable saying I want to lay down or I want to lie down I want to lay down what happened I told you that lie is an intransitive verb and that you say lie down on the sofa but everybody said I want to lay down why is that and should you speak that way too is that a mistake why are people speaking that way if the grammatically correct answer is I want to lie down but the truth is very few people speak this way lei is what sounds familiar to people lei is what sounds natural let me explain what's going on a lot of people get confused about this one the past tense of lie is lei that is very confusing already right and then lay and lie have such a similar meaning so lie is an irregular verb we say lai lai lain lai we say lai laid laid that's confusing isn't it so you could see how native speakers confuse that one and maybe you confuse that one too even though you learned it in school so which one should you use that's a question that I used to ask myself also I used to say lie down and suddenly I realized I was one of the only ones who were speaking that way but I'm a grammar teacher so what should I do I don't want to be the grammar police the truth is this kind of grammar mistake is becoming acceptable it's what people hear and it's what sounds natural to them so what are we supposed to do should we be the grammar police or should we relax about it in my opinion I think with this particular one we need to relax about it so the mistake lay and lie is not considered a serious mistake it doesn't fall in the category of other types of mistakes for example subject verb agreement or verb tense mistakes I believe you need to learn the verb tenses and not make those mistakes let's continue with the next grammar topic less and fewer those are comparative forms of little and few and you probably have learned that we use less with non countable nouns and we use few with countable nouns so for example we say less money less time less water less information and we say fewer books fewer friends fewer cars fewer words and now let's listen to what our native speakers said about less or fewer how about this one there were less people at the party or there were fewer people in the party there were less people at the party that one I almost feel equally comfortable with there were there were a few people at the party no but I'm not saying a few a few were Oh we're comparing this less then there are less people at the party okay yeah but otherwise you would say few maybe few people yeah instead of fewer you would say like yes if there were less people at the party last night there were fewer people at the party last night there were I would say less people I don't say fewer that meant that much yeah I would probably go with there are less there were less people okay all right great which one would you say there are less people at the party or there are fewer people at the party there are less people at the party did you notice what Drake said about fewer he said he really doesn't use fewer but he does use few just not the comparative form so it seems that people just don't like to use the word fewer I want to show you some very common signs that you will see in supermarkets when you want to go to the fast lane the express lane when you have only a few items and you don't want to wait in the long line you will see a sign and the sign usually says ten items or less well that's not grammatically correct there is one supermarket near my house that actually has a sign that says ten items or fewer it's grammatically correct and take a look at some signs that I found where people are the grammar police they correct those mistakes some people notice the mistake and they don't like it so they cross out the mistake I think that's really funny and I came across a really funny image online this is a typical grammar police situation take a look at this one the old man is on his deathbed and he says I wish I'd made less mistakes and the lady corrects him and she says fewer that's a funny example of the grammar police most people say less but a few people don't like that and they want to make sure that people speak correctly and they insist on fewer but in general you will hear people using only less for both countable and non countable nouns in the comparative form let's talk about one more grammar point and let's listen to what native speakers say about it and then we will also hear what Jeremy the German speaker says about it and that point is there is versus there are there are a lot of people here there is a lot of people here there is a lot of people here and most likely I would say there's a lot of people here I wouldn't say is which one would you say there's a lot of people here or there are a lot of people here I would say there's a lot of people here I would say the same I would say there's a lot of you there are a lot of people here or there's a lot of people here there are a lot of people here that's what I say so Jeremy the non-native speaker was the only one that was saying it correctly everyone else seems to say there is and they say there's I believe the reason for that is there are it's kind of difficult to say because you have two hours in a row there are but the rule is we must use there are four plural and there is four singular nouns I'm sure you know that right you will notice that in spoken language most native speakers simply say there's four plural countable nouns so they'll say there's a lot of people here there's a lot of cars here but in written English people do use it correctly and they say there are or there were in past tense in spoken English in casual English pretty much almost everybody says there's instead of there are I prefer to say there are and there are some people that speak this way but it's more difficult to pronounce all of those ours for example the word rural or mirror or murderer these are words that are so difficult to say in English and even native speakers struggle with them and I believe that's why they don't say there are they simply say there's it's quicker it's easier to say and it's becoming a lot more acceptable to speak that way in conclusion I want to make sure that you understand that I'm not saying that it's okay to speak grammatically incorrectly I'm only giving you examples of three different grammar points where native speakers don't necessary used incorrectly and it's becoming acceptable it's almost becoming correct because language evolves so maybe 20 30 40 50 years from now it will be seen as correct language keeps changing but for the other grammar rules that you're learning in your grammar classes you must follow those rules for professional success it's important for you to be able to use the English language well and I recommend that you keep working on your English grammar and my final point is don't be the grammar police people don't like to be corrected especially in public but if they ask you a specific grammar question you can give them the rule but people don't like to be told oh that was wrong you shouldn't speak that way thanks for watching and keep practicing your English [Music] [Laughter] you [Music]

Channel: AccurateEnglish

Views: 208,679

Keywords: english grammar, advanced english grammar, like a native, speak fluent english, casual versus formal English, speak fluently, Accurate English, Lisa Mojsin, american accent, lay and lie, less and fewer, lay down or lie down, fluent, mastering the american accent

Id: D3gpkJoTUkk

Length: 13min 33sec (813 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 05 2020