[00:00:00] Welcome to English, please, the podcast where we explore interesting topics in under 10 minutes in clear, intermediate English. I’m your host, Christopher. I live in New York City, and I’ve always been passionate about languages and how we learn them. Whether you’re listening on your way to work or while cooking dinner at home, this show is designed to help you with your English listening and comprehension skills.
When I started learning French, I made one small decision that caused me problems for a long time. I learned new words by themselves. For example, table, car, book. But in French, every noun is masculine or feminine, and a small [00:01:00] word in front of it, called an article, shows which one it is. I didn’t learn those small words, so when I spoke, I often had to guess. Sometimes I guessed right, and frequently I was wrong. Later, I had to go back and learn many of those words again, this time with the article.
People still understood me. A native French speaker hears the wrong article and knows exactly what you mean. And that’s the problem with this kind of mistake. If native speakers understand you, nothing tells you to change.
Maybe you have a mistake like this in English. You’ve made it many times, maybe for years. You know the rule. If you saw the sentence written down, you would probably see the mistake. But when you speak, it comes out the same way every time.
Language teachers [00:02:00] have a name for this. They call these mistakes “fossilized.” You probably know the word “fossil” from dinosaurs. A dinosaur fossil is millions of years old, and it’s stuck in the rock. It doesn’t change. A fossilized mistake feels the same way. A linguist wrote about this idea in the 1970s, but you don’t need the technical word. You can just call them “the same mistakes.” In this episode, we’ll look at three that intermediate learners make very often, and why they’re so hard to stop, and what you can do about them.
The first one is, “I am agree.” Many learners say this, especially speakers of Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese. In those languages, the expression for agreeing often uses [00:03:00] the verb “be.” But in English, “agree” is already a verb, so you just say, “I agree.”
The second one is very small, the letter S. With he, she, or it, verbs in the present simple need an S. “She works from home.” “He lives in Berlin.” But many learners say “she work” or “he live” even after years of English. One reason is that they don’t really hear the S. When people speak quickly, it’s short and easy to miss, so many learners learn the verb without it. And if you forget it, nobody is confused, so the mistake stays.
A third one is, “I live here since 2020.” [00:04:00] German, French, and Spanish all use the present tense for this idea: something that started in the past and is still true now. English uses the present perfect. So you say, “I have lived here since 2020,” or, “I’ve worked at this company for five years.”
Okay, let’s take a short break from these mistakes. You can read every word of this episode at englishpleasepod.com, where there’s a full transcript for every episode. Reading it is also a good way to notice small things you might miss when you listen. And if you’d like to practice speaking, your first private conversation session with me is free. You’ll find it at englishpleasepod.com/talk.
So why are these mistakes so hard to stop? [00:05:00] When you say the same sentence many times, you learn it the way you learn to ride a bike. It becomes automatic. When you speak, you don’t have time to verify every word, so you use the version you know best, even if it’s the wrong one. Knowing a rule is one thing, but changing a habit is something different.
The good news is that language habits can change, and here are four things that can help.
First, choose one mistake. Not ten. Just one. For one week, pay attention only to that mistake.
Second, learn words together with their partners. At the beginning of this episode, I told you about my mistake in French. I learned nouns without their articles. In English, the [00:06:00] same idea works with small words like prepositions. Don’t just learn “depend,” learn “depend on.” Not just “interested,” but “interested in.” Not just “good,” but “good at.” When you learn words together, you say them together.
Third, record yourself. Talk for one minute about your day, and then listen to the recording. It feels strange at first, but you’ll hear things you never notice while you’re speaking.
Fourth, practice the correct version out loud many times until it feels as automatic as the old one. Let’s try that now. I’ll say a sentence with a mistake. You say the correct version out loud. Then I’ll give you the answer.
“I am agree with my manager about the new [00:07:00] schedule.”
“ I agree with my manager about the new schedule.”
“My sister work at a hospital, and she love her job.”
“ My sister works at a hospital, and she loves her job.”
Another one: “We live in this apartment since 2019.”
“ We’ve lived in this apartment since 2019. “
One more: “Our plans depend of the weather.”
“ Our plans depend on the weather.”
Practice like this helps a lot. Recording yourself helps, too, especially with mistakes where you already know the rule. But some mistakes sound correct to you, [00:08:00] even on a recording. You can’t fix a mistake you don’t hear. And when you’re speaking, all your attention goes to what you want to say, not how you say it.
This is where another person helps. It could be a language exchange partner, a teacher, or a friend who speaks English well. You don’t need to ask them to correct everything. That can feel stressful, and it stops the conversation. Just ask them to listen for one thing. For example, “Can you tell me when I forget the S?”
So if you have a mistake that won’t go away, it doesn’t mean you’re a bad learner. You’ve already done the hardest part. People understand you. Now, the next goal is being correct.
I offer private English conversation sessions with me on a video call. We just talk. Mistakes are completely fine, [00:09:00] and your first session is always free. No pressure. You can find out more at englishpleasepod.com/talk.
If you’d like more practice like this every week, join the free English, please newsletter at englishpleasepod.com/free. When you sign up, you’ll get two free guides, one with 25 idioms and one with 60 everyday phrases that native speakers use all the time.
Again, I’m Christopher, and I want to invite you to join me in future episodes of English, please to hear about a variety of topics, all focused on helping you with your English. Subscribe now wherever you listen to podcasts, and let’s continue this adventure together in clear, understandable English.
Sincere thanks, as always, for listening.
See you soon!