If you know these 10 English grammar rules, your English is amazing!

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

Do you think you're good at grammar?

We're going to find out today.

If you can answer these 10 grammar questions, each featuring a different

English grammar rule, your English is amazing.

And if you speak English as a first

language and you're watching this video thinking, 'I'll definitely get 10 out of

10', don't be so sure!

Some English learners might get a better

score than you.

Before we begin, I want to remind you

that as always, I've made a PDF to go with this video, and you can download it

for free.

I go into much more detail on the

explanation of each grammar point, and I've created some interactive activities

so that you can practise what you've learnt and memorise it for life.

If you would like to download the PDF, all you have to do is click the link in

the description box or follow this link here or scan that QR code—that's a new thing.

Then you enter your name and your email address, you sign up for my mailing list

and the PDF will arrive directly in your inbox.

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Okay, let's start with number one.

Which word is missing from this sentence?

'_ Molly to resign, who'd replace her?'

Have a little think, I'll give you five seconds.

The answer is 'were'.

'Were Molly to resign, who'd replace her?'

This is an inverted conditional.

In second conditional sentences, we can remove if and use the structure 'were' plus

subject plus 'to infinitive', and this makes the sentence more formal.

I really like the way inverted conditionals sound!

There are other ways to write this; I've included them in the PDF.

Okay, question two.

Where is the mistake in this sentence?

'Tim or myself will lead the meeting today.'

I'll give you five seconds.

The answer is 'myself'.

This is a very common mistake!

You will come across native speakers making this mistake.

My husband does it sometimes.

Can you imagine how embarrassing that is

for me?

I'm just kidding.

He could say 'would of' and 'could of' and I'd still love him.

The correct version would be—'Tim or I will lead the meeting today.'

Remember, we use reflexive pronouns like 'myself' as the object of a sentence when

the subject and the object refer to the same person or thing.

That's the key.

In our example sentence, we need a

subject pronoun—'I'. This is such a common mistake among English speakers that it

might even become correct in the future.

Let's look at question three.

Join these sentences together using the words 'not only' and 'but'.

Sentence one —'He didn't only wear mismatched socks.'

Sentence two—'He also forgot to brush his teeth.'

I'll give you five seconds.

The answer is—'Not only did he wear mismatched socks, but he also forgot to

brush his teeth.'

Did you get that?

That's an inversion with a negative adverbial.

We put the adverbial at the beginning and

switch the normal order of the subject and auxiliary verb.

Following 'not only' with  'but also' is very common.

More information on that in the PDF.

Here's question four.

Choose the correct verb to fill the gap.

'The crowd _ getting restless.'

Should it be 'is' or 'are'?

'The crowd is', 'the crowd are'.

I'll give you some thinking time.

The answer is both—in British English!

'Crowd' is a collective

noun, and collective nouns refer to a group of people or things as one.

In British English, we often treat collective nouns as singular or plural.

So, in our example sentence,  'is' and 'are' both work.

In American English, people generally

treat collective nouns as singular, so they would be more likely to use 'is' in

our sentence.

Okay, question five.

Choose 'lay' or 'lie' to complete the sentences.

Sentence one—

'Every evening, I like to _ in my hammock and look at the stars.'

Two—

'Please _ the dress on the bed.'

I'll give you five seconds.

The answers—

'Every evening, I like to lie in the hammock and look at the stars.'

'Please lay the dress on the bed.'

Did you get that one?

'Lay' and 'lie' are tricky for everyone, including me.

I have to think about it sometimes.

'Lay' means to put something in a flat

position, often gently.

It should be followed by an object, which,

in our example sentence, was 'the dress'.

'Lie' means to be in or get yourself into a

flat position.

It doesn't need an object.

Okay, we're halfway through the lesson.

How many of the questions have you got

right so far?

Is anyone sporting a five out of five?

Let's see what happens with question six.

How would you complete this sentence?

'It was _ historic day for the country.'

Is it 'a' or 'an'?

Okay, the answer, and some people are going to have something to say about this.

Both are fine.

Let me explain!

You've probably been taught the rule to use 'a' before consonant sounds and 'an'

before vowel sounds.

'Historic' starts with the consonant sound

'h', and yes, people usually say 'a historic', but quite a lot of people say

'an historic'.

You can choose which is easier for you to

say based on your own pronunciation, particularly if you have an accent that

tends to drop the 'h', 'an historic'.

Certain accents do drop the 'h' at the

beginning of words; then it would make a lot of sense to say 'an historic'.

In writing, I would go for 'a historic'.

Okay, let's look at question seven.

Which sentence is correct?

The first—'To whom does this jacket belong?'

Or the second—'Who does this jacket belong to?'

I'll give you five seconds.

Both are fine—again.

Sorry, I'm really playing with you here.

Technically, the first sentence is more correct.

When we have a preposition like 'to', we should use 'whom' in a relative clause, and

these words should go at the beginning of the clause, but this is very formal and

you won't hear it used very often in modern spoken English, or written English really.

It's much more common to say—'Who does this jacket belong to?'

All right, question eight.

Which word can you add to show that this

is a habit?

'Our neighbour _ play heavy metal all night long.'

This is a toughie.

Have five seconds.

The answer is 'will'.

'Our neighbour will play heavy metal all

night long.'

Yeah, 'will' doesn't just refer to the future.

We can use it to talk about habits, either a general habit, or if you

emphasise 'will', it can be an annoying habit.

'Our neighbour will play heavy metal all

night long.'

Okay, question nine.

Which sentence is correct?

Number one—'It took me a long time to get

the flu over.'

Or number two—'It took me a long time to get over the flu.'

Have your seconds.

The second sentence 'to get over' in the

sense of to recover from an illness is a non-separable phrasal verb, meaning you

can't put the object, 'the flu', between the verb and the particle, so you get

over something.

Okay, we're on to number 10, our final question.

Which of these sentences is punctuated correctly?

Look at the final comma.

Number one—'At the fair, I ate a toffee apple, brandy snap and candy floss.'

Or number two—'At the fair, I ate a toffee apple, brandy snap,

and candy floss.'

Have five seconds.

The answer is both.

Yep, both answers are correct again.

The comma after brandy snap is one of the most controversial punctuation marks in

English—the drama.

It's called the Oxford comma.

In American English, people often use a comma before the final 'and' in a list.

In British English, at least between short items, people usually don't.

You can choose whether you use the Oxford comma or not, just be consistent with it.

Okay, so how many of those grammar rules did you know?

Let me know your score out of 10 in the  

comments.  

If you answered all of those questions

correctly, well done, your English is truly amazing!

Don't forget that we go into loads more detail in the free PDF that goes with

this video.

You also get some interactive activities,

and if you're really interested in mastering the advanced level of English,

I really think you might like my Beautiful British English C1 Programme.

We go into so much depth in this programme.

We focus on the nuances and intricacies

of English to train you to speak beautifully, fluently.

It's a fantastic programme.

It features pronunciation lessons,

conversation lessons.

The listening and reading is delivered to

you in an interactive story.

You get access to our private course community.

You can contact my expert team of teachers.

Look at the amazing experiences that some

of my C1 programme graduates have had.

I'm incredibly proud of them.

They've done very well.

If you are interested in learning more,

visit englishwithlucy.com.

I will see you soon for another lesson.

Muah!