Stop making these mistakes in English.
On next Monday, let's discuss about it.
I'm boring.
Today, I'm going to show you five of the most common mistakes in English and exactly how to correct them.
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Okay, first, can you spot an issue with this sentence?
I'm so boring.
Well, It's grammatically correct, but it's most likely not what people usually want to say.
This is by far one of the most common mistakes I hear from my students.
They usually mean, I'm so bored.
As in, I feel bored.
Not I'm boring as in I make other people feel bored.
The mistake here is mixing up ED and ING adjectives.
Adjectives that end in ED describe how someone feels.
Adjectives that end in ing describe what causes the feeling.
So, I'm interested means I feel interested.
The film is interesting means that the film is creating interest.
It's making me feel interested.
A couple more examples.
The students were confused by the confusing instructions or we're tired after that tiring journey.
Now, we don't usually describe ourselves as confusing or tiring.
That wouldn't be very nice.
We've got to be kind to ourselves.
Okay, mistake number two.
Can you correct this sentence?
I'll see you on next Monday.
Well, it could be, I'll see you on Monday, or I'll see you next Monday, but never on next Monday.
You have to choose between on or next.
It's easy to see why this mistake happens.
You learn that you use on before days, on Monday, on Friday.
So it's logical that you'd make the mistake of saying on next Monday.
I hear the same error with months.
I started my new job in last January.
It can either be in January or last January, but not in last January.
So here's the rule.
We don't tend to use in, on, or at directly before words like next, last, this, and every.
These words already position us in time, so we don't need two prepositions doing the same job.
Let's do a quick review of on, at, and in while we're here.
We use on before days, dates, and special days.
The meeting is on Wednesday, not on next Wednesday, on Wednesday.
His birthday is on the 22nd of December.
We eat turkey on Christmas Day, not on every Christmas Day, on Christmas Day or every Christmas Day.
We use at with times, holiday periods, and specific moments.
For example, the train leaves at two.
Or what do you like doing at Christmas?
The whole holiday period, not just one day.
Or I woke up at sunrise.
Now in British English, we also say at the weekend.
On the weekend is more common in North American English.
Finally, we use in for months, years, decades, centuries, seasons, and longer periods.
For example, I was born in June.
Disco was popular in the 70s.
The flowers in the park are beautiful in spring.
We also say in the morning, in the afternoon, and in the evening, but at night.
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Okay, common mistake number three.
Can you see it in this sentence?
We need to discuss about the proposal.
It should be discuss the proposal.
We don't use a preposition after discuss.
Here, it's followed directly by an object, the proposal.
So we can discuss something.
For example, Let's discuss your ideas.
We can discuss what, who, when, and so on.
We need to discuss what happened.
And we can discuss doing something.
We didn't discuss hiring anyone new.
Okay, those are some of the most common structures we use.
But why do so many of my students say discuss about?
Well, I think there are several reasons.
One, It's often a transfer from your first language.
Two, we say talk about and speak about.
So discuss about seems logical, but unfortunately it's not correct.
And three, we say, have a discussion about.
The noun form discussion is followed by about.
So, for all of those reasons, discuss about is one of the mistakes I hear the most often from my students.
Okay, let's look at mistake number four in this sentence.
This phone is more better than my old one.
So we just need to remove a word again.
It's not more better, it's just better.
This phone is better than my old one.
So what's going on here?
Well, we add more to many regular adjectives to form the comparative.
Beautiful, more beautiful stressful, more stressful.
But good is an irregular adjective and the comparative form is better, not more better.
Bad is also an irregular adjective.
Do you know the comparative form?
It's worse.
I feel worse today than I did yesterday.
And remember, comparatives are often followed by than, usually pronounced with the weak form than.
Worse than, better than.
Here are two more mistakes I see with comparatives.
My brother's more old than me.
We're more happier than before.
So we should add er to one syllable adjectives and two syllable adjectives that end in y.
So it should be older and happier without more.
Okay, last mistake now.
This is mistake number five.
Try to correct this sentence.
I hadn't got time to buy him a present yesterday.
The issue is with hadn't got.
To talk about the past, we use had or didn't have.
I didn't have time to buy him a present yesterday.
Let's take a closer look.
Have got is a present tense form used for possession, relationships, necessity, and so on.
In British English, we can often use have or have got interchangeably in the present.
Have got is slightly more informal and it's very common, particularly in speech.
So we can say, i don't have a pen or i haven't got a pen or we have to go or we've got to go one more example do you have enough money have you got enough money have got isn't common in north american english they tend to simply use have now to talk about the past both british and north american speakers use had or didn't have never had got hadn't got or didn't have got some correct examples i didn't have a pen yesterday we had to go did you have enough money okay those were our five common mistakes now it is time to take the quiz correct the mistakes in these sentences one i'm interesting in history Two, see you on next weekend.
Three, let's discuss about what to do.
Four, you look more happier today.
And five, I hadn't got enough money for a taxi.
Pause the video now if you need time to think.
Let's go through the answers.
Number one should be interested.
We use an adjective ending in ed to say how something makes us feel.
History makes you feel interested because history is interesting.
Two, we don't need on before next.
You could say, see you on the weekend, which is common in North American English.
In number three, we need to delete about.
We don't use a preposition after discuss.
Number four should be you look happier.
Happier is the comparative form of happy, not more happier or more happy.
And finally, it should be I didn't have.
We can't use have got in past tenses.
So how did you do?
Let me know your score out of five and let me know which of those mistakes have you made in the past.
Also, if you'd like to keep practising, make sure you download your free copy of my amazing 35 common mistakes ebook.
That's 30 more mistakes than the ones we've covered today, with quizzes, bonus explanations, more examples and everything you need to make sure these and all the others finally stick.
To download that, just click on the link in the description box or scan this qr code here.
I will see you in the next lesson bye.
