Learn 9 Ways that Native English Speakers Break the Rules!

Hi, Bob the Canadian here.

In this English lesson I'm going to teach you some

of the rules that you're sort of allowed to break

when you're speaking English.

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Well hey, welcome to this English lesson where I'm going

to help you break the rules.

Before we get started though if you're new here don't forget

to click that red subscribe button below,

give me a thumbs up if this video helps you learn

just a little bit more English.

Well as you learn English, you learn a lot of rules

and when you listen to native English speakers

you realize that sometimes we break the rules.

So in this video I'll go over nine different rules

that we regularly break when we're speaking English.

One more thing before we get started.

Even though I'm going to teach you about rules

that native English speakers break regularly,

you yourself as an English learner should not break

these rules yet.

If you are a beginner or intermediate,

or even an advanced English learner,

you should know about these rules

and you should know how native English speakers break them,

but you should not start breaking these rules yet.

One of the first English rules

that you will hear native English speakers break quite often

especially children, involves the words, me and I.

You will sometimes hear kids say things like,

"Me and my friends went to the movies last week."

Technically this is incorrect,

but English speakers do say things like that.

The correct way to say that would be,

"My friends and I went to the movies the other week."

I even do this sometimes

I will say things like,

"Me and my colleagues went out for lunch last week."

And it's incorrect.

I should say, "My colleagues and I went out for lunch

the other week."

So, don't say this yourself,

but you should be ready

to hear native English speakers break

the rules from time to time

and say things like, "Me and my brother ate all the cookies."

You should say, "My brother and I ate all the cookies."

The second example I want to share with you,

involves the words, can and may.

Oftentimes in my classroom students will say,

"Can I go to the bathroom?"

And technically this is incorrect.

We use the word, can, to talk about our ability

to do something, not to ask for permission.

The correct way to say this would be,

"May I go to the bathroom?"

But I will tell you this,

my students rarely say, "May I go to the bathroom?"

When they ask to leave the room to use the washroom

or the bathroom they most often break the rule

and they say, "Can I go to the bathroom?"

Which if you think about it is kind of a funny way

to ask to go to the bathroom,

because all of us have the ability to go to the bathroom.

We just don't always have permission to leave the classroom

to go to the bathroom.

So the third example I wanted to talk to you about

is a mistake that often native English speakers make

while writing.

They take phrases like could've, would've, should've

and they write, could of, would of, and should of,

which is technically incorrect.

They should be writing the contraction

of could have, which is could've,

would have, which is would've,

and should have, which is should've,

but when you listen to me say it,

you will hear that it actually sounds like, "of".

I could say something like,

"I chose one lottery number wrong

if I had chosen them all correct I could've won the lottery."

So I'm not saying, "could of", I'm saying, "could've",

which is the contraction of could have.

But many native English speakers,

especially in informal writing,

like an email, or if they are sending a text,

will often do this incorrectly.

Sorry for all the honking,

there's a lot of geese honking

while I'm trying to make this video.

There's just a lot of geese that are for some reason,

hanging out here during the winter.

So I know this camera angle is a little too bright for me,

but I wanted you to be able to see how beautiful it is

when we have snow on the ground and the sun is shining.

It's just a really nice day,

a nice January day here in Canada.

But let's move on to the next example.

If I was to ask you this question,

"Do you know an English teacher

that has a good YouTube channel?"

You might think it sounds correct,

and native English speakers would ask a question

just like that, and they would think it's correct as well,

but it's technically not.

We wouldn't use the word, "that", in that question,

we would use the word, "who".

The correct way to ask that question would be,

"Do you know an English teacher who has

a good YouTube channel?"

But I will tell you, English speakers may not even be aware

that they are making a mistake

when they ask a question like,

"Do you know an English teacher

that has a good YouTube channel?"

We use "that" all the time when we're talking about people

but technically in a sentence like that,

if you are talking about a person,

you should be using the word, "who".

Do you know an English teacher who has

a good YouTube channel?

I do.

So the next example involves the words, further and farther.

I often get this question during

my Saturday night live English lessons,

people will say, "When do I use further

and when do I use farther?"

Well technically, you use "farther" when you are talking

about distances, or something that is measurable.

So for instance, when I drive to my first neighbor,

if I want to go to my second neighbor,

he is one kilometer farther down the road.

In that situation I would use farther.

And we use "further" when we say things like,

"Are there any further questions?"

So it's not really a distance, or a measurable thing.

But here's the thing, native English speakers break

these rules all the time.

In fact, we use further and farther, interchangeably a lot.

For instance, I could say, "How much farther do we need to go

before we get to the school?"

I could also say, "How much further do we need to go

before we get to the school?"

So in some English-speaking countries this is okay.

In Canada, my understanding is,

and maybe someone in the comments will tell me different,

that you can use "further" in almost all situations.

You could say something like,

"It is three kilometers further."

or "Are there any further questions?"

This next example is actually a rule

that I broke in a video I made a little while ago

about phrasal verbs

and it involves the words, lay and lie.

Technically, you lay something down

and a person lies down on a bed.

So I should say things like, "I lay the book on the table."

"I am going to go lie down and take a nap."

But you know what, I use lay a lot.

I say things like, "I'm gonna go lay on the couch

and watch TV."

I should be saying, "I'm going to go lie down and watch TV."

Or "I'm going to go lie down and take a nap."

But yeah, I break this rule a lot.

In fact, I broke this rule in a video previously

and I didn't even know that it was a rule.

So the next example I wanted to talk about involves

the words, "than and then".

And it's a bit of a pronunciation rule that we break.

You hear me say, than, and you hear me say, then,

but if I say a sentence like this,

"My older brother is older then me."

You hear me say, "then",

but I'm actually using the word, "than".

I think when we speak quickly,

especially in my area of Canada,

we often, when we are comparing people,

we are supposed to be saying, "than",

and we actually say, "then".

Like I am stronger than my younger brother.

I'm saying, than, T-H-A-N,

but when I listen to myself,

it sounds like I'm saying, then.

I am definitely not stronger than my younger brother.

So my next example is about using the singular they.

Sometimes in English we ask questions like,

"Ask your friend what they want for lunch."

Technically you should be asking,

"Ask your friend what he or she wants for lunch."

And people have asked me about this in the comments below.

It is actually technically correct now

to use the singular they.

You can say things like,

"Ask your friend what they want for lunch."

It is totally correct, but some people might still think

it's incorrect, but it's not.

You can look this up online.

Most dictionaries, in fact, the newspaper,

The Washington Post, now accepts the singular they,

as proper English speech.

So you may have been taught that you should not end

an English sentence with a preposition.

A preposition is a word like, in, or with, or at,

but we do this all the time.

We ask questions like, "Which newspaper is his picture in?"

When technically we should be asking,

"In which newspaper is his picture?"

Although that second sentence, though correct,

doesn't sound good to my native English ear.

The first sentence actually sounds better.

"Which newspaper is his picture in?"

So I think you're free to break that rule in spoken English,

but I wouldn't break that rule

if you are doing a writing test,

or even if you're doing a speaking test.

But if you're just talking to your friends,

go ahead and end a sentence with a preposition.

Well hey, that was nine English rules

that you're sort of allowed to break

when you are speaking English.

I'm Bob the Canadian,

and you are learning English with me here on YouTube.

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you should click that subscribe button over there

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just a little bit more English.

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