Learn English with Mario

It's-a me, Emma.

Here we go.

Today, I am going to answer an important question.

Does Mario speak English well?

So Mario is a character in a popular video game.

He's been in many video games, for example, Super Mario Brothers.

He has a brother named Luigi, and when I was a kid, I loved to play Mario video games.

Mario is not a native speaker of English.

English is his second language, so I thought today would be a good day to learn from Mario

and to analyze Mario's English.

So, the first question, does Mario speak English well?

Well, that's a good question.

My answer as an English teacher is, in some ways, yes, but in other ways, no.

So today, we're going to look at Mario's mistakes in different expressions he uses frequently,

and we're also going to talk about what Mario does very well.

Now, I use the word "Mario"; I have a Canadian accent.

If you're in the US or in England or Australia or another country, there might be a little

bit of a difference in the way you pronounce the name Mario.

So the plan for today is we are going to learn from Mario, we'll look at his mistakes and

what he does well, but first, let's talk about who Mario is.

So, Mario has a special job; he is a plumber.

A plumber is a person who fixes water pipes.

They might do other things, but that's one of the main functions of a plumber; they fix

pipes.

One interesting thing to notice is the word "plumber" has a "b", but we do not pronounce

the "b".

So it's like it doesn't exist; we say "plumber", but in the spelling, there's a "b".

So that's his job.

Mario is also a hero; he fights the bad guys and he saves the princess, Princess Peach.

So that's something else Mario does, but what I'm most interested in is that Mario is an

English language learner, and he's done quite well for himself.

So let's look at Mario's English.

All right, the first expression of Mario, he says, "It's-a me, Mario!"

So what do I like about this sentence?

What's good about it?

Well, I love that Mario uses a contraction.

So in this case, the contraction is "it's".

A contraction is when we take two words and combine them into one word with an apostrophe.

So for example, "it's", "he's", "she's", "we've", "I'd", "I'll", these are all contractions.

So, Mario took "it is", put an apostrophe there, and changed it to "it's".

"It's-a me, Mario!"

So "it's" is great because it's very common in conversational English, and we try to teach

our students or English language learners to use contractions in conversation because

it's very common and very important to do.

So I like that about Mario.

I like he uses contractions; that's good.

What don't I like?

Well, from an English teaching perspective, I don't like the fact he uses "a" here.

"It's-a".

"It's-a me."

So that's a problem.

So what I would tell Mario is, "Mario, get rid of the 'a' and just say, 'It's me, Mario.

It's me, Mario.'"

So as an English teacher, that's what I would recommend he do.

All right, let's look at the next sentence Mario says.

Mario says, "I'm-a gonna win.

I'm-a gonna win."

So what's good about this sentence?

Well, first off, he has a contraction.

Just like what I mentioned here, he has the contraction "I'm".

So "I'm" is a contraction; it means "I am".

When we put those together and add an apostrophe, we're saying "I'm".

That's great.

Mario also uses a reduction.

So a reduction is when English speakers speak quickly, sometimes they change words.

So for example, instead of saying "going to", you know, sometimes we're a little bit more

lazy and we'll say "gonna".

So "gonna" means "going to", and it's more natural speech in conversation.

Mario does a good job with this.

Mario says, "I'm-a gonna win."

So I like that he says "gonna", and again, that means "going to".

I also like that Mario correctly used the base form of the verb "win".

So instead of saying "I'm gonna winning" or "I'm gonna to win", I like that he just had

"win" here.

That was good.

"I'm going to win" or "I'm gonna win".

So good job with that, Mario.

What are his mistakes?

Well, again, it's that "a" sound.

"I'm-a gonna win."

So I would tell Mario, "Get rid of this extra sound.

Just say 'I'm going to win'."

"I'm gonna win."

Okay.

So, the next thing I like that Mario says is he often says the word "ouch", "ouch".

What does this word mean?

Well, we say "ouch" when we get hurt.

"Ouch, that hurt."

Or "ouch".

So I'm happy Mario uses this word.

It's good vocabulary.

It's very common for native English speakers to use.

So there's nothing wrong with that.

Good job, Mario.

"Ouch" is a great word.

Let's look at some other expressions of Mario.

Our next Mario expression is "Here we go!"

That wasn't a good impression.

Let me try again.

"Here we go!"

Okay, maybe a little better.

So this is something Mario says when his car is about to start or when he's starting to

move.

So there are no mistakes with this expression.

This is a very good expression, and it's appropriate.

It sounds natural.

We use it, like Mario does, when something is starting to move.

For example, a rollercoaster, okay?

So imagine you're starting to go up a rollercoaster, you might say, "Here we go!"

So it's something you might say when the car or the bicycle or whatever vehicle you're

in starts to move.

I also like that this sentence has good subject-verb agreement.

So what do I mean by that?

Well, a mistake someone might make is they might say, "Here we goes."

They might add an "s" or an "es" to "go", but that would be a mistake.

Mario's correct.

We and "go" are in agreement.

The subject, which is "we", and the verb, "go", they match.

So good job, Mario.

All right, another expression Mario says is, "Let's-a-go!", "Let's-a-go!"

So what's wrong with this sentence?

Well, let's start with what's good.

What's good?

Well, Mario uses a contraction.

Yes, another contraction.

What's the contraction in this expression?

Well, if you look here, there's an apostrophe and an "s", so this actually is two words

that have been put into one.

"Let's" is the contraction for "let us".

And I like that Mario says, "Let's-go!", very, very common English expression.

I say that probably 100 times a day.

We use it all the time.

I also want to say that it's important to say "let's-go" instead of "let us-go".

If you say "let us-go", it sounds like somebody is a prisoner, or they are captured, they

are being kept as a prisoner, and they're saying, "Let us-go!"

So that's not what Mario means.

If we're talking about going, so for example, you know, it's time to go, we should say "let's-go".

So Mario gets this correct, that's great.

I should have written that there was a problem here, I forgot to write here, but what's bad

about this example?

"Let's-a-go!"

The issue is this "a", "a", Mario, come on, let's get rid of that "a".

Mario loves the "a", I'm-a gonna win, let's-a-go.

We need to get rid of that "a", Mario.

"Let's-go."

All right, well, here's a great example where he didn't have the "a" sound.

Mario says, "Way-to-go, way-to-go."

So this is actually, again, a great expression.

There's no problems with this, good job, Mario.

"Way-to-go, Mario."

"Way-to-go" means well done, good job.

Yes, we say it when we want to show encouragement to someone, and we congratulate them on doing

a good job.

So "way-to-go" is a very common English expression.

So I'm happy Mario used that expression.

All right, quick quiz for you.

What's the middle word here?

"Way-go"?

What goes in the middle?

Do you remember?

The answer is "to", "way-to-go", "way-to-go", and it sounds a bit different when we say

it, "way-to-go".

Okay, so our next Mario expression, or it's not an expression, actually, it's what he

says at the end of one of his video games.

Mario says, "Thank you so much for playing my game."

So that's great.

I'm actually really happy with this sentence Mario created.

I'd be very happy if a student or a learner said this sentence.

"Why am I so happy?"

Well, Mario did something really difficult here.

You'll notice that he has the word "for", and then a verb, "following".

The verb that follows ends in -ing.

Many learners of English make mistakes with this.

They don't know how - what the verb should look like, should it have an -ing, should

it be "to" verb, maybe they might even say, "Thank you so much for playing my game."

So Mario is correct with what he does.

He follows the rule, which is when you have the word "for", which is a preposition, "to"

is another example of a preposition, "after", "up", "down", these are all examples of prepositions.

So after a preposition, in general, the verb ends in -ing.

So "Thank you for", you know, "Thank you for watching."

I could say, "Thank you for subscribing."

So after the preposition "for", we have a verb with -ing.

"Thanks for watch-" I'm going to correct this, add -ing, and it's because of this word "for".

So that's a very simple grammar lesson, but many learners make mistakes with this.

I'm really happy Mario did not make a mistake; he's doing pretty well, actually, with his

English.

All right, let's look at the next example.

We did it.

Okay.

Is there anything wrong with this sentence?

No, Mario actually did well here.

He's using the past tense, so the past tense of "do" is "did".

We did it.

It's a simple sentence, but it's correct.

And we actually use sentences like these when we are happy we did something well, especially

if something was difficult.

So, imagine you took an English test on the present perfect or something that's difficult,

and you do well on your test.

You might say, "Ah-ha, I did it!" or "We did it!"

Mario is actually really good at encouraging people.

It's a good job, Mario.

All right, another expression Mario uses is a really funny expression.

Mario says, "Okie-dokie!"

"Okie-dokie" means "okay", so if somebody says, you know, "Can you help me with this?"

instead of saying "Okay", Mario might say, "Okie-dokie!"

It's such a funny expression, but it exists.

You can actually say "Okie-dokie" in English.

Some of my friends say "Okie-dokie", but before you start using this expression, many people

do not think it's a cool expression.

So if you say "Okie-dokie", many people might think it's not cool.

It's like an old way of speaking.

Other people might like it, but be careful if you use "Okie-dokie" because it might not

be cool.

All right, now we're going to look at the longest sentence Mario has said in his video

games.

All right, so I'm not exactly sure, but I have heard this is the longest sentence Mario

says, and from what I've heard, he says it in one of the original Donkey Kong games.

So what Mario says is he says, "You know", or let me do my Mario voice, "You know, I

got to say, it's nice to have a mini Mario."

So let's look at this sentence.

First of all, what's good about this sentence?

I am so happy Mario finally made a long sentence.

The main problem with how Mario speaks is I think he's shy with his English.

He only says short sentences.

It's good to have some short sentences, but I want to learn more about Mario.

I want him to make longer sentences.

Sentences like this, sentences that have more complex grammar.

That's the number one piece of advice I would give to Mario.

You need to increase the length of your sentences and the complexity of your grammar.

So what I like about this sentence, so I just mentioned the length, that's good.

He uses "gotta" instead of "got to", so this is a reduction, and "gotta" is a very common

expression we would use in conversation in English.

So instead of saying "I have to", "I have to say" or "I got to say", he says "I gotta

say", "I gotta say".

It's very natural the way he says this.

I also like that he uses the expression "you know".

We often start sentences with "you know", and we usually use them when we are giving

our opinion.

So, for example, Mario says "You know, I gotta say it's nice to have a mini Mario."

I might say "You know, Toronto is a nice city to live."

Or I might say "You know, I think Mario should try to use longer sentences."

So "you know" is natural English, I'm glad Mario used that expression.

All right, so we've looked at Mario's English.

You can see there's a lot I like of what he says, and then there's some things I think

Mario can improve on.

What I would recommend to Mario and to people learning English is to check out my YouTube

channel, subscribe, don't forget to ring the bell, you can watch videos on many different

grammar topics, pronunciation, reading, writing, there's just so much, vocabulary building,

so check out my channel, and also take our quiz on Mario English.

Let's see how much you remember from this lesson, because remember, the best way to

learn is to actually be active and to quiz yourself.

That's a really good way to learn a language.

So thank you so much for watching, and until next time, take care.