Today I am going to talk about some of the most common mistakes made by non-native English-speakers.

Please remember that mistakes are OK.

Nobody is perfect and it is often by making mistakes that we learn the best. Plus mistakes can

sometimes just be really funny. However, there are two reasons why you should try to reduce

the number of mistakes you make. Firstly, people will probably understand you better,

and secondly, particularly if you are in a professional or an academic situation,

people will most likely take you more seriously. I know that sounds superficial, but unfortunately it is the truth.

The mistakes I'm going to talk about aren't specific to one nationality or to one group of people

who have the same native language. These are mistakes that people from many different places make.

First I'm going to show you the mistake, so I'll show you a phrase or a sentence that has a mistake in it.

Then I'll give you a few moments to see if you can identify the mistake,

and then I'll give you the correction and the explanation.

Here we go.

Number one: Jim has blue eyes and brown hairs.

Yes, the correction is: Jim has blue eyes and brown hair.

The reason we leave off the "s" is because normally the word "hair" is uncountable.

If we are talking about the hair on our head, we have to say "hair".

You can say "hairs" sometimes in English. For example, if you see some strands of hair on your bathroom floor,

if you can count them individually, you can say: "There are hairs on my bathroom floor."

You can also say "hairs" if there are some

hairs on a part of your body where normally you don't have much hair.

For example, I could say: "There are hairs growing out of my ears."

That means it's time to get the tweezers out.

Just remember that if it is the hair on your head, you have to say: "Jim has brown hair."

If you say to a native speaker: "Jim has brown hairs," the person will probably say: "Where?

Where are these brown hairs?"

Number two: I was very boring in class.

Correction: I was very bored in class.

Yes, the difference between "bored" and "boring".

I know this is difficult for for a lot of people because in many languages there is just one word,

whereas in English we have two. "Boring" means that something is uninteresting, or it doesn't

hold your attention. But "bored" is a mental state, so it's when your mind isn't being

stimulated, or something is tiring you. You could, for example, say: "I was bored watching

the boring movie." Technically you can say: "I was very boring in class." But it has a

different meaning. The teacher could say: "I was very boring in class." That means that

the students did not find her interesting, or him interesting. But if you are a student,

and you are just sitting there, and your mind is not being stimulated, you have to say:

"I was bored in class."

Frank are you bored or are you boring?

Don't answer that.

Number three: Every night I throw the rubbish.

What you should say is: "Every night I throw out the rubbish." Or: "Every night I throw the rubbish out."

Both are correct. Yes, I know it's phrasal verbs again! If you don't know

what a phrasal verb is, I highly recommend that you watch this video here in which I

give a general introduction to phrasal verbs. But basically, a phrasal verb is a verb plus

an adjective or an adverb.

And a phrasal verb can have a very different meaning to the original verb.

So here the phrasal verb is "throw out", and the original verb is of course "to throw".

"Throw out" means to get rid of something or to dispose of something. So, for example,

when you put your rubbish in a rubbish bin, you are throwing something out.

"To throw" means that you propel something through the air.

For example, this is me throwing a ball.

This is me throwing Frank.

And this is me throwing the rubbish.

And this is me throwing out the rubbish.

You can also say: "Throwing the rubbish out." In any case, the word "out" here is very important.

Number four: That song is very liked.

The correction is: That song is well liked.

You possibly have made this mistake if you are a Romance language speaker,

so if you speak Portuguese or Spanish, Italian, French.

Even very advanced speakers of English do make this mistake sometimes.

I know these sentences look very similar,

but the first one is incorrect because "very" cannot go in front of a verb. It has

to go in front of an adjective or an adverb. So, you can say, for example:

"That man is much admired." But you cannot say: "That man is very admired."

You could say: "That man is very much admired." That is perfectly fine because in this case

"very" is in front of "much". Be careful, just because a word has "ed" at the end, that doesn't necessarily

mean it is a verb. Let's look at these sentences: "Jane is very interested." Or: "Frank is very worried."

Here "worried" and "interested" are adjectives, so "very" in these sentences is perfectly fine.

However, you cannot say: "That song is very liked." Or: "That expression is very used."

Because in these sentences "used" and "liked" are verbs.

If you like grammatical terminology, these are verbs in the passive construction.

If you don't like grammar, just remember: "very" plus verb, no!

Number five: I did a mistake.

Yes, you did. You did, indeed, make a mistake if you said: "I did a mistake."

Of course the correct way to say it is: "I made a mistake."

I'm not going to give you a long explanation here because when it comes to "do" and "make"

there isn't really a concrete rule. Yes, in general, "make" is used when something is created or produced.

For example, you could say: "That company makes furniture." Or: "I like making cakes."

And generally, "do" is used for activities or behaviours.

Like: "Frank never does his homework." Or: "I do exercises every day."

Which is why I have these nice big muscles.

But like I said, those are just general rules.

And for many common things that we do every day, like making phone calls or making mistakes,

you just have to learn it and remember it.

Number six (and this is the last one for today): This kind of mistakes.

Correction: This kind of mistake OR These kinds of mistakes.

This mistake is very easy to fix, because

you just have to remember that if the first part of the phrase is singular, then the next

part also is singular. If the first part is plural, then the next part is plural. This

is why you can say: "this kind of mistake." "Kind" and "mistake'" are both singular. You

can also say: "these kinds of mistakes." "Kinds" and "mistakes" are both plural. You can also

use the words "that" and "those". Hopefully you know the difference between "this" and

"that" and "these" and "those". If you don't, write a comment down below and I will try

to do a video on it. Anyway, back to what I was saying, this rule also applies to words

like "sort" or "type". So, you can say: "this type of person", "that type of person", "these

types of people", or "those types of people".

Some examples with "sort": "this sort of book", "those sorts of movies".

That is all for today, guys. I hope you found this video useful.

If you did, please give me a thumbs up. You can also subscribe to my channel if you want

to get updated on new videos. And as usual, if you have any comments or questions, feel

free to write them down below in the comments section.

See ya later!