5 Common Grammar Mistakes with Easy Fixes

Hey, it's Annemarie with Speak Confident

English, and this week we're focused on grammar.

I know that that sounds a little bit boring,

but I have a question for you. When you're speaking in English,

do you sometimes have that little voice in the back of your mind that asks,

did I say that right? Is that the right grammar tense?

And then you get stuck. You get frustrated because you're afraid

that you've made a mistake and in the end you just stop speaking or you stay

quiet if you said yes to that question. In today's lesson is for you,

we're going to talk about five of the most common grammar mistakes that I hear

and some really simple strategies that you can use to fix them.

Now, before we dive into those five common

grammar mistakes, I want to talk a little bit about why

those mistakes happen. The truth is you've been studying and

using English for years, and when we do something with

repetition, we create habits.

Those habits can be fantastic for helping us learn to use common

expressions and useful vocabulary that we need for our daily life,

but we can also form bad habits and that's what we want to focus on breaking

today. In fact,

you might listen to someone else speaking English and recognize all the

little mistakes that they make, but you might not hear it when you make

them. Our goal today is to learn how to

recognize those mistakes and use some simple strategies to fix them so that

you don't have to worry about that little voice in the back of your mind

asking if you did it correctly, and if you can fix these mistakes,

it will take your English to the next level so that you sound like you're in

control and you know exactly what you want to say.

And the good news is the strategies that I share with you today can actually be

used to help you resolve any mistake that you make with English grammar

regularly. But today we're going to focus on the

five most common that I hear. So let's get started with mistake number

one. I want you to review these sentences and

see if you can identify the mistake that's being made there.

Hopefully you noticed there's that tiny little -s that's missing on those verbs

when it's in writing. It seems so simple and clear,

but when we're speaking, it's much harder to notice and correct

the mistake and there are a few reasons for that.

Number one, we're focused on so many different

things. Trying to find the right word.

Think of the right grammar tense. We have a lot going on in our mind at

that moment and we have that little voice that's distracting us and asking

is that right?

And perhaps we've created some bad habits so we no longer recognize that

we're making mistake and that's what we want to focus on today.

So here are two really simple strategies that will help you recognize this

mistake and fix it. The first strategy is all about

repetition because repetition is what helps us create habits.

So using some repetition drills and choosing a verb that you might use

regularly and simply repeating the he she and form with that final s sound and

making sure that s sound is clear. For example,

he loves, she loves, it

loves, he goes, it goes,

she goes. Just repeating those verbs regularly for

just a minute or two every day while you're driving,

walking your dog, doing the dishes.

That little repetitive action can help to create that positive habit that we

want with this grammar tense. The second thing that you can do is use

one of my favorite strategies for building confident,

fluent communication.

In fact, this is a strategy that I use with all

of my students. I want you to record yourself speaking

and listen to it, and here's a simple way that you can do

that with a focus on this final s sound while you're watching a video or a TV

show. I want you to turn off the sound just

for a moment or two. Get out your smartphone and start

recording yourself as you talk about what actions you see.

So you might describe a man in his apartment,

he walks down the hallway, he opens the door,

he sees the postman, etc. etc. Then after a minute or two,

you can stop speaking out loud, but go back and listen to your recording

and evaluate how you did. Did you use the s sound with all of

those verbs when you used he, she or it?

This method is effective for two reasons.

Number one, it has that repetition that will help

you build that good habit. And number two,

it gets you focused on listening to yourself,

recognizing your own patterns. If you don't know what mistakes you're

making, you can't fix them,

and this strategy when you listen to yourself,

helps you to develop the ability to hear yourself speak so that you can break

those bad habits and build those new ones with mistake number two,

once again, I want you to look at this list of

sentences and see if you can identify what's missing.

You probably noticed that we have ing verbs,

but we're missing that extra verb that we need the verb to be.

For example, instead of going to work,

it should be, I am going to work.

One of the reasons this is an easy mistake to make and not recognize is

because if you listen to native speakers communicate,

they don't really say things like I am going to work,

or he is taking her to the station.

Instead we use the contracted forms and those sounds blend together,

which means they're a little bit more difficult to hear,

so if you're listening to a lot of tv shows or in conversations with native

speakers, you might not hear that verb so clearly.

Instead, you're going to hear,

I'm going, I'm going to work,

or he's taking her to the station and as a result it's a little bit easier to

make this mistake, but we want to avoid it.

And once again, building that new habit is all about

repetition and recognizing the mistake. So an easy drill that you can do while

you're working around the house. Simply talk about what you're doing.

If you don't mind talking out loud to yourself.

For example, right now I'm vacuuming or I'm doing the

dishes. I'm recording this video.

Simply take a couple of minutes every day and talk out loud about what you're

doing so you build in that repetitive habit and secondly,

you can also use that strategy of recording yourself to really focus on

whether or not you're making this mistake regularly and work on fixing it

so you could record yourself talking about what your friends,

family members or coworkers are doing today.

My mom's gardening, my dad's going to work,

my best friend's getting her haircut. Then when you're finished,

go back and listen and evaluate how you did.

Mistake number three is a little bit more challenging because it deals with

prepositions and you and I both know prepositions in English are a total

nightmare because we have no strict rules.

Instead, we have all these patterns that you have

to learn, but one of the most common mistakes I

hear is using the preposition to in sentences like this.

He told to her or he asked to me. The truth is when we use the verbs,

ask and tell, we don't need that preposition to.

Instead the verb is followed immediately by a personal pronoun or a person.

For example, he asked sam or she asked me,

my sister told him, we can just eliminate that preposition

to with mistake number four.

I want you to see if you can recognize the error in this sentence and I want

you to imagine that I still live in Chicago now.

I haven't left. What do you think?

What's wrong with that sentence? Hopefully you noticed that the verb have

was missing from that sentence and here we're dealing with the present perfect.

Which is particularly challenging in English.

In fact, some languages don't have this

particular time tense, so it's a little bit difficult to

understand and use and as a result it's easy to form those bad habits,

but let's take a closer look at the present.

Perfect. If I say I lived in Chicago for two

years, the verb lived is in the past.

It means it's over. It's finished.

I left. I'm not there anymore,

but the truth is I still live in Chicago.

I haven't left, so I need some way to express that in

english.

We use the present perfect to help us do that.

When I say I have lived in Chicago for two years,

it means I arrived two years ago and I'm still there now.

I haven't left. Nothing has changed.

That time tense helps us communicate that and we use this tense for things

like where you work now you might say, I have worked at this company for 10

years, 20 years,

six months, or if you have a hobby that you started

20 years ago and you still do it. For example,

I've played piano for 20 years. Once again,

that lets your listener know that it started in the past and it's still true

today. Now I know that the present perfect is

particularly challenging, so I've got some extra practice

activities for you in the online lesson after you watch this video.

Be sure to check those out in addition to that online practice that I have for

you with the present

perfect. The other thing that you can do to help

fix this mistake is to look at some of the examples I have given you and I want

you to think about how you could use this form in your everyday conversation.

If you think about an introduction that you have to make in a business meeting

or talking about how long you've worked at your company,

you probably use some of the same sentences every day at work or in your

introductions, and I want you to focus on using the

present perfect form correctly. One great way to do that as you now

know, is to record yourself.

Practice giving an introduction and make sure that your time tenses are correct.

And finally, mistake number five.

Recently I was talking with one of my students about a situation she has with

a colleague at work that's let's say a little difficult or tense,

and she asked me, do you have any advice for me?

I mean, advices,

um advice? I'm not sure.

have you ever felt like that with words like advice,

information, coffee,

water. You're not sure if it should be water or

water, coffee,

coffees? It's really tough to know.

What makes it really difficult is most nouns and English have a singular plate

or plural form plates, cup cups,

plant plants, but we do have some nouns in English

that don't have the two forms. We call them noncount nouns.

For example, the word advice in that question that my

wanted to ask me, the correct answer was advice.

Do you have aNy advice for me now to fix this common mistake so you don't have to

worry about it and question yourself in conversations?

I have a list for you of the 20 most common noncount nouns in the online

lesson. I want you to review that list and then

using our strategy of repetition to create good habits.

I want you to create a few sentences using those words,

but here's the thing. I want you to create sentences that you

would use in your real life. Think about what you do at work every

day and the people that you talk to. Think about your conversations with your

neighbors. I want you to create sentences that you

regularly use, but with the correct form of the non

count noun and use it often. Repeat it to yourself so that when

you're in a conversation, you can use it without questioning

yourself or worrying about whether you're making that mistake and with that

you have the simple strategies that you need to fix those five common grammar

mistakes. If you use those strategies just for a

little bit of time, every day,

you'll build those good habits that you need so that you don't have to worry

about that little voice in the back of your mind asking,

did I do that right?

You can totally ignore that voice or just stop asking that question because

you'll automatically use these grammar tenses correctly from those positive

habits that you've created. If you enjoyed this lesson,

I'd love to know, and there's three great ways that you

can tell me. Number one,

give this video a thumbs up on youtube and subscribe to this channel so that

you never miss a future lesson. Two:

If you've got a friend or colleague who struggles with some of the basics of

english grammar, share this lesson with them on facebook

or by email, and finally make sure that you go to the

online lesson. Check out the practice opportunities

that I have for you, and at the end of the lesson I have some

challenge questions as well. You can share your answers,

thoughts and questions with me in the comment section.

At the end of the lesson, I always provide feedback and it's a

great way to learn from others in the Confident English Community.

With thAt, have a fantastic week.

Thank you so much for joining me and I'll see you next time for your

Confident English.