10 COMMON GRAMMAR MISTAKES IN ENGLISH

If you think any of these sentences are correct, then you need to watch this video. In today’s English lesson, we are looking at 10 common grammar mistakes that you might be making. Even if you’re an advanced learner of English, you may be making these mistakes because some of these mistakes are wrong just because of one word. So if you’re ready to start improving your English grammar, let’s get started.

 

The first thing we are going to do today is have a grammar test. I will show you 10 sentences. Each sentence has a mistake. I want you to find the mistake and think about why the sentence is wrong. After we have finished the grammar test we can look at each sentence and talk about why it’s wrong and how to fix it.

 

Grammar test

Okay, let’s look at question number one. Can you suggest me a good restaurant? What’s wrong with this one?

 

Number two. It has an affect to me. What is the error here?

 

Number three. They have a 12 years old daughter. Why is this one wrong?

 

Number four. If you would have eaten it, you would have enjoyed it. Why is this sentence wrong?

 

Number five. In the bedroom has two chairs. What is the mistake here?

 

Number six. It don’t have. Why is this sentence not right?

 

Number seven. You should to learn English. How can we fix this sentence?

 

Number eight. I like to take a photo. What can we do to fix this sentence?

 

Number nine. My hobby is watch movie. Where is the error here? Last question.

 

Number ten. That car is John car. Why is this sentence not correct? How many questions did you find the mistake for? I hope you found them all but if you didn’t, that’s okay. Let’s talk about them right now.

 

Grammar mistake #1

Number one. Can you suggest me a good restaurant? It’s incorrect to say ‘suggest me’. We don’t say ‘suggest me’, ‘suggest him’, ‘suggest us’. To correct this sentence, there are many different ways. We could remove the object and say ‘Can you suggest a good restaurant?’ You could say ‘Can you suggest a good restaurant for me?’ Or you could remove the ‘can you’ and just say ‘Suggest a good restaurant’ or ‘Suggest a good restaurant for me.’

 

And actually, when native speakers are casually asking for an opinion, they normally don’t use the word ‘suggest’. It’s a little bit too formal. A more native-like way to say this would be ‘Do you know any good restaurants?’ Do you know any good restaurants?

 

Grammar mistake #2

Number two. It has an affect to me. This sentence actually has two mistakes. Did you find them both? The first mistake is that the word ‘affect’ with an A is normally used as a verb. After the word ‘an’, we normally need to use a noun, right? So we need to use the word ‘effect’ which has exactly the same pronunciation but it starts with the letter E.

 

The second mistake is that when we use the phrase ‘it has an effect’, and we want to say what it affects, we normally need to use the preposition ‘on’. To correct this sentence, we need to say ‘It has an effect on me.’ ‘Effect’ with an E and use the preposition ‘on’. Now there are some other ways you could say this sentence correctly. You could say ‘I am affected by it.’ Or you could say ‘It affects me.’ All of these sentences are correct.

 

Grammar mistake #3

Number three. They have a 12 years old daughter. It’s incorrect to say ‘have a 12 years old daughter’. Why? I know that 12 is plural – it’s more than one, right? But we are using the phrase ’12 years’ to describe the daughter, to describe the noun.

 

When we use a phrase like this to describe a noun, we don’t need to use S even if the phrase is plural. To correct this sentence, we need to say ‘They have a 12-year-old daughter.’ We don’t need to say S because we are using ’12-year-old’ to describe the daughter.

 

Some other common mistakes like this are ‘He is on a four days trip.’ But you need to say ‘He is on a four-day trip.’ Another example is ‘He’s doing a three years course.’ But we need to say ‘He’s doing a three-year course.’

 

Grammar mistake #4

Number four. If you would have eaten it, you would have enjoyed it. It’s incorrect to say ‘would have’ twice like this because we are talking about a situation that didn’t happen in the past and we are thinking about the result if it did happen. That means we need to use the third conditional. The third conditional is made by using ‘if’ plus past perfect plus ‘would have’ plus a past participle.

 

To correct this sentence, we need to say ‘If you had eaten it, you would have enjoyed it.’ And a more native-like way to say this would be ‘If you’d eaten it, you would’ve enjoyed it.’

 

Grammar mistake #5

Number five. In the bedroom has two chairs. This sentence is incorrect because when we’re trying to say something is there or something is in the world, we need to use the phrases ‘there is’ or ‘there are’. To correct this sentence, we would need to say ‘In the bedroom, there are two chairs.’ If there was just one chair, you could say ‘In this bedroom, there is a chair.’ Or ‘There is one chair.’

 

Another way to fix this is by putting ‘there are’ at the beginning of the sentence. So we could say ‘There are two chairs in the bedroom.’ Another common mistake like this is when students say things like ‘Have 25 students in my English class.’ To fix this, we need to say ‘There are 25 students in my English class.’

 

Grammar mistake #6

Number six. It don’t have. There are two things wrong with this sentence. The first one is that ‘it’ is a singular subject. That means we need to use the word ‘does’ with ‘it’. So to correct this, we need to say ‘It doesn’t’. It doesn’t.

 

The second thing wrong with this sentence is that the word ‘have’ is a transitive verb. That means, normally, when we use the word ‘have’, we need to use it with an object. We need to say what we don’t have. If you just say ‘It doesn’t have’, a native speaker will think ‘Doesn’t have what?’ What are you talking about?

 

To correct this sentence, we need to add an object. For example, ‘It doesn’t have any food.’ Or ‘It doesn’t have anything to do.’

 

Grammar mistake #7

Number seven. You should to learn English. What’s wrong with this one? This is one of the easiest grammar mistakes that you can fix. After the word ‘should’, we don’t use ‘to’. To correct this sentence, we can say ‘You should learn English.’ No ‘to’.

 

Some other examples could be ‘He should go to the gym.’ Or ‘He shouldn’t eat so much food.’ You see? English is easy, right? After ‘should’, no ‘to’.

 

Grammar mistake #8

Number eight. I like to take a photo. If this sentence is talking about your hobby, it is incorrect. Why? Because when you go to take photos, you don’t just take one. You take many. You take photos of this, photos of that, photos of over there. You don’t just go out, take one photo and then stop.

 

To correct this sentence, you need to say ‘I like taking photos.’ Or you could say ‘I like to take photos.’ Another mistake like this that I often hear from my students is when students say ‘I like eating noodle.’ And I say to them ‘Just one noodle? Is one noodle enough?’ To correct this, you need to say ‘I like eating noodles.’

 

You need to add S if it’s a countable noun and there is more than one. This is very important if you want to sound like a native English speaker.

 

Grammar mistake #9

Number nine. My hobby is watch movie. There are two things wrong with this. Did you find them both? The first thing is that after the word ‘is’, we normally don’t use verb 1. To correct this, we need to say ‘is watching’ not ‘is watch’. The second mistake with this one is the word ‘movie’. Do you like to watch just one movie? No, I don’t think so. I think that you like to watch many movies, not just one.

 

So again, we need to add the letter S. We need to say ‘movies’. Please remember to add the S. It’s very very very important. And when talking about hobbies, remember to add the ING. Don’t say ‘is’ plus verb 1. That is wrong. Some correct examples are ‘My hobby is playing golf.’ My hobby is running. My hobby is going to the park.

 

Grammar mistake #10

Number ten. That car is John car. What’s wrong with this sentence? Well, the owner of the car is John, right? But in the sentence, we haven’t shown this. To correct this sentence, we need to add apostrophe S after John. So we need to say ‘That car is John’s car.’ It’s very important to add that apostrophe S when talking about ownership if you want to sound like a native English speaker. Some other examples could be ‘It’s Fred’s dog.’ Bob’s friend is very nice. John’s cat is very cute. Remember, add that apostrophe S.