10 Grammar Mistakes You Make When You Speak English

You've probably studied English grammar, hurray!

But you might still make these mistakes

when speaking English.

Today, let's fix that.

(upbeat music)

Hello, it's Keith from the Keith Speaking Academy.

Now, many teachers say,

"Listen, don't worry about the grammar,

the important thing is just communication."

Hmm, partly true, yes and no.

Too many grammar mistakes

and your communication breaks down.

Also, if you're taking IELTS

and IELTS speaking in particular,

using correct grammar is really important.

If you're making these grammar mistakes,

the examiner will lower your score.

And I know, students say to me,

"I know, I know, I study this many time.

Present symbol, third person singular use s.

My teacher tell me many time."

The problem is, you may know the grammar,

but you're not using it when you're speaking.

So today, let's look at

10 common, small, noticeable mistakes

and let me show you how to fix them.

Let's do it.

Right, mistake number one.

Let's see if you can spot it.

- I have a brother who live in Manchester

and he's older than me and he work in a bank.

- Right, did you spot it?

So this is what they said,

and this is what they should have said.

"I have a brother who lives in Manchester

and he's older than me

and he works in a bank," okay?

It's the present simple tense, third person, he/she.

And it takes s or es.

The problem is a lot of students don't pronounce it,

and it's a big mistake.

It really will be very noticeable to the IELTS examiner

and bring your score down.

How do you fix it?

Very simple.

When you're practicing alone,

over-exaggerate the s sound, right?

Many students just go, "He works, he plays,"

and you can't hear the s.

So do this.

He worksss.

Keep it going for two or three seconds,

when you're practicing.

He playsss in a band,

he worksss in a bank,

he watchesss television too much.

Okay, practice like that.

Just think of somebody in your family and describe them,

practicing this long s.

The other thing to do

is if the next word begins with a vowel,

we native speakers will often link it.

And that's where you notice the s.

He worksss in a bank, s-in a bank,

he works in a bank.

He worksss alone, s-alone.

He works on Saturdays, s-on Saturdays.

He works on Saturdays.

So making that link also shows the world and the examiner

that you are pronouncing the s.

Practice like this and you'll make big progress,

not only knowing the grammar, but using it,

and that is how you get a better score

in your IELTS speaking.

Let's move on.

Right, here is mistake number two.

Let's see if you can spot it.

- Yesterday, I went to visit my friend in London.

I leave at six in the morning, take the train

and arrived around 9:00 a.m..

- Right, did you spot it?

Okay, so this is what they said,

and this is what they should have said.

"Yesterday, I went to visit my friend in London.

I left at six in the morning,

took the train and arrived around 9:00 a.m.."

The problem is the person is mixing tenses.

They're going from the past to the present

and back to the past.

And when you're telling a series of events like this,

you need to stay in the past tense, simple as that.

Now, how do you fix this?

First of all, be really clear about how to pronounce

the past tense.

There are three sounds, right?

It can be a duh as in played,

it can be a tur as in cooked,

or it can be a id as in departed.

There are three different sounds you need to practice.

There's a video here giving you all the details.

You can go and watch it later and practice.

The other thing to do is to make a list of habits

that you have and then transpose them into the past

using a time reference.

For example, I have some habits.

I play the violin, I cook on the weekends

and then I try, I put in the past with a timeframe.

So I play the violin.

I played the violin yesterday.

I cook on the weekends.

I cooked last weekend and I made lasagna.

Okay, so you're practicing it

and building sentences that are true about you.

So first be clear about the pronunciation.

Second practice transposing, like this.

Next mistake coming up.

Okay, mistake number three, see if you can spot it.

- I like Santander more than London.

It's more quiet and the weather is better.

- All right, did you get it?

This is what they said,

and what they should have said is this.

"I like Santander more than London,

it's quieter and the weather is better,"

not more quiet, it's quieter.

This is a mistake with comparatives.

When you're comparing two things with an adjective

of one syllable, you add er,

quiet, quieter.

If the adjectives have two or three or more syllables,

then you use more,

more interesting, more beautiful, more economic.

But if it's one syllable, it's er, okay?

So instead of tall, "Oh, it's more tall."

No, no, no, it's taller.

"Oh, your car is fast,

ah, but mine is more faster."

No, no, no, faster.

"My car is faster."

How do you get round this?

It is a question of practice.

You can practice writing,

but I suggest practice speaking as well.

Let me give you a nice simple practice activity, okay?

I want you to compare you with me.

Very simple, right?

Here are six adjectives.

Tall, short, old, young, fat, slim

and just compare yourself.

For example, "I am taller than you

and you are shorter than me."

I don't know that, but listen, I'm 1 meter 73,

so you tell me.

I'm 57 years old and I'm pretty slim.

So anyway, practice some examples.

For the moment, let's look at the next mistake.

Right, mistake number four, let's see if you can spot it.

- I like living in a village more,

because there are less people here,

at least compared to London.

- Interesting.

Me too, I like living in a village more.

So this is what they said,

and this is what they should have said.

"I like living in a village more,

because there are fewer people here,

at least compared to London."

Not less people.

Fewer people, because here we use less

with uncountable nouns, right?

But if the noun like people is countable,

you can count people, right?

One person, two people, three people.

If you can count them, then it's fewer.

There are fewer people here, okay?

So less with uncountable nouns

like water, air, coffee, traffic.

You can't count them.

Fewer with countable nouns like people, cars, cups,

cups of coffee.

You can count those, okay?

So this is the key to correcting this mistake

is when you're practicing and thinking about it,

just think, can I count this, right?

If it's rice, you can't count rice.

Ah, rice. two rice, no.

You can count grains of rice, but not rice,

so it's less rice.

But if you're counting grains of rice,

then fewer grains of rice.

The other thing to do is generally memorize

the most common confusions.

And I think the three common ones are,

it should be fewer people,

fewer cars, fewer tasks,

because all of these are countable.

If you solve this problem, you'll make fewer mistakes.

Got it?

Let's move on.

Right, mistake number five, and this is a tricky one,

so listen very carefully, let's see.

- I don't know where is my book?

Can you help me?

- Did you get it?

This is what they said, and what should they have said?

"I don't know where my book is.

Can you help me?"

Because it's an embedded question,

it's not a direct question.

The direct question is, "Where is my book?"

But if you have a phrase or a clause before that,

"I don't know where..."

"Do you know where..."

Then it changes to,

"I don't know where my book is."

The subject comes before the verb.

"My book," comes before, "Is,"

"I don't know where my book is."

"Do you know where my book is?"

It's like an inversion, right, for embedded questions.

So there's no question mark,

'cause it's not really a question.

There are many kinds of embedded questions.

The most common ones are,

"I don't know where..."

"Do you know where..."

"I have no idea where..."

Okay, of course, you can use this with any question word.

Where, how, when, what?

Okay, how do you fix this?

I think the best thing you can do

is to practice transposing.

So take a question word, like where, and just make a list,

three or four questions.

Ask yourself the question, where is the shop?

Where is my book?

Where is the bank?

And then transpose asking someone,

"Do you know where the bank is?"

"Do you know where my book is?"

Okay, practice that transposing

and it'll get, it'll start to hard-wire your brain

to get it right.

Practice with different question words.

How, when, why, what, and so on.

Great, let's move on.

Now we've said that grammar is important,

it's important for communication and for IELTS, right?

But here's another very good question for you

is how can you study grammar in such a way

so that when you speak English, you use it correctly, right?

How can you automate your grammar?

And I think one way to do that

is to make the study and practice together into one thing.

And I invented a thing years ago called the fluency gym.

And the fluency gym

is like where you're developing your muscles,

your grammar muscles and your mouth muscles,

so that you are speaking cognitive and physical

at the same time.

You can check it out here.

There's a free video here that shows how it works.

And if you like it, go and practice more.

I've actually got a whole course based on this

called the Fluent Grammar course.

There's a link down below.

You can check it out and if you like it, go and do it,

and it'll really help you automate your grammar,

so you speak it out correctly.

Right now, let's find out some more mistakes

you might be making.

Right, here we are.

Let's see if you can spot mistake number six.

- People can do more to help environment.

It's not just government, that should take action.

- Okay, so this is what they said,

and this is what they should have said.

"People can do more to help the environment,

it's not just the government that should take action."

The problem here is that they need the article, the,

because we're talking about specific entities.

Environment is the environment,

because it's a specific thing.

Government, it's a specific government, the government.

So we must have the, okay?

I think it's important here,

what you need to do is to learn the common abstract ideas

that take the, for example, the environment, the economy,

the law, the truth, the ecosystem.

Also, institutions take the,

like, the army, the police, the media.

Notice, however we say, social media, not the, okay?

So it's really important to learn these, memorize them,

but also then try doing gap-fills.

Make yourself a gap-fill like you are the teacher.

So write out some sentences about these things.

"The environment is important and we must look after it."

"The economy is important because..."

And then delete the environment, the economy,

just put a line, mix all the sentences up,

go back and read them aloud, putting in the correct word.

And it just gets you thinking

and gets you saying the environment, the economy in context

whilst you're thinking.

And that is really gonna help you.

So practice that, not now, because right now

we're gonna go to the next mistake.

Okay, let's have a look at mistake number seven.

And for this one we're gonna visit France, maybe.

Let's have a look.

- If I will go to Paris,

I will definitely visit the Eiffel Tower.

- Right, well, the Eiffel Tower is beautiful.

Did you spot the mistake?

This is what they said,

and what it should be is,

"If I go to Paris,

I will definitely visit the Eiffel Tower."

Although it's a future possibility,

in English, the if clause takes the present

and then the next clause takes the future,

"I will definitely go," okay?

It's a first conditional

expressing this idea of future possibility.

It's often different structures in different languages.

But in English,

"If I go to Paris,

I will eat croissant," or whatever, okay?

The way to fix this is basically

think about five things that might happen tomorrow.

It might rain,

ooh, my friend might visit tomorrow, actually.

Make a list of five

and then make five conditional first conditional sentences

about a future possibility, right, if that happens.

So you'd be saying, "It might rain tomorrow."

"If it rains tomorrow, I will stay at home."

"My friend might visit, well, if my friend visits,

we will probably go out for a drink together."

And keep practicing this transposing,

speaking the answers out loud,

making it about your own life and experience.

And that's how you'll start to change the mistakes.

Great, let's move on.

Right, here's number eight.

Listen carefully, let's see.

- My teacher gave me an advice, but I didn't follow it.

I didn't think it was useful.

- Oh, I wonder what the advice was.

This is what they said.

Did you spot the mistake?

Ha, well, it should be, "My teacher gave me some advice,

but I didn't follow it.

I didn't think it was useful."

Advice is an uncountable noun.

You cannot count advice in English.

You can't say two advices, three advices,

it doesn't work, it's uncountable.

So we must say, "Some advice," okay?

Of course it's possible to say, "A piece of advice,"

and, "Two pieces of advice,"

but advice is one of those uncountable nouns in English.

The best thing to fix this is just be very clear

about the uncountable nouns that cause confusion.

And three that you should learn straight away

are advice, news, information.

You can't count them in English.

So it's some advice, some news, some information.

Great, do you know any other uncountable nouns

that often cause confusion?

Let me know in the comments below if you do.

For now, let's swiftly move on.

Okay, number nine is all about dates and places

and it's about me.

Can you see the mistake?

- I was born on 1967 at Manchester.

To be more precise, I was born on August in the 12th.

- It's all true, but there are some mistakes here.

Did you spot them?

This is what they said.

Right, what's the mistake?

Well, several mistakes.

So it should be, "I was born in 1967 in Manchester.

To be more precise, I was born in August on the 12th," okay?

These are common preposition mistakes that people make.

We use in for

years, months, and cities.

We use on for a specific date.

Imagine you are standing on the calendar, on the 6th,

on the 9th, you're standing on the date.

At we don't use for a city, right?

At is used for a specific point or location.

At the crossroads, at the hospital, at the bank,

at school, specific locations.

Okay, how do you fix this?

Well, it is really just practice.

A very simple thing you can do, right,

is go into AI search like Gemini, ChatGPT,

ask it to make a story with a gap-fill

using these rules,

using in, for years, months and cities,

on, for dates, at, for locations,

and ask it to make a story with gap-fills.

It'll print out a story and it'll give you the answers.

It doesn't print it out, it gives you the story,

but with the gaps.

So you say it out loud, filling in the gaps,

and then check your answers.

It's easy to do, it's fun and you creating it

actually puts you in control of your learning.

It's much more interesting than looking for one already made

or one that I've made for you.

Make your own DIY, do it yourself.

Let's go into number 10.

Okay, mistake number 10.

Now, have you ever made an excuse,

because you didn't want to go to work?

Hmm, right?

Let's see what happens in this example

and try and spot the grammatical mistake.

- I must to go and see the doctor tomorrow,

so I can't come to work.

- Sound familiar?

Hmm, did you spot the mistake?

This is what they said,

and what they should have said is,

"I must go and see the doctor tomorrow,

so I can't come to work," right?

So here, the mistake is that must is not followed by to.

In fact, no modal verb is followed by to,

they are always followed by the base verb.

Must go, should go, can't go, might go

always the same, right?

The only ones that have to

and they're not really modal verbs is ought to and need to,

but the others, no.

Now the way to remember this,

I think rather than remembering, memorizing a rule,

modal verbs don't take to, only followed by the base verb,

is to think and memorize a memorable example.

You can record yourself saying it with a funny voice,

make it enjoyable and memorable.

For example, "I'm so sorry, I must go," right?

"I must leave, I must go."

"I'm having a party, you should come."

"I'm sorry, I can't come,

I'm washing my hair," right?

So make the examples really memorable.

And I think memorizing examples

is much better than memorizing a rule

that you then have to translate into an example, right?

Okay, great.

I'm gonna go and wash my hair

before we finish the video.

So there you have it.

10 mistakes you might be making,

but hopefully you won't be making in the future.

Some ideas about how to fix the mistakes.

Summing up three things I think you should take away

from this video.

Number one, practice speaking phrases

rather than studying and reading.

Memorize examples rather than rules.

And thirdly, make your own tests.

Test yourself, but make your own.

Three great ideas I hope to help you fix the problem

of these grammatical mistakes.

If you've liked the video, give me a like.

If you've enjoyed it also, and learn something new,

subscribe and turn on notifications

to find out about new upcoming videos.

Let me know which mistake you often make

down in the comments below.

In the meantime, I'm off for a cup of tea.

See you maybe in the next video.

Take care my friend, all the best, bye-bye.

(upbeat music)