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  • Hi. James from EngVid. I was talking to a friend the other day - actually I

  • was talking to two friends.

  • One was from Detroit, in the ghetto,

  • a really poor, poor area, and the other one was from down south.

  • We were having a conversation, and it was the three of us,

  • drinking lattes in Starbucks, and we were chatting about a movie.

  • It was "Green Hornet". I was saying,

  • "Green Hornet, it's on Netflix.

  • I'm going to go watch it." Netflix,

  • it's this thing in America.

  • You've probably seen it. You can get movies all over.

  • Anyway, I said, "I want to see this movie,

  • Green Hornet." Now, my friend who was from the ghetto,

  • he went, "Yo, man, it ain't that good.

  • It ain't that good. I wouldn't see it if I were you.

  • I wouldn't see it. It ain't that good." I was kind of confused.

  • So I looked at my friend from the south and I went,

  • "What does he mean?" He goes,

  • "I seen it. I seen it,

  • too. It ain't that good.

  • He's right." I was thinking to myself,

  • "I need some new friends." Now,

  • why? I'm going to explain, because in this particular lesson we call it,

  • "I seen it", and other stupid mistakes.

  • Now, I'm being unfair. But generally put,

  • "I seen it", and "it ain't good", and "if I were you",

  • "if I was you I wouldn't see it",

  • "if I was you", they are shown in movies and in music and they are

  • used as what we call stereotypes.

  • A stereotype is when we say,

  • anything like this, the rest is exactly the same.

  • So all the people from England drink tea and like Earl Grey and Poupon,

  • because it's a stereotype. All Canadians like beer,

  • eh? That's a stereotype. So, it's to say one thing,

  • one kind, all are the same.

  • In this particular case, in North American movies,

  • when they want to show someone as being uneducated or stupid,

  • meaning not intelligent, they usually make them use things like "ain't",

  • She ain't my wife. She's my cousin,

  • or "seen". Usually in the south,

  • Arkansas and Texas, they make them say this,

  • because they want them to seem simple, simple and nice,

  • or just simple and stupid.

  • In the ghetto, "Yo, man, I seen him with my own two eyes.

  • He ain't a good man." I'm giving you this background because I'm not saying this,

  • but if you start using it because you watch the movies and you see these

  • stereotypes and you think, "This is how they sound in America.

  • I will sound like this", they will think you're stupid,

  • and act accordingly. "Accordingly" meaning: treat you that way.

  • So let's go to the board and do some work.

  • Problem number one, "I seen it before".

  • The problem with, "I seen it" is,

  • what they mean to say is,

  • "I saw it". It's very simple.

  • It's the simple past. When we say the simple past,

  • we say, something was true.

  • Something happened. It happened before and it is true.

  • That's it. "Seen" is actually a past participle.

  • Past participle means something in the past,

  • yes. But it participates - participates.

  • When you participate, it means you're a part of something.

  • Yes? You've got it. You're part.

  • Well a past participle usually, unless we're speaking of speech - I forgot the speech

  • now. It'll come back to me.

  • Trust me. It usually participates by having a perfect form,

  • which would be "have", so "have had",

  • "has had", and "had had", believe it or not.

  • So, here there is no participle.

  • They just said, "I seen it".

  • They missed the perfect form.

  • You need to have the perfect form.

  • So, the problem is using the past participle,

  • "seen" when you should use the simple past.

  • Right? Easy enough, "saw" and "seen".

  • Solution number one, "you saw", just just "you saw".

  • "I saw the movie", "I saw you yesterday".

  • Simple past, it happened. It's done.

  • The next one we can use is PP.

  • Past participle has two words, so you should use two words.

  • "I have seen it",

  • "I had seen you", "He has seen you".

  • Done. Cool? Next stupid mistake. Problem:

  • you say "ain't". "I ain't doing it",

  • "She ain't doing it", "I ain't going to do it".

  • I lied a little bit.

  • There is one situation in which I would use it,

  • and friends would use it.

  • Mister E., I've been told, has used it.

  • When you want to be kind of sarcastic,

  • and you want to say to somebody,

  • "It ain't happening", "I ain't going to do it",

  • and I'm saying in kind of a sarcastic way,

  • not that I'm stupid. But I'm being simple here,

  • and this is the way it's going to happen,

  • and "I ain't going to do it",

  • simple as that. But usually it shows non- intelligence.

  • So, you have to see if I'm smirking which is sort of an arrogant smile

  • like, "I ain't going there", or "You ain't going there",

  • it means I'm being combative.

  • I know what I'm saying.

  • I don't care, it's bad grammar on purpose.

  • I'm trying to get you angry or set you off,

  • or let you know where I am.

  • However, if you're new to English and you actually think this is English,

  • or you're in part of those areas I talked about that speak this way,

  • you actually have to learn the verb,

  • "to be" in its negative form.

  • Yes. I'm sorry. You have to learn it.

  • There are two, "is not" and "are not".

  • The actually contraction is, "isn't" or "aren't".

  • "They aren't here", not "They ain't here".

  • "He isn't here" or "He is not here".

  • Please learn these forms. Okay? We got that? Cool.

  • Problem one and two, so we're cleaning up our language.

  • Right? "I have seen this before",

  • or "I saw it". "It ain't good" becomes,

  • "it isn't that good". Now, problem number three.

  • This is more a - well,

  • I don't know if we would call it a stupid mistake.

  • It's more, maybe a transition in the language.

  • People are doing this more and more every day,

  • but the formal, when it's written properly or spoken properly is this.

  • We do not say, "if I was you".

  • Do you remember we talked about "was" means a fact in the past,

  • something has happened? Well "if" and "wouldn't",

  • indicates imaginary. It hasn't happened.

  • So we have a problem.

  • You're saying here something happened, but you're using the imaginary saying,

  • "it hasn't happened". It's very confusing for my little brain.

  • Even Mister E. is having problems.

  • He thinks he's a moron.

  • "Moron" is another word for "idiot".

  • So how do we clear that up in English? I think I said to you

  • that we don't usually use the same form when we talked about "ain't",

  • because people usually say, "I ain't",

  • "she ain't", "they ain't". We change the verb forms.

  • This is a strange case in English where we use the same verb form for

  • everything, but in a specific case,

  • when we use the word, "if" and and we use the word,

  • "were", and sometimes even "if", "were",

  • and "would", because these tell us it's called the imaginary form.

  • So an easy way to remember this,

  • because this is more a grammar point,

  • and if you speak English, this is more your language,

  • if you see "if" there, "if" stands for "imagine",

  • "imaginary". "Imagine" starts with I.

  • That tells me if I see an "if",

  • then should use "were" instead of "was".

  • It's simple, "If I were you,

  • I would go back and do the lesson again".

  • See, "if", "I"? "Imagine", "were", don't use "was",

  • simple. If you have a problem with "is" or "was" think the S means for

  • "was", for "situation". You think, "Is this a real situation? No.

  • Therefore, I cannot use 'was', I must use 'were'." Easy enough? "If",

  • I for "imagine", "were". Easy, right? So these are stupid mistakes,

  • but we have easy ways to fix them.

  • Let's go over them quickly, okay? "Ain't",

  • "you can't do it because it ain't right".

  • We have different pronouns and you must have a different usage of verb form.

  • "Is" or I-S, for "he", "she",

  • and "it", and for plurals, "are",

  • "they are", "we are". Easy enough.

  • "Seen", well, (joking) you didn't "seen" it. "You done saw it, son."

  • Sorry, "You saw it." No. People in the south,

  • don't get mad at me.

  • I just watch the movies and I'm saying what they would say.

  • Okay? All right? Then we have a lesson on "all right".

  • Okay, "I seen it" becomes, "I saw it".

  • If I want to say, "seen" because I really want to,

  • I remember the simple rule of PP.

  • Past participle has two words because it participates.

  • So I have to say, "have seen",

  • "had seen", "has seen". Those three are okay.

  • By the way, this lesson is for Mary Alice.

  • Mary Alice, thank you very much.

  • Thank you. Thank you. You were on Facebook and you asked us to do that,

  • and that "seen" part is specifically for you.

  • Oh, and the part I forgot was passive speech.

  • When we say, "It was eaten by",

  • passive speech for past participle.

  • Told you I'd get back it.

  • You didn't believe me, did you? You ain't believing me.

  • You ain't believing me. But you seen.

  • You seen with your own eyes.

  • Sorry. Okay. Before I finish, "if I was",

  • "if I was a millionaire, I would be doing this wrong".

  • "If" tells me I for "imagine",

  • then I have to use "were".

  • Right? If I were you, I would get up off that couch and write down

  • this address. Or better yet, save it, right? You can tell your friends you seen

  • it before, but now you know you saw it and your English is much better.

  • At, where? www.eng- as in English,

  • because we ain't teaching French - vid - as in video,

  • which I'm sure you've seen before,

  • .com. www.engvid.com. I bet you wish you were the first one to see it.

  • Have a good day. I ain't seen it before.

  • That's good. I've got to call my friends up, damn idiots.

  • Learn English for free www.engvid.com

Hi. James from EngVid. I was talking to a friend the other day - actually I

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