10 Common Mistakes That Native English Speakers Make

In today's video I talk about some of the most common mistakes that *native* English speakers make when speaking and writing.

Special thanks to: BJ Peter DeLaCruz, Michael Cuomo, Nicholas Shelokov, Sebastian Langshaw, Brandon Gonzalez, Brian Michalowski, Adrian Zhang, Vadim Sobolev, Yixin Alfred Wong, Raymond Thomas, Simon Blanchet, Ryan Marquardt, Sky Vied, Romain Paulus, Panot, Erik Edelmann, Bennet, James Zavaleta, Ulrike Baumann, Ian Martyn, Justin Faist, Jeff Miller, Stephen Lawson, Howard Stratton, George Greene, Panthea Madjidi, Nicholas Gentry, Sergios Tsakatikas, Bruno Filippi, Sergio Tsakatikas, Qarion, Pedro Flores, Raymond Thomas, Marco Antonio Barcellos Junior, David Beitler, Rick Gerritzen, Sailcat, Mark Kemp, Éric Martin, Leo Barudi, Piotr Chmielowski, Suzanne Jacobs, Johann Goergen, and Darren Rennels for their generous Patreon support.

Music:

"Early Riser" by Kevin MacLeod. Used under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

Outro:

[mjordan]

"He lied on the floor" IS grammatically correct when referring to a member of Congress or Parliament. }:-)

[NealB]

The biggest difference between a native and non-native speaker of any language is that the non-native speaker is terrified of making usage errors and the native speaker doesn't care how many errors they make.

[billyhw]

This is writing only, but it drives me up the wall when people write "loose" when they mean "lose".

[rjlchristie]

Unfortunately, once you learn to recognise such mistakes you are doomed to endure eternal irritation. You will hear them everywhere.

[ROGER]

I've been a language snob my whole life, but there's one important thing I always keep in mind: Language is what people speak, not what scholars say they should speak.

The purpose of language is to facilitate communication. For example, when someone uses a double negative, it's true that they are saying the opposite of what they intend. However, if the listener understands the intended meaning - and they usually do - then communication is achieved.

I can listen to an illiterate child and understand what he is trying to say even though his sentences are imprecise and poorly constructed. Communication is achieved. On the other hand, American lawmakers write lengthy, perfectly constructed, precisely worded laws that nobody can understand - not citizens, not judges, and usually not even the knuckleheads who vote them into law. Communication is not achieved.

[stefanreichenberger]

The quadruple negative is even cooler than the double one:

"I'm sitting over here on Parchman farm,
Ain't never done no man no harm."

[billyhw]

I find it ironic that literally actually means figuratively now.

[fumblerooskie]

Being understood is the ultimate goal, regardless of mistakes.

[Kasamori]

English can be hard sometimes.

It can be understood through tough thorough thought, though...

[somemaycallthisjunkmeicall]

1900s valley girl: um
80s valley girl: like um
2010s valley girl: um like literally

[bhgtree]

"Thinking on their feet." Idioms most be the hardest thing for learners to understand in any language.

[jaystone]

I'm a native English speaker and college educated. Some of the mistakes you noted are really English in transition to a new standard, but some are definitely made by native speakers who are poorly educated or - let's face it, educated but a lot didn't sink in. When you speak or write, you convey more than just the obvious content of the communication. You convey your educational level, family background, sometimes your regional origin, occupational level and your general intelligence. We all make these types of personal assessment consciously or unconsciously, and they do have an impact on how you are perceived by others, positively or negatively. Like it or not, that's been substantiated by a great deal of social research, and it can subtly or otherwise impact how you're treated in a variety of different situations.

I've noticed a general decline over many decades in the speaking and writing competency of many native English speakers in the United States up to the present time. So have many businesses and institutions of higher learning. I'm sure there are many reasons for this, but what concerns me is this: a level of competency in your native language is crucial for the ability to understand the modern world and make important decisions about your employment options and lifetime earnings, and the complex social, economic and political issues before us today. Language is thought, and democracy depends on an informed and thoughtful electorate. When your native language competency is blunted, so is your ability to deal with the world.

That being said, having studied French for a number of years, I have a great deal of empathy for any non-native speakers of English learning the language. It can be a truly humbling and frustrating experience to feel like a 5-year old child instead of an adult when you attempt to communicate with a native speaker when you are new to learning their language.

[djog]

I ain't gave no money to nobody.

Love triple negatives

[Robs]

"Would of" instead of "would have" shits me to tears.

[dragonmanover]

This is why I don't feel bad when making grammatical mistakes in other languages. Deep down, I know that I make fewer mistakes in those languages than I do in my native one.

[BetoElViejo]

Thanks for covering these common mistakes.

As a child, I was often mocked by my schoolmates for using correct grammar. (They called me Mr. Perfect English) As a result, I didn't fit in very well. Over time, I was vindicated and was consoled by achieving better test scores than many of my peers.

Learning not to correct others has proved to be a valuable decision unless someone asks me to do so. I'm not always right, and I make mistakes from time to time. It's probably better to allow others the freedom to express themselves as they see fit.

Living languages are dynamic and will change over time. So, even though I find considerable value in established norms, while living in glass houses, we should take care not to throw stones. :)

[gotha]

As non-native speaker I always found funny that people have trouble with they`re, their and there.

[imagomonkei]

My favorite is “human bean”. I saw that one yesterday.

[mrsekai]

In Japanese, the correct form of ～る verbs such as 食べる（to eat) expressing ability is ～られる (食べられる = taberareru = edible, or [I] can eat it), but a couple of decades ago young people started saying ～れる, like 食べれる "tabereru". It was clearly wrong grammatically, sounded really weird to me, and like many I used to frown upon it when I heard someone say it. Now I say it myself all the time. It so happens that ～られる takes the same form in the passive voice (be eaten, etc.), so ~れるexpresses ability more distinctively. I would say it's an example of evolution that occurred in the Japanese language recently.

[Aeturnalis]

Also, I think English kind of lends itself to frequent mistakes due to its bizarre spelling rules, numerous irregularities, and its nature in general as a Teutonic-Italic-Hellenic (et al) hybrid language.