8 Common Mistakes | Quick Tips To 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