How To Fix 10 Common Grammar Mistakes

Before I help you with these common errors, I want to remind you that it is absolutely okay to make mistakes when you are speaking English. In fact, I believe it is necessary in order for you to progress and improve. So please, don’t stop speaking because you are afraid of making a mistake! To build your fluency the most important thing is to speak as much as possible, and then learn from your mistakes.

The best way to learn is to ‘jump in the deep end’, in my opinion.

To “jump in the deep end” is an idiom which means to try something without much hesitation or pre-planning. Then you can learn how to swim. 🙂

I have taken these mistakes from a Grammar Challenge I have been running on my Facebook page for quite a while. (If you haven’t joined my page, go HERE and get more free lessons and tips)

10 COMMON GRAMMAR MISTAKES

(and how to fix them)

1. I’ve seen 30 temples when I was in Thailand.

The correct sentence is: I saw 30 temples when I was in Thailand.

In this case, the action was at a specific time in the past “when I was in Thailand”, so we must keep the verb tenses in the simple past.

“I’ve seen 30 temples” is the present perfect tense. This is used to talk about something that happened in the past, but in ‘general time’.

We can’t use ‘present perfect – “I’ve seen…” for a specific time in the past.

We can only use it for general past time

EG:

• I’ve visited more than 60 temples in my life.
• We’ve never tried Korean food.
• John has studied French in Paris.

2. I have 30 years / They have the same age.

The correct sentence is: I am 30 years old / They are the same age.

When we talk about age, we use the auxiliary verb – TO BE – (not to have).

• A: How old are you?
  
• B: I’m 28 (years old).
  
• She was 23 when she got married.
  
• My friend and I are the same age.
  
• When I’m 50 I’m going to travel around the world.

You can also say “turn 50”. To “turn an age” means to become that age.

• She was so excited when she turned 16.
  
• When I turned 21 I bought my first car.

3. We were too excited about our trip to the Grand Canyon.

This is not correct.

Why?

Because the word “TOO” has a negative meaning.

So, we put “too” before an adjective when we don’t like something or it is in excess.

• Ugh!! That meal was too salty!
• It’s too hot today! I hate it!
• She talks too fast. I can’t understand what she’s saying.

So – when we want to say something is positive, we can use “so” or “very” or “really” or others such as;

‘incredibly’

‘extremely’

‘absolutely’

“We were so / very / extremely excited about our trip to the Grand Canyon”

4. I was exciting about my trip to Europe.

The correct sentence is: I was excited about my trip to Europe.

We use ‘ED” adjectives to describe our feelings.

• I was so embarrassed when I fell over in front of that guy
• She was so frustrated with her English progress.
• I’m not really interested in sport.

We use “ING” adjectives to describe things, places, experiences and events. This is how we give our opinions about something.

• That movie was so boring!
• That writer’s books are very interesting.
• I find it so embarrassing when I forget someone’s name.

We can of course describe a person using an “ING” adjective, but this means we are giving our opinion on this person, not talking about how we feel.

• He’s such an interesting guy
• She’s an annoying person

5. I have a problem to understand Australian people.

This is not correct. We must say:

I sometimes have a problem understanding Australian people

HAVE A PROBLEM + VERB ING

• I have a problem getting to sleep at night lately.
• Many people have a problem getting to work on time.

HAVE A PROBLEM + WITH + NOUN

• She has a real problem with social interaction.
• He has a problem with his parents.

6. I went yesterday to the beach.

The correct sentence is: I went to the beach yesterday.

The correct structure that we must always use is;

SUBJECT + VERB + OBJECT.

I went to the beach

The time reference almost always goes at the end of the sentence;

I went to the beach yesterday.

We can sometimes put it at the beginning of the sentence too;

Yesterday I went to the beach. (this is less common and more formal)

Other examples of time references are

last night, last week, today, at the moment, next year, now, soon, later

We had a delicious meal last night (NOT “We had last night a delicious meal”)

• I saw James last week
• What are you doing today?
• I’m not working at the moment
• I’ll see you soon.

7. I saw a movie yesterday night.

This is not correct. We must say:

“last night”

“I saw a movie last night”

We can say:

‘yesterday morning’

‘yesterday afternoon’

but –

‘last night’

8. Yesterday I went for swimming at the beach.

This is not correct.

We say:

“Yesterday I went for a swim at the beach”

or

“Yesterday I went swimming at the beach”

GO (went) FOR + NOUN

• I went for a swim.
• We went for a walk.

GO (went) + VERB ING

• We went swimming last night.
  
• They went surfing this morning.

9. I went to Japan two years and a half ago.

We must say;

“I went to Japan two and a half years ago”

TWO + AND + A HALF + YEARS (days/weeks/months..) + AGO

• We met three and a half years ago.
• I lived in New York for 7 and a half years.
• I finished my work an hour and a half ago.

10. He asked me what do I want to do on the weekend.

This is not correct. We say;

“He asked me what I wanted to do on the weekend”

This is called ‘reported speech’.

In reported speech, we must omit the auxiliary verb ‘do’ and change the main verb one tense into the past.

EG:

• “What do you eat for breakfast?”
• “He asked me what I ate for breakfast”
• “How long does it take to get to Sydney?”
• “She asked me how long it took to get to Sydney”

GET YOUR PDF of this lesson HERE

I hope that helps you. Please feel free to send me an email if you have any questions about these grammar points. Just hit ‘reply’ to this email and I will get your message.

I will also be making a video lesson on these grammar corrections very soon.

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Best Wishes,

Nick

Your English Fluency Coach

www.realenglishspeaker.com