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Hey, guys. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on "5 Common New
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English Learner Mistakes". So in this lesson, I'll be looking at mistakes that I have heard
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in my time as a teacher from students from various parts of the world. So these are mistakes
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that are made by Spanish speakers, Portuguese speakers, German speakers, Korean speakers,
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and they might apply to you as well. These are mistakes that kind of cross over and that
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are very common. So let's start with the first one. Let's look at No. 1.
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Okay, so this is, actually, a double mistake that I commonly hear when you're discussing
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a subject and you want someone to give you an opinion on something. So for example, "Do
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you prefer Coke or Pepsi?" Or "Do you prefer this or that?" And some people will say, "Well,
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it's depend." Or "Hmm, it depends of (...)" So "It depends of the season." "It depends of
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the person." "It depends of the society or the country" or something like this. So what
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is wrong with this? Well, we don't say, "it's depend". We say "it depends", "it depends".
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Okay? So we don't say, "it's depend". The correct form is: "it depends". And for this,
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this is okay: "it depends", right? The only problem is the preposition that you're using.
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We don't say "of" in English; we say "it depends on", okay? So "it depends on the person."
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"It depends on the country." "It depends on the time of day." Whatever topic you're discussing.
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Okay, guys, let's move on to No. 2. So for the second one, this is, actually,
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a verb choice error, and maybe languages, when you talk about eating, you use the verb
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"take". So you can "take a Coke", or "take your coffee in the morning", or you "take
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breakfast", "take dinner". In English, it's a little different. So here, we have two sentences.
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The first one says: "I took a coffee this morning." Now, when you look at it, maybe
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you went to a coffee shop, and you say, "Yeah, I will take a coffee." Okay. Not too much
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wrong with that. That's okay. However, when you're talking about the act of drinking the
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coffee, we use the verb "have" in English. Okay? So you didn't "take" a coffee; you say
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"I had" in the past, right? "I had a coffee this morning." Same thing for the second one.
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So this one says: "I take dinner around six." Well, in English, we don't really say, "I
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take dinner around six." We say, "I have dinner", okay? So when you're talking about food, you
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"have breakfast", "have lunch", "have dinner", "have coffee". You "have pizza". You "have
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a sandwich". Anything to do with food, use the verb "have". Now, let's move on to No.3.
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Okay, so this one is, actually, a preposition
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error, and it's when people use "for" when they mean to use an infinitive. So for example,
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"I use it for go to work." Imagine you have a car, and people ask you, "What do you use
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your car for?" You know, do you drive around a lot, or you say, "No, no. I only use it
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to go to work", right? So we don't say "for go", we use "to go". Now, why do we do this?
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Well, when you have a verb and you follow that verb with either a pronoun or an object
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of some kind, the verb afterwards has to be an infinitive, okay? So also, if you look
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down here, "I need glasses for read." Well, we know it's "to read". And: "She ran for
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catch the bus." "She ran to catch the bus." Again, there are some verbs, as you know,
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which are only followed by gerunds, some verbs which are only followed by infinitives. So
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here, if you want to have a verb and you want to use another verb, another action after
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that verb -- so "she ran to catch the bus" -- it has to be a gerund or infinitive. An
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"infinitive" is "to" plus the base verb, okay? So don't say, "I use it for do", "for do something."
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"I use it to do something." "I need glasses to read", not "for read". Okay? So if you
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ever have, you know, the desire to have a verb plus another action, either use a gerund
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or in this case, it's not "for do something", it's "to do" something. All right, guys. Let's
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look at No. 4. So this one is, actually, an adjective choice
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error, and it's the difference between -ing and -ed adjectives. So when you feel something
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internally, inside -- it's a personal feeling -- you should be using an -ed adjective, not
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an -ing adjective. So all three examples on the board here are, actually, incorrect. So
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the first one says, "I am exciting about that." So if you have, like, high interest in something
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that's coming up, like a concert, you are not exciting about it; you are excited,
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all right? You say, "I am excited." It's an internal feeling, okay? The second one, "He is interesting
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in music." You want to say that he has interest in music. So "He is interested"; "he is personally
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interested"; "he has an internal interest." And finally, "I feel so boring." This means
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that you are a boring person, and other people think you are boring, you are not interesting,
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which is not a good thing to say about yourself. So you say, "Oh, my goodness, I feel so bored."
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Okay? "I'm bored." That's it. Okay, guys, so again, if it's internal, it's an -ed adjective.
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If it's external, it's -ing. So you say, "I am excited because the class is exciting."
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"I am interested because the movie is interesting." So let's move on to the last one, No. 5.
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This final one is, actually, the difference between "it is" and "is". Now, I know in many
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languages, you can start a sentence, a statement, with "is". In English, you can start a question
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with "is", a yes/no question, no problem. "Is it cold today?" "Is he here?" "Is it easy?
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Like, is it an easy test?" Okay? However, when you make a statement, you cannot say
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"is good", "is easy", "is not a problem". You have to say "it is". In English, you need
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the subject, okay? So for these, we don't say "is good"; we say "It's good!" "It's easy!"
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"It's not a problem!" Okay? And all of these mean "it is", "it is", "it is". So not "is
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good"; "It's good". Not "is easy"; "It's easy". Not "is not a problem"; "It's not a problem".
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All right, guys, so let's review these five common new English learner mistakes.
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Okay, so No. 1: We say, "it depends" or "it depends on". We don't say "it's depend" or
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"it depends of". No. 2: We say, "I'm having sushi for dinner"; not "I'm taking sushi",
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okay? So anything with food, use the verb "have". No. 3: "I visit EngVid to improve
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my English". Not "for improve", but "to improve". And No. 4: "I am excited about that"; not
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"I am exciting for that." If it's internal, you are "excited"; you are "interested"; you
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are "bored"; you are "horrified". Okay? And finally: "It's fantastic", not "is fantastic".
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If you'd like to test your understanding of these five very common new English learner
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mistakes, as always, you can check out the quiz on www.engvid.com. And don't forget to
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subscribe to my YouTube channel. Thanks, guys.