The 10 Most Frequent Preposition Mistakes in English

Hey, Jim, yeah

So what what do you want?

Okay, well that depends

What does it depend on well, it depends on the amount of people

Okay. Yeah. No, that sounds good. Okay. Yeah. I'll see you there. Thanks. Bye. Oh

Oh, hey everyone, I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking and

Welcome to this video on the 10 most frequent

English preposition mistakes now, it's possible. You don't make these mistakes, which is great

But there is a decent chance if you are a beginner English learner or an intermediate English learner

That maybe you have made some of these mistakes or maybe you are not aware that these are mistakes

Today, I want to show you the correct forms

Include which include the prepositions that we are going to discuss now

Everyone makes mistakes and they're a perfectly fine part of learning. They're an essential part of learning. They're

Going to happen whether you like it or not. It happens to everyone who is learning a language

The reason we make these types of mistakes is because of l1

Interference when I say l1, I mean first language

So it's perfectly normal when you're learning a second language to try to transfer the grammar from your language

To the new language that you're learning, but it doesn't always work

And today I'm going to look at some of the cases where this doesn't always work

And to give you the correct forms, so let's start with the first five of ten. So the first one is

Listen to so listen is a prepositional verb

This means if you want to add something after listen like you want to mention

What you listen to you have to say - so for example

I listen to a lot of podcasts if you see someone listening to music you can ask them

Oh, what are you listening to?

the common mistake here is that some people omit the - and they just say I'm

Listening music or I listen a lot of podcasts

So just remember when you use the verb listen and you want to mention

What is it that you are listening to you need to say?

listen to

next depend on

So here it depends on the situation

the common mistake here is made by usually French speakers or Spanish speakers is

you know you guys say depends of say the pond -

I'll say and in English you have to get that switch in your mind and change it and say no

No, no not depends of it depends on

Depends on depends on so it depends on the situation. It depends on the person

It depends on the city. It depends on the cost for example

Another common error. This is a bonus error. By the way a bonus mistake is

Some people say it's depend

So if I ask you, you know, hey, do you want to come to the party and you say well, it's depend

It's like no. No, so you need to say it

Depends so you have the verb depends in that case. It depends so depends on what depends on the situation

etc

Alright next two plus the verb. So these are called infinitives of purpose

You can check out my video on infinitives of purpose for more information on this specific mistake

So for example, I'm here to help you

The mistake some people make when they're learning English here is I'm here for help you or for example

Why are you studying English? I'm studying English

Forgets a better job if you ask the question. Why why are you doing something?

And you want to add a verb after it use two plus the verb

So I'm here to help you. I'm studying English to get a better job

So just to go back and go with the question why again, I'm here

Why why are you here? I'm here to help you. Oh cool

I'm studying English. Why for what purpose? I'm studying English to get a better job. For example

Next married to so you are married to your husband or married to your wife

so he's married to Diana if you are talking about a friend or you know,

Someone's marital status and who they are together with who they married when they were younger

or older, you know people get married at different ages and

The common mistake here is some people say I'm married with

It's actually married to so you're married to someone

Okay, next four plus durations of time

So we waited for three hours

If you mention a specific period like three days one week two years

Use four for five days for three hours for ten minutes

The mistake here is some people use the word during they say during three hours, you know

Or we waited during three hours

You use during when you want to mention like the period of the event

So for example, I called my mom during the baseball game like while the baseball game was happening

For example, okay

Hey, who did you call during the?

Conference like I saw you on your phone

Who were you talking to during the conference during the period that this event was happening?

But if you mention a duration of time

Again with numbers one two, three, four five six seven days years months minutes seconds

You need to use four. So next we have possessive apostrophes of verses of

Possessives so the sentence on the board. I'm going to my sister's wedding next week

At the time of recording. This is actually true. I am going to my sister's wedding next week

So if you mention a person and you want to use a possessive

Like my sister's wedding my friend's birthday

my dad's

Event

My dad my mom and dad's anniversary, for example

You need to use the possessive apostrophe. The common mistake here is a lot of people say

I'm going to the wedding of my sister. Now. There is nothing wrong with this grammatically. It makes perfect sense

You know English speakers will understand exactly what you mean

But it's much more common to just use the possessive apostrophe in these cases

You can use the of possessive when you're talking about like physical objects

for example

like the color of the wall or the color of this whiteboard or the size of the

Mountain or something like this. You can say the mountains size

Or the size of the mountain both of them are okay

But when you mention people, you know, like my sister my dad

Diana and you want to do a possessive. It's much more common to use the apostrophe s

Okay, good at are you good at badminton?

So when you talk about your skill level at something you want to say good at

Now you can use other adjectives here. Of course the quality of your skill you can say I am amazing at

Or oh, I'm terrible at this. So I am NOT very good at

Cooking for example, I'm okay. I'm okay. I can I can cook scrambled eggs and toast and

Other things like real real food, too

Okay, but yes the mistake here that is sometimes made is good in now good in

Exists in English, but we usually talk about it when we refer to

Like actors or actresses and their performance in a particular movie or a particular show

So if I say oh, yeah, you know

He was really good in that show or she was really good in that movie

So she was good in that movie or he was good in that show

But if you're talking about your skill in a particular activity

You would say at so are you good at badminton?

What is something you are good at and what is something you are bad at?

It's good to be honest with ourselves

Next go home. So the most common mistake here is go to home

Home is an adverb. It's a concept an idea

It does refer to you know, the physical place of your house or your apartment

But it encompasses all of those things home can mean an apartment

Home can mean a house home can mean a condominium home can mean many things

So it's like an adverb think of like here or there

So she went home an hour ago. She went to her house

That is also correct. She went to her house

But if you just say home just say go home. She went home an hour ago

Next enter plus a place. So this is the opposite of the listen to

Where some people who are learning English say we entered to the room or we entered to the building

Or he entered to the chat

So you just say enter plus the place so they entered the room

So you just say enter

Plus the place. Alright, so if you have an understanding of means, you know

It's like X enters the chat or Y entered the chat

So you enter a chat or you enter a room or a physical place?

number ten

Been to so I've never been to Seattle if you talk about your travel

Experiences and your past experience with places you have been to

And you need to say been to the common mistake here is been in now been in makes sense

because you are in a city in a place in a country, but

been to refers to the act of going from here to there and

Returning so you go to a place and I know it's not the verb go in this case

But think of it as like go to right so you wouldn't say I've I've gone in Montreal

For example or Seattle and this is actually true. I've I've never been to Seattle

Okay, so if you talk about your travel experience just remember been to where have you been to?

All right, if you enjoyed the material in this video

There's actually a longer blog post that gives you more examples explanations

There are also some gifts. So if you like gifts or gifs, how do you pronounce it?

I pronounce it gifts the guy who invented them called them gifs

But I think he was wrong because it starts with a hard G, right?

Anyway, you can check that out and review everything you've seen on the board here

Check it out on my website English Alex calm and after you do that also

Do the quiz to test your understanding of everything on?

engVid calm

What website is that?

EngVid calm that's right. Alright, so thanks a lot for watching this video. Good luck with your studies

Fix these mistakes. You can do this. I believe in you and I'll see you next time. Bye