The Most Common Mistakes Students Make when Speaking English

Hey English Learners, I’m Kate, Welcome to my channel

Today we’re gonna talk about the most common mistakes English learners make when speaking

English.

My students make a lot of mistakes And today I’d like to discuss some of them.

If you’re new here, please make sure to subscribe and hit the like button,

And the bell down below so you’ll never miss my new videos.

The first extremely common mistake is I think + to

I’m thinking to move to the United States.

This sentence is incorrect.

The verb THINK is always used with the prepositions ABOUT or OF

I’m thinking about moving to the United States.

I’ve been thinking to do that all my life.

No, we can’t use this one.

I’ve been thinking of doing that all my life.

This is correct.

The next one My sister is married with a millionaire.

To be married is used with the preposition TO

My sister is married to a millionaire.

The next mistake is a very strange one Thank you for wasting time on me

This is such a hilarious mistake because in my country people

say this phrase all the time when they wanna say Thank you

and express their gratitude But in American English wasting time is a

negative thing When you waste something you lose it and you

feel disappointed of losing it And people never say Thank you for wasting

time That doesn’t make any sense

And we should say Thank you for spending your time on me

Or Thank you for your help Please keep that in mind!

The next common mistake my students make is I’m agree

Or I’m not agree To agree is a verb and it’s correct to say

I agree or I don’t agree or disagree

The next mistake is Look to

Look to this amazing landscape!

No, we never use TO after the verb Look We should say - Look at

Look at this amazing landscape

The next mistake is The news were very good.

News is always used with IS or WAS because this noun is uncountable

The news was very good.

The next one is Ma’am

I often see comments below my videos with Ma’am

Ma’am is a formal respectful way to call a woman in many cultures,

Thank you for your respect, I appreciate it

But, did you know that in America native speakers use this one

To call a very old woman, may be 70 or 80 years old.

Did you know it?

So this mistake is very common Please call me Kate instead of Ma’am

The next one is I feel myself happy

I feel myself sad Here we also have the phrase we often use

in Russian But it doesn’t sound right in English

The phrase I feel myself literally means that you feel your body, your skin,

You touch yourself But when we’re talking about our mood and

our feelings We say I feel happy

Or I feel sad

The next one is I think yes

I think no It’s absolutely normal to say this in Russian

But in English you can’t use these phrases When we agree we say

I think so or I don’t think so

The next mistake is a question that my students ask me

How is it called?

This is grammatically incorrect How is not appropriate

What is it called?

Why we can’t say How is it called?

Because WHAT is a question word when we’re asking about the OBJECT

And HOW is about the METHOD So When we wanna know the name of an object,

a thing or an action We ask What is it called?

The next one is Prices are growing

This one is a vocabulary mistake because to grow means to increase in size

or amount, or to become more developed

Plants grow, grass grows, children grow but Prices can’t grow We say Prices are rising

The next very common mistake is I didn’t buy nothing at the market

We say I didn’t buy anything at the market Because we can’t use double negatives like

didn’t and nothing in one sentence The next one is

You hair are so beautiful!

Hair is uncountable noun, there’s much hair and we can’t count them

And It doesn’t sound good.

We say You hair is so beautiful!

The next phrase English learners often make when they say to me

Please, explain me the rule We say explain it to me

Or explain the rule to me We can’t say Explain ME , that’s incorrect

The next mistake is It depends of the situation

We cannot say depends of We should say Depend on

It’s a phrasal verb And is always used with the preposition ON

The next one is I and my friend

When you’re talking about you and someone else,

You should always put I at the end of the phrase

My friend and I … sounds right

The next one is I understand almost all what you say

I’ve heard this phrase many times And I know that in some languages it’s OK

to speak like this But in American English natives just say Everything

They do not say All I understand almost everything you’ve said

Ok, I’ve told you about the most common mistakes my students make

When speaking English Please don’t forget that

the most important thing about using a language is communication.

We learn by our mistakes Making mistakes is a great way to learn

So don’t be afraid of your mistakes, correct yourself

And have a beautiful week Thank you for watching

See you later!