I Will Show You Most Natives DON’T KNOW English Grammar

What's a schwa? Do you know how word  formation works? What is a phrasal  

verb? You don't know what they are? Well  neither do some of these native speakers. 

So, I'm in Cape Town, South Africa and in  case you don't know, English is the native  

language here. So I decided to interview four  native speakers to test their English skills. 

Do you know what a schwa is?

Well the schwa, or uh sound,  is the most common vowel sound  

in the English language and is a very important  part of speaking English naturally and fluently. 

It can be confusing because it's spelled in so  many different ways. As in seller, wonder, hour,  

favor, leisure...

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That was pretty interesting. But now let's see if  these native speakers know what phrasal verbs are.

So phrasal verbs are phrases that indicate  actions. They are generally used in spoken English  

and informal texts. A phrasal verb combines a  normal verb with an adverb or preposition to  

create an entirely new verbal phrase. For example,  the phrasal verb "pick up" means to grab or lift,  

which is entirely different to the definition  of "pick" or "up" alone. Oh I thought I'd take  

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I definitely didn't expect those answers.  

Now let's see who knows what word  formation is and how to use it  

So word formation basically refers  to word families or adding a prefix  

at the beginning of a word or suffix at  the end of a word to create a new word. 

So, for example, you could take a word like color  and add the prefix multi to create multi-color,  

which means many colors. For example,  she's wearing a multi-colored dress.  

Or you could take a word like cash and add the  suffix less and create a new word cashless,  

which means without cash. For example, after  he went to the casino, he was cashless.

Okay, so as you can see, native speakers aren't  necessarily perfect at understanding the grammar  

points of the language we use every day. Don't get  me wrong, these things are a very important part  

of becoming a fluent and natural speaker. This  is why input is an important part of learning any  

language. You need to commit to spending time each  day listening to, watching or reading English.  

This way you'll develop a natural understanding  of how to use the rules in daily life,  

just like native speakers do. So forget about  waiting until you've learned all of the rules  

in your grammar book, forget about waiting until  you pass that English exam. Start speaking now!  

If you'd like to learn more about the topics we  spoke about in today's lesson, I'll add the links  

in the description for you to check out later.  I hope you enjoyed today's lesson as much as I  

did and if you'd like to continue your learning  with us, then why not check out this one next?