English Grammar Test: Advanced English Lesson

Hi.

I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.

Are you ready to test your grammar skills?

Let's do it.

Today I have a fun grammar test for you.

Fun?

Grammar?

Test?

Is it possible?

Yes, it's definitely possible.

Just watch and see.

In this lesson you'll learn seven common English grammar mistakes and how to fix them, but

the trick is, you have to guess what the mistake is.

Fun.

I'm going to show you seven sentences, and you need to find one change in each sentence.

Maybe that's taking something out, maybe that's adding something, maybe it's exchanging something.

Let's take a look at a quick example.

This sentence, "I love dog."

There's one mistake here, can you guess what it is?

What do we need to change to make this beautifully correct?

Well we need to say, "I love dogs."

You need to add an 's' at the end.

This is a pretty simple example.

So are you ready for some more advanced grammar sentences?

Let's do it.

Let's imagine that we're in a coffee shop together drinking some coffee.

Well maybe that's not such a good idea because, if I had a cup of coffee, I would be running

around the coffee shop non-stop.

So how about this?

I'm drinking some tea, you're drinking some coffee, and we're having a lovely conversation

together.

And you say to me, "So how's it been going lately?"

And I say, sentence number one, "I bought the new Ferrari yesterday."

What's one thing that you can change in this sentence to make it correct?

This sentence is not correct.

There's something that's wrong with this sentence.

Can you guess?

I'll give you three seconds.

Three, two, one.

"I bought a new Ferrari yesterday."

You have this image in your head of us sitting in the coffee shop, do you think that we're

looking at the car right now?

No.

We're just kind of imagining this car.

It's not something specific, it's something unknown, so we need to use 'a.'

Maybe after we have our drinks, we go out to the parking lot, and I say, "This is the

new Ferrari that I bought."

This is the new Ferrari.

We're looking at it, we know which one it is, it's right there.

So we need to use 'the' to talk about something known and 'a' for something that's less known.

Test sentence number two: I wanted a Ferrari because it's too fast.

I wanted a Ferrari because it's too fast.

What's wrong in this sentence?

Three, two, one.

I wanted a Ferrari because it's really fast.

We only use 'too' in negative situations.

The coffee is too hot, I can't drink it.

I'm too tired, I can't study.

Maybe I could have said, "My old car was too slow."

You can see here that, in all of these situations, there's something negative.

The coffee's too hot, I'm too tired, the car is too slow.

There's a problem in all of these sentences, so I probably want to fix it.

And in the sentence with the Ferrari, I think that the Ferrari is really fast, so that's

why I want it.

If you're curious about some differences between 'too' and 'so,' I made a live lesson about

this a long time ago, about two years ago, and you can watch that video up here.

All right.

Sentence number three: when I bought the car, it costs $300,000.

When I bought the car, it costs $300,000.

That's a lot of money.

All right.

What is one thing that you can do, to change in this sentence, to make it correct?

Three, two, one.

When I bought the car ... notice this is the past tense ... bought the car, it costs?

This is the present tense.

We need to say, "It cost $300,000."

The word 'cost' is an irregular verb and often these irregular verbs trip up or trick English

learners.

So we need to make sure that we use the proper past tense.

It cost $300,000.

Sentence number four.

Maybe after I told you how much the car cost, you say, "Oh Vanessa.

That's so much money.

Why would you do something like that?"

And I say, "Well I think I'm going eating rice and beans for a whole year.

I think I'm going eating rice and beans for a whole year."

This means nothing fancy, nothing special, only rice and beans because I spent all my

money on a car.

What's the problem with this sentence?

Three, two, one.

"I think I'm going to eat rice and beans for a whole year."

Often English learners have problems with '-ing' and 'to.'

It depends on a lot of different factors, but specifically for the verb going, when

we're talking about this in the future.

I'm going to eat rice and beans.

I'm going to study with Vanessa.

I'm going to sleep soon.

Well we need to use 'to' plus an unconjugated verb.

I'm going to study.

I'm going to eat.

I'm going to sleep.

Great.

All right.

Let's go to the next one.

Number five: for my whole life, I always dreamed of owning a Ferrari.

For my whole life, I always dreamed of owning a Ferrari.

What's the problem in this sentence?

Can you guess?

Do we need to add something, take something away, switch something?

I'll give you three seconds.

Three, two, one.

For my whole life, I had always dreamed of owning a Ferrari.

Why did we add 'had' here?

This is the past perfect tense, and I know it can be tricky for a lot of English learners.

We use the past perfect tense to talk about something that was continuing for a long time

in the past and now it has stopped.

Do you know why my dream has stopped?

Well because it came true.

I own a Ferrari ... of course this is a fake situation, just imaginary.

But because this dream came true, well we can say that it has stopped.

So we need to make the sentence, "For my whole life, I had always dreamed of owning a Ferrari

and now I do.

Now that dream has come true."

If you'd like to learn more about how to use the past perfect tense or the future perfect

tense, you can click on this live lesson that I made up here a long time ago.

There's one full lesson about the past perfect tense and one full lesson about the present

perfect tense.

These can be tricky, so please take your time, be patient with yourself, and study them and

take some notes.

All right.

Let's go to the next sentence.

Sentence number six: not only is my Ferrari beautiful, but it is fun to drive.

Not only is my Ferrari beautiful, but it is fun to drive.

How can we make the sentence better?

Three, two, one.

Not only is my Ferrari beautiful, but it's also fun to drive.

We need to add the word 'also,' and our key here is the first part of that sentence uses

'not only' and then the second part needs 'but also.'

This is an advanced phrase, 'not only, but also,' that's going to make your sentences

more complex.

Instead of just saying simple sentences, "My Ferrari's beautiful.

It's fun to drive," we can combine those with a beautiful advanced expression like this,

"Not only is my Ferrari beautiful, but it is also fun to drive."

We use 'not only, but also' to give some more information about something, but it's really

to take it to a higher level, to kind of escalate something.

So here, "My Ferrari's beautiful."

Okay, but the next level is, "Oh, it's also fun to drive.

On top of that, it is also fun to drive."

So you might say, "Not only is this lesson useful, but it is also fun."

I hope that this lesson is useful to you, but I hope it's not boring, I hope it's also

fun.

We're taking it to the next level.

All right.

Let's go to the next one.

Sentence number seven: if I crashed the car, I will cry.

If I crashed the car, I will cry.

Can you imagine this situation?

Spending so much money on a car, and then crashing it and that's it.

That would be terrible.

All right.

Let's think about what is the best way to fix this sentence.

Three, two, one.

This is a hypothetical, imaginary situation.

If you were listening to my quick little explanation, you might have guessed the correct answer.

If I crashed the car, I would cry.

We use 'if' plus 'would' to talk about these imaginary, hypothetical situations.

It's not happening right now, so we need to use 'would.'

If you'd like to learn how to use 'would' in other situations or some more in-depth

examples about it, make sure you check out another test I made, Should, Would, and Could,

and how to use them correctly.

How did you do on this test about my Ferrari?

I hope you enjoyed it.

Now it's time to do a little review.

Let's go back and read all of those sentences using the correct words so that you can visually

see it and also hear it one more time.

I bought a new Ferrari yesterday.

I wanted a Ferrari because it's really fast.

When I bought the car, it cost $300,000.

I think I'm going to eat only rice and beans for one year.

For my whole life, I had always dreamed of owning a Ferrari.

Not only is my Ferrari beautiful, but it's also fun to drive.

If I crashed the car, I think I would cry.

How did you do on this test?

Let me know in the comments what your score was.

And just to let you know, this story is not true.

I don't own a Ferrari.

Do you think I seem like the kind of person who would buy a Ferrari?

Probably not.

I could buy 20 round the world plane tickets for the same price, and that's definitely

what I would do if I had that much money.

Let me know in the comments how did you do.

If you enjoyed this test, then maybe I'll make some more in the future.

Thanks so much for learning English with me, and I'll see you again the next time.

Bye.

The next step is to download my free ebook, 5 Steps to Becoming a Confident English Speaker.

You'll learn what you need to do to speak confidently and fluently.

Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more free lessons.

Thanks so much.

Bye.