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Hi.
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I'm Rebecca from www.engvid.com.
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In the past 30 years, I've worked with thousands
of students from all over the world to help
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them improve their English
communication skills.
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In the past year, I've been researching the
most important errors and the most common
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errors made by English learners.
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And what I've done is I've put all of
this information together into a course.
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It's called: "Correct Your English
Errors in 10 Minutes a Day".
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I'm very excited to tell you about this course,
because I really think it's an easy, quick,
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fast way for you to improve your
English and take it to a higher level.
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All right?
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But first what I want to do is tell you: What
are the points you have to keep in mind when
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you are trying to
improve your English?
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What do you need to know about
correcting your errors?
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So, let me share a little bit of my results
from my research so it can help you.
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Okay?
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And then we will look at specific types of
errors, and do a little quiz to see where
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you stand.
Okay?
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Let's get started.
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So, first, when you're correcting your
English, really, you can do two things.
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Right?
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When you're improving your English, you can
do two things; you can learn what's right
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or correct what's wrong.
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Now we're talking about this area
where we correct what's wrong.
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So, in order to correct what's
wrong, what do you need to do?
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First, you need to
know what's wrong.
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So, when I get an essay or I get an
email to correct, what's the problem?
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It's not that the person was
trying to make mistakes.
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They weren't trying to make mistakes;
they're trying to do their best.
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Right?
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That's what you do.
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Every time you write or every time you speak,
but you didn't know that something was wrong.
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So, first you have to
know what's wrong.
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Then you have to
understand why it's wrong.
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Why is it this word
and not that word?
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Why is it this verb tense
and not that verb tense?
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And so on and so forth.
Okay?
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Then you have to learn
how to fix it. Okay?
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Is it a spelling change?
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It is a punctuation error?
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What kind of mistake is it?
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That's what we're going to be
looking at - the types of mistakes.
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Because once you understand and correct a
type of mistake, you will correct lots of
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mistakes all at once.
Okay?
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And that's what I want you to do; to
make quick progress, fast progress.
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Okay.
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Then what you need to do, which many
students do, is to practice it immediately.
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So, for example, if I teach you something
in this lesson or in any one of my engVid
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lessons, after you watch it, what you need to do
is to practice something with that immediately.
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That's why we usually have a quiz-right?-so
that you can go there right away, do some
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more practice to put that information really
into your head; and not just to put it passively
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there, but to use it.
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Right?
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To use whatever you've
learned in a practical way.
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So, you need to practice it immediately,
but sometimes that's where students stop.
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They practice it right away, and then they
don't touch it after that, and they think:
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"I did it.
I know it", but not quite.
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So, what's also very, very important in terms
of our brain, in terms of how we learn, in
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terms of how we remember is this point, here:
That you need to review it frequently.
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Review anything that you learn often;
otherwise, it's not going to stay with you.
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So, for example, in my course, what we have
are we have daily quizzes, we have weekly
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tests, we have monthly reviews
with the same material.
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Okay?
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So that after a while, you
say: "Of course I know that.
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I know how...
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The difference between
'it's' and 'its'.
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I know the difference between
'affect' and 'effect'.
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That's not a problem",
because you've reviewed it.
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If you don't review it, then
it's going to drop away.
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Okay?
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So this is an essential part of brain-based
learning, of very smart learning.
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Not just hard learning,
but smart learning.
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And then you need to
know what's important.
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So, let's say you get back your essay
and there are twenty corrections.
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So, are they all
equally important? No.
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Some are critical.
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If you make some mistakes, you can get very
low marks on your IELTS or TOEFL, you could
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lose a job possibility-right?-you could
have a very low grade in university.
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But some other mistakes are not so serious;
they're very advanced kind of technical mistakes
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that even English
learners might make.
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Those are not as serious.
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But if you make basic mistakes with verb tenses,
if you forget to use a verb, or something
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like that, if you don't use an article - then
those mistakes are more fundamental and more
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serious.
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And that's what I made sure is in the course
and also what I'm going to tell you about
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right now.
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Okay?
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So, let's do that.
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Okay, so let's go through
these common mistakes.
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Number one: "Everyone is here"
or "Everyone are here"?
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What's correct?
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This is a question of
subject-verb agreement.
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So, what do you think it is?
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It should be: "Everyone
is here." Okay?
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"Everyone", "someone", "anyone", "no one" -
these are all singular, and that's something
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that is always true.
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Okay?
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So, it's something that once you learn that,
you know that you can apply it always.
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All right?
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Here we go.
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Number two - this is a preposition error:
"I've lived here since two years" or "I've
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lived here for two years"?
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Which is correct?
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Do you know?
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It should be: "I've lived
here for two years."
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Okay?
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Do you know why?
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Remember I said it's not only important to
know that it's wrong; it's important to know
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why it's wrong.
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All right?
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And the reason why is because we use
"for" plus the period of time; how long.
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Okay?
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For how long?
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For two years.
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And we use "since" from
the point in time.
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So, let's suppose it's 2010 now.
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It's not, but let's suppose it was 2010 now, then
we can say: "Since 2008", two years before that.
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Okay?
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But "for" plus the period of time, so that's
a kind of an error that, once you understand
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it, it will be much easier to apply,
and especially once you practice it.
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Next, number three - this is a mistake in
verb tenses, potentially: "We visited Niagara
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Falls yesterday" or "We have
visited Niagara Falls yesterday"?
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Okay?
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So, here we have the simple past,
here we have present perfect.
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Which is correct in this
sentence, or are both correct?
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Well, it should be: "We visited
Niagara falls yesterday."
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Why?
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Why can't we use the other one?
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Because we have the word,
here: "yesterday".
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"Yesterday" is a finished time.
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Once you have a finished time that's mentioned
in the sentence, then we can only use the
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simple past or past simple;
we can't use present perfect.
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We can use present perfect
if no time is mentioned.
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If it only said: "We have visited
Niagara Falls" or otherwise not.
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Okay?
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Or if you want to
say: "this week".
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We can use it with a time
that's not finished.
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"We have visited Niagara Falls this summer",
"We have visited this week", "this month",
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"this year".
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Okay?
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A time that's not
finished we can mention.
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All right.
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Next, this is a question of word order: "He
arrived at 7:00 at the airport" or "He arrived
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at the airport at 7:00"?
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And you're saying:
"It doesn't matter.
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I don't care."
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I know, I know.
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But in English, it does matter.
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Okay?
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So, is there a rule
you can follow here?
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There is.
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So, which one, first of
all, do you think is right?
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So, the correct one is: "He arrived at
the airport at 7:00", and this is wrong.
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And why?
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Again, the principle.
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The principle is that we have
to mention place before time.
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Okay?
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"I arrived at the party at 7:00", "I arrived
at the airport at 7:00", "I arrived at the
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office at 7:00", okay?
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And not the other way around.
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So, once you understand the principle, you'll
be able to apply it when you're speaking and
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when you're writing.
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All right.
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Number five, this is a question of comparative
adjectives: "The weather is better today"
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or "The weather is
more better today"?
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Which is right, or
are both right?
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Both are definitely not right in this case;
and in fact, one of them is always wrong.
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Which one is always wrong?
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This one.
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This is the only correct option.
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So, if you ever hear anyone saying:
"more better", it's always wrong.
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Okay?
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And that's because
that's the only form.
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You have "good", "better",
and "the best".
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There is nothing else.
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Okay?
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So, some of these you learn by just knowing
that there is never a case, there are no rules
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that sometimes you use this one and
sometimes you use that one - no.
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That's the only option.
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All right?
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Now let's look at five
more from my course.
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All right, let's do number six.
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So, here, we are
talking about a car.
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All right?
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And let's look at this mistake.
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This is a mistake in writing.
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The first one: "It's tires need to be
changed" or "Its tires need to be changed"?
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So, here we have "it's" and
here we just have "its".
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So, which is correct?
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All right?
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Got it?
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So, it is this one, without the apostrophe,
and this one is wrong because this: "it's"
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is short for what?
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Short for: "It is tires
need to be changed."
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No.
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We want to use the possessive form of
"it", which is "its" with no apostrophe.
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This is different from
lots of other words, okay?
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So: "Its tires need
to be changed."
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So, this is an example
of a homophone.
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These are words which...
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Words which sound the same, but their meaning
and their spelling is often different.
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All right.
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There are many of these, and these can cause
a lot of confusion, and they are responsible
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for lots of mistakes in writing.
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Okay.
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The next one is an example of word
choice; incorrect word choice.
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For example: "We won the other
team" or "We beat the other team"?
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Which is it?
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Okay?
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You got it?
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Okay, I'm going to
write the answer now.
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Ready?
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"We...
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We beat the other team", not:
"We won the other team".
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All right?
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Although people might say
that, but that's not right.
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So, you beat the other side, the other player,
your opponent, and so on; but you win the
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game, you win the championship.
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Okay?
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That's how you...
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You win the match.
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All right?
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So, "win" is used with the game, or the match,
or the championship; and you beat the other
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side.
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So, there, it's an example of you
had to choose the right word.
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Okay?
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And you have to know that's
more of a vocabulary issue.
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All right.
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Number eight, we're talking
about the correct word form.
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So, you know, like every
word, there is a family.
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Right?
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Every word has a family; there's a noun, there's
a verb, there's an adjective, there's an adverb
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usually, and sometimes
people use the wrong one.
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So, let's figure out if you
can get this one right.
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Number eight: "Can you advise me?", "Can
you advice me?" or "Can you advices me?"
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Which of those is correct?
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Now you had a choice of three.
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Okay.
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So, it should be:
"Can you advise me?"
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Not "advice" and
definitely not "advices".
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Why did I say: "definitely
not 'advices'"?
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Because this word is just
wrong; it doesn't exist.
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All right?
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It's not part of the family.
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It is...
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It doesn't exist.
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This is just a mistake
that people make.
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That is not the
plural of "advice".
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This is the noun:
"advice", and even...
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You can't make it plural by adding
"s"; it's a non-count noun.
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So, here we wanted to use the
verb, so the verb is "advise".
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I know it's written with an "s", but
it's pronounced with a "z" sound.
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"Can you advise me?"
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Good.
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Next, so this one is just confusing words,
confusing grammar-okay?-let's call it.
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"It's so a beautiful day" or
"It's such a beautiful day"?
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What's right there?
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It should be: "such a beautiful day", because
after "such", we're looking for a noun or
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we're looking for a noun phrase.
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Okay?
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And after "so", we're usually looking
for an adjective or an adverb.
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So, we could say: "It's so beautiful
today" or "It's such a beautiful day".
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Okay?
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Again, each of these
points you have to master.
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I'll talk to you about
that in a second.
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And the last one is just
expressions that we use.
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So, which of these expressions
is correct: "Good evening.
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How are you?" or "Good night.
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How are you?"
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So, is there a difference between saying:
"Good evening" and "Good night"?
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In some languages, I believe it's not; there's
no difference, but in English, there is a
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difference.
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So, which is correct here?
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Got it?
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Okay.
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We should say: "Good evening.
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Good evening.
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How are you?"
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Okay?
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Because: "Good evening" is a
greeting when we meet somebody.
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And we can use it.
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We can say: "Good morning.
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How are you?", "Good afternoon.
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How are you?", "Good evening.
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How are you?"
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But: "Good night" is only said when
you're leaving and you're going away.
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So, you're not going to say: "Good night", and
then say to somebody: "How are you?" because
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it's, like, the end
of the conversation.
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You can't say: "Bye.
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Okay.
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See you tomorrow.
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Good night."
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And you're not talking anymore;
you're just going away after that.
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All right?
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So, there's nothing else.
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But: "Good evening" is when you arrive,
and you say: "Good evening, everyone.
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How are you?"
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Okay?
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And now you're going to start the evening; and
here, you're ending it, so there's nothing
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more to say.
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But, again, that's something
you have to learn.
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And why is it important?
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Because, here, we've talked about just 10
kinds of errors, but actually there are many
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kinds of errors, and in my course we cover
more than 100 of them, and the most important
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thing is we cover
them only one by one.
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Here, in case you didn't get them all immediately,
it's because we did a lot in one time, and
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I understand that.
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And maybe you understood them right now, but the
question is: Will you remember them tomorrow?
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So, by doing...
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By focusing on just one at a time, you can
master it, and then you can review it at the
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end of the week, at the end of the month,
at the end of the course, and so on.
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Also, I've particularly chosen those errors
that are the most common, that are the most
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embarrassing, that will lead to misunderstanding
- so if you use one word instead of the other,
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people might misunderstand,
they might get confused.
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"What does he...?
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What does he mean?
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What is she saying?"
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So those are the kinds of errors that I've chosen,
and also these are the most serious errors.
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Okay?
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They make you look bad, or they make you
get lower grades and things like that.
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So, by focusing on them and by mastering them once
and for all, then you're done; you've got it.
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And your English will have improved so much,
because little by little, you corrected all
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the different types of errors
that really matter. Okay?
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So, if you'd like to know more-okay?-click
on the link that's either below or above the
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video, and I wish you all
the best with your English.
00:17:42
Bye for now.
