10 Common English Speaking Mistakes

Hi everyone! My name is Shane. Today we are talking about 10 common English speaking mistakes. These are mistakes I hear from students who are beginner learners of English and even intermediate and advanced learners. Before we get started, have a look at the 10 sentences and see if you can see what’s wrong with them and why they’re wrong.

Mistake #1

Hmm. I have been learning English since one year. When we’re talking about an amount of time, we use the word ‘for’. You have been watching this video for one minute. I have been making YouTube videos for 18 months. But when we’re talking about a start time or a start date, then we use ‘since’. For example, I have been filming this YouTube video since about 11:15. He has been working there since July. It started in July.

Mistake #2

Shane I still don’t understand. Can you explain why is that? Incorrect sentence number two. Can you explain why is that? This sentence is wrong because we have a question, ‘Can you explain’, and we also have another question, ‘Why is that’ in one sentence. In English, that’s normally not correct. This type of question is called an indirect question. It’s very polite and we take a bit longer to ask the question.

When we ask indirect questions, we need a question and we need a statement. Can you explain? Question. Why that is. Statement. The question and the statement come together to make an indirect question. Could you tell me? Question. Where the train station is. Statement. Not ‘Where is the train station’.

Mistake #3

Shane, I still don’t understand ‘for’ and ‘since’. What’s the different? Incorrect sentence number three. What’s the different? This sentence is incorrect because ‘different’ is an adjective. An adjective is a word that we use to describe a noun.

But in this sentence, we don’t have a noun so we can’t use an adjective. Also, what type of word normally comes after ‘the’? It’s a noun, right? And what’s the noun for ‘different’? It’s ‘difference’. So this question should be ‘What’s the difference?’ What’s the difference between a dog and a cat? What’s the difference between a pen and a pencil?

Mistake #4

Okay but I still don’t know how to use ‘to’ and ‘for’. How different? Incorrect sentence number four. How different? This sentence is wrong because we don’t have a subject or a verb. We need to add a verb and tell the listener what we are talking about. For example, ‘How is it different?’ How is this thing different? How is watching a movie at home different to watching a movie at the cinema?

Mistake #5

Sh! It’s about to start! So you look like you like going to the gym and being active. Yeah you’re right. I like. Cool. Cool. But wait. You like what? I like. You like what? I like. You like what!? Wow! He’s got an anger problem.

Incorrect sentence number five. I like. This sentence is incorrect because we don’t have an object. If you just say ‘I like’ we don’t know what you like. You need to say what you like. I like dogs. I like when it rains. I like watching good movies.

Mistake #6

Yeah. I like watching good movies too. This movie, for example. It was too good movie. Incorrect sentence number six. It was too good movie. ‘Too’ means more than is needed or more than is enough. For example, look at this. There is too much water. We have more than enough water because it overflowed out of the glass.

So if you say the movie was too good, that means the movie was more than needed or more than enough. This doesn’t really make sense. Some better ways to say this could be ‘The movie was great.’ The movie was amazing. The movie was awesome. It was a really good movie. It was a very good movie.

Mistake #7

That movie was amazing. It made me feel funny. Incorrect sentence number seven. It made me feel funny. In English, if something makes you feel funny it’s normally not a good thing. It’s not talking about something that was funny or hilarious or made you laugh.

Let’s pretend I hit my elbow on something. I go to my doctor and he says to me ‘Shane, how’s your arm?’ I can say ‘It feels funny.’ Another example could be If I eat something and it makes my stomach feel weird or gives me pains in my stomach. I can say ‘My stomach feels funny.’ In both of these situations, ‘funny’, means strange.

Oh! My stomach feels funny. I think I need some water. No stop! That’s too much!

Mistake #8

Hmm. That was really good water. You know. I think everyone like drinking water. Incorrect sentence number eight. Everyone like drinking water. Hey! Why is this wrong? ‘Everyone’ is plural. It’s many people.

He’s right. When we say ‘everyone’, we are talking about many many many many people. But we are not talking about the people. We are talking about the group of people. It’s only one group of people. Because we are talking about one thing, one group of people, we need to use a singular verb. Everyone likes drinking water. Everyone wants to have a good life. Everyone enjoys talking on the phone.

Mistake #9

Oh! Sorry guys! My phone’s ringing. One second. Hello. Oh hi! How are you? That’s good. Oh she wants to talk to me? No worries. I will call to her tonight. Okay thanks. Bye. Incorrect sentence number nine. I will call to her. This speaking mistake is very easy to fix. Don’t say ‘to’. I will call her. I will call my mum. I will call my friend.

Mistake #10

Thanks you! Thanks you! Thanks you! Thanks you for watching! No! Incorrect sentence number ten. Thanks you. We don’t need that S. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks you? No. Thank you for helping me. Thank you for watching this video. That’s the end of the lesson today guys. Thank you very much for watching. Leave a comment down below and I will see you in the next lesson!