AVOID These Speaking Mistakes in English!

- Hello, lovely students and welcome back to English with Lucy.

Today I have a speaking lesson for you and it's intended to boost your confidence by

making you aware of some of the most common speaking mistakes and how to avoid them.

Now, I have been teaching English for many years so I have encountered nearly, I would

say, nearly every mistake that an English learner can make and this lesson is going

to cover five of them, five of the most common mistakes that I have heard since becoming

an English teacher.

We are going to examine what they are, why they happen, and I will teach you how to not

make the same mistakes in the future.

Helpfully, I have also created a free PDF that you can download to read all of the lesson

notes from today.

We also expand on the topic and you can complete the quiz to check your understanding.

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Right, let's talk about our first mistake.

This mistake actually is so close to my heart.

It featured in my first ever video on YouTube when I was 21 in 2016, all those years ago.

Wow, that really does make me feel old.

I like that feeling though.

It's a privilege to grow old.

For make versus do, I'm going to give you some theory behind it but students learn in

different ways.

If you're a really visual learner, it might help you to have a mind map like this showing

you exactly when to use each.

If that's you, I have put that mind map in the PDF so you can download that.

If you like to know the theory, this is for you.

Let's take a look at these sentences.

I do my homework or I make my homework.

She does the bed or she makes the bed.

It's not always easy to know which verb to use, especially as in some languages, the

verb is the same like in Spanish.

Let's start by looking at the definitions of each.

To make is to create or prepare something or to cause something to happen.

Betty will make a spreadsheet for the meeting or I am making pancakes for breakfast.

To do is to work at or to perform an action.

She did it yesterday.

They can't do anything right.

By looking at the definitions, we can see that they have different functions so where

does the confusion lie?

Well, the first point we need to establish is that make often focuses on the outcome

of an action or its product while do focuses on the action itself.

For example, Juan Carlos and I'm sure anyone who speaks Spanish died inside when I pronounced

Juan Carlos in a British accent.

Juan Carlos made a cake for Geri's birthday.

And in this example, we care less about the actual action.

What we care about is the cake.

Do, on the other hand, focuses on an action and sometimes replaces an action in a sentence,

which is where a lot of the confusion between these two verbs arises.

We did our taxes.

The focus here is on the action of filing taxes.

The outcome isn't important or known.

Maybe we owe the government money, maybe they owe us money.

We don't know, all we know is that the action of figuring out the taxes has been completed.

In conversation you might hear, "Vlad painted his room."

"I thought he did that last year."

Do you remember I mentioned about replacing an action?

Here, do is replacing the action of painting.

Instead of restating the verb phrase, painting his room we can replace the action with do

because the action is already understood in the context of the conversation and once again,

the focus is on the action, not the outcome.

Understanding this difference will really help you to make the right decision about

which verb to use, but English is English.

It isn't always like that.

Note that this is a guide.

There are always exceptions, so we've put some of those exceptions in the PDF too.

Okay, onto number two, our next pair of verbs that are commonly confused and often incorrectly

interchanged, have and get.

Now while it's true that these two verbs can sometimes be used interchangeably, they have

different meanings so let's look at how we use them correctly.

Have is a verb that indicates possession or ownership of something.

For example, I have a pen, which means that I, the speaker, currently possess a pen.

I am the owner.

Go me.

Get, though, has a variety of meanings and that's actually an understatement.

Get has so many meanings.

I have a video, an entire video on the word get.

It's a very old one.

You're going to laugh.

My eyebrows are very thin in this video but you can click on the link in the description

and go and have a laugh at my expense.

As an overview, get can mean to acquire or obtain something like I'm going to get a coffee.

I'm going to acquire a coffee.

It can also mean to become or to receive something.

She's getting bored or I got a parcel in the mail.

Sometimes get can be used to indicate possession or ownership, but it implies a more active

process than have.

Get refers to the process of acquiring or obtaining an object or possession.

For example, my mom got a new car on Saturday.

In this sentence, get implies that my mom actively worked to obtain her new car.

In this sentence, get refers to the process of acquiring the car.

She had to buy it, she had to pay for it.

Maybe she had to bargain for a good price after weeks of searching.

Whereas if we look at, my mom has a new car, this just states a fact about my mom possessing

a new car.

Despite the fact that both verbs can refer to possession, it's important to remember

that have implies an already established ownership.

Get implies that process of obtaining a possession.

Let's move on to number three.

Much, many, and a lot.

These are the three most common ways to discuss quantities and amounts.

Much, many, a lot.

These three are always getting confused.

I even hear native and very advanced speakers mix up their uses so let's have a look at

how to use them correctly.

Many is used to talk about a large number of countable objects.

Countable is the key word here.

Countable nouns can be counted as single units and have both plural and singular forms like

bottles, dogs, phones, et cetera.

Let's look at some examples.

There are many people at this meeting.

One person, two people, countable.

I didn't see many options at the shops.

Keep in mind that we also use many in questions like how many days until Christmas or how

many questions are on the exam.

Much has several uses but the most important thing to remember is that much is used to

talk about quantities of uncountable nouns, those that can't be counted in individual

units.

Think about sand.

I can't have one sand, two sands, I have to say a grain of sand.

Milk, I can't really say one milk, two milks, I have to say a glass of milk.

If you hear someone say, I want two milks or I want two waters, they are implying a

glass.

Two glasses of milk, two glasses of water.

That's why you might hear that sometimes.

An example, there isn't much sand on this beach.

How much snow fell this Christmas?

You might also hear much used in formal positive statements like, there was much confusion

about the new train schedule.

We can also use it as an adverb to mean a large amount.

They don't work much these days.

They don't work a large amount these days.

We can also use it as a pronoun to replace a noun phrase.

We don't have a lot of work to do.

We can replace a lot of work with much.

We don't have much to do.

We can also use much when asking about the quantity or the price of something, how much

does this cost?

How much time is left?

And we can also use it in negative sentences.

She isn't much older than me.

That doesn't concern me much.

Let's move on to a lot.

We use a lot in more informal conversations to talk about a large quantity or number of

both countable and uncountable nouns.

It's used in positive and negative statements as well as questions.

There are a lot of leaves in the garden.

You didn't make a lot of pudding.

Was there a lot of traffic?

A lot can also be used as an adverb to mean to a great extent.

He works a lot.

They travel a lot.

You can also use the more informal shortened version of a lot, lots.

There are lots of kids on this plane or, we have lots more to study so let's move on to

our next section.

Okay, this one's tough, fewer versus less.

And I'm going to hold my hands up here as a native speaker, which really, native, just

being a native speaker doesn't give you an English qualification but I make mistakes

with fewer versus less.

I don't mean to, it just comes out of my mouth that way.

I had a chat with my team of teachers and they all admitted to it too, so if you make

mistakes with fewer and less, don't stress out and if you don't make mistakes, you can

feel really good.

You're better than a native speaker.

We use fewer to talk about small amounts or quantities of countable nouns.

They have fewer employees after the pandemic or there are fewer tourists here this year.

We use less to talk about small numbers of uncountable nouns.

Can you put less sugar in my tea next time?

Or, we do less work now than before.

Now there is an exception to using less.

We often use less with countable nouns when we use the phrase less than.

This is often used with a numerical value like money, distance, time, and weight.

We have less than five tickets left or she spent less than 50 pounds on her shoes.

The basic rule of thumb for how to use fewer or less is to think about the object you're

describing.

Is it countable or uncountable?

Countable, fewer, uncountable, less.

Unless you're trying to pass an exam and be super accurate, it doesn't really matter that

much.

Now, our final mistake of the day, a and an.

Or often pronounced as uh and un.

These small seemingly insignificant words play a huge role in English, so using them

correctly is pretty important.

A and an are indefinite articles that refer to any member of a group.

A book, any book out of all books, an envelope, any envelope out of all envelopes.

They don't refer to specific objects or nouns like our definite article, the.

If you want to learn about the, I made a video a few weeks back and I'll put the link down

there as well.

I know lots of you really enjoyed it.

We only use a and an with countable nouns.

We saw an eagle yesterday.

We are referring to a single non-specific eagle.

There may have been many eagles.

She got a new job.

We're referring to a single non-specific job.

Now, figuring out when to use a and an isn't rocket science, but it does take practise.

As with most of this list, you will hear native speakers make mistakes, often because they've

started speaking before they think about what they're going to say next.

We use a when a singular noun begins with a consonant sound, a tablet, a plate, a ceiling

fan, a union.

Why does that start with a vowel?

It starts with a consonant sound.

It's spelt with a vowel but it starts with a consonant sound, union.

University.

We also use it when an acronym or an initialism starts with a consonant sound, a DQA, a Department

of Quality Assurance.

An HR representative.

Yes, H is a consonant but we say H with an A vowel sound, an HR representative.

Now, I think that some confusion arises from the fact that we often use adjectives before

nouns.

To determine whether we use a or an will depend on the beginning sound of the adjective being

used.

A pretty ice sculpture, not an pretty ice sculpture.

We marry the article and the adjective there because the adjective comes first.

A pretty ice sculpture, an exciting film.

Okay, that's it for today's lesson.

I hope you enjoyed it.

I hope you learnt something.

Now, it's time to download the free PDF if you haven't already, because there is a quiz.

I'm going to test you on everything you've learned so you can make sure you've got it

in your head.

Also, don't forget about that free $10 lesson credit and free trial lesson on LanguaTalk.

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You can click on phonemes and hear how I say those phonemes and hear words containing those

phonemes.

It's really fun.

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I'll let you do that.

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I will see you soon for another lesson.