Grammar that you don’t need to worry about!

Hello, everyone. Let me read an excerpt for you from my book. "We shall soon see

that the hand is divided into three zones or parts, which are bound by

certain lines to be hereafter... hereafter explained." Huh? Did you

understand any of that? I didn't. So, one of my things that I like to do is

really, really get you out of your textbook, and get you into speaking

real-life English. And we can do this with private lessons. I have a website,

www.englishwithronnie.com, where I teach you all the proper things, all the fun

things, and how to speak naturally; not like a person from — oh, I don't know —

the 1800s. And in today's lesson, we're going to go through some of these

things; things that you've learned in grammar books — oh, god — things that

you've learned in your classes or from people. And, honestly, we just don't use

them when we speak normally to people. Idioms. That's number two. But let's

start with number two. I'm never going to go to a shopping center or the

grocery store, and use idioms when I'm speaking to people. Nowhere would I use

an idiom. And to prove my theory, I spent two hours listening to the radio.

More than that. And nobody in the land of radio used an idiom. So, take your

idioms, throw them away. Okay? Just learn to speak normally. But we're going

to get back to those.

Let's look with the first one. Look at the first one. "Who" and "whom". Wow.

So: "Whom do you trust?" Mm, unless you're living in the 1800s, we would

just never use the word: "whom". Okay? So, take it out of your vocabulary; you

don't need that. Just put: "who". We would say: "Who do you trust?" You can

trust me. But this word: "whom" — take it out; we never say it. But there's one

thing you have to know when you're learning English: You have to know your

purpose. Are you learning English because you'd like to be a creative

writer? Hey, if you want to be a creative writer, maybe you want to learn

to use "whom", but this is all about speaking and communicating with people.

If you're working at a job or you'd like to get a job where they use a very

formal 1800 language — maybe you want to learn about "whom", but no. But know who

you are, know your audience, know who you're talking to. Old people — they're

cool to hang out with — they're probably are not going to say: "whom" either. So,

get that out of your brain.

As I said, the wonderful idioms. Here's one: "The grass is always greener on the

other side." You're not gonna have a conversation with this about someone.

You're not gonna be walking down the street and go: "Wow. There's that really

hot guy I want to talk to. Hey, how's it going? The grass is always"... What? No,

just talk to the people like normal humans. "Hi. How are you?" This is one

thing that I... never ceases to amaze me about high-level English courses. I see

all these high-level English courses, and people who are advanced in English,

and they're studying idioms. It's like: "Oh my god. There has to be more than

idioms." Don't worry about idioms. If you want to learn idioms, because

they're fun and clever, go ahead; but we're not going to use them in normal

speech. So, be careful what you're studying in your advanced or

intermediate classes.

Oh, everyone hates it. Yes! Present perfect. Guess what? You don't need to

use it. Now, if you're just beginning to learn to speak English: Just use the

simple past — it's all you need. If you're advancing and you're getting the

hang of things in English, and you'd like to improve your English, of course,

you can step into the boundaries of hell with the present perfect. But, as I

said, if you're just beginning and the present perfect really, really makes you

angry — forget about it. Just use the simple past. An example of the present

perfect is: "I have eaten". Good for you. I can also just say: "Yeah, I ate".

Uh-huh. It's the same idea. Nobody's gonna be confused and go: "Oh, hold on.

That was the simple past." But it doesn't matter. Just use the simple

past. Bye-bye present perfect. Toilet. See ya.

Oh, this is a fun one: Reported speech. Now, grammar textbooks love to teach you

the reported speech. And you gotta change the grammar around and make sure

the time reflects in the day. (blows tongue). Ronnie says: (blows tongue).

This is how we say these in normal English. And if you don't believe me,

watch a video. Not only this one. Watch a movie, listen to people speak, go on

all those social media things that you're so addicted to, and listen to how

real people actually talk about something that's reported. "She said

that she had eaten already" is reported speech. Yeah, we don't say that. We use:

"went" and "goes". Let me show you how. "She goes: 'I ate already'. Or: "He

went: 'Oh my god'". So, instead of having to change all the grammar around

in the sentence, all you have to do is put: "goes", instead of: "said"; and you

can also use "went". I can say: "She went: 'I ate already'". It doesn't

matter. You can use: "went" and "goes". Doesn't matter the grammar; it doesn't

matter the time. You don't have to change anything. Reported speech,

bye-bye. If you're writing as a creative writer, you can use reported speech, but

we never use it when we speak.

Next one. This is fun. Fuji, this for you. "Who" in relative clauses. So,

you've learned in your textbook; it's very proper grammar. Okay? "She is the

one who ate it." By the way, a "relative clause" is giving more information about

the subject. So, I'm giving you more information about the subject: "she".

So, the rule is: If it's a person, you have to use: "who". You have to say:

"She's the one who ate it." Do you know what? When we speak, we don't say that.

We just say: "that". Because in the relative clause, without a human... with

a person, we use: "that". I can say: "Oh, this is the book that my great

grandmother gave me." I can say: "She is the person that gave me the book." So,

when you're using relative clauses, even if it's a person — ignore the grammar

rule. You don't need that rule. Rules are (blows tongue).

Number seven. Number five. Number seven, yes. Stative verbs. Yeah. Yeah, these

are fun. Right? So, you've learned about stative verbs. "Stative verbs" are verbs

you cannot use with: "i–n–⁠g"⁠. Example: "I'm having a car". No, that's wrong.

You can say: "I'm having a baby", but you can't say: "I'm having a car". And

these are rules of stative verbs. You must say: "I have a car". If you're

talking about possession — things that you buy; not babies — you can say: "I

have a car", not: "I'm having a car". But thanks to our modern society,

specifically, a restaurant that serves millions and billions of people; has

some golden arches over there. Their slogan is wrong. Their slogan is: "I'm

lovin' it". Hey, guess what? "Lovin'" or "love" is a stative verb, but doesn't

matter. We don't care anymore. We say: "Wow. I'm loving your new car."

Grammatically wrong, but that's how we speak. You're in a restaurant, and the

waitress comes by and says: -"Hey. How is everything?" -"Oh, I'm lovin' the

soup." That's not... that's fine. Hey. People at the table are like: "Oh, you

just used a stative verb wrong." Nobody cares. We don't care about that; stative

verbs. The next one is, of course, the opposite is: "hating". Okay? "Ah, I'm

hating you right now. You've ruined my life!" You can say that — that's fine.

We should say: "I hate you." But we have to say: "I'm hating my new job. I... Er.

It drives me crazy." And notice I don't say: "hating"; I say: "hatin'". "I'm

lovin'"; "I'm hatin'". Sounds like a country.

Another verb that we can use in this stative form, but we're not supposed to

— don't tell my mom — is: "costing". So, if you have to pay a lot of money for

something, you can say: "Wow. It's costing me so much." Or you go into

someone's apartment, say: "Wow. How much is this place costing you a month?"

Grammatically wrong. Feel free to point that out to them, but it's how we change

language. So, I can say: "Well, this must be costing you a pretty penny."

See? That one... that idiom is so old. We don't even have pennies anymore, so

come on. Come on. "Understanding". Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. "Oh, do you know what?

I'm not really understanding you." Oh. Grammatically wrong, but: Hey, guess

what? We can say that. "I'm understanding you now! Yeah!" Cool.

Again, your grammar teacher would faint or roll over in his or her grave. But

guess what? Rule's off. You can say that. So, I hope that you are

understanding all of this lesson, and just be careful about grammar and all

these rules you have. Make sure that what you're learning is actually

relevant and up to date, because the last thing you want to do is sound like

someone that came from the 1800s and is hanging out, enjoying life. So, I'm

Ronnie; and grammar (blows tongue).