00:00oh my god my English test result let's check the grammar section my grammar is
00:07so good what failed what were my mistakes Oh simple mistakes let's learn
00:18grammar by looking at very common mistakes
00:23hello my name is Maddy from POC English and in this lesson we are going to look
00:31at five very common mistakes so let's begin with number one look at this
00:37sentence what is the problem in English some word pairs are always fixed and you
00:49have to respect the order you have to use them in the exact same order for
00:55example salt and pepper we always say salt and pepper salt and pepper nobody
01:03says pepper and salt it's always salt and pepper these are called binomial
01:09pairs which means a pair of words which are always fixed the order is fixed
01:15let's look at a few other examples bread and butter bread and butter it's
01:22not butter and bread bread and butter or knife and fork not fork and knife way
01:29around a knife and a fork or cup and saucer cup and saucer not saucer and cup
01:36or another one black and white black and white not white and black or one more
01:42thunder and lightning thunder and lightning now listen up you always have
01:49to respect the order and say salt and pepper but if you say pepper and salt if
01:56you use the opposite order it's not wrong people will understand what you're
02:01talking about pepper and salt huh what no that's pepper and salt okay but it
02:06sounds weird it sounds not natural so let's take a look again at this sentence
02:12could I have some butter and bread what's the mistake could I have some
02:18bread and butter excellent common mistake number two look at this sentence
02:24what's wrong with it he doesn't smoke and drink what question look at the verb
02:35is it positive or negative it's negative right he doesn't smoke when you
02:43have a negative verb and you want to talk about two things use or not and for
02:49example we weren't comfortable or happy we weren't it's a negative sentence we
02:56weren't comfortable or happy not comfortable and happy but if it's a
03:01positive sentence go with and we were comfortable and happy so for a negative
03:07verb use or for a positive verb use and now let's look again at this sentence he
03:14doesn't smoke and drink he doesn't smoke or drink Bravo here is a longer sentence
03:23the project wasn't successful in economic terms and in political terms
03:29what's wrong with this sentence similar to the previous one the verb here is
03:39negative it wasn't successful so instead of and you should say or the project
03:46wasn't successful in economic terms or in political terms but there is one more
03:53thing I want to talk about regarding this sentence one use of conjunctions
03:58such as and and or is to avoid repetition and make simpler and more
04:04clear sentence structures look at the sentence again in economic terms or in
04:11political terms in terms has been repeated two times so instead of
04:18repeating it twice I can make the sentence shorter in this way the project
04:23wasn't successful in economic or political terms so two points avoid
04:29repetition using conjunctions and or use and for positive verbs or for negative
04:36verbs when you were talking about two things common mistake number four look
04:40at this sentence what's wrong with it
04:46both he can borrow the bike and he can use the car what's wrong now listen
04:57carefully because I am going to tell you everything you need to know about the
05:01word both we use both in balanced structures what balance structures what
05:09is it well both beep and beep now a balanced structure would have a both
05:17noun and noun for example I spoke to both the director and the secretary I
05:25spoke to both the director and the secretary the director is a noun the
05:33secretary is a noun so this is a balanced structure two nouns both noun
05:39and noun you can also say both verb and verb for example she both dances and
05:47sings she both dances and sings dances verb sings verb both verb and verb this
05:56is a balanced structure or you can also say both adjective and adjective for
06:02example she is both pretty and clever she is both pretty and clever pretty is
06:11an adjective clever is an adjective both adjective and adjective again this is a
06:16balanced structure so if you have a balanced structure use both what about
06:22unbalanced structures like both noun and verb both adjective and noun what about
06:28those well those are also common but some people avoid using them therefore
06:34it is not wrong for example she both dances and she sings she both dances and
06:42she sings both dances dance is a verb right and she sings it's not a verb this
06:50is a full sentence it is a full clause so it's okay you can use it but a very
06:57important but you cannot use both before a full clause look at this sentence both
07:05she dances and she sings both she dances both plus a full clause both she dances
07:15this is wrong you cannot use both before a full clause you can use it before an
07:19adjective before a verb before a noun but not before a full clause now let's
07:25have another look at this sentence what is wrong with it both he can borrow the
07:31bike and he can use the car both he can borrow both before a full clause no no
07:37no no no you can say he can both borrow the bike and use the car that is correct
07:46and common mistake number five the last common mistake before getting to the
07:51last common mistake do you want to have the full list of these common mistakes
07:55with their example sentences completely explained in one single PDF file you
08:01simply have to give me your email address and I will send it to you but
08:05how go to the description of this video there is a link to my website POC
08:10English comm click on the link go to my website type in your email address and
08:15click subscribe you will receive the PDF of the summary of this lesson and every
08:21other videos when I post them on YouTube for free don't miss this chance
08:26and common mistake number five look at this sentence although she was tired but
08:32she went to work what's wrong with it in this sentence there is a but and there
08:42is an although but and although are conjunctions they link two sentences
08:49together but the point is you should only use one of them in a sentence not
08:54two of them together no no no no no so you should use either of the two although
09:00she was tired she went to work she was tired but she went to work not together
09:07you don't say although she was tired but she went to work only one of them now
09:12I've got a challenge for you look at this sentence because I liked him so I
09:19try to help him listen carefully because I liked him so I tried to help him two
09:28questions what is wrong with this sentence and what is the correct form of
09:34this sentence this is your challenge so let me know in the comments below bye
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