ERRATUM: 12:50 it should say "What does he look like?" and not "What's does he look like." I run while I type sorry for the confusion. Also in part 2. It's ok to say "to have here" or "to have in" my point is that the phrase needed a verb. Some have pointed out that in the US it's quite common to say "for here" and I accept that though it still sounds strange to me.
US "for here" reminded me old Soviet story of two Russians in London. The dialogue was: - Which watch? - Seven watch. - Such much?! - To whom how. - MGIMO finished? - Ask! (MGIMO - state institute of foreign affairs).
I'll add to the chorus as an American--"for here or to go" is the standard way this question is asked in the US. Also in the US, I use "see you soon" when I'm about to see someone in a few minutes (on Skype before a meeting, for example, or when a friend has just called me to tell me he's arrived at my residence). I've heard it used by others, too. So if you hear weird English abroad...it may be American!
Perhaps the barista had spent time in the US, where “for here or to go” is completely the norm. People would look at you strangely if you said “to have in.”
Yeah, I totally agree with you. I think it's the standard convention (particularly in the US) for how to ask the customer where they are having their coffee. The 'corrected' forms sound clunky by comparison.
I live in camada and it’s the same here :) I worked as a barista for a year and I’ve never heard anyone saying “to have in”, to be honest, it doesn’t even sound right 😂
Nor is "have in" any more logical or less idiomatic than "for here." We English speakers use "have" as a substitute for a more accurate verb, as in "have breakfast," or "have a drink." That hardly makes it universal or preferable.
I live in Chicago (US) and whenever I go to restaurant or coffee shop, they’ll ask “is it for here or to go”? This is a very common expression, and to be honest I could not imagine a scenario where the question would be phrased differently. When I have to buy a train, bus or plane ticket, they’ll ask, “would you like a one-way or round-trip ticket”? If they said, a return ticket, I would assume it is only to return. When you are going to see a person later that day or in the near future, you would say, “I’ll see you soon.” I can only speak as a Chicagoan, but I find British English much more formal than American English. For us, most of the rules are thrown out the window, and a lot of “incorrect grammar” is used instead. It used to be only used informally, but it has become much more acceptable to use “incorrect grammar” in formal settings, such as college, work, etc. Also, there are many differences when it comes to words, expressions, and so on between British and American English, that even caused me some confusion when I visited London a few years ago.
@@gr8wings but perhaps you already bought the ticket to get there, but now need to return on another date, so need to buy a new return ticket and only a return ticket.
I agree with the return ticket description. If you need a return ticket, then you already have a way to get there. One way or round trip is the way we say it in Texas. The "go and return" reminds me of asking for a round trip ticket in French "aller-retour".
"For here or to go" is the one and only way I've ever been asked that question here in Vancouver, Canada. I'm pretty sure I've heard the same thing in other places across Canada and the US.
Sorry but Americans are not able to speak English. A friend of mine, who is from the UK, said in presence of an American Americans are not able to speak English.
Absolutely the norm in the US. If something really becomes the norm in polite conversation, then it begins to "read"as grammatically correct. I would say that the technical argument why it could be considered correct is that the barista is asking you to specify which of the two categories you want to order: one commonly referred to as "for here" and one referred to as "to go." Both seem equally correct / incorrect in common (polite) usage. Doesn't seem any more inappropriate than calling a food order "take away." Or calling the main shopping street in town "high street."
Most of these mistakes reveal the patterns in the speakers' native languages, and as a native English speaker I find them interesting rather than unacceptably wrong. But it's helpful to point out the little changes that can make these phrases sound more idiomatic. Better here though than right there in the coffee shop.
Not only do they tell you about the native languages, they also show the way people think and feel. "For here?" ist a perfectly normal question in certain areas of Germany. We buy sheets for the bedroom (to use there), soap for the kitchen (to use there) and also coffee for here (to use/drink here). However, we would also get our coffee "for on the way", not "to go".
I did a similar thing on my last vacation. I recorded all the errors I heard. I filled two notebooks while I was still in Texas. I had no room for the errors I heard in Arkansas. I love these videos. The one thing that jars my ear is "different to"--I've always said "different from" and "differently than." But then, I've only been speaking English for 62 years; one of these days I'll master it.
«Before I worked in finance» looks like a direct translation from another language, like in Italian we say "prima lavoravo nella finanza", where "prima" is "before". In Italian there's something similar to English "I used to...", but it sounds "bookish": "Ero solito fare qualcosa" could translate "I used to do something".
That was also a reason I suggested he was in Italy... many of the sentences he gave are direct translations from typical formulations used in romance languages that will sound off in English.
” Would you like to have your meal here in the restaurant, or would you prefer me to wrap it up for you to take it with you?” I’d love to hear such language, but I suppose I’ll have to go elsewhere than fast food restaurants to get that opportunity. If you like fast food, bare bone fast and furious grammar obvously is what comes with it!
I can't believe this!!!! I've been working as a barista for more than 3 years now and I think that I have always said ''is it for here or to go?''. No wonder people always seem to strugle to understand me. It's almost like they can't hear me properly because this is the very things I need to ask. Now I know what the problem has been the whole time!!! Thank you!!! Starting tomorrow, I'm fixing this!
For here or to go is the common expression here in the US. I’ve been here since 6 months sounds like the way you would say that in French, je suis ici depuis 6 mois. I think these expressions are often a result of the native language grammar rules slipping into their English. I know that the reverse is true when I try to speak a foreign language since I’m no where near fluent.
"For here or to go?" is actually pretty common in the US. In fact it seems to be the standard there. There's also a movie by that name. Usually in the UK i hear "Eat in or take away?"
Wow! That’s interesting! The U.S. receiving immigrants from so many cultures, might be subject to significant influence of ”bad grammar”. Would it be a bold assumption that the person asking you wether you intend to take your beverage with you, or consume it on the premises, more often than not is a ”non-native” speaker?
@@subbuteo2 No conflict between the two, only time. New ways of using language is initially ”bad language” until a sufficient number of people find it OK, don’t you think? Where circulation of people is great, evolution is quicker according to that theory. Icelandic language kept its likeness to the ancient Old Norse for so long for a reason. I would think it is the relative isolation. If that is true, the opposite should also be true, don’t you think?
@@Johan-vk5yd Or maybe it's just a fast way of saying it, so people use it? Why would it have to be influenced by "bad language"? Maybe someone just came up with that phrase and because it was so easy and fast to say, it stuck. I mean, sure, the proper way would be to say "would you like to eat your meal here", but why would anyone say that if you have an easier and faster expression for that? That's just how spoken language develops.
Hi Gideon, thank you so much for running this channel. Your videos are interesting and entertaining and, if I dare say, you're the most sympathetic and best English teacher that I've met so far. Thanks and keep it up!
"To go and return ticket" is literally what we say in spanish, because you're buying one ticket, but two trips. You go first, and then return, you pay both. If you order a return ticket, that means that you have previously bought a ticket to go, or you're going on a different mean of transport and you just want to buy a ticket to return
as a brazilian who grew up in London (I lived there from roughly 9 to 14) but now lives in Brazil for almost ten years since I returned...I still managed to get some of them wrong myself cause my english is so rusty now XD and I can definetly confirm that most speakers of another language tend to translate some aspects of their native language to their target language (or whatever you call it) and end up making mistakes. Its funny how I can relate to that because I've heard quite a few times some of my friends who try to speak english with me sound off, but then I realize that they translated literally an expression and for that reason ended up sounding weird. Whenever that happens I always explain to them that they should get a bit more input and they'll naturally correct themselves because they'll get a feeling for the language. Just an interesting thing I thought I'd share :)
As a grammar police, I would like to alert ⚠ about a brutal crime happened the moment 12:50 of this video: It was written "what´s does he looke like", but should be "what does he looke like" , there is NO apostrophe S here. Thank you so much for your amaizing videos. I am a fan of LetThemTalkTV.
Good work 👏, officer 👮♀! Gideon has pleaded guilty 🔗. As punishment, he has published an apology 🙏 and correction 📜, and pinned it at the top of all other comments.
Thank you for your videos. For EFL teachers it's really important to know the formal, coloquial an cultural uses the language. The comments are very helpful as well! Cheers from Brazil😊
Here in Canada native speakers say "For here or to go?" all the time. Another thing North American native speakers say is: "For pick up or delivery?" I wonder if you find that incorrect. I know you said in the Monty English podcast 13 that it's always ing after a preposition and that there's only one exception.
"For here" makes complete sense: you're just omitting the "eating/drinking". So the full version would be "For eating/drinking here, or to take away?" It does mix grammatical structures though, which is weird. Also, "go and return" isn't incorrect, it's just redundant... sort of. As another commenter said, as an American I would assume buying a "return ticket" would necessitate buying a separate "go ticket" in order to get to the location I bought the "return ticket" for. As for the "see you" stuff, this is all colloquial and pretty free-floating. There's nothing "grammatically incorrect" about them, but more "atypical". Though they're not even atypical, to be honest. Lastly, I you could say that "Can you tell me: Where is the station?" is correct, but atypical. Depends on if there is clear pause between "me" and "station".
@@stevelee8539 yup commonly used in both both the US & the UK. Also if you're Italian you can get away with saying anything... I'm guessing that he was in Italy...
"People Is" instead of "People Are" is a very common grammatical error in Latin countries because the word "People" refers to a large group of persons, and the word "group" is singular. Thinking of tDepeche Mode song "people are people" might help to avoid this mistake.
i can understand the reasoning behind "to go and return ticket" as in Polish, my mother tongue, we have a return ticket from there to here only as i might probably already have a ticket to get there or i am getting another means of transport and i just need one to get back, there is also a return ticket that means 'a two way ticket' ie to get there and back but have only one slip of paper (one ticket)
@@impact0r The explanation is logical inasmuch as the English language is, that is, not much. In French we say 'Aller et retour', which is more logical - which goes to show that French is not always totally illogical. Besides, the subtitle of 'The Hobbit' is 'There and Back Again', not plain 'Back Again', which would make for a rather boring story...
Gideon, though your remark on go and return is formally correct, dealing with foreigners needs making sure that you are correctly understood . In this case "return" would imply a *just return* ticket to most foreigners. So I would recommend using go and return though it is kindof "international English" . In German it is "Hin- und zurück", in Spanish ida i vuelta. It is not Rückfahrticket or just vuelta. It is possible that time will change this use in English. Also, the phrase "for here" is perfectly clear to foreigners. Coffee 2go (which I heard first in 1987 in the US) is strange and the thousand questions you have to answer during the process of ordering food at a diner can be a challenge - I had never before heard the question if I wanted my eggs "sunny side up". In London, foreigners have to deal with accents, too ... Indian or African English does not sound like the restricted pronounciation German schools usually teach. Be tolerant against us humble speakers who use English as Esperanto 🤣 - especially outside Britain -
@@riojari you are right - but what Gideon says "to go and return" is not correct English , it is "a return ticket" to go there and back- and this is what ESOL students need to understand. there are many examples when students will be translating word for word from their mother tongue and which will be extremely funny, the other day i saw "thank you from the mountain" which is a word for word translation of the Polish "thank you in advance", or we have "an elephant in a china store/warehouse/depot" or we "build castles from the sand" students simply need to be shown these differences and explained that what is correct in one language can be incorrect in another
Oh my Gosh! I am getting so worried about my war on illiteracy and poor grammar. I find it alienates people; but I make allowances for those who do not have English as their first languange. In fact I find that many people who learned English as a second language are much better at it than those who have just picked it up randomly from their family.
Because we L2 speakers don't simply take eat the language in childhood and have to actively learn it. Should be pretty rare to find issues with "your" and "you're" or with "there", "their" and "they're" among non-natives. Okay, the words are pronounced basically the same, but the context is completely different. If a foreign 6th grader can manage to get that right, there is no reason for adult native speakers to have issues with it. And obviously the good old "should of", which doesn't make any sense at all. The worst form of that one I've seen is "should've of" Every time I see that I have to ask, of what?
This video is very useful because these things are rarely highlighted in the books. I remember a story when a native speaker I used to work with taught me the different between "How it looks" vs "what it looks like". A lot of people would say "How it looks like" as in "let me show you how it looks like". I would never noticed that myself if it wasn't for that guy. So, we more of this!
At my coffee shop they ask "are you staying with us ?" It always sounds as if they are insisting on it. If they'd say "to have in" most locals wouldn't understand...
I m always impressed dear Gideon with your brillant lessons. Each every time, a true pleasure to revise or learn something new. Many thanks. Have a nice weekend 👍💯❤️
Excellent video. It's particularly hard to correct many of these mistakes, especially when you're used to saying some phrases a certain way in your native tongue for all your life (e.g., "Is it for here?")
4:40 I'd say "two-way ticket". 9:18 There is no error. Gideon's advice except the alternatives offered (which are correct) is completely wrong here. 11:13 Both of the expressions are completely correct. Using "before" is completely natural.
English teachers of the world, it will be difficult to surpass Giddeon in quirkiness and invention. The beginning of this video is a masterpiece of comedy.
I’d like buy a “return ticket” to (or from) somewhere? Instead you can buy a “round-trip” ticket to somewhere. “Frheargo” is a very specific word and a full sentence; it is atomic and it cannot be further analyzed.
I have a couple of friends from GB, NZ AND Scotland and they basically agree on this: Don't try too hard to speak a 100% correct english, everybody will hear you're a foreigner and they'll forgive your mistakes ... it is way more important for them that I speak fluently and don't stutter around trying to find the adequate grammar. My experience.
Yes, the point of language is to make yourself understood. If you can be understood, most people will forgive the mistakes or even find them endearing.
As a native English speaker, I was very surprised to see that "for here or to go" and "see you soon" are incorrect! I hear them all the time from native speakers in Canada, but then again we also say "I've done my homework", so perhaps our grasp on the English language isn't the best 🤔
Good point. I was perhaps a little harsh with the first one but I still contend that you need a verb in the phrase "to have here" is ok but "for here" sounds strange to me but perhaps in Canada it's ok. I still maintain that "see you soon" means "until we meet again" whereas "see you then" is about an agreed time.
@@LetThemTalkTV "to have in/here" mirrors "to go", so that makes perfect sense to me, while "See you soon" might just be an example of regional differences in English phrases. After watching this video, I wouldn't be surprised if I visited the UK and got funny looks for using "see you soon" in the wrong context.
@@louisevillela1920 I remember hearing (not on LetThemTalkTV) that "I've done my homework" is considered an odd phrase for many non-Canadians because it's halfway between "I'm done with X (ex. my homework)" and "I've finished X (ex. my homework / doing my homework)". I can't give a better explanation than that since "I've done my homework" sounds completely natural to me.
It seems that the people you were talking to are Italians, and it makes perfect sense since they were simply translating Italian into English. I deal with the opposite issue, and the results are the same. English native speakers make the same mistakes when they speak neo-Latin languages.
Using patterns from your own language is what most mistakes stem from. Sometimes, however, foreign patterns replace native ones, such as the one you used in your comment: "to make sense" has been literally translated into German and is now most frequently used by Germans, although there are at least two perfect German expressions, one that replaces make (Sinn "ergeben") and one that is an adjective ("sinnvoll").
@@micleh "Sinn machen" klingt nur so als sei es wörtlich aus dem Englischen übersetzt. In Wirklichkeit ist es eine vollkommen Deutsche Konstruktion, nach dem Muster "Ärger machen", "Spaß machen", "Probleme machen" etc. Daß es auch einen anderen Ausdruck "Sinn ergeben" gibt ändert daran nichts, die Konstruktion mit "machen" ist nur umgangssprachlicher.
@@frofa2954 Diese Ansicht teile ich nicht ganz. Im Nachgang würde ich es aber anders formulieren. Anatol Stefanowitsch hat auf "Sprachlog" dazu einen meiner Meinung nach interessanten Artikel verfasst und versucht dort zu zeigen, dass "die Redewendung zwar vermutlich durch das Englische inspiriert ist, aber im Deutschen schon sehr viel länger existiert als üblicherweise angenommen". Für das länger existiert spricht sicherlich auch die wörtliche Anlehnung an "sententiam facere" wodurch sich Luther hat inspirieren lassen. Dass Vertreter wie Lessing und Max Frisch es benutzen, weist auch auf Letzteres hin. Insgesamt muss man aber noch bedenken, dass "Sinn machen" weder eine überall in Deutschland gebräuchliche Redewendung ist, noch in anderen deutschsprachigen Ländern, wie etwa Österreich oder die Schweiz, gebräuchlich ist, was ein Artikel aus der nzz zeigt.
@@micleh Daß der Ausdruck in der Schweiz ungebräuchlich ist widerspricht deiner eigenen Aussage, daß Max Frisch ihn auch verwendet hat - zusammen mit Dürrenmatt sicher der bekannteste Schweizer Schriftsteller des letzten Jahrhunderts. Und einer, der schon über 30 Jahre tot ist, also seit vor dem grossen Einfluß des Englischen auf die deutsche Sprache (der maßgeblich vom Internet getragen wird).
The problem is that all the different phrases he mentions do not have exact definitions of how much time it means. The most natural for the situation he described would be "See you in a bit" and "See you soon" is just as good. But "See you later" is not 100% wrong, but it would be more correct for a longer time than 10 minutes. This comes with seeing how native speakers use the different phrases in different situations.
Wow, hold your horses! So if in Britain I ask for a return ticket, I get... two tickets? One to go there and one to go back? But I'm driving there with a friend, I need only the return one! How do I ask for that?
I dunno if you read comments several months after you upload your videos. Doesn't matter-I discovered your channel very recently, love it, and have been binging on it since! 💗 Now, I'm not a native English speaker. But on questionnaires, I rate myself as having "native or bilingual fluency in English." I learnt English formally in school. Which you can tell because of-dunno again-my forced attempts to speak colloquially, ya savvy? As an engineer, pragmatist, worldwide traveler, _and_ amateur linguist, I love videos such as this-particularly because they're excellent fora for voicing my opinions! And I do have opinions on many of the points that you raised in this video. But it's from the perspective of someone who's _not_ an English teacher. So, yeah, it's a rather longish essay-a critique of the critic. As you said, it's all fun and friendly; no malice intended! _"This summer I went on holiday ..."_ - British English, naturally. No worries; I know that you teach formal British English (or, as you call it, _'English'),_ while occasionally mentioning American English and other variants for comparison and contrast. The Americans, of course, would say _'vacation.'_ _"A grammar policeman or policewoman"_ - ah, if only there were a gender-neutral way to refer to professionals 🙄. (Oh yes, I do know and use the subjunctive. Not using it when required is another favorite _gotcha_ of the grammar police-and I don't want to spoil your _mood.)_ Did you just say _" 'People' _*_is_*_ a plural noun"_ when correcting someone else for saying _"The people in your country _*_is_*_ [sic] very nice"?_ You both said _"people is."_ But you're right and he's wrong. Oh the irony! 😜 This is important: *_Technical terms are exempt from the requirements of formal grammar._* That applies to industry- and domain-specific phrases as well. Technical terms are meant to be compact and memorable, while at the same time conveying a very specific meaning that's clear and unambiguous within the domain of discourse. Using formal grammar would make them long, clumsy, or unwieldy-as your corrections show! Consequently, _"for here or to go," "go-and-return ticket"_ etc. are immune to scrutiny from the Grammar Police. 🚫👮♂ Sorry! _"I like The Both."_ Plot twist: _The Both_ was another rock band of the '60s. Not as famous, of course, as _The Beatles_ or _The Rolling Stones._ So she was right, after all. BTW, the latter band has-at various times-called itself _Rolling Stones_ - without _"The,"_ - and also _The Rolling Stones._ So both _the_ and _The_ are correct. And of course, I wrote that just to use _"both the and the"_ in a sentence. Oh, a little earlier, I also used _"the both was"_ in another sentence. 😎 _"NP;CUL8R"_ - Texting is a convention unto itself, and does not necessarily follow English spelling and grammar! So don't chastise your colleague for _not_ saying _"See you shortly," "See you in a bit,"_ or _"See you then."_ Rather, write like the 1337 urself, I sez! Otherwise I'm gonna call _you_ out for writing _"I'm ten minutes late."_ Pedantically speaking-since you hadn't arrived yet, and were referring to a future situation-that should've been _"I'll be ten minutes late."_ or _"I'm going to be ten minutes late."_ 🤨 Yeah, it's tricky to form sentences involving time periods that involve a combination of the past, present, and future. Gets even more complicated when you're referring to time periods that are relative to an event that itself happened at a different time. So I completely sympathize with Maria _("Before, I worked in finance")_ and the other woman who said _"since six months."_ (I actually think Maria said _"Before, I _*_work_*_ in finance,"_ not _'worked'._ But you chalked it up to mishearing and/or decided it was too obvious and would distract from the other issue.) _"What's he like?"_ Well, he likes Maria, obviously, and also, houses without dogs. Didn't get the memo? In present-day English, the contraction _'s_ can also mean _does, has, was_ etc. in addition to the traditional _is._ Isn't it lovely that English continues to evolve? _"Can you tell me where is [sic] the station?"_ Yeah, I caught the obvious misplacement of _'is'._ But again, my sympathies are with the tourist. As separate sentences, _"Where is the station? Can you tell me?"_ is (grammatically) correct. But when you combine them, you have to change the order of some words. It's not intuitive. But you know what, I actually thought that you were also going to go after him for saying _"Can"_ instead of _"Would"_ - _"Yes, I _*_can_*_ tell you where the station is. Would you like me to?"_ 😂 Every English school teacher insists that (in most circumstances) you should be saying _"May I"_ and _"Would you"_ instead of _"Can I"_ and _"Can you"_ respectively. However, in everyday speech, nobody actually does. I guess EFL teachers have given up insisting on it?
OMG, our teacher was mean today. :)) You know, in my country, because I have some clues that you visited my country, most of the people have SOME english language knowledge from primary school or maybe high school. Have mercy of them. I personally learned English in high school and now, after decades, I have to improve my pronunciation and grammar. And I have to say, what I learned in school is completely different from how it is spoken in the UK .
I liked it a lot, these are situations in our day-to-day that require the right use of grammar, I always take every tip from this amazing channel. You are a Grammar police officer, you did an excellent job.👮♂️👌Thanks Gideon
You´re definitely talking about Spain, where I teach English. "I´m agree with you" (estoy de acuerdo); "go-and-return" (de ida y vuelta); "the people is..." (la gente está...); since/for + time expression (also: very often Spanish speakers use the present simple and not the peresent perfect here); "the both" (los dos) are all common mistakes made by my students.
05:16 aA long time ago I made this same mistake when ordering a go and return to Cambridge at King's Cross. The ticket clerk pressed a red button and I was immediately taken to The Tower by three Special Grammar Service agents (A SAS branch)
Easy, this one. Nearly 10 out of 10. I only didn’t know that it’s 'to have IN' instead of 'to have HERE'. In case I get arrested by the grammar police, I hope, they will grant me mitigating circumstances…
"For here or to go?" is what they say in America 😉 I lived in the UK for a few years before I moved to America and I was always confused when Americans corrected my English. I thought I had said something incorrectly (I'm a speaker of Spanish), but later I'd find out that what I had said wasn't incorrect, it was "British".
Great video, however there’s one mistake: „what’s does he look like?” instead of „What does he look like”. I consider it to be a copy-paste error while copying the text from the previous example sentence „What’s he like?” 😁👍
In the US, "see you soon" would be fine. In fact, here "see you later" is more of a way of saying goodbye than "see you soon". Though it's true that shops are more likely to write "see you soon!" Perhaps the "see you later" is a more recent thing, but it's not that recent, it's been that way all my life (i'm 45). "See you later" for goodbye strikes me as more friendly and something people would actually say in conversation here. "See you soon" sounds like someone trying to be polite and friendly associated with a shop, just like "come back soon!" or "call again soon!" I'd be shocked to hear a clerk or see a sign at a store say "come back again later!" We also regularly ask/get asked "will that (order) be for here or to go?", shortened to "for here or to go?"
I’m going a bit outside the topic of grammar here, but I came to think of my numerous stays in Italy when I was younger. In the 70’s. I scarcely met anyone able to understand, and even less so, express themselves in english. It really felt worthwile to try and learn some basic italian, under those circumstances.
Luckily the situation here in Italy has improved since the '80s, as English was introduced in schools as an alternative to French - and I believe it's now mandatory, but I may be wrong. Now most people under 50 do speak English to a certain degree, even though in some areas it is still relatively common to find even younger people struggling even with basic sentences.
@@tyrantabyss Grazie tante per tuo commentario! That’s great! I’m very happy for the italian I learnt in those days, making possible for me today to follow some odd italian YT channels too.
Hey....now I'm writing ....and for sure you will write another mistakes in your black book..... It's amazing ...I learn a lot of grammar... keep this type of video. You're the best.
The clerk at the railway station was perfectly right in asking whether you wanted a "go and return" ticket because if you ask for a "return ticket" in Italy that means a ticket from your destination to this station. You can always buy tickets and reservations to be used from another station. You might have already had the "go" (one-way) ticket, but when you bought it you did not know when you would return. Now you know it and, before leaving, you want to buy the "return" ticket. In English one could maybe ask for a "return only" ticket of some sort, but go on, "go and return" is unambiguous and vastly superior! 🙂 With another clerk, you would have boarded the train without the ticket for the first leg🙂
Even native speakers often say "there's so many people here". The copula "are" is too heavy. It takes so much energy to pronounce it. I think "are" will soon become extinct. 😂😂😂
I would be curious to hear your opinion about the stress misplacement type of errors. Such as when someone says 'response or ca'tegory or super'fluous. How do you perceive those? Are you still able to understand the meaning, or do you stumble upon hearing it?
Oh man... this drives me nuts when native speakers use weird stresses. A friends mom used to say "chinese FOOD" instead of "CHINESE food" and it drove me up the wall
Spanish speaker here, we use accents and clear rules in Spanish. When I was learning English it took me a while to discover how things were pronounced in terms of stress
Dear Gideon, thanks for your supreme videos! Your sense of humour is outstanding. Where can I get your cute GRAMMARIAN T-shirt? And if it's homemade, you wouldn't mind if I copied the design, would you? And a slightly cheeky question: could you make a long video where you just chat? About God and the world and the haircut of Boris J. and your everyday life (in random order). The longer the better! Best regards from a German grammar police trainee
7. While "See you shortly" is best, I think "See you soon" is perfectly acceptable. 8. The words before and after both need a preceding or subsequent event to be stated. If not, use either beforehand or afterwards. Thus, "Before I worked at XYZ..." should be followed by a previous job.
When you grow up as a native speaker of English, it depends very much on your social background whether or not you can speak grammatically correct English. When you learn English as a foreign language in a European school system, you are taught correct grammar and expression and will, very likely, be able to stick to it.
As an American, I have never used "See you soon" to mean "Goodbye," nor have I ever heard it used that way. I have only ever used it and heard it used to mean something similar to "See you shortly." It's interesting and weird that you say it's not to be used that way; I wonder if that's a UK-specific convention.
Very enlightening episode for me as an English teacher. I find myself in the same situation as you describe at the beginning, although for a non-native speaker it's about mistakes as well as unheard-of phrases. I jot them down digitally and whenever I have a bunch of them, I'll make a quiz for my students. That's how I "make something from it". By the way, at 13:24 you say "in future". Would "in the future" sound strange to you? Americans would say "in the future", wouldn't they?
The errors you've highlighted easily reveal the country visited. They are all word for word translations from the speakers' native language, and I've been hearing them since I came here 40 years ago.
Totally agree with the comment about not being able to switch off from being a teacher. I'm a high school teacher out in Vietnam and I'm constantly in teacher mode when I'm with my Viet girlfriend or friends. Much to their annoyance
I'm a careful speaker of American English and widely traveled abroad, including considerable time working for UK firms (albeit outside the UK). In my 70+ years I've never heard anyone say "return ticket." In the US we refer to a "round-trip ticket." I notice that "round-trip ticket" appears in an entry in the Cambridge Dictionary of English online with both native-speaker recordings of both US and UK pronunciation, and without any reference to it as "American English." Before seeing this video I would have assumed a "return ticket" was a one-way ticket to the person's original location.
I like the both = literal translation from french "j'aime les deux". I live here since six monthx= literal translation from french "je vis ici depuis six mois".
ERRATUM: 12:50 it should say "What does he look like?" and not "What's does he look like." I run while I type sorry for the confusion. Also in part 2. It's ok to say "to have here" or "to have in" my point is that the phrase needed a verb. Some have pointed out that in the US it's quite common to say "for here" and I accept that though it still sounds strange to me.
It’s called instant karma hhhhh 😀
Self-arrested grammar police! Another success story. Kudos to you and to the police :)
😂 brilliant
US "for here" reminded me old Soviet story of two Russians in London. The dialogue was: - Which watch? - Seven watch. - Such much?! - To whom how. - MGIMO finished? - Ask! (MGIMO - state institute of foreign affairs).
@@user-pi2te6zm2o 😆
I'll add to the chorus as an American--"for here or to go" is the standard way this question is asked in the US.
Also in the US, I use "see you soon" when I'm about to see someone in a few minutes (on Skype before a meeting, for example, or when a friend has just called me to tell me he's arrived at my residence). I've heard it used by others, too.
So if you hear weird English abroad...it may be American!
Yes, "see you soon" can mean see you in a few minutes (after the other person parks the car or walks to the restaurant, etc.)
Perhaps the barista had spent time in the US, where “for here or to go” is completely the norm. People would look at you strangely if you said “to have in.”
Yeah, I totally agree with you. I think it's the standard convention (particularly in the US) for how to ask the customer where they are having their coffee. The 'corrected' forms sound clunky by comparison.
@@jornstobbe6735 I agree they sounded clunky. Here in Scotland they say "Sit in or take away?".
I live in camada and it’s the same here :) I worked as a barista for a year and I’ve never heard anyone saying “to have in”, to be honest, it doesn’t even sound right 😂
Damn straight. Some of these are fine general American English. of which there are MILLIONSmore speakers than any british dialect lol.
Nor is "have in" any more logical or less idiomatic than "for here." We English speakers use "have" as a substitute for a more accurate verb, as in "have breakfast," or "have a drink." That hardly makes it universal or preferable.
I live in Chicago (US) and whenever I go to restaurant or coffee shop, they’ll ask “is it for here or to go”? This is a very common expression, and to be honest I could not imagine a scenario where the question would be phrased differently.
When I have to buy a train, bus or plane ticket, they’ll ask, “would you like a one-way or round-trip ticket”? If they said, a return ticket, I would assume it is only to return.
When you are going to see a person later that day or in the near future, you would say, “I’ll see you soon.”
I can only speak as a Chicagoan, but I find British English much more formal than American English. For us, most of the rules are thrown out the window, and a lot of “incorrect grammar” is used instead. It used to be only used informally, but it has become much more acceptable to use “incorrect grammar” in formal settings, such as college, work, etc. Also, there are many differences when it comes to words, expressions, and so on between British and American English, that even caused me some confusion when I visited London a few years ago.
As far as I know, if you use "trip" is implicit that you're going to return
@@gr8wings but perhaps you already bought the ticket to get there, but now need to return on another date, so need to buy a new return ticket and only a return ticket.
@@maythesciencebewithyou then specify in that scenario. Otherwise, it is a fair assumption that it is not the case.
I agree with the return ticket description. If you need a return ticket, then you already have a way to get there. One way or round trip is the way we say it in Texas. The "go and return" reminds me of asking for a round trip ticket in French "aller-retour".
"- I'd like a return ticket please.
- Where to?
- To back here, of course..." :D
"For here or to go" is the one and only way I've ever been asked that question here in Vancouver, Canada. I'm pretty sure I've heard the same thing in other places across Canada and the US.
Does it mean that it's not nessecerily incorrect then?
Sorry but Americans are not able to speak English.
A friend of mine, who is from the UK, said in presence of an American
Americans are not able to speak English.
@@lindenbeck Your friend is an eejit.
Absolutely the norm in the US. If something really becomes the norm in polite conversation, then it begins to "read"as grammatically correct. I would say that the technical argument why it could be considered correct is that the barista is asking you to specify which of the two categories you want to order: one commonly referred to as "for here" and one referred to as "to go." Both seem equally correct / incorrect in common (polite) usage. Doesn't seem any more inappropriate than calling a food order "take away." Or calling the main shopping street in town "high street."
@@vojtechpilar5809 Correct - it reads as acceptable / normal usage in conversation
Most of these mistakes reveal the patterns in the speakers' native languages, and as a native English speaker I find them interesting rather than unacceptably wrong. But it's helpful to point out the little changes that can make these phrases sound more idiomatic. Better here though than right there in the coffee shop.
Yes) I may translate word for word as a russian, that's why it sounds weird
Some of these are perfectly fine American english. So this foo is needin fer tae be specific-laik anent whut soart o "English" he is speaking of.
Yes, this video would be better if it were labeled as specifically about British English
Not only do they tell you about the native languages, they also show the way people think and feel. "For here?" ist a perfectly normal question in certain areas of Germany. We buy sheets for the bedroom (to use there), soap for the kitchen (to use there) and also coffee for here (to use/drink here). However, we would also get our coffee "for on the way", not "to go".
I did a similar thing on my last vacation. I recorded all the errors I heard. I filled two notebooks while I was still in Texas. I had no room for the errors I heard in Arkansas. I love these videos. The one thing that jars my ear is "different to"--I've always said "different from" and "differently than." But then, I've only been speaking English for 62 years; one of these days I'll master it.
«Before I worked in finance» looks like a direct translation from another language, like in Italian we say "prima lavoravo nella finanza", where "prima" is "before". In Italian there's something similar to English "I used to...", but it sounds "bookish": "Ero solito fare qualcosa" could translate "I used to do something".
In Italian we say "biglietto di andata e ritorno". Also in Spanish it is "ida y vuelta", so there are languages that like to be redundant :)
That was also a reason I suggested he was in Italy... many of the sentences he gave are direct translations from typical formulations used in romance languages that will sound off in English.
” Would you like to have your meal here in the restaurant, or would you prefer me to wrap it up for you to take it with you?” I’d love to hear such language, but I suppose I’ll have to go elsewhere than fast food restaurants to get that opportunity.
If you like fast food, bare bone fast and furious grammar obvously is what comes with it!
In french too: aller-retour
@@barbaralore3924 Here in Austria - in the old days - they used "tour-retour".
Swedish: tur/retur.
I can't believe this!!!! I've been working as a barista for more than 3 years now and I think that I have always said ''is it for here or to go?''. No wonder people always seem to strugle to understand me. It's almost like they can't hear me properly because this is the very things I need to ask. Now I know what the problem has been the whole time!!! Thank you!!! Starting tomorrow, I'm fixing this!
‘For here or to go’ is standard in the US/Canadian English
For here or to go is the common expression here in the US. I’ve been here since 6 months sounds like the way you would say that in French, je suis ici depuis 6 mois. I think these expressions are often a result of the native language grammar rules slipping into their English. I know that the reverse is true when I try to speak a foreign language since I’m no where near fluent.
"for here or to go" is fine and widely used in the US
"For here or to go?" is actually pretty common in the US. In fact it seems to be the standard there. There's also a movie by that name.
Usually in the UK i hear "Eat in or take away?"
Wow! That’s interesting! The U.S. receiving immigrants from so many cultures, might be subject to significant influence of ”bad grammar”. Would it be a bold assumption that the person asking you wether you intend to take your beverage with you, or consume it on the premises, more often than not is a ”non-native” speaker?
@@Johan-vk5yd No I would say it's idiomatic there
@@subbuteo2 No conflict between the two, only time. New ways of using language is initially ”bad language” until a sufficient number of people find it OK, don’t you think?
Where circulation of people is great, evolution is quicker according to that theory. Icelandic language kept its likeness to the ancient Old Norse for so long for a reason. I would think it is the relative isolation.
If that is true, the opposite should also be true, don’t you think?
@@subbuteo2 I fully agree. For here or to go is the "correct" way to say that in Canada too.
@@Johan-vk5yd Or maybe it's just a fast way of saying it, so people use it? Why would it have to be influenced by "bad language"? Maybe someone just came up with that phrase and because it was so easy and fast to say, it stuck. I mean, sure, the proper way would be to say "would you like to eat your meal here", but why would anyone say that if you have an easier and faster expression for that? That's just how spoken language develops.
Hi Gideon, thank you so much for running this channel. Your videos are interesting and entertaining and, if I dare say, you're the most sympathetic and best English teacher that I've met so far. Thanks and keep it up!
"To go and return ticket" is literally what we say in spanish, because you're buying one ticket, but two trips. You go first, and then return, you pay both. If you order a return ticket, that means that you have previously bought a ticket to go, or you're going on a different mean of transport and you just want to buy a ticket to return
Allez et retour in French.
@@PanglossDr it's also "hin und zurück" in German :)
@@polyanthajones8168 genau
I love these videos. They always make me laugh even as I learn something new. Well done!
Love your comments
@@LetThemTalkTV Funny but maybe you should try to speak their own language... I bet you would make a million mistakes in italian language...
Not at all my Italian is perfect.
@@LetThemTalkTV Non ti credo!! haha
Aren't you a native speaker? Your name looks native.
as a brazilian who grew up in London (I lived there from roughly 9 to 14) but now lives in Brazil for almost ten years since I returned...I still managed to get some of them wrong myself cause my english is so rusty now XD and I can definetly confirm that most speakers of another language tend to translate some aspects of their native language to their target language (or whatever you call it) and end up making mistakes. Its funny how I can relate to that because I've heard quite a few times some of my friends who try to speak english with me sound off, but then I realize that they translated literally an expression and for that reason ended up sounding weird. Whenever that happens I always explain to them that they should get a bit more input and they'll naturally correct themselves because they'll get a feeling for the language. Just an interesting thing I thought I'd share :)
As a grammar police, I would like to alert ⚠ about a brutal crime happened the moment 12:50 of this video: It was written "what´s does he looke like", but should be "what does he looke like" , there is NO apostrophe S here. Thank you so much for your amaizing videos. I am a fan of LetThemTalkTV.
Good work 👏, officer 👮♀! Gideon has pleaded guilty 🔗. As punishment, he has published an apology 🙏 and correction 📜, and pinned it at the top of all other comments.
Excellent work teacher!! I love your sense of humour. Keep up with the good work. We need to know our mistakes on everyday English and conversation.
Thank you for your videos. For EFL teachers it's really important to know the formal, coloquial an cultural uses the language. The comments are very helpful as well! Cheers from Brazil😊
Here in Canada native speakers say "For here or to go?" all the time.
Another thing North American native speakers say is: "For pick up or delivery?"
I wonder if you find that incorrect.
I know you said in the Monty English podcast 13 that it's always ing after a preposition and that there's only one exception.
"For here" makes complete sense: you're just omitting the "eating/drinking". So the full version would be "For eating/drinking here, or to take away?" It does mix grammatical structures though, which is weird.
Also, "go and return" isn't incorrect, it's just redundant... sort of. As another commenter said, as an American I would assume buying a "return ticket" would necessitate buying a separate "go ticket" in order to get to the location I bought the "return ticket" for.
As for the "see you" stuff, this is all colloquial and pretty free-floating. There's nothing "grammatically incorrect" about them, but more "atypical". Though they're not even atypical, to be honest.
Lastly, I you could say that "Can you tell me: Where is the station?" is correct, but atypical. Depends on if there is clear pause between "me" and "station".
“For here or to go” is a U.S. idiom and is fine to say for an educated speaker.
This! I heard native speakers say this all the time in the States.
Very common in the Us
natives all say "for here"
Would they probably be missing the action of "having"? Like: "For 'having' here (...)".
@@stevelee8539 yup commonly used in both both the US & the UK. Also if you're Italian you can get away with saying anything... I'm guessing that he was in Italy...
"People Is" instead of "People Are" is a very common grammatical error in Latin countries because the word "People" refers to a large group of persons, and the word "group" is singular. Thinking of tDepeche Mode song "people are people" might help to avoid this mistake.
i can understand the reasoning behind "to go and return ticket" as in Polish, my mother tongue, we have a return ticket from there to here only as i might probably already have a ticket to get there or i am getting another means of transport and i just need one to get back, there is also a return ticket that means 'a two way ticket' ie to get there and back but have only one slip of paper (one ticket)
Yup. He was out of line by calling his explanation "logical". It was't.
@@impact0r The explanation is logical inasmuch as the English language is, that is, not much. In French we say 'Aller et retour', which is more logical - which goes to show that French is not always totally illogical. Besides, the subtitle of 'The Hobbit' is 'There and Back Again', not plain 'Back Again', which would make for a rather boring story...
@@frenchimp So according to the logic of English, the movie should be called "Hobbit: Return" 😄
Gideon, though your remark on go and return is formally correct, dealing with foreigners needs making sure that you are correctly understood . In this case "return" would imply a *just return* ticket to most foreigners. So I would recommend using go and return though it is kindof "international English" . In German it is "Hin- und zurück", in Spanish ida i vuelta. It is not Rückfahrticket or just vuelta. It is possible that time will change this use in English. Also, the phrase "for here" is perfectly clear to foreigners. Coffee 2go (which I heard first in 1987 in the US) is strange and the thousand questions you have to answer during the process of ordering food at a diner can be a challenge - I had never before heard the question if I wanted my eggs "sunny side up". In London, foreigners have to deal with accents, too ... Indian or African English does not sound like the restricted pronounciation German schools usually teach. Be tolerant against us humble speakers who use English as Esperanto 🤣 - especially outside Britain -
@@riojari you are right - but what Gideon says "to go and return" is not correct English , it is "a return ticket" to go there and back- and this is what ESOL students need to understand. there are many examples when students will be translating word for word from their mother tongue and which will be extremely funny, the other day i saw "thank you from the mountain" which is a word for word translation of the Polish "thank you in advance", or we have "an elephant in a china store/warehouse/depot" or we "build castles from the sand"
students simply need to be shown these differences and explained that what is correct in one language can be incorrect in another
He: "Have you lived here all your life?"
Me: "Not yet."
Oh my Gosh! I am getting so worried about my war on illiteracy and poor grammar. I find it alienates people; but I make allowances for those who do not have English as their first languange. In fact I find that many people who learned English as a second language are much better at it than those who have just picked it up randomly from their family.
Because we L2 speakers don't simply take eat the language in childhood and have to actively learn it.
Should be pretty rare to find issues with "your" and "you're" or with "there", "their" and "they're" among non-natives. Okay, the words are pronounced basically the same, but the context is completely different. If a foreign 6th grader can manage to get that right, there is no reason for adult native speakers to have issues with it.
And obviously the good old "should of", which doesn't make any sense at all. The worst form of that one I've seen is "should've of"
Every time I see that I have to ask, of what?
Always feel excited whenever Gideon has uploaded a new video 🤓
Me too whenever you write a comment
This video is very useful because these things are rarely highlighted in the books. I remember a story when a native speaker I used to work with taught me the different between "How it looks" vs "what it looks like". A lot of people would say "How it looks like" as in "let me show you how it looks like". I would never noticed that myself if it wasn't for that guy. So, we more of this!
At my coffee shop they ask "are you staying with us ?" It always sounds as if they are insisting on it. If they'd say "to have in" most locals wouldn't understand...
I m always impressed dear Gideon with your brillant lessons. Each every time, a true pleasure to revise or learn something new. Many thanks. Have a nice weekend 👍💯❤️
Excellent video. It's particularly hard to correct many of these mistakes, especially when you're used to saying some phrases a certain way in your native tongue for all your life (e.g., "Is it for here?")
4:40 I'd say "two-way ticket".
9:18 There is no error. Gideon's advice except the alternatives offered (which are correct) is completely wrong here.
11:13 Both of the expressions are completely correct. Using "before" is completely natural.
Very entertaining and useful video! Thank You Gideon!
English teachers of the world, it will be difficult to surpass Giddeon in quirkiness and invention. The beginning of this video is a masterpiece of comedy.
These may come in handy. big thank you, Sir!
I’d like buy a “return ticket” to (or from) somewhere? Instead you can buy a “round-trip” ticket to somewhere. “Frheargo” is a very specific word and a full sentence; it is atomic and it cannot be further analyzed.
Hi Gideon, many of the errors you name could be influenced by Spanish. In Spanish, "la gente" (the people) is singular
As well as como está (alguien) :)
Thank you for the lovely lesson as always! Gideon sensei, you're amazing. Love from Japan.
Do-itashimashite. Arigato for your kind comment
I have a couple of friends from GB, NZ AND Scotland and they basically agree on this:
Don't try too hard to speak a 100% correct english, everybody will hear you're a foreigner and they'll forgive your mistakes ... it is way more important for them that I speak fluently and don't stutter around trying to find the adequate grammar.
My experience.
Yes, the point of language is to make yourself understood. If you can be understood, most people will forgive the mistakes or even find them endearing.
@@NickDixon
Nothing's endearing with a german accent
:D
Love the tree diagram on ur TS Brings me back to my studies 35 years ago
As a native English speaker, I was very surprised to see that "for here or to go" and "see you soon" are incorrect! I hear them all the time from native speakers in Canada, but then again we also say "I've done my homework", so perhaps our grasp on the English language isn't the best 🤔
I am also rather baffled by this, too. And what could possibly be wrong with having done your homework?!
Yeah, what's wrong with "I've done my homework"?
Good point. I was perhaps a little harsh with the first one but I still contend that you need a verb in the phrase "to have here" is ok but "for here" sounds strange to me but perhaps in Canada it's ok. I still maintain that "see you soon" means "until we meet again" whereas "see you then" is about an agreed time.
@@LetThemTalkTV "to have in/here" mirrors "to go", so that makes perfect sense to me, while "See you soon" might just be an example of regional differences in English phrases. After watching this video, I wouldn't be surprised if I visited the UK and got funny looks for using "see you soon" in the wrong context.
@@louisevillela1920 I remember hearing (not on LetThemTalkTV) that "I've done my homework" is considered an odd phrase for many non-Canadians because it's halfway between "I'm done with X (ex. my homework)" and "I've finished X (ex. my homework / doing my homework)". I can't give a better explanation than that since "I've done my homework" sounds completely natural to me.
Thank you so much for uploading this video. It is helping me get through the pandemic!
Many thanks! Yes, of course I noticed a typo, but it did not spoil the impression of the lesson in the least.
Thanks so much Gideon, I love your classes and the examples you provide are awesome 🤩😘
It seems that the people you were talking to are Italians, and it makes perfect sense since they were simply translating Italian into English. I deal with the opposite issue, and the results are the same. English native speakers make the same mistakes when they speak neo-Latin languages.
Using patterns from your own language is what most mistakes stem from. Sometimes, however, foreign patterns replace native ones, such as the one you used in your comment: "to make sense" has been literally translated into German and is now most frequently used by Germans, although there are at least two perfect German expressions, one that replaces make (Sinn "ergeben") and one that is an adjective ("sinnvoll").
Io sono fome 😃
@@micleh "Sinn machen" klingt nur so als sei es wörtlich aus dem Englischen übersetzt. In Wirklichkeit ist es eine vollkommen Deutsche Konstruktion, nach dem Muster "Ärger machen", "Spaß machen", "Probleme machen" etc. Daß es auch einen anderen Ausdruck "Sinn ergeben" gibt ändert daran nichts, die Konstruktion mit "machen" ist nur umgangssprachlicher.
@@frofa2954 Diese Ansicht teile ich nicht ganz. Im Nachgang würde ich es aber anders formulieren. Anatol Stefanowitsch hat auf "Sprachlog" dazu einen meiner Meinung nach interessanten Artikel verfasst und versucht dort zu zeigen, dass "die Redewendung zwar vermutlich durch das Englische inspiriert ist, aber im Deutschen schon sehr viel länger existiert als üblicherweise angenommen". Für das länger existiert spricht sicherlich auch die wörtliche Anlehnung an "sententiam facere" wodurch sich Luther hat inspirieren lassen. Dass Vertreter wie Lessing und Max Frisch es benutzen, weist auch auf Letzteres hin. Insgesamt muss man aber noch bedenken, dass "Sinn machen" weder eine überall in Deutschland gebräuchliche Redewendung ist, noch in anderen deutschsprachigen Ländern, wie etwa Österreich oder die Schweiz, gebräuchlich ist, was ein Artikel aus der nzz zeigt.
@@micleh Daß der Ausdruck in der Schweiz ungebräuchlich ist widerspricht deiner eigenen Aussage, daß Max Frisch ihn auch verwendet hat - zusammen mit Dürrenmatt sicher der bekannteste Schweizer Schriftsteller des letzten Jahrhunderts. Und einer, der schon über 30 Jahre tot ist, also seit vor dem grossen Einfluß des Englischen auf die deutsche Sprache (der maßgeblich vom Internet getragen wird).
Someone asked me: did you saw that rudy? I answered: yes, into two pieces!
I think you are a fantastic teacher, and extremely amusing!
I think you were in Italy, Italian grammar seems to be behind those mistakes. I love your videos! Great examples. Best regards from Rome😃
Nice video Gideon ✌️...I do feel a bit alienated now 😄 but I've got all the questions right except for the " see you later" one.
The problem is that all the different phrases he mentions do not have exact definitions of how much time it means. The most natural for the situation he described would be "See you in a bit" and "See you soon" is just as good. But "See you later" is not 100% wrong, but it would be more correct for a longer time than 10 minutes. This comes with seeing how native speakers use the different phrases in different situations.
This is muy muy útil Gideon! Gracias!
I find This video so Fun and INFORMATIVE ..is a good way of learning english without being boring!
Wow, hold your horses! So if in Britain I ask for a return ticket, I get... two tickets? One to go there and one to go back? But I'm driving there with a friend, I need only the return one! How do I ask for that?
So in London you'd ask for a one-way from e.g Paris to London.
I dunno if you read comments several months after you upload your videos. Doesn't matter-I discovered your channel very recently, love it, and have been binging on it since! 💗
Now, I'm not a native English speaker. But on questionnaires, I rate myself as having "native or bilingual fluency in English." I learnt English formally in school. Which you can tell because of-dunno again-my forced attempts to speak colloquially, ya savvy?
As an engineer, pragmatist, worldwide traveler, _and_ amateur linguist, I love videos such as this-particularly because they're excellent fora for voicing my opinions! And I do have opinions on many of the points that you raised in this video. But it's from the perspective of someone who's _not_ an English teacher. So, yeah, it's a rather longish essay-a critique of the critic. As you said, it's all fun and friendly; no malice intended!
_"This summer I went on holiday ..."_ - British English, naturally. No worries; I know that you teach formal British English (or, as you call it, _'English'),_ while occasionally mentioning American English and other variants for comparison and contrast. The Americans, of course, would say _'vacation.'_
_"A grammar policeman or policewoman"_ - ah, if only there were a gender-neutral way to refer to professionals 🙄. (Oh yes, I do know and use the subjunctive. Not using it when required is another favorite _gotcha_ of the grammar police-and I don't want to spoil your _mood.)_
Did you just say _" 'People' _*_is_*_ a plural noun"_ when correcting someone else for saying _"The people in your country _*_is_*_ [sic] very nice"?_ You both said _"people is."_ But you're right and he's wrong. Oh the irony! 😜
This is important: *_Technical terms are exempt from the requirements of formal grammar._* That applies to industry- and domain-specific phrases as well. Technical terms are meant to be compact and memorable, while at the same time conveying a very specific meaning that's clear and unambiguous within the domain of discourse. Using formal grammar would make them long, clumsy, or unwieldy-as your corrections show!
Consequently, _"for here or to go," "go-and-return ticket"_ etc. are immune to scrutiny from the Grammar Police. 🚫👮♂ Sorry!
_"I like The Both."_ Plot twist: _The Both_ was another rock band of the '60s. Not as famous, of course, as _The Beatles_ or _The Rolling Stones._ So she was right, after all.
BTW, the latter band has-at various times-called itself _Rolling Stones_ - without _"The,"_ - and also _The Rolling Stones._ So both _the_ and _The_ are correct. And of course, I wrote that just to use _"both the and the"_ in a sentence. Oh, a little earlier, I also used _"the both was"_ in another sentence. 😎
_"NP;CUL8R"_ - Texting is a convention unto itself, and does not necessarily follow English spelling and grammar! So don't chastise your colleague for _not_ saying _"See you shortly," "See you in a bit,"_ or _"See you then."_ Rather, write like the 1337 urself, I sez!
Otherwise I'm gonna call _you_ out for writing _"I'm ten minutes late."_ Pedantically speaking-since you hadn't arrived yet, and were referring to a future situation-that should've been _"I'll be ten minutes late."_ or _"I'm going to be ten minutes late."_ 🤨
Yeah, it's tricky to form sentences involving time periods that involve a combination of the past, present, and future. Gets even more complicated when you're referring to time periods that are relative to an event that itself happened at a different time. So I completely sympathize with Maria _("Before, I worked in finance")_ and the other woman who said _"since six months."_ (I actually think Maria said _"Before, I _*_work_*_ in finance,"_ not _'worked'._ But you chalked it up to mishearing and/or decided it was too obvious and would distract from the other issue.)
_"What's he like?"_ Well, he likes Maria, obviously, and also, houses without dogs. Didn't get the memo? In present-day English, the contraction _'s_ can also mean _does, has, was_ etc. in addition to the traditional _is._ Isn't it lovely that English continues to evolve?
_"Can you tell me where is [sic] the station?"_ Yeah, I caught the obvious misplacement of _'is'._ But again, my sympathies are with the tourist. As separate sentences, _"Where is the station? Can you tell me?"_ is (grammatically) correct. But when you combine them, you have to change the order of some words. It's not intuitive.
But you know what, I actually thought that you were also going to go after him for saying _"Can"_ instead of _"Would"_ - _"Yes, I _*_can_*_ tell you where the station is. Would you like me to?"_ 😂
Every English school teacher insists that (in most circumstances) you should be saying _"May I"_ and _"Would you"_ instead of _"Can I"_ and _"Can you"_ respectively. However, in everyday speech, nobody actually does. I guess EFL teachers have given up insisting on it?
OMG, our teacher was mean today. :)) You know, in my country, because I have some clues that you visited my country, most of the people have SOME english language knowledge from primary school or maybe high school. Have mercy of them. I personally learned English in high school and now, after decades, I have to improve my pronunciation and grammar. And I have to say, what I learned in school is completely different from how it is spoken in the UK .
It seems you're making progress though. Thanks for your comment
I liked it a lot, these are situations in our day-to-day that require the right use of grammar, I always take every tip from this amazing channel. You are a Grammar police officer, you did an excellent job.👮♂️👌Thanks Gideon
Many thanks. You're free to go.
@@LetThemTalkTV You have fantastic mood.😀
You´re definitely talking about Spain, where I teach English. "I´m agree with you" (estoy de acuerdo); "go-and-return" (de ida y vuelta); "the people is..." (la gente está...); since/for + time expression (also: very often Spanish speakers use the present simple and not the peresent perfect here); "the both" (los dos) are all common mistakes made by my students.
Lovely, much appreciated!!! ✊🏽
In the US they say :for here or to go
They NEVER say to have in
You are an incredible grammar coach. Thumbs up!
05:16 aA long time ago I made this same mistake when ordering a go and return to Cambridge at King's Cross. The ticket clerk pressed a red button and I was immediately taken to The Tower by three Special Grammar Service agents (A SAS branch)
This is very much British usage. If you were in the US you need to ask for a "round trip ticket"
It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve seen this video, it always cracks me up!! 😂
Thanks for all the laughs, you are an unsung hero 🦸🏽♂️
How to calm a grammar fanatic down? "There, they're, their."
Easy, this one. Nearly 10 out of 10. I only didn’t know that it’s 'to have IN' instead of 'to have HERE'. In case I get arrested by the grammar police, I hope, they will grant me mitigating circumstances…
"have here" is ok but not "for here" So 10 out of 10
Great video using real life examples! Loved it! I see some of these of often 🙊🤗
Thank you my fellow teacher. Best wishes
"For here or to go?" is what they say in America 😉 I lived in the UK for a few years before I moved to America and I was always confused when Americans corrected my English. I thought I had said something incorrectly (I'm a speaker of Spanish), but later I'd find out that what I had said wasn't incorrect, it was "British".
Great video, however there’s one mistake: „what’s does he look like?” instead of „What does he look like”. I consider it to be a copy-paste error while copying the text from the previous example sentence „What’s he like?” 😁👍
English is the third language for me I am studying. Thank you for this channel. It is acceptable and easy to see where I need to work more.
You mean English is the third language You are studying.
Is your second Russian? I'm guessing because your username sounds Central Asian.
In the US, "see you soon" would be fine. In fact, here "see you later" is more of a way of saying goodbye than "see you soon". Though it's true that shops are more likely to write "see you soon!" Perhaps the "see you later" is a more recent thing, but it's not that recent, it's been that way all my life (i'm 45). "See you later" for goodbye strikes me as more friendly and something people would actually say in conversation here. "See you soon" sounds like someone trying to be polite and friendly associated with a shop, just like "come back soon!" or "call again soon!" I'd be shocked to hear a clerk or see a sign at a store say "come back again later!"
We also regularly ask/get asked "will that (order) be for here or to go?", shortened to "for here or to go?"
"Can you tell me where my country lies?" Genesis (Dancing With The Moonlit Knight). Great lesson, then you very much.
I’m going a bit outside the topic of grammar here, but I came to think of my numerous stays in Italy when I was younger. In the 70’s. I scarcely met anyone able to understand, and even less so, express themselves in english.
It really felt worthwile to try and learn some basic italian, under those circumstances.
Luckily the situation here in Italy has improved since the '80s, as English was introduced in schools as an alternative to French - and I believe it's now mandatory, but I may be wrong. Now most people under 50 do speak English to a certain degree, even though in some areas it is still relatively common to find even younger people struggling even with basic sentences.
@@tyrantabyss Grazie tante per tuo commentario! That’s great! I’m very happy for the italian I learnt in those days, making possible for me today to follow some odd italian YT channels too.
@@Johan-vk5yd It is always good to know another language, even more so if it's Italian 😁 Continui ad esercitarsi, ne vale la pena 👍
Italian mindset... that's all. No big mistakes or what soever -actually, it's quite interresting finding people to chat in english in the paesetti
Hey....now I'm writing ....and for sure you will write another mistakes in your black book.....
It's amazing ...I learn a lot of grammar... keep this type of video.
You're the best.
Glad you found it useful.
The clerk at the railway station was perfectly right in asking whether you wanted a "go and return" ticket because if you ask for a "return ticket" in Italy that means a ticket from your destination to this station. You can always buy tickets and reservations to be used from another station. You might have already had the "go" (one-way) ticket, but when you bought it you did not know when you would return. Now you know it and, before leaving, you want to buy the "return" ticket. In English one could maybe ask for a "return only" ticket of some sort, but go on, "go and return" is unambiguous and vastly superior! 🙂 With another clerk, you would have boarded the train without the ticket for the first leg🙂
I didn't know the difference between 'what's she like' and 'what does she look like'. This video taught me about that.
Thanks a lot for this video. It`s very helpful
Even native speakers often say "there's so many people here". The copula "are" is too heavy. It takes so much energy to pronounce it. I think "are" will soon become extinct. 😂😂😂
I would be curious to hear your opinion about the stress misplacement type of errors. Such as when someone says 'response or ca'tegory or super'fluous. How do you perceive those? Are you still able to understand the meaning, or do you stumble upon hearing it?
Oh man... this drives me nuts when native speakers use weird stresses. A friends mom used to say "chinese FOOD" instead of "CHINESE food" and it drove me up the wall
Spanish speaker here, we use accents and clear rules in Spanish. When I was learning English it took me a while to discover how things were pronounced in terms of stress
Listen, SUNSHINE, "people" is pluuuural! XD very funny
Dear Gideon, thanks for your supreme videos! Your sense of humour is outstanding. Where can I get your cute GRAMMARIAN T-shirt? And if it's homemade, you wouldn't mind if I copied the design, would you? And a slightly cheeky question: could you make a long video where you just chat? About God and the world and the haircut of Boris J. and your everyday life (in random order). The longer the better! Best regards from a German grammar police trainee
7. While "See you shortly" is best, I think "See you soon" is perfectly acceptable.
8. The words before and after both need a preceding or subsequent event to be stated. If not, use either beforehand or afterwards. Thus, "Before I worked at XYZ..." should be followed by a previous job.
Thank you for this brilliant video!
That was hilarious!! I've never watched such an amusing video. No doubt that this is a great way to learn English.
When you grow up as a native speaker of English, it depends very much on your social background whether or not you can speak grammatically correct English. When you learn English as a foreign language in a European school system, you are taught correct grammar and expression and will, very likely, be able to stick to it.
As an American, I have never used "See you soon" to mean "Goodbye," nor have I ever heard it used that way. I have only ever used it and heard it used to mean something similar to "See you shortly." It's interesting and weird that you say it's not to be used that way; I wonder if that's a UK-specific convention.
Very enlightening episode for me as an English teacher.
I find myself in the same situation as you describe at the beginning, although for a non-native speaker it's about mistakes as well as unheard-of phrases. I jot them down digitally and whenever I have a bunch of them, I'll make a quiz for my students. That's how I "make something from it".
By the way, at 13:24 you say "in future". Would "in the future" sound strange to you? Americans would say "in the future", wouldn't they?
Yes. "In future" reads as grammatically incorrect in the US
Well done Gideon ! Thank you !
Hello Gideon, could you talk about some of the english expressions used in Line of Duty? I find them interesting, but some are unclear to non-native.
Very useful video, as always..Thank you!
Glad to hear it
You are the best English teacher I know.
The errors you've highlighted easily reveal the country visited. They are all word for word translations from the speakers' native language, and I've been hearing them since I came here 40 years ago.
Totally agree with the comment about not being able to switch off from being a teacher. I'm a high school teacher out in Vietnam and I'm constantly in teacher mode when I'm with my Viet girlfriend or friends. Much to their annoyance
I'm a careful speaker of American English and widely traveled abroad, including considerable time working for UK firms (albeit outside the UK). In my 70+ years I've never heard anyone say "return ticket." In the US we refer to a "round-trip ticket." I notice that "round-trip ticket" appears in an entry in the Cambridge Dictionary of English online with both native-speaker recordings of both US and UK pronunciation, and without any reference to it as "American English." Before seeing this video I would have assumed a "return ticket" was a one-way ticket to the person's original location.
No fair criticizing foreigners! They speak English better than I speak their language - even the one language I have studied for years.
I like the both = literal translation from french "j'aime les deux".
I live here since six monthx= literal translation from french "je vis ici depuis six mois".
Thank you! Very nice video! I think I saw you in Sofia this summer. I didn't stop you but if I did I would end up in the black notebook. :D
Yes, indeed I was there and I loved the city. Next time say hello. In real life I'm very polite (unlike in this video).
here in western canada, when ordering food it's common to hear, "to stay or to go?" rather than "for here or to go?". and yes I am a native speaker.
Descriptive: I hear "for here or to go" often enough in Canada 👍🇨🇦