What grammar mistakes do native speakers make?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ก.พ. 2025
- 8 common English grammar mistakes that native speakers make! Do you realize that not everyone in North America or the UK speaks perfect English? In fact, the majority of people do not follow all the grammar rules that you learn on engVid or in textbooks.
It is sometimes confusing for learners of English when they hear their native speaker friends making these mistakes. These mistakes are also often heard in movies. There is a big cultural divide between people who speak correct English and people who speak with mistakes. The ability to speak English in the grammatically standard way will often determine whether you have access to a professional-level job. This is especially true if you’re a non-native speaker of English, so I strongly suggest you follow the standard rules of English grammar. In this video, I cover mistakes you'll hear in the UK, but many of these mistakes are also made by Americans. After the lesson, make sure to test yourself with my quiz! www.engvid.com/...
TRANSCRIPT
Hi, everyone. I'm Jade. Today we're talking about common mistakes that native speakers make. And I use the word "mistakes" -- I use that word, "mistakes", for you. I don't actually listen to people and say, "You're wrong! You're wrong!" because a lot of the time, it's about variety of English and accent as well. Whether they use this grammar is incorrect grammar in terms of standard English. But people use it, and people say it. So that's why I'm telling you about it.
Also, I've got so much respect for people who come and learn English, but like, you could say, like, on the street, you know? They're not taking classes. They're learning from the people they're around. Sometimes, the people you're around speak in the way where there are these mistakes. So that's the kind of thing that you acquire. Nothing wrong with that because people speak like that. But maybe you get to a point where you've seen something in a book where grammar is explained, but it's not what you hear people using. And when that happens, there's sometimes quite a lot of confusion. So I'm pointing out these mistakes to you so that you can observe them yourself, and then, you can decide, "Well, I like saying it that way" or, "I don't want to say it that way." "That's the way everyone I know speaks, so I'm going to speak like that" or, "I'm going to choose not to." So -- yeah. Let's take a little look.
So something you'll hear a lot in many different accents in English -- British English -- is using "was" for all past subjects. So you learn in your grammar books that you say, "I was, you were, we" -- I need to think about this -- "we were, they were, blah, blah, blah, he, she, it -- was." But a lot of people just say "was" all the time when they're talking about the past. They say, "We was going there" or, "they was joking." It's not standard English, but you will hear it a lot.
So we are, in standard English, expected to use "were" in our sentences, not to use "was" all the time.
Moving on. No. 2, substituting the past participle where the past simple is needed. Okay. So these are example sentences that you will hear which are considered incorrect in terms of standard English. "I done it. Did you do your homework? I done it." "Where's the vodka? He drunk it." "Where's the dog?" No. Not, "Where's the dog." "Where are the kids? They run over the road." Okay? You'll hear those. But these sentences should either be past simple here because we're talking about completed, finished, past events, or they should be present perfect sentences. So they're using the past participle, which relates to the present perfect as in an action that happened in the past still with an impact now, but it's confused because it's used without an auxiliary verb. So let's compare to the correct standard English version. "Where's your homework? I did it." " Where's the vodka? He drank it." The past simple form of the verb "drink" is "drank". I'll write that one down because it's a confusing one. So it's "drink, drank, drunk". And -- yeah. "Where are the kids? They ran over the road." This one is confusing as well, "run, ran, run". And let's look at it in the present perfect form. "Where's your homework? I've done it." "Where's the vodka? He's drunk it." And, "Where are the kids? They've run over the road." They're still there. They haven't come back yet.
I love how people from England are; extremely polite , a bit stiff but very well-behaved. btw Love her accent.
They are indeed. Sometimes.
The best thing that has happened to me in this year 2015 so far, is subscribing to your channel. Thank you ma'am for your outstanding job.
Halo dari Indonesia. I was lookin' for the British native speaker. it's glad I found you. Keep it up! Thank you
Great explanation, I like it! I'll use this in class.
By the way, homonyms are words that are spelt the same but have different meanings, e.g.: "can" (aux verb), "can" (noun).
"There", "They're" and "Their" are homophones; words that are spelt different but have the same pronunciation. ;)
06:31 - I like that smile!
Another confusing word native speakers use a lot: "literally"
Could you do a video on that? :)
Great lesson, Jade. As someone once said "Know the rules well, so you can break them effectively."
You substitute the word accent for dialect several times. Accent is the way in which a speaker pronounces the word. Their dialect however will account for perceived grammatical mistakes or variations from Standard English which to a member outside of that dialect would be incorrect but to speakers within that community are acceptable.
Regarding "I have two jackets what I wear."
I believe it could come from French speakers, where in French 'que' can serve both as 'what' and 'that'; the same can be said about Russian, with 'что' being both 'what' and 'that'.
For example: « J'ai deux vestes que je porte. »...
(Hopefully I translated it correctly...)
Same thing for Spanish!
In Portuguese too.
In the Geordie dialect of newcastle, this would be considered correct. We also have an extra pronoun (you plural) being youse. Other features include saying lend instead of borrow, learn instead of teach and won instead of beat. Not standard English but also not 'wrong'.
The "what I wear" is probably unnecessary - you can safely assume jackets are for wearing without saying it.
People who make those mistakes in the UK commonly have never ever heard about French or Russian.
I always struggle to undetermined the difference between these tho words( Borrow and Lend). Thanks a lot for the clarification Jade. You're awesome.
"To understand" and not " to underdetermined". Sorry about that.
@@cassomacala1197 you can edit the comment
The language is just evolving towards simplicity and economy whenever possible.
Happy New Year, Jade! May your dreams come true in this year! Thank you for your work! --Borka
Really good channel. Not an English expert nor am I a grammar police or am I a a native speaker, it really annoys me when I hear the native people speak grammatically wrong English.
Jade, I must start off by commending you for being such a brave soul for answering all these foreigners English questions. You are truly a kind person who gives all and helps our language and culture be adopted by others. Thank you.
I think these 'mistakes' are just regional quirks/colloquialisms in how English is spoken. For example I can pick out which of my Korean friends have had American or UK English teachers. Beyond accent it's how words are pronounced (the English seem to have a hard time getting Spainish words pronounced correctly), or say Math versus Maths.
Hey Paul, so basically you´re another big fan of Jade.
She´s a bit of alright, isn´t she?
Welcome to the club.
Oh, I like these variations, they make the language even simpler and easier than it actually is :)
I'm a native, and I sent this to my German friend. She pointed out to me that No.4 would make sense in German - "Ich habe eine Jacke, was ich trage", meaning "I have a jacket, what I wear" if you translate each word directly. Isn't it funny how language works?
+Em The same in Spanish
Sorry but that makes no sense in german. I am a native. No one would say that, only people who learn german.
I see and use Item 3 a lot. I tend to say "You want some?" instead of "Do you want some." I came across this video just to see if I can relate anything I see with my peeps.
In Southern American dialect, using "to do" as an auxillary for the past participle is common. "I done told her" "I done did it already" "I done went to the store and bought some things for dinner tonight" :P
Great videos Jade, I'm an American Artist/ teacher. This video will help us understand Eastenders a bit more, our guilty pleasure! cheers
Hallo Jade.know even native speakers make mistakes but I am surprised what grammatical mistakes they make. I also make mistakes but I do not make such silly same mistakes. I always appreciate your lessons and I like watching you
Very helpful video, miss Jade. I wish you a happy new year!
Great video as always, but as a native speaker, i'd like to say that these 'mistakes' are not bad English, it's just different. There are many forms of English that are not 'correct' by standard English but that are also much older than standard English. Standard English exists so people from different parts of the country can understand each other, it doesn't mean we should all speak the same. Of course people learning English will want to know the correct standard structures but it's important to understand that those of us who don't speak standard English are not wrong or lazy, we just happen to be from different areas with different geographies and histories. Shakespeare would have spoken with a regional accent from the West Midlands!
Some dialects are richer, for example where i am from we have a second person plural pronoun 'youse' that standard English doesn't have. In some Irish dialects of English they would say 'ye'. Where I'm from in Newcastle we would say 'I won him' or 'I learnt him' instead of 'I beat him' or 'I taught him'. This isn't laziness, it's just a feature of the way we speak that is shared with Scandinavian languages which influenced our English.
Accents and dialects are a core part of British culture and one of the great things about this country is that you can travel 20 minutes and the accent changes. People are generally very proud of their region, so 'correcting' someone's English because it wasn't standard would be seen as quite rude.
Do people usually code-switch between their dialect and the standard dialect depending on the situation?
@@luckysongara5351 Yes a lot of code switching happens though it's more in the form of toning down an accent rather than switching between full dialect and standard English. In most cases people with strong regional accents are also working class and less likely to move somewhere else where they'd need to switch. More middle class people usually have less strong accents and so don't need to code switch really.
@@hanifleylabi8071 thanks for the reply! That's what I wanted to know. What about the younger generation though? I'd think children in these areas would have moved to standard English through media and schooling?
@@luckysongara5351 There's a pattern of accent convergence and less difference in most cases (though some accents like Scouse have become more divergent). But it really depends who you are. For example a working class kid going to a local school, not going to university and getting a job in the local area will still speak with a strong accent. But someone in the same city who goes to university and works in a job where they speak with people from all over the country will lose the strength of their dialect. But yes the overall trend is for convergance. Even in working class areas where people have strong accents, their speech will be much closer to standard english than it was 100 or 50 years ago in general.
Hi from the bronx. You speak in a very particular way. Trying to get the hang of british english. Thxs for the video.
I think it's about time 'ain't' is properly introduced into this language. It fits its purpose perfectly and it's practical, useful and sounds more correct than 'aren't I', since we don't usually use the second person to refer to ourselves in any other context.
The day 'ain't' is no longer considered wrong grammar, I can die a happy man.
Dear Jade, I loved the video. At 4:40 you said ''making questions''. Is that grammatically correct in British English? I'm asking this because English teachers in the US always stress how ''asking questions'' is the correct way.
I know all of these already but you're so lovely I can't stop watching
Another random thing that makes me laugh is when people ask to "borrow a cigarette" XD I always say, "As long as you give it back!" LOL!
Smoking is so politically incorrect these days that smokers were led to that...
Hi, sweety. You really understand what, we english learners need to know.
I think mostly people using "what" in that kind of normal sentence are french because we say "Que| fais-tu?"="What| are you doing?" to ask something and we translate it as the same way as french using the same "que" word in sentence like "Elle a dis |que| j'ai deux manteaux"="She said |what| I have two jackets" -> "She said |that| I have two jackets"
i run into your channel for the first time. Love it. You have a new Student :) Thanks
In German, we usually use the question word in the relative clause (and it's grammatically correct). Maybe this is somehow related to the "what" replacing "which"?
Also, relative clauses referring to places often (always?) use the question word "where" instead of "which":
"The place, where I was born, is [...]."
This could be another reason :).
Hi Jade, what about "you was"? It annoys me very much and some English people keep telling me it's correct... Who is right in this little grammar battle?
That isn't correct. It's you were.
It's not correct. It's British slang.
lilka sometimes it's the slang that 'permits' the use of it but only for everyday talking. not in formal situations. that's what i know.
it's you were instead of you was (you was is wrong)
+lilka What this video neglects to mention is that there are parts of England where "were" is used for everything e.g "I were" "He were"
Honestly at my first english study time i tryied to speack by english grammar's books, but later i figued out that the reality beetwen local and native speackers is not what the books saying.There are some mistakes... so I realised that those mistakes somehow I ve taken as well... I think becouse is a sort of defensive human response toward the complicance that the british grammar daily involve us (-:ehheeh.I think a such important and global leanguage as English will be reviewed and sute defeniteley for a global people usage. I love english leanguage. I have learnt to love it. :-) and i still have to learn a lot.:-(
it was verry useful lesson Jade. Thanks and lots of love from Turkey.
great teacher. i love your teaching and your accent very much
you should do a teaching on the proper use of the word 'got' as well. I notice so many people use in terrible ways. Also many people drop 'ly' off of words while speaking i.e. slow instead of slowly etc.
I love how Jade puts some humour into videos! Amazing videos!!
I like how you explain! Great stuff! Could you please tell me what's your other channel?
Very good video, Jade.
Thank you.
this is really helping.good job Jade.
It's the same thing in any languages in the world .For example in french much people says " ils croivent instead of ils croient"
Thanks for your videos, Jade. It's being really helpful.
Greetings from Brazil.
Great lesson Jade.
Thank you for your video teacher. I will always practice English and I will speak English well, soon ^^
Joey Tribbiani used to say 'How you doin'?' :)
Thanks a lot for your valuable lesson. Please, can you make a class on the using of relative pronouns in the middle of the sentence. Like what have you mentioned before, using which and that...etc thanks in advance
A strange one around where I live in the Home Counties is people saying "I've gone" in place of "I said"
Hi jade
I like the way u teaching and ur accent it is very easy understand even I don't know much in English. I am thai
Pie
I heard some native English speakers speakers say 'I seen it', which was quite strange to hear.
Want to learn the real English, the one is spoken in everyday life, in the UK? Go to London.
Want to learn the grammarly correct language? Stick to lessons.
please make a lesson for referring to objects using they , them , there
Not a native speaker but saying "innit" gives me some kind off satisfactory feeling.. Lol
Hiii jade!!! I bet for you!!! Is it correct? If its incorrect Dan what will b d correct one?
Nice video! Could you give us some tips to see the difference between can't and can when talking? Thanks in advance.
American say "can" as an unstressed syllable usually. It would be written phonetically as k shwa n. It represents that the n would be voweled in this case. So try to pronounce it something like kn.
"Can't" as an unstressed syllable is similar to ka'. It would be written phonetically as k ash glottal-stop.
I wonder why the past participle of read is ' readed' This verb conjugates as follows: read(present)-read(past)-read(past participle); the pronunciation is, as you know, [ri:d][red][red]. As for 'tag question' or 'question tag', a question mark(?) is missing, I'm afraid. Yuki
Excellent Video.... I love it the british accent....very useful for me, thanks for sharing. One thing ....you are excellent teacher.....Don't worry about bad comments.... Congrat.
Hi Jade Section 3 is not a mistake. It's called Ellipses. And it is about "register" i.e. here informal English but it's not wrong it is just a form.
Thanks a lot Jade... I have learnt a lot from your videos....and from your accent.
Thank you teacher Jade
Nicely done and very useful as usual.
"If I was" is something which is killing me lately. If I were... for God's sake!!!
Thanks! Great video as usual.
Hi, Jade! I love your channel! :)
Other common mistakes are not using adverbs. i.e. "That looks real(ly) difficult", "He ran very quick(ly)". Also, using more and the "er" suffix together. i.e. "That is more dark(er) than this"
I do like your British English! I'm fond of it! : )
I like Jade and Benjamin's accent. I wish I had British accent too. If I had I wouldn't stop talking hahaha.
Another commonplace mistake is to use the numeral for a single digit rather than to write the number in words.
Thus, someone might write "8 common English grammar mistakes" rather than the better and less slovenly alternative of "Eight common, English grammar mistakes" or, better still, "Eight common mistakes of English grammar".
Hi, I've seen your video and I really like the way you teaching.i have a question please, could you please help me how can I improve my listening skills as well as new vocabulary. .....
In my opinion, there are some mistakes, there, made NOT by english native speakers, but people learning english as a non-L1. The 4th mistake listed is often made by romance native speakers, for example.
Plus, I don't think non-standard slang is a mistake. It is just a language register that can be more or less adequate, depending on the situation.
very good English class~
A maybe off the wall thought: At the end of it it's all about getting your message through! Hence grammar in some respect is totally unimportant, not that is just saying for the sake of argument.
I use to say this to people who hesitate to speak in a language they don't feel at home with: Dare to make the leap! Better to make a mistake or three and get to know people than sitting all quiet...
This is so useful, thank you so much.
Hi Jade, it was really excellent that I found this video of yours. It was very helpful indeed. (y)
I often see people saying "anyone know, where is the book?" or some sentences like that. how does the verb here "know" fit without an "s" in this kind of sentences? or is the "does" absent here? Can you expand on that please?
+Shaheed Chowdhury The missing word in "Anyone know, where's the book?" is "does". I would, for example, "Hey, anyone know where the book is?" and mean "Does anyone know where the book is?"
Your original example feels difficult and unnatural to me, but that may be a regionalism (I'm an American), as it's grammatically appropriate. It just feels weird to say.
Great vid thank you. How many Scottish English accents do you cover? Have you dun it?
Do people really say : They was o.O
English is not my first language, but it literally hurts my ears ^^
I literally overuse "literally" :(
Was it wrong in this sentence ? I have a lot of trouble using adverbs that are the same in french but mean different thing. Like actually, eventually (in french they stand for at the moment, and perhaps)
Rayann Kobe if you were not feeling physical pain, when you heard the sentence, you were misusing the word literally. As it mean that something *really* happened like that e.g. if I am literally dead, I will be buried.
I am also not that great at English - as you might see.
If English is your 1st language you'll not be here, right?
literally???????
@Derik2 : English is my first language, but I'm here to learn more about "my" language and to improve my speech skills...
I feel shocked. I am not native speaker and I cannot imagine making those mistakes or make them and not be aware that I made them. I guess it's because I always was using correct form and never heard other people using wrong forms of language.
If you learn a language as an adult from books or a taught class, you'll be taught the correct use of words before you're exposed to the slang. I taught myself a bit of Norwegian, and I'm still surprised when I see somebody mix up 'og' and 'å'.
Chomik59
so much fart here
So it´s time to go to London and make yourself close to the worst English you´ll ever hear.
I'm not a native speaker and I usually correct some people who are, that's weird Hahaha. Anyway good video, always learn something from you, I'm really thankful :D Happy New Year
When my father told me that he was sat on a bench in a hospital, I was like WTF? I asked him "Who the f** was sitting on you?". Lol. Then we started discussing. He gave me an example, he siad "The elephant is sat on the car". So I replied "No! That's wrong! If it is sat, that means something is sitting on it. Like this chair, it is sat by me and I'm sitting on it". English isn't the first language I've learned though. I first met my father when I was 10. Since then I've primarily been learning standard English.
In the north east we say 'i was sat'. And we also say I have ran or she has rang.
Don´t be that harsh with your dad. He probably loves you.
Although he can´t speak English properly.
Hey Jade :) I'm actually wondering what are the differences between present perfect and past simple... Are there any differences and ways of knowing when to use which one? Thanks!
Ive been looking for this kinda video since i was a baby
I think you are so cute when you found that problem "What you doing"
useful for leaners, thanks mam
I really like your podcast I love it don't stop if doing it
congrats
thank you for this info
Hello Jade, I am confused about using amount for people. Like certain amount of people. When we can use amount or we never??
英語の日常的な変化が知れて興味深いです
I think that some people say what instead of that by analogy, they think about the focused form: what I'm wearing is bla bla and so they use this structure in all cases.
hello) may be, it can be interesting for you, what I have to say. it's just you say you don't really know why some people decide to use "what" at all times. it may be interesting to know that in some languages, like e.g. Russian, Ukrainian, these three words ('what', 'which', 'that') are the one word ('shto' in Ru,'shcho' in Ua). so, this usage could have come from some multicultural influences, when peoples from other cultures have experienced difficulties in learning too much new words for their one native term. e.g. as Ukrainian I have problems with articles, as there are no articles in my language. thank you very much for your lessons
Hello there
I would like to learn the British accent. Do you offer any Skype lessons?
Thank you
"Why don't you go borrow it yourself?" ;-)
Thank you so much, I love you
besides being a good teacher, you have beatiful hands!
Good job
Good :) Just one thing, we write "homonym" instead of "homonyn" ;)
I noticed that native speakers sometimes don`t distinguish between `less` and `fewer`.
The best part of the video, 16:59.
Hi! By the end of the video you used the expression "I'M GOING TO GO now", that was an intentional mistake or this expression is correct?
It's correct.
In a way, "they run over the road." is actually correct. It's like saying "they are running over the road.".
grabern it's not really correct usage of the present simple, mate...
xxxxneoxxxx Uuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmjjiifgtsbtdhffcggguujjrhh...
+xxxxneoxxxx but"run" here is past participle not present any way it is still incorrect should've been "have run"
Oh then that is correct, yes. "They've run...". "They run..." is not.
Which one is correct?
Where can I find the bottle?
Or, Where I can find the bottle?
Thanks in advance.
+Rainbow 22 Where can I find the bottle is the correct sentence.
+queenofnoonesheart
Many thanks, Happy Easter.
i love the way u speak ...
Whats the difference between "it is mine" and "it belongs to me" ?
hi you have nice accent i enjoy your accent thank for you video