Name: The WORST English mistakes native speakers make
Uploaded: 2016-09-29T09:09:47.000Z
Duration: 17 min 39 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Uh, douche. Deuce, deuce, deuce. Hi. James from engVid.

I just made a mistake in singing that song. I used the wrong words or lyrics. It happens all the time.

People do it when they speak. And native speakers make certain mistakes

that we don't think of as mistakes, and sometimes even teachers, like myself, will do it.

So, this particular lesson is how to not make the mistakes that we make, and we don't even know we're making them.

I want to help you speak like a native speaker, but not make

the same mistakes they do. Okay? So, we're going to look at five different word pairs

that are confused in English. But at the end of this lesson, you won't be confused, and

in fact, you should understand English a little bit better. Are you ready? Let's go to the board.

Okay. "Swept up like a douche", what was I thinking? Are you ready?

So, look, Mr. E's saying: "We all make mistakes!" And what mistakes does he want to point out today?

Let's take a look. "Literally" versus "figuratively".

"I literally fell down the stairs. Well, figuratively speaking, I fell down the stairs."

but there's a huge difference. "Literally" in English means it actually happened.

What I'm talking about happened. So, I literally got punched in the face. I got punched, literally, you can see it.

But if it didn't happen, maybe somebody said something to you that you didn't like

and you said: "It felt like I got punched in the stomach, like I was literally punched."

Well, no, they said something you didn't like, that's figuratively. So you could say: "Figuratively speaking"

or "Figuratively put, it felt like I got punched in the stomach."

"Literally" means it has to happen, "figuratively" is a metaphor. It's a way of using language to

let someone know how you feel in a graphic way. Okay? So, you're giving them something

to feel with or work with, because it didn't happen, but you can't really explain how it felt.

A punch in the stomach really hurts. Well, words don't physically hurt you, but

we all know what it's... Well, maybe. We know what it's like to get hit in the stomach,

it's not comfortable, so we understand what they're saying. Right? Cool.

How about the next one? "Could have", "could of". Huh? Well, here's the deal:

It's more about stress than anything else. This is something that we don't pay attention to, because as

English speakers, we know: "I could have done that", it's really a stress of the "v" from the "have".

Right? "Could have", because we contract the word to: "could", and it looks

like this, we get rid of this and do that, and it becomes: "could've". But because we

say "v" and we stress that, people who are non-native think we're saying "could of".

Now, it's not really noticeable when they speak or we speak, because, you know, you

can't see words when I am talking. The problem comes when you write. An English speaker will

write: "I could have done this", and they will write either: "could have" or they'll

write "could": "could've", like this. But unfortunately, non-native speakers will actually

write it with "of" because they're confused by the words. Right? So this is a mistake

more for writing, but be careful. Okay? You can have the same thing with: "could of",

"should of", "would of", the o-f. Okay? Cool. So that's number two.

Let's look at number three, another mistake that native people make sometimes, and you

might make more often. "Who" versus "that". This is a simple one. "Who" is used for people.

"Do you know the guy who lives next door?", "who" because "who" is a person. Easy enough.

"That" is used for things. "Do you know the machine that sits on top of my counter?" Because

it's not a person, it's a thing. And usually you remember this when we talk about: "Do

you want this or do you want that?" You don't refer to people with "this" or "that",

generally speaking. Okay? But sometimes...

Notice that I made a mistake. Huh? I'm going to go here. I made a little mistake. Sorry, guys.

"Noticeable", now that is much more noticeable, so don't make my mistake.

Anyway, "who" versus "that". Now, when I said "that" with a machine: "Do you know that machine on my desk?"

it's for things. Right? You wouldn't say:

"Do you know the machine who sits on my desk?"

I go: "Interesting. You think the machine is alive? We need to see a doctor."

All right? [Laughs] So, where we want to go with this? Sometimes you can use "that" like you use "who",

to be quite honest with you. But at your beginning stages, it's better

to use "who" for people and "that" for things. I know your teachers will say you can use

both, but if you're not sure, if you stick with that rule, you won't... See? "Stick with that rule",

you won't have a problem. Okay? So, try to think: "that" - things, "who" for people,

no problem. As you get more comfortable with the language, then you can say something

like: -"Do you know that guy who lives down the hall?" -"No. I don't know who he is."

And you'll be correct. All right? Cool. That's number three.

Let's look at number four: "anyway" versus "anyways". This is a tough one, and I'll explain.

As slang, "anyways" is kind of popular and you'll hear it a lot, but we should use "anyway".

What does "anyway" mean? I'm glad you asked.

"Anyway" is a way of changing the subject or ending a conversation.

For example: "I went to the hospital on Monday. Anyway, we should finish off this job."

Okay? So, we've changed the subject; hospital to job. Or ending

the conversation: "Well, I don't really think that's interesting anyway." Conversation's done.

Why am I telling you this? Well, this word, here, kind of contains both of those.

If you actually watch North American teenage girls, they'll say something like:

"[Snaps] Anyways." Just by itself, which means: "Your time is finished. You can stop talking, because

I'm no longer interested." Now, is this regularly? Yeah, you'll hear it a lot. Is it correct?

This is why I said difficult. You shouldn't use it, because really, this is how it works-I'm

sorry, but I'm going to be honest-you have an accent and you're learning my language.

If you make any mistakes, even the slightest (and "slightest" means smallest)

we don't think you speak English. It's just the truth. "Anyway, I went to the house after." That

guy doesn't speak English. Perfect sentence. He has accent, that's the problem.

So, if you had: "Anyways, I went to the house", it's even worse. Even though we would say that,

you're not allowed to. So it's better for you to work on using "anyway", and as your

accent comes down and you get a greater mastery of English, then listen to us carefully and

you'll know when to throw in the "anyways". You know what I'm saying, anyway?

All right, let's move on to the last one.

Okay, you notice I wrote: "don't exist", because this word doesn't exist, and this word doesn't exist,

but let's talk about "regardless". When we look at "regardless", it means I don't care,

basically, or it doesn't matter. I'll give you an example. You could say:

"Regardless what you say" or "Regardless of what you say, I'm not changing my mind." It means I don't care

what you say or it doesn't matter, nothing will change. But many people will say:

"Irregardless of what you say", because it sounds stronger or they're making more emphasis.

The problem is: This word doesn't exist in English. I don't know who started it, but congratulations,

you got people saying what you want them to say. But you, please, please, please don't use it.

I mean, to be honest, I used it 20 years ago and I was lucky a teacher kind of

tapped me on the shoulder and go: "Hey, stupid, come here, come here for a second. 'Irregardless'

is like a foot up your butt. There's not one there, you can't use this word. Got it?"

I was like: "Okay. Got it." And you'll hear people use it. Sometimes, as I said, they

use it for emphasis, and sometimes they use it because they think they're sounding very intelligent:

"Irregardless of the situation, I'm not going to do it." [Laughs]

And then you can now say: "Hey, dumbass, don't use that. 'Regardless'. Just going to help you out." All right?

So, as a quick recap before we go on to the next board, as you know what's coming up,

a little quiz. Right? "Literally" versus "figuratively", think of it this way: "literally" has to happen,