Good vs Well | Common English Grammar Mistakes

210,447 views ・ 2018-11-07

Shaw English Online


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:00
Guys!
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Do you speak English good?
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Or maybe you speak good English.
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Or maybe you speak English well.
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One of those sentences is wrong.
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I sure hope you know which one.
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But if you don't
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or get confused like many students and native speakers.
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keep watching.
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Hello, guys.
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My name is Fanny.
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And in this video, I'm gonna tell you about a very common English
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mistake that many students make even native speakers.
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Mostly when speaking English.
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It's the difference between the words 'good' and 'well'.
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Do you know the difference between the two words?
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It's not so much a writing mistake.
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It's more of a speaking mistake.
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Especially, in familiar contexts, but you need to know about it and to fix it,
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if you want to show off and speak good English.
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So let's get started with a few examples.
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‘He is a good tennis player.’
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Do you think that sentence is right?
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It is right.
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Why?
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Because we have the adjective ‘good’ and then the noun ‘tennis player’.
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An adjective, as you know, describes a noun.
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Okay so how is the tennis player?
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The tennis player is good.
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Okay?
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When you say, ‘You speak good English’
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That's also a correct sentence.
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You have a noun – ‘English’.
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And an adjective describing that noun – ‘good’.
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So how is your English?
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It's good.
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Third sentence is also a correct sentence.
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‘Your English is good’.
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As I've just said, an adjective that describes a noun.
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Now if we say, ‘This tennis player plays well’.
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Is this correct?
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It is correct because in this case,
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you have no adjectives, but you have an adverb.
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Now an adverb describes a verb, another adverb, or an adjective.
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In this sentence, it describes the verb 'plays'.
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Okay, how do you play?
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You play well.
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So 'well' is an adverb.
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‘You speak English well’ is also correct.
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The adverb, ‘well’, describes the verb 'to speak'.
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Okay so there is a difference.
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The adjective is good.
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The adverb is well.
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So when you say, ‘You play good’,
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do you think that's right?
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I don't.
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It's incorrect and you will hear many native speakers tell you that.
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Tell you, ‘You play good’.
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But this is incorrect.
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Why?
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Remember what we said, ‘good’ is an adjective.
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It describes a noun.
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Do you see a noun in that sentence?
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I don't.
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But we have a verb, ‘you play’, so what you need is not an adjective,
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it's an adverb.
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‘You play well’.
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If you say, ‘You speak English good’,
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again incorrect.
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Because you need to describe the verb ‘speak’.
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So you need an adverb.
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‘You speak English well’.
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Okay?
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So it's very important for you to know the difference between adjectives
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and adverbs.
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Especially in this case, with ‘good’ as an adjective
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and ‘well’ as an adverb’.
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So please try to remember these rules.
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Try to use it properly and speak good English.
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Thank you guys for watching my video.
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I hope you've liked it.
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If you have, please show us your support.
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Click on ‘like’.
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Subscribe to the channel.
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Put your comments below if you have some.
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And share this video.
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Thank you very much.
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See you.
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