Fix Your English Grammar Mistakes: Talking about People

(Bấm vào đây để chọn bài học kế tiếp)

Xem lời thoại bên dưới:

0:02

Hello. My name is Emma, and in today's video,

0:05

I am going to teach you about some mistakes a lot of students make.

0:11

So, I've been teaching English for about five years now, and the

0:14

mistakes I'm going to teach you today, I've seen students make many times in both their

0:20

speaking, as well as their writing. Okay? So these mistakes are mistakes students make

0:27

when they're talking about people.

0:29

So, I'm going to give you some examples of some of these mistakes.

0:33

The first one I want to show you: "Some Canadian people hate winter."

0:41

It's true, I'm one of those people; I hate winter.

0:44

So, "Some Canadian people hate winter." There's a mistake, here.

0:48

I want you to take a moment to look, and think: What could the mistake be?

0:54

"Some Canadian people hate winter."

0:58

I'll give you a hint: The mistake is somewhere here. If you thought

1:03

"people" is the mistake, you're correct. "Canadian people", it's redundant. We don't need the

1:13

word "people", because "Canadian"... If we add an "s" here, this means "Canadian people".

1:20

Okay? So, instead of saying "Canadian people", we would say "Canadians".

1:25

"Some Canadians hate winter."

1:28

It's the same if we wanted to talk about Americans. We would not say:

1:33

"Some American people hate winter." We would prefer to say: "Some Americans"

1:39

-with an "s"-"hate winter".

1:42

So, let's look at another example. "Many Brazilian people are learning English." So, there's

1:50

a mistake, here. What's the mistake? "Many Brazilian people are learning English." If

1:58

you said the mistake was "people", you're correct. When we're talking about nationalities,

2:07

we do not use the word "people". So, what can we do to fix this?

2:12

We can get rid of the word "people", and what can we do to the word "Brazilian", because there's more than one?

2:20

We can add an "s". So, now it's: "Many Brazilians are learning English." Okay?

2:29

So, I'm going to give you another example, this time not on the board, but I'm just going

2:33

to say it. "Many Asian people like spicy food.", "Many Asian people like spicy food." Now,

2:42

how would you fix this sentence? If you said:

2:46

"Many Asians like spicy food." you'd be correct.

2:51

So, when we talk about nationalities, we do not need this word; this word is a waste of

2:56

space. We just need the nationality with an "s".

3:02

So, I have another common mistake students make over here: "Muslim people". So, Muslim

3:11

is a religion. Okay? "Muslim people fast"-"fast" means they don't eat-"during Ramadan".

3:21

"Muslim people fast during Ramadan." It means Muslim people do not eat during their holy month,

3:27

their religious month of Ramadan. So, there's a mistake, here.

3:32

What do you think the mistake is?

3:36

If you said, just like this, "people" is the mistake - you're correct. When we talk

3:42

about religion and we're talking about Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus - you don't need

3:50

the word "people". We could just change this to: "Muslims". So, "Muslim" here means a whole...

3:59

All Muslims, it's like Muslim people, but we don't need the word "people".

4:05

Here's another example: "Christian people celebrate Easter.",

4:11

"Christian people celebrate Easter." How can we fix this sentence?

4:17

We can get rid of the word "people", and just

4:21

add an "s". We can do the same thing for Hindus. "Hindus are often vegetarian", we could say.

4:32

"Many Jews live in Israel.", "Many Buddhists live in Asia." Okay? So, instead of saying:

4:40

"Jewish people", "Hindu people", it's easier just to say "Hindu" with an "s" or "Jews"

4:47

with an "s". All right, so let's look at some other common mistakes students make.

4:54

Okay, so another mistake I often see students make in their writing especially, and also

5:00

sometimes in their speaking is with "most", "some", and "a lot" when they're using these

5:06

words with "people". Okay? So, the first example: "Most of people have cell phones these days."

5:14

I see students use: "Most of people" a lot in their essays. So, what's the mistake, here?

5:21

I'll give you a minute to think about it. "Most of people".

5:26

The problem here is "of".

5:29

Okay? We don't need "of"; "of" is incorrect here. We would just say: "Most people".

5:38

"Most people have cell phones these days." Okay? "Most people love Chinese food.",

5:44

"Most people like to play sports." You don't need "of". If you had: "Most of the people", that would

5:53

be okay, but you need "the" here, although that's not as common. You know, that actually

6:00

gets a little bit more into complicated grammar, so the easy rule... Okay? The easy rule is

6:07

just don't use "of": "Most people". Okay?

6:13

What about the next one? "Some of people enjoy watching movies.",

6:18

"Some of people like going shopping." What's the mistake, here?

6:24

If you said "of" is the mistake, again, you're right.

6:27

It's just like: "Most of". We don't say: "Some of", we say "Some people".

6:34

"Some people stay up really late.", "Some people enjoy learning English."

6:41

Okay? So, a lot of people enjoy

6:43

learning English, I guess. Okay, so, again, "of" is the problem.

6:51

Now, here's where it gets a little bit strange. So, we have the rule "Most people", "Some people".

6:59

Can we say: "A lot people"? "A lot people study English"?

7:04

No, that would be incorrect.

7:06

With the word "a lot", you do need the word "of". Okay? So that's why it's a little bit

7:15

challenging, because for "most", we don't need it; for "some", we don't need it; but

7:21

for "a lot", we do need it. "A lot of people study English.",

7:26

"A lot of people like listening to music." Okay?

7:33

So, when you're writing, be very careful with this. I want you to always

7:38

look at your writing, double check it, and make sure you don't have "of" after "most"

7:45

or "some", and you do have "of" after "a lot". Okay?

7:49

So, let's look at another common mistake I see.

7:54

Okay, so another common mistake I see students make is with the words:

7:59

"Every people", "everybody", "everyone", "all people", "all person".

8:06

Okay? These are a lot of common mistakes I hear. So, let's look at some of them

8:10

so you can see what I'm talking about.

8:13

The first sentence:

8:15

"Every people should get an education." Is this sentence okay?

8:21

"Every people should get an education."

8:24

If you think it's not okay, and of course if it's on this board it probably

8:28

is a mistake, why do you think it's a mistake?

8:34

The issue here is with the words "every" and "people".

8:39

These words don't go together. Okay? What we could say instead of "every people",

8:47

we can use the words "everybody" or we can also use the words "everyone". So we can say...

8:57

Write this a bit better. "Everyone". Or: "Every person", okay? So, "every" should go with

9:08

a singular, like: "everybody", "everyone", "Every person should get an education.", but

9:14

we don't usually say "every people". Okay?

9:19

Another example of a mistake: "All person need water to survive."

9:26

So, take a moment and think about: What do you think the mistake here is?

9:30

"All person need water to survive."

9:34

Okay, this is the opposite mistake of this. When we have the word "all" and we're talking

9:40

about people, we usually don't use the word "person", we use the word "people". Okay?

9:49

So, you can imagine this, like... A couple. Okay? "Every" is the boyfriend, "body" is

9:54

the girlfriend. Okay? Or "everyone", okay? These two go together. Similarly, down here,

10:02

"all person" never go together. We have "all" as one, "people". So it's just memorizing

10:10

which words go with which words. "All people need water to survive.",

10:17

"All people need to breathe." Okay?

10:22

"All people should have their rights respected."

10:27

Okay? So, just some examples.

10:30

Okay, here's another example of a mistake a lot of students make: "People likes my cooking."

10:37

Okay? So, what's the mistake here?

10:40

Well, one mistake is nobody likes my cooking-okay?-so

10:43

that's the first one. People don't like my cooking. But the real... The grammar mistake

10:49

is with the verb, "likes". A lot of students, when they see people, they think, you know,

10:59

people... It's many, so they like to add an "s" here. It shouldn't be that way. It should

11:07

actually just be: "People like". Okay? So it's kind of like: "They like", "People like",

11:15

so imagine "People" as "They". The subject-verb agreement should be without an "s".

11:23

"People need to eat.", "People like shopping.", "People play sports."

11:32

So, if you use... If you use the word "people", there's no "s" on the verb.

11:38

Okay, and then the final mistake I see a lot: "Everybody like my cooking."

11:44

What's the mistake here?

11:46

Okay, so it's similar to what the mistake is here: "Everybody", in this case, we need

11:54

an "s" because of subject-verb agreement.

11:58

"Everybody likes my cooking." Okay?

12:01

So, "Everybody", you always need an "s" on the verb if you're talking, like, in the present;

12:07

whereas for "people", there is no "s".

12:11

So, be very, very careful with these different mistakes. Again, you know, it's really important

12:17

to think about which words "every" goes with, which ones "all" go with, that "people" never

12:23

has an "s", and that "everybody" does have an "s". Okay? So, check your own writing.

12:30

I really encourage that, if you're writing essays, if you're writing some sort of...

12:36

Something for your teacher. It's always good to take a minute and look for these specific

12:42

mistakes, because many, many students make these mistakes, so just take a moment to check

12:47

your work, and make sure you're not making these mistakes.

12:51

I hope you've enjoyed this video. I also hope you come visit our website at www.engvid.com.

12:59

There, you can see a lot more videos on all sorts of things,

13:03

from vocabulary, to grammar, to pronunciation.

13:07

I also hope you subscribe to my channel.

13:11

And until next time, take care.

#II34Ieltstipswrite