Hello everyone. Welcome to the LangFocus channel, and my name is Paul.

And despite what half the people in the comments say, English is my native language.

-DONALD TRUMP VOICE: Why doesn't he show his birth certificate?

-DONALD TRUMP VOICE: And you know what? I wish he would.

-DONALD TRUMP VOICE: He should show his birth certificate.

-DONALD TRUMP VOICE: [And] the other thing: Why doesn't he show his certificate?

Today's topic is...

10 Common Mistakes That Native English Speakers Make.

When most of us study a foreign language,

we try to avoid mistakes and speak accurately.

Some of us are even scared to make mistakes.

But, you know what, even native speakers make mistakes, and that includes speakers of my native language, English.

When I say mistakes, I'm not talking about dialectal variation.

English has various dialects that differ from the standard language, and I'm not talking about those differences.

I'm talking about native speakers of dialects that are very close to Standard English, but, who make mistakes.

What kind of mistakes?

Well, here are 10 of them.

Number 10: Unclear Subject Number

For example: Every one of those people need to buy a ticket.

The correct sentence would be...

Every one of those people *needs* to buy a ticket,

because the plural word people is right next to the verb,

some people might mistake it for the subject,

but the subject of the sentence is actually every one,

and of the people is extra information about that subject.

"Every one" is singular.

Number 9: Confusing Homophones When Writing

Homophones are words that sound the same as other words that have a different meaning, and usually have a different spelling.

One common example is the confusion of affect and effect.

This confusion arises because the first vowel of each word is often reduced,

and it sounds like a schwa, and this makes them sound alike.

When someone is writing the word, they may be hearing the sound of the word in their head,

and they may choose the wrong spelling to go with that sound.

Another example of this is "their, there, and they're"

"Their" and "there" sound the same, but "they're" sounds a little different,

but in its reduced form basically sounds the same.

People often choose the wrong one when writing.

Another example is the confusion of "your", the possessive pronoun,

with "you're", the contraction of you are.

Another example is writing of instead of 've, the contracted form of have.

For example: Someone might write "I would of gone to the party if I'd had time"

But it should be would've with apostrophe-"ve".

They sound the same in casual pronunciation so that's why they get confused.

Number 8: Confusion of Adjectives and Adverbs

For example: "He sang really good."

Good is an adjective, but we need an adverb to modify the verb "sang".

So, the correct sentence is, "He sang really well."

This mistake is the kind of mistake that kids often make before they've had English grammar drilled into them

and it's also a kind of mistake that less educated people might make.

Even educated people might make this kind of mistake,

but they'd probably notice it right away and maybe correct themselves.

Another related case is that people sometimes use and adverb when they actually need an adjective

So take this case for example:

"I feel very badly about that."

This sentence is wrong, it should be: "I feel very bad about that"

But, why is it wrong? I thought adverbs modify verbs...

Well, adverbs modify action verbs, but "feel" is a stative verb.

It just describes the way something is, the state that´s in; it doesn't describe an action.

Stative verbs are followed by adjetives, not adverbs.

Inevitably, someone will ask

What is all the sentence "I feel well" isn't that correct

Yes' that's a correct sentence, but "well" is not an adverb here.

It's actually an adjective meaning "healthy".

It's not an adverb equivalent of the adjective "good".

Number 7: Double Negatives

educated adults won't make this kind of

mistake and if they do it's probably

kind of an intentional casual style of

speaking you know trying to sound all

badass a double negative is like this I

don't have no money man the correct

sentence would be I don't have any money

man another example I didn't talk to

nobody correct sentence would be I

didn't talk to anybody so that one could

be a mistake or it could be people

intentionally trying to copy the

features of a dialect that's cool and

popular number six not using the

subjunctive mood the subjunctive mood is

a form of the verb that's used for

something not factual like possibility

or desire or necessity in English the

subjunctive has a unique form in the

third person present tense and the verb

to be has a unique form in the third

person past tense some people just don't

use it at all or they're confused about

when to use it for example it's

important that he goes to the hospital

that's actually wrong the correct

sentence would be it's important that he

go to the hospital

we need the subjunctive mood here to

show necessity another example if I was

rich the correct version would be if I

were rich here we need the subjunctive

because it's showing possibility number

five confusion of is and are this

confusion usually happens with there is

and there are or here is and here are

for example here's three cookies for you

the correct sentence would be here are

three cookies for you

another example there's around seven

people at the party the correct sentence

would be there are around seven people

at the party but so many people even

educated speakers use both of these

forms so much that I'm not even sure

that they're considered mistakes anymore

number four confusion of the verbs lie

and lay most native English speakers

know that there's a difference between

these words but they're kind of confused

about what the difference is or they

know what the difference is but they use

them incorrectly anyway lie is an

intransitive verb meaning it takes no

direct object for example let's lie on

the bed oh boy I can imagine the

comments already lay is a transitive

verb meaning it takes a direct object

for example let's lay the laundry on the

bed but lots of people say let's lay on

the bed and that's wrong people also

mistake the past tense form and the past

participle of lie

I often hear people say lied like he

lied on the floor or laid like he laid

on the floor but really the past tense

of lie is lay and the past participle is

blame the past tense of lay is laid and

the past participle is also laid number

three confusion of the words fewer and

less fewer is used for count nouns and

less is used for non count nouns but

people often use less for count nouns

for example I eat less cookies than I

used to cookies are countable so the

correct sentence is I eat fewer cookies

than I used to that kind of mistake is

very widespread number two confusing the

past tense form and the past participle

form of irregular verbs for example the

verb to go has the past tense form went

and the past participle gone but lots of

people say things like I should have

went to the party but the correct

sentence is I should have gone to the

party another example the verb to drink

the past tense form is drank in the past

participle is drunk

some people say things like he's already

drank two beers and it's only 4:00 p.m.

but it should be he's already drunk two

beers

number one misuse of the word literally

the real original meaning of this word

is that something in reality is exactly

as spoken without metaphor or

exaggeration for example if you say she

literally has thousands of pairs of

shoes that means if you count all of her

pairs of shoes there will be thousands

of them not hundreds not dozens but

really thousands but these days people

often use the word literally just to put

emphasis on something that's not

actually literal for example that guy is

literally a monster oh really that

sentence means that he looks like this

he's not

human he's a real monster but that's not

what they meant they just meant that

he's a bad person this kind of mistake

literally makes me scream what are you

waiting for me to scream I don't

actually scream I didn't mean that

literally.

I think that basically all native

speakers make some mistakes in writing

and in speaking if we judge by strict

grammatical standards sometimes it's

because they're just thinking on their

feet and maybe their ideas aren't

completely organized so things come out

a little bit unclear and sometimes it

might be a habitual mistake they repeat

the same mistake over and over but the

issue is not black and white

obviously standard languages need rules

so that there's not total chaos but at

the same time languages are always

evolving and sometimes a mistake may be a

new innovation in the language that just

doesn't match the rules of grammar yet

because the rules of grammar were

decided in the past so the question of

the day for native English speakers what

do you think of the kind of mistakes

that I described in the video do you

think that they're a danger to the

English language or do you see them as

mere innovations or does it depend on

the case and the question of the day for

native speakers of other languages do

you notice these kinds of mistakes in

your own native language what do you

think of them leave your comments down

below be sure to follow Leng focus on

Facebook Twitter and Instagram and once

again I'd like to say thanks to all of

my patreon supporters especially the

ones right here on the screen for their

especially generous pledges thank you

for watching and have a nice evening

Sike, day.