Five IELTS Speaking Grammar Mistakes. The number one issue when it comes to grammar - is not adding the 1
"s" when talking about other people in the present tense. We sometimes call this "the third person s." When 2
you're talking about "he" or "she" or "it" in the present tense, there should be an "s." 3
For example, students might say, "a person I admire is my uncle." 4
He live in Canada and he work in a bank there." 5
The problem? It should be "a person I admire is my uncle. 6
He lives in Canada and he works in a bank there." 7
The problem here, is with speaking, 8
you might forget that "he" or "she" might need the "s." 9
The problem is also pronunciation, 10
as many students may say, "he live in Canada." 11
They know there's an "s" and they think that they've said it. 12
But maybe it's so quiet that the examiner can't even hear it. 13
Moreover, it's even worse as this is going to sound like a grammar mistake AND a pronunciation mistake. 14
What's the solution for fixing this? 15
First, let's talk about pronunciation. 16
There are two different sounds that are important. 17
One is "voiced" and one is "unvoiced." 18
Verbs that end in a "voiced" sound or a voiced consonant means if you say "live," you can hear or feel 19
there's a vibration. 20
The "s" is pronounced "zz" in the word "lives." 21
The "voiced" sound moves into the next consonant. 22
"He lives, she loves, he runs." 23
On the other hand, there are the other consonants at the end of verbs that are "unvoiced," like the word 24
"work." In North American English, 25
and I say "North" because it's Canadians as well... 26
We have voiced and unvoiced sounds. 27
All vowels are voiced. 28
However, consonants can be either voiced or unvoiced. 29
Unvoiced consonants are made just with air - no sound from the vocal cords. For example, "hh, "sh," "tt," "pp." 30
Voiced consonants do have voices in them like "mm," "bb," "zh." 31
So we have unvoiced such as "hh, "sh," "tt," "pp," and then we have voiced - "mm," "bb," "zh." You can actually become aware of 32
linking or connected speech. 33
For example, "he lives in Canada." 34
When you're aware of the connected speech, it can really help you pronounce "zz." 35
"Canada... zzin Canada." 36
Does this make sense? 37
"He lives in Canada." 38
Let's take a look at another example. 39
"He loves it....zztt." 40
"He loves it." 41
Here's one more. 42
"He runs a lot." 43
Runszalot. 44
Zalot. 45
Zalot. 46
What about the unvoice consonants? 47
"He laughs at my jokes." 48
"He laughs at my jokes." 49
"Laughs at. Laughsat." See how they're linked together? 50
"Laughsat." Another common grammar mistake is using the present tense instead of the past. 51
And this happens a lot in Part 2 of IELTS Speaking. 52
This is especially common for test-takers who are describing a story, perhaps something that happened 53
in the past. 54
"I'd like to tell you about a time I go to a movie last summer." 55
"I go to a movie in my town." 56
In this situation, you can hear that the speaker is using the present tense instead of the past. 57
Rather, it should be: 58
"I'd like to tell you about a time I went to a movie last summer." 59
"I went to a movie last summer." 60
OK, Grammar Mistake Number 3 is using uncountable nouns like they're countable. 61
Uncountable nouns are just nouns that you can't count, such as snow, gas, water, sugar and sand. 62
If we want to count sand or rice, for example, we would use a grain, a grain of sand... 63
a grain of rice. One common mistake with countable nouns is email, which seems to be more commonly 64
observed as countable. 65
However, the word email is derived from the root word "mail," which was uncountable. 66
It's weird to hear people say, "I received 20 emails today," but this seems to be the norm nowadays, 67
rather than the exception. 68
There are so many uncountable nouns that are mistakenly used in the countable form. 69
Let's take a look at a few examples now. 70
"Firefighters must wear the correct safety gears when they're on duty." 71
This should actually be "firefighters must wear the correct safety gear when they are on duty." 72
Here's another case: 73
"The Internet has all kinds of informations that should be investigated before accepting as accurate." 74
This is incorrect. 75
Instead, we should say, "the Internet has all kinds of information that should be investigated before 76
accepting as accurate." 77
The next grammar mistake is not pronouncing the "-ed" in the past tense correctly, or at all. 78
It's really important that the examiner can hear the "-ed." 79
Otherwise it's perceived as a grammar mistake. 80
This is especially the case with a voiceless ending, such as the words "walked, talked, baked or faked" 81
for the simple past. 82
It's important to enunciate the "t" even though we can see the "-ed" in written form. 83
On the other hand, I've had students in Korea who are completely opposite, and will overstress past 84
tense verbs ending in "-ed." 85
How does this sound? 86
Some examples: 87
"Walked, talked, 88
baked, faked." 89
Similarly, there were issues with the voiceless ending, "ch." 90
"Ch...ChurCH, lunCH, crunCH." 91
We need to find a middle ground here. 92
Listening to movies, podcasts and YouTube will help you find the sweet spot for the correct pronunciation. 93
OK, this wraps up things for this lesson!