hello I’m Emma from mmm English oh my
goodness thank you so much for
celebrating with me last week it was so
much fun I was thinking that I don’t
really want to stop celebrating just yet
so I’ve got something super special to
share with you today during May this
month mmm English subscribers will be
able to join the mmm English grammar
challenge and I’m inviting you to join
the challenge to improve your English
with me and give you the chance to win
some really fun English prizes including
English t-shirts and English courses and
a chance to win some conversation
practice with me it’s super easy to join
and a really good idea because just by
participating
you’ll be improving your English skills
so make sure you subscribe that’s the
first step just down there and then keep
watching this video to find out how you
can join the challenge in this video I’m
gonna share the ten most common grammar
mistakes that English learners make when
I’m reading your comments below my
videos and I’m replying to your emails I
always notice the same mistakes that you
consistently make and through years of
teaching English at language schools and
at university these are the same
mistakes that a whole range of English
learners make from beginners right
through to even advanced level students
they’re just really common mistakes that
you keep making again and again
sometimes because you know the grammar
is difficult to understand but sometimes
because these mistakes have never been
properly corrected for you so they
become bad habits they keep
without you even realizing it and if you
don’t recognize them if you don’t see
the mistakes that you’re making then you
can’t fix them can you so I want to help
you to do that I want you to start
seeing the mistakes that you’re making I
want you to see it in your writing so
that you can correct yourself and then
when you start doing that you’ll
naturally be correcting yourself when
you speak the English grammar challenge
will help you to practice and improve
all of these mistakes the ones that you
sometimes make so once you watch this
lesson make sure you sign up you join
the challenge you get your friends to
join to a little friendly competition is
a good thing so that we can all have
some fun together and improve your
English skills while we’re doing it so
what are the 10 most common grammar
mistakes that English learners make
number one uncountable nouns so you
probably know that there are two types
of nouns in English countable and
uncountable nouns countable nouns are
easy you can count them and when there’s
more than one the noun becomes plural we
add an S one Apple three cars a million
subscribers the now becomes plural when
there’s more than one and we can use the
singular articles a and M when we’re
talking about just one of them but
uncountable nouns are different they
don’t usually have a plural form you
can’t use a singular article with them
and you need to use quantifiers to help
explain how much of the noun there is
the way that you use uncountable nouns
in English sentences is completely
different to countable nouns let’s just
compare
Apple accountable now and advice and
uncountable now I have an apple for you
I have a piece of advice for you how
many apples do you have how much advice
do you have I have a few apples for you
I have a little advice for you it’s not
just the mound that’s important the type
of noun affects many other words in your
sentence so using the wrong words with
the uncountable noun in an English
sentence is a really really common
mistake and it’s easy to do without
realizing that you’re doing it perhaps
you don’t realize that a noun is
uncountable mistake number two irregular
verbs now these are also really common
English mistakes difficult to master
because there are no rules that you can
learn to logically explain why one verb
is regular and the other is not even
though there are fewer irregular verbs
than regular verbs many irregular verbs
are really really common verbs
you can’t escape them you need to learn
them number three
subject verb agreement subject verb
agreement is as simple as it sounds the
subject and the verb in English
sentences must agree they must match so
why is it such a common mistake in
English even my advanced English
students sometimes make these mistakes
as well and it’s simply because they’ve
got into some bad habits they don’t
realize that they’re making these
mistakes that car looks expensive those
cars look expensive poll is what
out the window John and Tim are looking
out the window do those students like to
eat bananas does this student like to
eat bananas these mistakes are very easy
to fix
bad habits can be fixed but you need to
see them so I’ll explain more about this
in detail during the English grammar
challenge common mistake number four
auxiliary verbs yes
the three main auxiliary verbs in
English do B and have they’re very
important and learning a little more
about them is going to help you improve
your English grammar a lot because the
relationship between an auxilary verb
and the main verb in an English sentence
is very clear and simple the auxiliary
verb do appears in the simple tenses the
auxilary verb b appears in the
continuous tenses and also in the
passive voice and the oxalá Reverb have
appears in the perfect tenses this is
one part of English that is really
consistent so if you’re making any of
these mistakes we can fix them easily so
join me for the challenge and learn more
about auxilary verbs and fix these
common grammar mistakes mistake number
five articles which one should you use
when and why articles must cause the
most headaches for English learners the
is the definite article and an hour
indefinite articles the difference
between definite and indefinite articles
is the difference between talking about
a specific noun and a general
now if you asked me can you pass me a
pen that means any of these pens not a
specific one but if you asked me can you
pass me the blue pen that only means
this pen none of the others but
sometimes you don’t need to use an
article at all so it’s easy to see why
articles are some of the most common
mistakes that English learners make the
good news is that there are some simple
rules that you can follow to choose the
right article and I’ve got a few tips
that I want to share with you during the
challenge to help you learn a little bit
more about articles and how to use them
number six
prepositions words like in on at by with
four you get my point these words they
help to give information about time
location and direction in English just
like articles may also cause a few
headaches sometimes the same preposition
can have different meanings depending on
the context if your keys are in the car
the meaning is different to at the car
but if you’re in school the meaning is
pretty much the same as at school I had
a coffee at Helens that means at her
house or I had a coffee with Helen that
means we had a coffee together but it
could have been anywhere these tiny
little words can influence the meaning
of your English sentence significantly
but they are a challenge because the
rules and reasons for using them are not
always clear plus you could be thinking
about the correct preposition that’s
used in your own native language but
they don’t translate directly into
English and this can be a problem too
any way to get them right you need to
pray
this and that’s exactly what we’ll do
during the challenge number seven we’re
going to talk about word order in
questions so asking questions giving
answers it’s the basics of a great
conversation in English in any language
really but one common mistake is using
the wrong word order when you’re asking
questions we can go shopping this
afternoon what you are cooking for
dinner word order in English questions
is a common grammar mistake I see it a
lot and I hear even more often
and another thing different types of
questions in English use different
intonation so getting the structure and
the intonation right is important if you
want to sound natural like a native
English speaker the good news is that
English questions are really consistent
they follow a clear structure question
word auxilary verb subject and your main
verb if you remember these words in this
order your questions should always be
correct mistake number eight lucky eight
the present perfect tense
now this tense is a challenging one
there’s the present perfect simple and
the present perfect continuous you can
also use the words for and since with
these tenses to help you express
information about time now the structure
of a present perfect sentence is
probably not the difficult part you
probably know that there’s the subject
the auxiliary verb have and the main
verb in past participle form but in the
present perfect continuous your past
participle verb is been and it’s
followed by a verb in ing form don’t
forget to conjugate
that oxalá reverb depending on the
subject so it’s confusing because this
tense is about the past and the present
at the same time it connects something
that happened in the past to the present
moment and there are a few different
ways that this can happen in English so
although it’s complicated it is a really
commonly used tense in English so you
need to understand it if you join the
English challenge I’m going to explain
how to use this tense in more detail and
help you to practice using it as well
another mistake this is number nine the
difference between the past simple and
the present perfect tense like I said
the present perfect is also about the
past which is confusing in itself right
so why not just use the past simple to
talk about the past to understand when
to use the past simple and when to use
the present perfect tense you need to
think about time finish time and
unfinished time last week is a good
example of finished time it’s complete
it’s over but this week is unfinished
it’s an example of unfinished time
there’s still more of this week to come
it’s not finished yet so expressions of
time are really important when you’re
using these two different tenses
yesterday last week last month 1991
these are all examples of finished time
time that’s complete so you would use
the past simple but when you’re thinking
about a time period that is unfinished
like today this week this month my life
use the present perfect again I’ll go
over this with you during the challenge
la
mistake number 10 and I wonder if this
is a mistake
that you sometimes make not all the time
but sometimes when do you use adjectives
that end in E D and ing there is a big
difference between he looks bored and he
looks boring I am interested or I am
interesting there doesn’t seem to be
much difference between these adjectives
but using them incorrectly in your
sentence completely changes the meaning
luckily there are some simple rules to
help you remember which one is the right
one to use now I want to help you
improve your English and fixing these 10
common mistakes is a really good place
to start so come and take the English
challenge with me I’ll explain all of
these important English grammar points
so that you can understand them and then
you’ll be able to take a short quiz to
check what you’ve learned
joining the English challenge is really
easy step one just subscribe to this
channel to join the challenge you must
be an English subscriber if you’re not a
subscriber already just click that red
button down there easy step 2 go to this
website to join you need to sign up and
pay $1 also really easy step 3 complete
the ten lessons yeah there are ten
lessons about the ten most common
mistakes that English learners make I
want you to fix these mistakes in your
English so I’ll explain each of the
grammar points and give you lots of
examples and then you’ll check your
knowledge with a short quiz at the end
of each lesson so you’ll study with me
and improve your grammar skills and test
your skills it
gonna be super fun get your friends to
join in as well and make sure that you
complete all of the lessons by the end
of May if you do that you could win one
of the many in English prizes we’re
giving away t-shirts English courses and
even conversation practice with me so
head over to the website to sign up
let’s do this
do it now I’ll be back here next week on
YouTube with another lesson for you bye for now