12 English Grammar Exceptions you NEED TO KNOW

Usually we say I love but we can also say I am loving. It's an exception and in this video I'm sharing with you 12 English grammar exceptions you need to know if you want to improve your English. Before we start make sure you download your free English grammar booklet from the video description. In this booklet I talk about tenses, conditionals and other grammar points. I give you some examples and very simple explanations so make sure you check it out. So the first exception is I am loving. So usually with verbs like to love To like, to hate, we use the present simple. So, I love pizza. I hate pizza. It's a general feeling. I love it. I always love it. It's one of my favorite things to eat. But there is an exception. We can say I am loving something. When we're talking about a temporary feeling of enjoyment. So, for example, I am at a restaurant right now and I am eating pizza and I am loving it. So, I am really enjoying it right now. Now, I am loving this specific pizza. I'm Okay, let's look at the next exception. starting It's about. Fewer and less. So the usual rule is that we use fewer with countable nouns. to For example, I have fewer books than you. speak. And we use less with uncountable nouns. I have less information than you. But there is an exception. When we talk about measurements, For example, distance or money or time, we use less, even though minutes, miles and dollars are countable. So we say it will take less than 10 minutes or it's less than 5 miles. It costs less than $20. The next exception is about the phrase if I were you. So usually in the past tense, when I say I, I use was. So I was tired yesterday. Not wear. Wear is plural. So I can say we were tired yesterday. But the phrase if I were you is an exception. We use it to give somebody advice. For example, if I were you, I would take a break. So my advice is that you should take a break. If I were you, I would take a break. It's a fixed phrase and it's an exception. So it's something you just need to memorize. Are you enjoying this lesson? If so, you might be interested in my free English grammar booklet, which I have linked in the video description. So make sure you check it out. It's got lots of simple explanations of English grammar points with a lot of examples. So go to the link in the video description and get it for free. Also, don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel. I really appreciate it. Okay, the fourth exception is about using the indefinite articles a and an. So the general rule is that we use a in front of consonants. For example, a book, a train, b and t are consonants. And we use an in front of vowels. For example, an apple, an orange. A and O are vowels, but look at this exception, an hour. H is a consonant, but we have an hour, not a hour. So because of this exception, the actual rule that you need to remember is that the choice depends on the sound, not the letter. So in the word The first sound is actually a vowel sound, a, because the H is silent, we can't hear it, so that's why we need an, an hour. Look at this, a university, U is a vowel, so we should have an, but actually it's a. university it's because the sound is it's a consonant sound the next exception is about adverbs the general rule is that in English to make an adverb you add ly at the end of an adjective for example This car is very slow. That's an adjective. I am driving very slowly. That's an adverb. But there is an exception. This exercise is very hard. It's an adjective. She works very hard. It's an adverb. But it hasn't changed. So hard can be both an adjective and an adverb but you can add ly at the end of hard to make hardly but the meaning changes. It doesn't mean difficult anymore. Hardly means almost not at all. I could hardly hear them because of the loud music so I almost couldn't hear anything. I could hear very little. The next exception is about verbs for tasting and smelling. So usually we use the present simple with the verb to taste. For example, this soup tastes good. It means I like the flavor. But the exception is that you can use it with the present continuous. But the meaning changes. The chef is tasting the soup. So the chef is having some of the soup to check what it tastes like, to check the flavor. So tasting is the action of checking the flavor. It's the same with smelling. The flowers smell good but the exception I am smelling the flowers. I am using my nose to check the scent. Now the next exception is about talking about somebody's age. My son is 10 years old. So when we use this phrase, 10 years old, we have S at the end of year, 10 years. But when we use it as a sort of an adjective that describes somebody or something, we don't have the S. So it's a 10-year-old boy. It's a 5-year-old car. So when this phrase. Describe somebody or someone. There is no S and you also need to remember to add the hyphens. My car is three years old. I have a three-year-old car. Now, would and used to. They are both for talking about something that you did in the past, but you don't do it. Now, I used to walk to school every day. I would walk to school every day. It's a regular action in the past that I don't do anymore. The exception is when we talk about states, not actions. So for example, liking something is a state. It is not an action. So I can say, I used to like chocolate when I was a child, but I can't say I would like chocolate when I was a child. So the exception is that used to is for both states and actions, but would is only for actions. Now the next exception. When we talk about something that we always do, We normally use the present simple, for example, I always get up at 8 o'clock. It's a regular action I do every single day, but there is an exception. I can sometimes use the present continuous with always. He is always wearing shoes inside. It's also a regular action, something that always happens every day. But the difference is that when I use the present continuous, it means I am annoyed about something. I don't like it. He is always wearing shoes inside. And so the floor is always dirty. The next exception is about collective nouns. So things that are about a group of people. For example, a team. A team is made up of several people, but the word team is singular. So for example, my team is over there. Because it's singular, but sometimes I can use are with collective nouns like team, my team are really nice. And when I use are, I'm talking about all the individuals that make up the team, rather than the whole team as a unit. So my team are really nice means that All the individuals, all the people on my team are really nice. This is more of a British English distinction. Now the next one is about the present simple. And when we use the present simple, We normally talk about something that happens regularly or something that is always true in the present. For example, I live in England. I work in an office. But the exception is when we talk about scheduled events in the future. That's right. You can use the present simple to talk about the future when you're talking about schedules or timetables. For example, what time does the meeting start tomorrow morning? What time is it scheduled for? My plane lands at eight tomorrow. It's a schedule, so I can use the present simple. And the final exception. is about the word they. They is normally plural. For example, my friends are really nice. They always help me. I'm talking about several people. But we can also use they when we don't know who the person is that we're talking about. Somebody was looking for you earlier and I told them to come back. I'm talking about one person, but I don't know who they are. I don't know if it's a man or a woman looking for me, so I'm just using they to talk about this person in general. Now leave me a comment and tell me one thing that you've learned from this video And don't forget to. To get your free English grammar booklet from the video description and I'll see you in the next video. Bye.