8 Common Mistakes | Quick Tips To Improve Your English & Help You Sound More Like A Native Speaker

hey guys what's up Stefanie the English coach here from EnglishFullTime.com

in this video I'm gonna help you correct some of the most common mistakes that I

see you making now these are mistakes that I have heard English learners make

but there are also mistakes that I have caught here in the comments section of

YouTube so I'm sure that as soon as I give you guys these tips you won't make

these mistakes ever again and if you don't make any of these mistakes

seriously congratulations because that is just fantastic okay so the first one

is when you guys say advices thank you for your advices we don't say it like

that we just say hey thanks for your advice or that's excellent advice okay

the word is advice and it's always just advice we do not say advices so don't

ever spell it like that again okay the next one is when you guys say stuff like

oh this is awesome I understand almost all of what you say

that is a direct translation basically from Spanish because a lot of you guys

are Spanish speakers and I think you might even say it like that in

Portuguese but in English we can just say everything instead of saying all of

what I understood almost all of what you say just say hey I understood almost

everything that you said okay almost everything okay now the next mistake is

really funny I have to tell you guys about this because if you're making it

with me that's one thing because I know what you mean and I know you're learning

English and practicing so it's fine but if you write something like this I don't

know in like a business email or something like that it's just not good

okay so I have gotten so many emails where people are like Stefanie thank

you so much for your videos thank you for this thank you for that and then at

the end they say thank you so much for wasting your time on us and when I read

that it just makes me laugh because this is not a waste of time I love what I do

here I love this work I love helping people with their English when we say

something wastes time it's like a negative thing like I don't want to play

video games cuz it's just a waste of time and I'd rather make youtube videos

I'd rather help you guys your English okay so what I'm doing here

is not a waste of time and if you want to thank someone for using their time on

you you can say thank you for spending your time on me or thank you for helping

me thank you for using your time etc but again it's not a waste of time so a

waste of time is something negative and spending time on something that's

something usually positive something you are excited to be doing or something

that you want to do so I spend time with you guys I do not waste time on you guys

okay the next one is also pretty funny you guys sometimes send me emails and

then you're like okay I'm impatiently waiting for your response and I don't

know which language this comes from because I've seen it so many times so if

you guys know like which language like whoever speaks the language where you

guys say this and you're translating directly let me know in which language

this is said in the comments hopefully that made sense but that's not how we

say it in English okay I don't say I'm impatiently waiting for your response

because impatience is considered a negative thing right now we have other

ways of saying this we could say I'm excited to hear from you or I'm looking

forward to hearing from you or I can't wait to hear from you I look forward to

your reply etc okay or you could just say I'm patiently waiting for your

response okay but even that is a little bit awkward in English but at least it's

better because it shows that you are being patient and not impatient because

when you say you're impatiently waiting for something that sounds demanding it

sounds like hey send it right away where is it what's going on next I've read

some comments from some of you guys for you use the word met in a way that we do

not use it in English so one of the comments was yeah I met some cities in

the USA I went to LA New York etc the person said met cities we don't meet

cities it's not like hi how are you New York nice to meet you or hi Los Angeles

nice to meet you how are you right we meet people we don't meet cities and the

same goes for my YouTube channel because someone

wrote hey I met your YouTube channel this week and I'm like no you didn't

meet it it's not like hi Stefanie's YouTube channel nice to meet you right

you can meet me maybe if you meet me in real life or something like that but you

meet people you don't meet things and inanimate objects and stuff like that

okay so hopefully that tip helps alright the next one is a very common mistake

and I'm sure you guys have even heard teachers talk about it before it's the

difference between two like tea oh oh and so so someone commented on one of my

videos Stefanie thank you you help me too much and then I got another

comment on another video that said I like this too much and what you guys

mean there is so Stefanie you help me so much or I like this so much okay it's

that idea of a lot like so much I just love it so much okay too is too much

like it's excessive like I ate too much food and now I'm stuffed and I

don't feel good or I watched too much TV today and so I felt lazy all day or I

really want those shoes but they're too expensive so I can't get them okay the

only time I use too meaning so is like I don't know with my niece and my nephew

they're just too cute okay they're just they're so cute they're just it's too

cute it's it's too much I can't handle it I love them so much and they're so

adorable they're just too cute okay hopefully that explains the difference

because too is usually meant to mean excessive in a bad way or there's

something negative associated with it unless you're using it in the way I used

it with my niece and my nephew but that's very rare and I mean sometimes I

say something like uh he is just too funny

like too funny I can't even handle it he is too funny alright so you can use it

like that but in the way that you guys were using it like I like this channel

too much or you help me too much it just doesn't seem right okay so let me

know in the comments if that made sense okay the next one is when you guys say

stuff like excellent your videos right in English we don't say it like

that we would say your videos are excellent now since I know Spanish I

know that this is a direct translation from Spanish and possibly from other

languages as well okay so just remember that in sentences like this we would put

the subject first and then we would describe it okay your videos are

excellent the kids are noisy the TV is big okay I sent an email today where I

told a story if you guys are not on my email list you can jump on at

EnglishFullTime.com but anyway in this email that I sent today it was about a story a

funny and embarrassing story something that happened to me and someone replied

and said that history was so funny thank you for sharing it and that's because

that's again a direct translation from Spanish so remember that in English we

use the word story okay that was a great story thanks for sharing it history is

you know stuff that happened in the past like you know when you're in high school

you have to take history classes you learn about history okay history and

story are completely different and we never say that was an awesome history if

we're talking about a story we say hey that was an awesome story okay the last

one when you say something like today I went to the school of my son or today I

went to the house of my friend that also is a direct translation from many

Romance languages okay so in English we just say hey I went to my son's school

today or today I went to my friend's house so remember that you can use that

construction with the apostrophe s okay and then the place or the thing because

it just makes it so much easier instead of that's the ball of the kid that's the

kid's ball that's the dress of the girl that's the girl's dress okay and this

will help you sound more fluent more like a native speaker it'll help you

speak faster too because it's less words and it's just easier to understand

native speakers aren't really used to making that construction it's a more

formal construction sometimes we do use it like the principal of the school

instead the school's principal okay so sometimes

we do use that construction but in normal everyday conversation most of the

time we don't okay so that's it you guys I hope you found these advices helpful

yeah I'm just kidding I hope you found this advice helpful please let us know

in the comments what you would like to add okay common mistakes that English

learners make in English some of these might be mistakes that you used to make

that you no longer make or you know maybe you can do a google search real

fast and whatever language you speak Google hey common mistakes that Arabic

speakers make in English or common mistakes that Russian speakers make in

English by doing this Google search and by doing the analysis and reading the

articles you are going to be blown away you're gonna be like oh my gosh yeah I'd

make that mistake all the time or oh thank God I don't make that mistake or

hey I learned about that years ago and now I don't do that perfect okay so

please share your thoughts on this in the comment area if you like this video

let me know and of course I can make more like this I actually already made a

video about common mistakes in English a while back so you can go ahead and check

that out up there and what I want to say is that I really like making these

videos because I noticed that you guys improve like this is actually pretty

crazy for those of you who are regularly commenting on my videos I can actually

see the improvements because I recognize your name I recognize your face and I

remember sometimes how you used to write and I can actually see the improvements

and certain things like in one video I said hey we don't say keep going we

say keep it up after that nobody was making that mistake on my channel

anymore and it was so so awesome to know that the tips that I'm giving you guys

are actually helping okay so that's it don't forget to check the description

because I leave lots of links there if you guys are wondering if I have online

courses and programs I absolutely do so again check the links if you want to

learn more about them and don't forget to sign up on my website

EnglishFullTime.com if you'd also like to get my daily emails with stories tips and

all kinds of stuff okay that is it you guys take care and I'll see you in the

next video bye