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  • Hey, everyone. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on five more common

  • English learner mistakes. So if you have watched my other video on five common English learner

  • mistakes, this is a follow up to give you five more. So let's not waste time and get

  • right to it. Here we go with No. 1.

  • So this first mistake is common because in many languages, when you discuss jobs or your

  • station in life, you don't use articles even if you come from a country where there are

  • articles in the language. So for example, "I am student." "He is engineer." If I ask

  • you, "What do you do", you need to use an article because "student" is countable; it's

  • singular; and "engineer' is countable and it's singular. So you have to say, "I am a

  • student." "He is an engineer." Now, let's move on to No. 2.

  • Okay. Here, we have two sentences on the board. We have, "I am agree." "Are you agree?" So

  • in this situation, "agree" is a verb. We don't say, "I am agree." You can just say, "I agree."

  • If it's negative, "I don't agree" or, "I disagree." And the question is not, "Are you agree?"

  • It's, "Do you agree?" Now, if you are set on wanting to say "I am" and use "agree" in

  • some way, you would have to say, "I am in agreement." This is very formal, but it is

  • possible. Otherwise, just say, "I agree" or, "I disagree" and, "Do you agree?" Now, let's

  • move on to No. 3.

  • This next mistake is about the use of the past tense. For new English speakers, because

  • they can't form the past tense, sometimes they use the verb "to be" with the verb. So

  • I have heard, "I'm go downtown yesterday." Or, "He was see his cousin." If you are speaking

  • in the past, make sure you simply use the past simple verb. In this situation, we don't

  • say "I'm go". The past of "go" is "went". "I went downtown." We don't say "he was see".

  • The past of "see" is "saw". So this is about using the past simple form of the verb to

  • speak about the past. Never say "I'm go", "I'm do", "I'm make". "I saw"; "I made"; "I

  • did"; "I played". Okay? Now, let's move on to No. 4.

  • Now, this mistake is about using negatives. In many languages, whether they're European

  • or Latin, Spanish, I hear this mistake very frequently. So you might hear, "He no have money" or,

  • "They no like chocolate." So if you are making a sentence in the present simple, and you want

  • to make it negative, you have to use "doesn't" and "don't". So not "he no have" but, "He

  • doesn't have." Okay? Not "they no like chocolate" but, "They don't like chocolate." So make

  • sure you learn how to make negative sentences. "He doesn't"; "I don't"; "we don't"; "they

  • don't"; not "he no", "she no", "I no". All right? Now, let's move on to No. 5.

  • Finally, here we have a word choice error. And this is because maybe speakers translate

  • from their own language, and many languages, you can use the verbs "meet" or "know" to

  • talk about going to places and getting to know cities and towns, for example. So, "I

  • want to meet the city" or, "Yesterday, I knew downtown." Now, in English, we don't really

  • use the verbs "know" and "meet" to talk about getting to know a place. You can use the verbs

  • "explore" or "get to know" or "visit". So you can say, you know, "I want to explore

  • the city." I want to go around the city." "Yesterday, I knew downtown" -- "Yesterday,

  • I traveled around downtown." And you can also use terms like "get to know" a place. You

  • can visit a place. You can explore a place. Okay? But you can't meet a park. You can meet

  • a person, but you can't meet a place.

  • Now, let's review all five of these mistakes one more time.

  • All right. So to review, No. 1, "I am a student." If you want to talk about your status in life.

  • Are you a student? An engineer? Are you a teacher? Etc. you need to use an article to

  • talk about jobs, professions, talk about your station in life.

  • No. 2, "I agree, not "I am agree"." Do you agree?" Not "are you agree?"

  • No. 3, "I went downtown." "I saw my cousin." So remember, memorize those past tense verbs.

  • Not "I was go" or "I am go". "I went"; "I saw"; "I did". All right?

  • No. 4, "He doesn't have money." Memorize your negatives, especially in the present simple

  • and past simple. "I don't have"; "he doesn't have"; "we don't have"; "they didn't have"

  • -- in the past.

  • And finally, "I want to get to know the city." "I want to visit the city." "I want to explore

  • the city. Walk around the city." Not, "I want to meet the city" or

  • "I want to know the city intimately."

  • So if you want to test your understanding of this material, as always, you can check

  • out the quiz on www.engvid.com. And don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel.

  • Thanks, guys. Bye.

Hey, everyone. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on five more common

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