7 Most Common English Grammar Mistakes + TEST - Do you make these mistakes

Hi, I'm Lisa. In this video, I will help you to fix 7 very common advanced English grammar mistakes. These are mistakes that a lot of my students make, even students that are considered quite fluent in English. Let's see if you make them too, and I will teach you how to fix them. Before I teach you the grammar rules of the 7 different topics that I'll be discussing, I'd like you to take a little test, a little grammar test that will measure how many mistakes you're making. Maybe you're not making any of these mistakes, which is fantastic, but I predict even if you are an advanced learner, you're probably making at least one or two of these. Let's make sure that your grammar is perfect, and let's fix these. You will take a test. You will see 11 different sentences. Each sentence has one grammar mistake, and it's your job to find the mistake and to fix it. So, you will see the sentence on the screen, and I want you to take a few seconds and think about what the mistake might be, and then I will give you the correct answer, and we will go through each rule. All right, let's get started. Let's look at sentence number one. I suggested him to buy the other one. Where is the mistake in that one? Number two. I suggest you to do it. Where is the mistake? Number three. I suggest you don't be late anymore. Do you know the mistake? Number four. I'm looking for a two bedrooms apartment. That's one I hear all the time, and that's not correct. Number five. I have a six years old son. Can you see the mistake in that one? Number six. I would appreciate getting some advices from you. Where is the mistake? Number seven. I'm really looking forward to go there. Did you spot the mistake? Number eight. In my country, we are used to eat rice for breakfast. Where is the mistake? Number nine. I will give it to you when we will see each other. Number ten. If you'll go, I'll go too. Where is the mistake? And number eleven. If you would have tried it, you would have liked it. Where is the mistake? Did you find all of the mistakes? So now, I will give you the correct answers, and I will teach you the grammar rules. Let's look at the first sentence. I suggested him to buy the other one. It's incorrect to say, I suggested him. There are different ways you can correct that. You can say, I suggested that he buy the other one. And the word that is optional, so you can also say, I suggested he buy the other one. But don't say, I suggested him. And sometimes, it's not necessary to include the pronoun, depending on the meaning of your sentence. In that case, you can use a gerund. You can use an ing, and you can say, I suggested buying the other one. So with suggested, if we use a verb immediately afterwards, it needs to have an ing. It needs to be a gerund. I suggested buying. I suggested going there. I suggested doing it. Make sure the verb is a gerund. Make sure it has the ing ending. Number two was, I suggest you to do it. That's a sentence I hear a lot, but that's not correct. We don't say, I suggest you. You need to say, I suggest that you do it. Or you can eliminate that, and you can say, I suggest you do it. But don't say, I suggest you. You can say, I suggest it to you. I suggest it to you. I suggest something to you. The verb suggest is a confusing verb. It's used differently than most other English verbs. That's why people make so many mistakes with it. So we don't say, I suggest you this one. We say, I suggest this one to you. We use the to with the pronoun. I suggest this one to you. When you use another verb with suggest, don't use to after suggest. Instead, use the word that. I suggest that you fix it soon. I suggest that he fix it soon. Did you see what I did in that last sentence? I said, he fix. I didn't say, he fixes. That's confusing, right? That's because the verb that is used with suggest must take the subjunctive form. And the subjunctive form is the infinitive form of the verb. So you can't change it to past tense, and you don't add an S. So we say, I suggest that he go there, not that he goes there. I suggest that he be there on time. We use be, not that he is. I suggest that he try harder next time. We don't say, he tries harder because suggest requires a subjunctive form of the following verb. And where was the mistake in sentence three? I suggest you don't be late anymore. We don't say, you don't. We say, I suggest you not be late anymore. Or you can use a gerund if you don't need to say the pronoun and just say, I suggest not being late anymore. I suggest not driving so fast. I suggest not doing that. Let's look at sentence number four. I'm looking for a two bedrooms apartment. Was it easy for you to see the mistake? The mistake was the letter S on the word bedrooms. It should be two bedroom apartment. But why is that when two is a plural? Because apartment is a noun. And when you put something directly in front of the noun to describe the noun, we change it to singular. So we say, my apartment has two bedrooms. In this case, the apartment comes before the two bedrooms. My apartment has two bedrooms or I have a two bedroom apartment. My car has four doors or I have a four door car. No S. I have a four door car. The meeting lasted 30 minutes. It was a 30 minute meeting. 30 minute meeting. That house cost $1 million. It's a million dollar house. You see that pattern? So now you have the answer to sentence number five, right? Do you see the mistake? We don't say six years old son. We say six year old son. I have a six year old son. I have a four year old daughter. I have an 80 year old grandmother. You will frequently hear people speaking like this. I have two children. I have a seven year old and a nine year old. Why don't you pause this video now so that you can practice this. I want you to think of things that you have with a number associated with it. For example, I have a two bedroom apartment. I have a four door car. I have a 50 year old mother, things like that. Put the video on pause now and make your own sentences. Did you do it? I recommend when you learn something new that you practice right away. Sometimes we forget about it and we don't practice and then we keep making the same mistake. As soon as you learn something, try to practice it. Okay, let's go to the next sentence. I would appreciate getting some advices from you. Where's the mistake? Did you know that we never add an S to the word advice? So advices does not exist because it's a non-countable noun. So you must say advice. So often I hear non-native speakers say, I would like some advices from you or thank you for your advices. Don't put that S at the end because advice is a non-countable noun. Make sure that you learn all the non-countable nouns that exist in English. For example, advice, homework. We don't say homeworks. Information, slang, vocabulary. These are all non-countable nouns. Memorize all of those so that you don't keep making that mistake. You might need to get a good grammar book and review the rules of English grammar and specifically study countable and non-countable nouns. What about the next sentence? I'm really looking forward to go there. Did you catch the mistake? Did you know that we must have an ING with the verb? A lot of my students make that mistake. In fact, I regularly get email from people where they say, I'm looking forward to go or to meet you or to see you. You must include ING with the expression, I'm looking forward to plus a verb. So, we say, I'm really looking forward to going there. I'm looking forward to meeting you. I'm looking forward to hearing from you. Don't forget the ING. How about the next sentence? I think this one was kind of difficult. Did you catch that mistake? In my country, we are used to eat rice for breakfast. Where is the mistake? There are two possible ways to fix the mistake, but the meaning will be different. It depends on what you mean. Are you talking about something that you used to do in the past or are you talking about a current habit? Look at these two sentences. I used to get up early. I am used to getting up early. Let's look at the grammar first. Let's look at the sentence construction. Notice that the second sentence has the verb to be. I am, but it also has ING. You need both elements to make that sentence correct. So, I am used to getting up early means it's a habit. It's something I am accustomed to. Remember, you need the verb to be and ING. You need both. If you only have one element, and this is where the mistake happens, people usually use one element. They say something like, I am used to get up early. That's very confusing. We don't know if it's a habit for you or it's something that you did in the past. If you say, I used to get up early, it means I'm not getting up early anymore, but I did in the past. I used to do it. So, let's go back to the test question. In my country, we are used to eat. Do you see the mistake? We have the verb form of to be. We are, but then we don't have the ING. So, does that mean that we used to eat rice, but we don't anymore, or it's a habit for us. We do it regularly. If we want to say it's a habit, we must include the ING. In my country, we are used to eating rice, but if we stopped eating rice, we would say, in my country, we used to eat rice. We don't eat it anymore. Isn't that confusing? Be careful about that. It's a very, very common mistake. So, I used to do it. I did it in the past. I am used to doing it. It's a habit. I'm still doing it, and I'm accustomed to it. Okay, let's move on to the next one. I will give it to you when we will see each other. Did you catch the mistake? The mistake is using will after when. You only need to use will one time in this sentence. I will give it to you when we see each other. When we are talking about the future, and we use the word when, we must not use the word will. So, we don't say, when I will see you. We say, when I see you. When I see you tomorrow, I will give it to you. When I finish high school, I will go to college. The same rule applies when we use the word if. Just like with when, we don't use will with the if clause. So, the sentence said, if you'll go, I'll go too. If you'll go is incorrect, we will say, if you go. If you go, I will go too, and we make that into a contraction, and we say, if you go, I'll go too. If I have time, I'll call you. Remember, don't use will two times. All right, let's go to the next one. This is the past conditional, and the sentence said, if you would have tried it, you would have liked it. Same thing. We don't use would two times. With the if clause, we don't use would. So, instead, we should say, if you had tried it, you would have liked it. We use the past perfect tense with the if clause in the past conditional tense. If I had studied, I would have passed the test. Let's say that naturally. If I had studied, I would have passed the test. And now, let's change the word order. She would have come to your party if you had invited her. And let's say that naturally, more quickly, where we make the contractions. She would have come to your party if you'd invited her. What did I do there? I eliminated the H. I didn't say invited her. I said, invited her. I didn't say, if you had invited. I said, if you'd invited. If you'd invited her. Let's say the whole sentence again. She would have come to your party if you'd invited her. How did you do? If you made one or two mistakes, I think that's very good. These are difficult things, aren't they? Especially the past conditional tense. That's so difficult for a lot of people to learn. There are so many different grammatical elements that need to be correct and in the correct word order. That's very hard for a lot of my students. If you're still struggling with some of these grammar rules, I recommend that you get a good grammar book and you review the rules and you study them in detail. But if you know the rules, maybe when you're speaking, it still doesn't sound correct sometimes. Does that happen to you? That's really common. It happens to a lot of students. They can pass the test and they can get a perfect score on an English test. But when it's time to speak English, the grammar doesn't come out correctly. Why is that? Do you know why that is? Because you're not practicing speaking enough. I always say if you have no one to speak English with, speak English with yourself. Talk to yourself out loud. Hear yourself making those sentences. It will go from your ear to your brain. It will become more permanent. That's how you fix those mistakes permanently. In the description below, I'm going to post the names of some grammar books that I strongly recommend that you buy. Grammar books for advanced learners of English. My channel is called Accurate English. It's the same name as my training center that I've had in Los Angeles for over 20 years. Why did I choose the name Accurate English? Because my goal is to help learners of English, advanced learners of English, fix their mistakes and speak accurately. And that means accurate pronunciation, accurate accent, using the correct idioms, phrasal verbs, and speaking English with accurate grammar. All of those things are important. The goal of Accurate English is to help you speak English with confidence, clarity, and accuracy. If you haven't subscribed to my channel yet, please subscribe and click on the notification bell so that you can find out when I release my next video. Thanks for watching and keep practicing your English. To learn all of the rules for a good American accent, you can buy my online video courses at AccurateEnglish.com