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  • Hi. James, from EngVid. Today's video is on, well, "The Book of Bad English".

  • There are mistakes that native speakers make that ESL people pick up -- and "ESL" is "English as a Second Language."

  • People learning English, they pick up because native speakers don't even know they're making this mistake.

  • So I want to teach you six common ones that come regularly or happen regularly in conversation.

  • And I want you to learn them and make your English perfect. Let's go to the board.

  • Now, let's start with No. 1, one of my favorite ones: "amount" and "number".

  • "Amount" is, sort of, like, "how much". A "number" is, you know, "thing."

  • When we look at "amount", you can think of you can't count it, all right?

  • A lot of times, when we say "amount" -- like, "I have a large amount of water in my house"

  • -- you can't count water. But you can count a number, so: "The number of people who come to the city is in the thousands",

  • so you can count them. Here's an example. Tell me if this is right or wrong.

  • "The amount of students who are late is growing every day" or "the number of students who are late is growing every day."

  • You should say "number" because you can count students. You can't count amount.

  • That rhymes. Maybe that'll help, right? You can't count amount. You can't count amount.

  • So when we want to talk about a number of something or a body of something,

  • "amount" is for things you cannot count, and "number" is for things you can count.

  • English people make this mistake a lot. Next: "among" and "between".

  • When I used to teach "among" and "between", I would say, "'Among' is 'with'. So there's five chairs, and you're 'with' another.

  • And 'between' is you're in the middle." That's it. Because I was so smart.

  • And then I found out it's just this: two. More than two. That's it. Nothing special.

  • When you talk about "between", except -- and this is a major exception -- when you're talking about differences.

  • Differences, you have to use "between".

  • But generally speaking, "among" is more than two. "I was sitting among my friends at the bar."

  • You can know there's probably four or five, not two. But "let's keep this between you and me"?

  • A lot of times, Canadians say, "Let's keep this among us." And it's like, "Among who?"

  • "The rest of those guys, you know. The Americans. They don't need to know this." Okay.

  • So "between us" -- usually two, right? It could be two groups.

  • "There was a fight between this country and that country." Right? Because it's two groups.

  • But "among" is for more than two, cool? All right. So "among" -- more than two; "between" -- two.

  • What about "bring" and "take"? This is something that a lot of students make a mistake on.

  • So you say, "Bring this to me" or "take this to him."

  • It's very easy. "Bring" is "to the speaker", okay? And "take" is "away from the speaker".

  • Now, if you're born in England, that's easy because they always talk about "I want takeaway."

  • I'll take away. Because they take the food away from the restaurant, right?

  • So one of my favorite sayings that we say in England -- not England -- that we say here is, like --

  • watch every space movie: "Take me to your leader." You'll never see a space movie, unless it's made by me --

  • and it would say, "Bring me to your leader." We don't do that.

  • You say, "Take them to the leader" because you're taking them away from this spot where the speaker is

  • to a new location or spot. So "take" and "bring" are easy because it's "bring -- come towards".

  • Here's a mistake -- not Canadians -- English speakers make that you should be aware of. They'll say

  • something like, "Don't forget to bring your bag with you" instead of, "Don't forget to take your bag."

  • Do you know what the difference is?

  • Well, you're leaving, right? So you need to take it away. Remember I said "away from"?

  • Take the bag away from you. When you say, "Bring the bag with you", the speaker's speaking,

  • you're still moving away from the speaker, right? So you've got to use this.

  • But Canadians and Americans and Brits say it a lot. They'll say, "Bring it with you." I say "No." "Take" it with you.

  • You know the difference now because you're smart.

  • And you're studying from the Book of Bad English. Good for you. There's a worm in that book. Watch it.

  • Okay. "Fewer" or "less". I'm going to make a statement, and think which one is correct.

  • "'Fewer' than a million people have watched the videos on EngVid.

  • 'Less' than a million people have watched the videos on EngVid." Which one would be correct?

  • Yeah. If you said "less than", no. "Less" is similar to "amount". You say "fewer" for things you can count.

  • "Fewer than five people did the job or worked on the job", not "less than".

  • "Fewer" is for numbers you can count. "Less" is like "amount". It's uncountable, right?

  • "There is less water here than there." Try and say, "There is fewer water here than there." There "what?"

  • That's right, son. That's why you don't say it. Proper grammar. "There is less this than that."

  • We commonly -- this is such a common mistake it's not even funny, right? But, once again,

  • you're reading from The Book of Bad English. So you know lesson No. 4. Don't do it. All right?

  • Mr. E is smiling because he's, like, "Damn! I didn't know that." It's like, "Nor did I until about five hours ago."

  • But now you and I both know. All right? Because I used to make this mistake until now.

  • So you won't -- I'll be making this mistake fewer times than before but less and less.

  • See? That's different. I'm saying it differently there. Less and less.

  • So I'm reducing, and that's what we're talking about. What about "further" and "farther"?

  • I feel really bad because anyone who I taught over the past eight years, these are the mistakes I made,

  • and I'm teaching them now, and they're, like, "But James, you told me this!"

  • And I went, "I didn't know it at the time. I went by standard grammar or standard speak."

  • And standard speak, which, you know, we all do, doesn't mean it's correct.

  • So I'm giving you something that's, you know, the correct grammar.

  • Now, colloquial is what we call -- "colloquial" is the common people speak. We didn't care.

  • People say it; no one's going to correct you because most of them don't know. All right?

  • But then, you're here to learn, so I'm here to teach.

  • How about, "further" and "farther"? Well, this one's easy to think of, all right?

  • Because they sound almost the same, and that's part of the problem, right? It's a major part of the problem.

  • So what we want to look at is the word "distance". When somebody says, "We need to investigate this further"

  • or "we need to investigate farther"? It's because they really don't know. They sound the same.

  • They almost look the same, except one sounds like something from Star Wars.

  • "Luke. I am your father." "Father", get it? Because there's a distance between us. The mother and -- you don't?

  • Forget it. Anyway. Distance. This is an E by the way because I know there're some of you guys who are, like, just

  • -- it's a small E, but it's an E. I just fixed it, okay?

  • So "farther" -- you know how you say "far away", "The house is far away" or

  • "my house is five miles farther" -- sorry. "My house is five kilometers further -- farther than yours."

  • See? I almost said "further" because we, in English, do that a lot.

  • But you say, "I live farther than you do." That means far -- more far away, right?

  • "Further" means "more" or "longer". So "We need to discuss this further", which means

  • we need a longer time to speak or more time to speak. So this is more about "more" or "longer",

  • but not distance longer, all right? So if you want to study further,

  • you might have to travel farther to another library to do so. You like that? I don't.

  • My head is spinning. But we're learning bad English. It should be, like -- it's gonna come up here

  • -- the "affect" this is happening to (on) me, not the "effect". I mean it is "affecting" me and

  • changing the way I look at things, but the "effects" it is actually had on changing or

  • influencing my thoughts since I've learned the six, and I did all that production to introduce to you No. 6.

  • I have notes on the board for a reason because I would be a liar to say I've never made these mistakes.

  • Most Canadians and -- I say "Canadians", sorry -- English. Because I was born in England,

  • been to America -- just English-speaking people make this mistake incredibly.

  • The only time we ever get it right is "special effects, effects, effects, effects!"

  • Because we know this, the result of the special effect in a movie is [boom] Superman flies.

  • Other than that, when we talk about it, a lot of times we get confused

  • because "affect", "effect" -- so similar in sound. Nobody notices. So today,

  • you will make that mistake. Usually, when we talk about "effects", we talk about results.

  • "What was the net effect? What happened? What was the change?" Keyword here because the

  • verb means "to cause a change". The noun is "What was the final change. What was the net effect

  • or what was the final effect?" The next one is easy to remember because think about influence and emotion.

  • This could be for things, you might say; this one would be for people. It's not exact. It's not a science.

  • It's 80 percent. But I'm trying to make it easy for you to remember these.

  • "Affect" is almost about being human. When I say to you, you know, the affect --

  • "How did it affect you?" -- we're talking about emotional, the emotional feeling that you have, right?

  • And then we talk about "influence". We "influence" by "changing" -- but this is different --

  • it's changing the way you think, how were you influenced.

  • "How is that affecting the people in your family?" Not "effecting". That would be different.

  • "How is it changing? Why was it influenced? How were you influenced by it?"

  • So if you could remember this one -- this is more of a human emotion thing,

  • and this is more of an action thing -- you'll be okay. And you won't make the mistake.

  • I'm probably going go to make in about five seconds when I explain it again to you, okay?

  • That's the effect it's having on me. Did I say "affect" or "effect"? I'm not sure.

  • Okay, so let's go back over this quickly because I don't know how much time I've got left,

  • but I don't want to affect the lesson, right? So when we look at "amount" or "number",

  • you can't count amounts. Sugar, salt, water. Numbers, you can. People, all right? Next "among"

  • and "between". If you have two, you'd say "between". If you have more than two, say "among".

  • "Bring" and "take": If it's moving away, if it's coming to the speaker, say "bring". If it's moving

  • away from the speaker, say "take". Okay? "Fewer" or "less": If you have something you can count,

  • say "fewer" -- "fewer than five". "Less than" is for uncountables, and it follows the similar words

  • here, these words. "Further" and "farther" -- don't forget, "Luke, I am your father"

  • -- talk about distance and relationships, all right? But this is just for distance -- kilometers,

  • inches, centimeters -- while the other one means "more" or "longer". And finally,

  • let's look at the "affect" or the "effect" if we're talking about emotion or result. Good?

  • Got to go, so let's go to www.(where?) eng (where "eng" stands for "English"), vid (where "vid"

  • stands for "video").com, where "me and the worm" will be studying from the Book of English.

  • Have a good one. I hope that gets to more than just a few people.

Hi. James, from EngVid. Today's video is on, well, "The Book of Bad English".

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