00:00Ah, grammar again! Boring! Or is it?
00:06There are many ways to learn English grammar, but one of the best ways is to learn from
00:12mistakes.
00:14Hello, my name is Matti from POC English, and in this lesson, we are going to learn
00:23English grammar by reviewing five very common English grammar mistakes.
00:30Let's start with number one.
00:33Look at this sentence.
00:34I laid down and went to sleep.
00:39I laid down and went to sleep.
00:42What is wrong with this sentence?
00:50That's right!
00:51The problem is with the verb laid.
00:55But what is wrong with laid?
00:57There are two very similar and confusing verbs in English language.
01:02Lay and lie.
01:04To lay means to put something down, or to put something somewhere.
01:10To lie means to go in a horizontal position.
01:14So if you're like this, and if you decide to lie, you would go like this.
01:20For example, here's a notebook.
01:22I'm going to lay the notebook on the table.
01:28I'm going to lay the notebook on the table.
01:33So I lay something somewhere, or I lay something down.
01:38But if I am tired, I would lie in bed.
01:45Lie in bed.
01:47So you lay something down, or you lie down yourself.
01:52Or here's another example.
01:54Imagine there's a baby in your arms.
01:57What would you do if the baby falls asleep?
02:01You would lay the baby down, right?
02:05But imagine you yourself are tired, and then there's a couch.
02:10What would you do?
02:11You would lie down on the couch.
02:15So far so good, right?
02:17The problem begins when you start talking about the past.
02:22Why?
02:23Hmm.
02:24The past form of the verb lie is lay.
02:29That's confusing, right?
02:31So when you say lay, are you talking about lay something now, or are you talking about
02:37the past of lie?
02:40Look at this sentence.
02:41Yesterday, I was tired, so I lay in bed.
02:47I lay in bed.
02:48The past of lay, which means to put something down, or to put something somewhere, is laid.
02:54Yesterday, I laid down the book on the table.
02:59I laid down the book.
03:01So yesterday, I lay on the couch.
03:04Yesterday, I laid down the book.
03:07Now, let's go back to the original sentence.
03:10I laid down and went to bed.
03:13We're talking about past, right?
03:16And if I want to say that yesterday, I went in a horizontal position, I shouldn't say
03:22laid.
03:23I should use the past of lie, which is lay.
03:27I hope I've made this clear.
03:29Even native speakers sometimes use lay instead of laid, and laid instead of lay, so it's
03:34very confusing.
03:35Now, time for the second sentence.
03:38Look at this one.
03:40I haven't a car.
03:41I travel by train.
03:44I haven't a car.
03:45I travel by train.
03:48What's wrong?
03:54The problem is with the verb haven't.
03:58Look at these three sentences.
04:00I have a car.
04:02I have a meeting.
04:04He has cereal for breakfast.
04:07What is the main verb in these three sentences?
04:11Have, or in the third one, has, which is the third person singular form of the verb have.
04:18How do you make these sentences negative?
04:21Now, the main verb is have, so if you want to make them negative, you should say don't
04:27have, not haven't.
04:30You say don't have, or for the third person singular, doesn't have.
04:34I have a car.
04:36I don't have a car, not I haven't a car, I don't have a car.
04:42I have a meeting.
04:44I don't have a meeting.
04:46He has cereal for breakfast.
04:50He doesn't have cereal for breakfast.
04:53We don't say he hasn't, no, he doesn't have.
04:57This is true for simple present.
04:59However, if you are using present perfect, it's different.
05:04Look at this sentence.
05:05I have played tennis.
05:07I have played tennis.
05:09This is present perfect.
05:10Now, tell me, which one is the main verb?
05:14Is it have?
05:15No, the main verb here is played.
05:20Played is the main verb, and have is the auxiliary verb.
05:24When have is an auxiliary verb, usually in present perfect tense, instead of don't have,
05:30you should say haven't.
05:32So what is the negative of this sentence?
05:34I have played tennis.
05:36I haven't played tennis.
05:39You don't say I don't have played tennis, no, I haven't played tennis.
05:43So to sum up, if have is your main verb, the negative is don't have.
05:49If have is an auxiliary verb, the negative is haven't.
05:53Number three, look at this sentence.
05:56Can you suggest me a good dentist?
06:00Can you suggest me a good dentist?
06:02What's wrong with this sentence?
06:10That's right, there is a problem with the use of the verb suggest.
06:14But how can we use the verb suggest correctly?
06:18Well, there are three ways you can use the verb suggest in English language.
06:24Number one, you can use this structure, suggest something to somebody.
06:30For example, I can suggest a good dentist to you, suggest a good dentist to you.
06:41Or I can suggest a very good restaurant to your brother.
06:46So you see, we use suggest something to somebody.
06:51The second way you can use the verb suggest is to say suggest doing something.
06:57Well, we use this structure when we want to talk about activities.
07:02For example, I suggest going for lunch.
07:06I suggest going for lunch.
07:10I'm suggesting an activity.
07:11Or I suggest visiting a dentist.
07:16I suggest visiting a dentist.
07:20And the third way you can use the verb suggest is by using this structure.
07:26Suggest that somebody should do something.
07:32Suggest that somebody should do something.
07:33This is a longer sentence.
07:35How can we use it?
07:36Look at this example.
07:38He suggested that I should visit a dentist.
07:44He suggested that I should visit a dentist.
07:50Suggest that somebody should do something.
07:53So let's go back to the original sentence.
07:56Can you suggest me a good dentist?
07:58What's wrong with this?
08:00You should say, can you suggest something to somebody?
08:05Can you suggest a good dentist to me?
08:08That's the right form.
08:10Common mistake number four.
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08:41Now mistake number four.
08:43Look at this sentence.
08:45Please describe me your father.
08:48Please describe me your father.
08:50What's wrong?
08:57That's right.
08:58There is a problem with the use of the verb describe.
09:01But how should we use describe?
09:03Like suggest, you should say, describe something to somebody or describe somebody to somebody.
09:10So instead of saying, describe me your father, you should say, describe your father to me.
09:18Can you describe your best friend to me?
09:21Could you describe your hometown to me?
09:24Can you describe your parents to me?
09:26So describe me your parents or describe me your father is wrong.
09:30You should say, describe your father to me.
09:33Describe somebody or something to me.
09:35I can't remember her.
09:37Can you describe her to me?
09:40And the last common mistake we are going to learn together in this lesson.
09:45Look at this sentence.
09:47It is a lot of noise in the street.
09:50It is a lot of noise in the street.
09:54What's wrong?
10:00There is a problem with the use of the pronoun it.
10:04When you want to say something exists somewhere, you don't use it, you use there.
10:10For example, in my bedroom, there is a phone.
10:14There is a phone.
10:16I'm talking about its existence.
10:18There is a phone.
10:19Or here, there is a microphone.
10:23Let's go down.
10:25Or there is an iPad on my desk.
10:29Or there is a power bank.
10:32If the things you're talking about are more than one, maybe two, three, four, or many,
10:38you don't use there is, you say there are.
10:41There are some books on my desk.
10:43There are some books on my desk.
10:46If you're talking about the past, you can say there was for one thing or there were
10:51for a couple of things.
10:53There was a tall guy in the party.
10:55There was a tall guy, one tall guy in the party yesterday.
11:00There were many beautiful girls in the party yesterday.
11:04So back to the original sentence.
11:07It is a lot of noise in the street should be.
11:11There is a lot of noise.
11:13Why there is, why not there are?
11:15Because noise is singular.
11:17So there is a lot of noise in the street.
11:21All right.
11:22That's it, guys.
11:23I hope you've enjoyed this lesson.
11:24See you.
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