5 Common English Grammar Mistakes EVEN Native Speakers Make!

Hey guys, welcome back to my channel. Today we're going to do something a little different. We are going to flip it around and instead of looking at mistakes that English learners typically make, we are going to look at mistakes that even native English speakers make. So a lot of these you've probably heard in movies or tv shows or you've seen in ads or read in books. So they might seem really familiar and sometimes maybe you've caught yourself thinking, grammatically that doesn't make sense. Why is this native saying this or why is it in this ad? So today we are going to answer that. If you ever feel insecure about your English, just remember even native speakers make mistakes. Grab a coffee, get a cozy drink, and let's dive into the world of confusing English grammar. Okay, so the first one is who versus who. This is one of the most misunderstood grammar. Even native speakers avoid the word whom because it sounds so formal, old-fashioned, or like you're quoting Shakespeare. But in the end, it's actually really quite simple. Whom is always the subject. It is the doer of the action and whom is always the object. It is the receiver of the action. So there's a really easy quick check you can always use to make sure you're using it correctly. The way that you do this is if you can replace who with he or she, then the answer is who. It's not who because he and she is a subject pronoun. That equals who. If you can replace it with him or her, these are object pronouns, then the answer is whom. So let's run through some quick practice examples. Who should I invite? Now many natives would say this and it might even sound right to you because you've heard it so many times, but the answer here is him or her, not he or she. It actually is whom. Who should I invite? I should invite him, not I should invite he, right? You see the trick? So it's actually whom should I invite. But here's the reality. Most native English speakers never say whom unless they want to sound extra formal or maybe even sarcastic. So if you're an English learner and you're stressing about this one, maybe you learned it in class recently or you stumbled upon it, just don't. It's gonna be okay. You are officially doing better than half of the native English speakers just knowing that the rule exists. So you're already ahead of the game. Number two is the difference between less and fewer. So this is the classic grocery store grammar fail. You've probably seen a sign before that says 10 items or less. Technically it should be 10 items or fewer and native English speakers still argue about this all the time. The rule for less and fewer. Fewer is for countable things and less is for uncountable things. So when you think about this sign, 10 items or less, it doesn't exactly make sense because you are literally saying 10 items. So we know you can count them. So it really should be 10 items or fewer, but that's the classic grammar fail in the grocery store. So here are some examples of when you would use fewer that are countable things. For example, fewer apples, fewer people, fewer mistakes, all of those things you can easily count. The word less would be less water, less time, less money. These are all uncountable nouns, so you would use less. Here are some spots where native speakers usually trip up. They say less people, less calories, less problems. Here are some that are really confusing. For example, less than 10 minutes. Now 10 minutes, you would think that it's countable because it's specifically minutes and you can count minutes. One minute, two minutes, three minutes, but it's still considered time. So it's considered being uncountable, which would mean it's less. So you would say less than 10 minutes. Another one that's confusing is less than 10 miles. It's the same thing. Distance is uncountable, and so it's considered a single measurement. And even though you can count miles, one mile, two miles, three miles, it's still considered under the umbrella of distance as a single measurement. So it's still going to be less, not fewer. And the last one is with percentages, it is less than 10%, not fewer than 10%. So make sure you remember those because those are the confusing ones. So sometimes you use less, even when you can count a thing, if you're treating it as a measure. Honestly, this whole difference between less and fewer really confuses native speakers as well, because this rule has many weird exceptions. So it's hard to keep track. So pay attention to this in ads, books, TV shows, and see if you ever hear any mistakes. I bet you will if you look for them. Okay, the next one is, I think, probably the mistake I hear the very most. It is me and versus and I. This is probably the most common and the most judged mistake. Me and my friends went to the store. This is incorrect. Native English speakers love to correct this one, but half the time they don't even know the rule themselves. Now the rule is very simple and it's actually really similar to the first one that we went through. The rule is that you use I when it's the subject and you use me when it's the object. So an example would be, my friend and I went to the store. You and your friend are both the subject here. You are both going to the store. So you're going to use I, not me. Another example is, they they gave the ticket to my friend and me. Your friend and you here are the object. So you are the receiver of the action. So it's me. Now there's a super easy trick for this. All you have to do is remove the other person and see if I or me still makes sense in the sentence. For example, if you remove my friend, the sentence is just, me went to the store. Does that make any sense? No, you would never say that. Me is the subject. So I went to the store. Then you would know my friend and I went to the store. For example, you remove the other person as well. So they gave the tickets to I. That doesn't make any sense. So they gave the tickets to me. That makes sense. They gave the tickets to my friend and me. There we go. Now the reason natives get this wrong is because kids grow up being told say blank and I. It's always I. And they don't understand the rule this way. So then they begin to overcorrect and just think you always say blank and I when you have two people. And they say things like, they give the tickets to my friend and I. That is something that you will hear a native speaker say all the time. If you've been confused about this one, congratulations. So is the entire English speaking world. Okay, section four is really fun. We're going to cover things like irregardless, could of, and a bunch of other spoken mistakes. This section comes from mistakes from how the language sounds in everyday speech. So number one, irregardless. Many natives say this. I'm not exactly sure why. It doesn't sound like it would be a word. Irregardless. I don't know. But it is not. It is not standard English. The correct word is regardless. So why do people say this? The answer is because irrespective plus regardless equals chaos. It equals irregardless. So next time you hear that, don't repeat it. It's wrong. Just regardless is enough. Or irrespective. Either one. Not both combined. Now number two is could of, should of, and would of. Native English speakers but as a one contracted word, which sounds like could of. And even native speakers write this incorrectly all the time. So an example is I could have gone. What they actually mean to say is I could have gone. They're using the past tense. They're using a verb tense here, but instead they're basically saying I because of gone. It doesn't make any sense. They should be saying I could have gone, but it sounds like I could have gone. So this is a perfect one where if you feel like you should be speaking better English and you feel like you study all the time and then you're listening and you don't understand anything, this would be one that would really trip me up if I were learning English. Another one is supposedly. Yes, people say this. What they mean is supposedly. Not supposedly. They are confusing their Bs and Ds. I don't know. Don't say it. It's just supposedly. Another one is a whole nother. This is not technically correct, but it is extremely common because the brain splits the word other another another like that. So you can use it as informal speech if you want. I mean everyone says that, but don't put it in writing. Don't use it for at school. Don't put it in tests. Just if you're speaking, but it's not technically correct. Number five is anyways. Now this technically there's no S at the end. The standard word is just anyway, but native speakers love to just throw on an extra S. So you say yeah anyways, but it's just anyway. This is honestly used so much in casual speech. So if you hear it, don't be surprised. It's just another mistake native English speakers make. Okay and then our last section has to do with split infinitives. Now you might not know what this is, but we will cover it. So just wait. Now this one gets really juicy because native speakers actually argue about it. So teachers argue about it. Grammarians argue about it. It's quite a hot topic in the English speaking world. So let's get into it. So a split infinitive happens when you put a word in between to and the infinitive. For example, to boldly go or to completely understand. So to understand that's our verb and then you put completely in the middle or to really try. Old school grammar purists always say that you should never split an infinitive, but guess what? Most modern linguists say that split are totally fine. They even say that sometimes split infinitives make sentences sound clearer or more natural. An example of this, she decided to gradually get rid of her accent. They would say that this sounds much better than she decided gradually to get rid of her accent. It becomes very confusing when you play around with this. So this mistake is actually not a mistake, but the controversy around it is very real, especially among native speakers. And there you have it. These are five grammar issues that even native speakers struggle with all the time. So next time you're worrying about your English skills, just remember that if native speakers can't get it right, you're already ahead of the game and don't worry about it for now. So I'm super curious. Let me know in the comments which of these mistakes you've heard before and if there are any others that I'm missing. I would love to know. Also, which one of these surprised you the most? Which one sounded most normal and you would never think it's a mistake? Well, thank you for watching this video. If you haven't already, please like and subscribe. It really helps out my channel. And there is a link in the description below for tons of free English learning resources. I will catch you in the next video. Thank you. Bye.