Fix Your English Grammar Mistakes: Talking about People

Hello. My name is Emma, and in today's video,

I am going to teach you about some mistakes a lot of students make.

So, I've been teaching English for about five years now, and the

mistakes I'm going to teach you today, I've seen students make many times in both their

speaking, as well as their writing. Okay? So these mistakes are mistakes students make

when they're talking about people.

So, I'm going to give you some examples of some of these mistakes.

The first one I want to show you: "Some Canadian people hate winter."

It's true, I'm one of those people; I hate winter.

So, "Some Canadian people hate winter." There's a mistake, here.

I want you to take a moment to look, and think: What could the mistake be?

"Some Canadian people hate winter."

I'll give you a hint: The mistake is somewhere here. If you thought

"people" is the mistake, you're correct. "Canadian people", it's redundant. We don't need the

word "people", because "Canadian"... If we add an "s" here, this means "Canadian people".

Okay? So, instead of saying "Canadian people", we would say "Canadians".

"Some Canadians hate winter."

It's the same if we wanted to talk about Americans. We would not say:

"Some American people hate winter." We would prefer to say: "Some Americans"

-with an "s"-"hate winter".

So, let's look at another example. "Many Brazilian people are learning English." So, there's

a mistake, here. What's the mistake? "Many Brazilian people are learning English." If

you said the mistake was "people", you're correct. When we're talking about nationalities,

we do not use the word "people". So, what can we do to fix this?

We can get rid of the word "people", and what can we do to the word "Brazilian", because there's more than one?

We can add an "s". So, now it's: "Many Brazilians are learning English." Okay?

So, I'm going to give you another example, this time not on the board, but I'm just going

to say it. "Many Asian people like spicy food.", "Many Asian people like spicy food." Now,

how would you fix this sentence? If you said:

"Many Asians like spicy food." you'd be correct.

So, when we talk about nationalities, we do not need this word; this word is a waste of

space. We just need the nationality with an "s".

So, I have another common mistake students make over here: "Muslim people". So, Muslim

is a religion. Okay? "Muslim people fast"-"fast" means they don't eat-"during Ramadan".

"Muslim people fast during Ramadan." It means Muslim people do not eat during their holy month,

their religious month of Ramadan. So, there's a mistake, here.

What do you think the mistake is?

If you said, just like this, "people" is the mistake - you're correct. When we talk

about religion and we're talking about Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus - you don't need

the word "people". We could just change this to: "Muslims". So, "Muslim" here means a whole...

All Muslims, it's like Muslim people, but we don't need the word "people".

Here's another example: "Christian people celebrate Easter.",

"Christian people celebrate Easter." How can we fix this sentence?

We can get rid of the word "people", and just

add an "s". We can do the same thing for Hindus. "Hindus are often vegetarian", we could say.

"Many Jews live in Israel.", "Many Buddhists live in Asia." Okay? So, instead of saying:

"Jewish people", "Hindu people", it's easier just to say "Hindu" with an "s" or "Jews"

with an "s". All right, so let's look at some other common mistakes students make.

Okay, so another mistake I often see students make in their writing especially, and also

sometimes in their speaking is with "most", "some", and "a lot" when they're using these

words with "people". Okay? So, the first example: "Most of people have cell phones these days."

I see students use: "Most of people" a lot in their essays. So, what's the mistake, here?

I'll give you a minute to think about it. "Most of people".

The problem here is "of".

Okay? We don't need "of"; "of" is incorrect here. We would just say: "Most people".

"Most people have cell phones these days." Okay? "Most people love Chinese food.",

"Most people like to play sports." You don't need "of". If you had: "Most of the people", that would

be okay, but you need "the" here, although that's not as common. You know, that actually

gets a little bit more into complicated grammar, so the easy rule... Okay? The easy rule is

just don't use "of": "Most people". Okay?

What about the next one? "Some of people enjoy watching movies.",

"Some of people like going shopping." What's the mistake, here?

If you said "of" is the mistake, again, you're right.

It's just like: "Most of". We don't say: "Some of", we say "Some people".

"Some people stay up really late.", "Some people enjoy learning English."

Okay? So, a lot of people enjoy

learning English, I guess. Okay, so, again, "of" is the problem.

Now, here's where it gets a little bit strange. So, we have the rule "Most people", "Some people".

Can we say: "A lot people"? "A lot people study English"?

No, that would be incorrect.

With the word "a lot", you do need the word "of". Okay? So that's why it's a little bit

challenging, because for "most", we don't need it; for "some", we don't need it; but

for "a lot", we do need it. "A lot of people study English.",

"A lot of people like listening to music." Okay?

So, when you're writing, be very careful with this. I want you to always

look at your writing, double check it, and make sure you don't have "of" after "most"

or "some", and you do have "of" after "a lot". Okay?

So, let's look at another common mistake I see.

Okay, so another common mistake I see students make is with the words:

"Every people", "everybody", "everyone", "all people", "all person".

Okay? These are a lot of common mistakes I hear. So, let's look at some of them

so you can see what I'm talking about.

The first sentence:

"Every people should get an education." Is this sentence okay?

"Every people should get an education."

If you think it's not okay, and of course if it's on this board it probably

is a mistake, why do you think it's a mistake?

The issue here is with the words "every" and "people".

These words don't go together. Okay? What we could say instead of "every people",

we can use the words "everybody" or we can also use the words "everyone". So we can say...

Write this a bit better. "Everyone". Or: "Every person", okay? So, "every" should go with

a singular, like: "everybody", "everyone", "Every person should get an education.", but

we don't usually say "every people". Okay?

Another example of a mistake: "All person need water to survive."

So, take a moment and think about: What do you think the mistake here is?

"All person need water to survive."

Okay, this is the opposite mistake of this. When we have the word "all" and we're talking

about people, we usually don't use the word "person", we use the word "people". Okay?

So, you can imagine this, like... A couple. Okay? "Every" is the boyfriend, "body" is

the girlfriend. Okay? Or "everyone", okay? These two go together. Similarly, down here,

"all person" never go together. We have "all" as one, "people". So it's just memorizing

which words go with which words. "All people need water to survive.",

"All people need to breathe." Okay?

"All people should have their rights respected."

Okay? So, just some examples.

Okay, here's another example of a mistake a lot of students make: "People likes my cooking."

Okay? So, what's the mistake here?

Well, one mistake is nobody likes my cooking-okay?-so

that's the first one. People don't like my cooking. But the real... The grammar mistake

is with the verb, "likes". A lot of students, when they see people, they think, you know,

people... It's many, so they like to add an "s" here. It shouldn't be that way. It should

actually just be: "People like". Okay? So it's kind of like: "They like", "People like",

so imagine "People" as "They". The subject-verb agreement should be without an "s".

"People need to eat.", "People like shopping.", "People play sports."

So, if you use... If you use the word "people", there's no "s" on the verb.

Okay, and then the final mistake I see a lot: "Everybody like my cooking."

What's the mistake here?

Okay, so it's similar to what the mistake is here: "Everybody", in this case, we need

an "s" because of subject-verb agreement.

"Everybody likes my cooking." Okay?

So, "Everybody", you always need an "s" on the verb if you're talking, like, in the present;

whereas for "people", there is no "s".

So, be very, very careful with these different mistakes. Again, you know, it's really important

to think about which words "every" goes with, which ones "all" go with, that "people" never

has an "s", and that "everybody" does have an "s". Okay? So, check your own writing.

I really encourage that, if you're writing essays, if you're writing some sort of...

Something for your teacher. It's always good to take a minute and look for these specific

mistakes, because many, many students make these mistakes, so just take a moment to check

your work, and make sure you're not making these mistakes.

I hope you've enjoyed this video. I also hope you come visit our website at www.engvid.com.

There, you can see a lot more videos on all sorts of things,

from vocabulary, to grammar, to pronunciation.

I also hope you subscribe to my channel.

And until next time, take care.