Full video

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hi i'm vanessa from speak english with

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vanessa calm don't make these mistakes

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let's talk about it have you ever

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watched an english TV show and realized

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whoa these guys speak way different than

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any english i ever heard in my English

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class yeah it's pretty true the English

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spoken in real life is way different

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than textbook English but never fear

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today I'm gonna help you with three

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pairs of commonly misused words and I

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hope if you misuse these words before

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this lesson I hope you won't miss use

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them afterwards let's start the first

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pair of commonly misused words are

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either and neither did you learn in your

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classroom English that you should use

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either for positive sentences I want

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either cake or ice cream for dessert and

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that you should use neither for negative

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sentences

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I want neither cake nor ice cream for

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dessert well even though these sentences

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are both grammatically correct that

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second sentence oh boy we hardly ever

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use that in daily spoken English in fact

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if you said I want neither cake nor ice

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cream for dessert people would look at

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you with little slits in their eyes and

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say what is he a literary professor from

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the 1800s

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so what should you use instead well we

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usually just simply use or for negative

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sentences take a look at what happens to

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this sentence

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I don't want cake or ice cream for

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dessert we use the negative word not I

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don't

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that's a contraction using do and not

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and then instead of using the kind of

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archaic neither/nor comparison we're

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gonna instead use just or or we could

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say this in a shortened way I don't want

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either there's a word that's actually

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omitted here but it's understood that

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means that we know it's there but we

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don't say it do you know what that

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should be I don't want either off

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we don't need to say the word option

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because either already implies that

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there's at least two things here so you

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can say oh I don't want either meaning I

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don't want cake or ice cream now that

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you know we shouldn't say neither nor is

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there ever a correct and natural way to

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use the word neither yes let me tell you

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the most common situation to use neither

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is if I said I don't like politics and

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you responded me neither

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you're agreeing with my negative

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statement but here's the tricky part I

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could say I don't like politics and you

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could say me either you could use this

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positive word to agree with my negative

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sentence so which one of these is

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actually correct well we have a negative

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sentence I don't like politics so we

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need that negative word to respond to it

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me neither

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technically this is correct and you

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should probably use this in maybe

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business situations or those kind of

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formal situations but in daily spoken

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English you are definitely gonna hear

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people say me either

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this is grammatically incorrect but

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native speakers use this a lot and I

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don't know exactly why but I kind of

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feel like it's because we feel little

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strange using the word neither because

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we don't use it that often and we use

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the word either a lot so maybe people

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just feel a little more comfortable

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saying oh yeah me either I don't like

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politics too but technically it should

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be me neither so in the situation you've

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got two options but technically me

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neither is a little better the second

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pair of commonly misused words in

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English is actually and now if you speak

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a Romance language listen carefully I'm

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gonna give you a sentence and I'm gonna

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give you two options so you can guess

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what this sentence means I can't believe

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that I actually fell asleep on the plane

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I never fall asleep on flights does this

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mean number one now I fell asleep or

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number two

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in reality I fell asleep what does this

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mean think about that word actually well

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don't listen to your heart when you're

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trying to guess which one's correct it's

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going to lead you astray

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if you speak French Italian Portuguese

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Spanish Romance language you probably

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have a word in your language that looks

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like the word actually like the word

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Octomom or maybe act about men men she I

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don't know how to say it in Portuguese

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but there's a word that looks almost

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exactly like the word actually and it

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means now in your language but in

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English don't listen to your heart in

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English this means in reality it does

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not mean now so we are comparing

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something to reality let's take a look

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at a couple examples the food looked

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strange but actually it tasted good so

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here we have a comparison between the

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way the food looked which was strange

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and the way the food tasted which was

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good so we have reality the taste and

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the way it looked maybe the way I

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perceived it in my mind the other day I

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was gonna go to a museum and I said oh

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we can't go to the museum because I saw

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that it's closed on Mondays and my

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friend said actually in the summer it's

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open on Mondays so she was comparing my

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reality to her reality that well in

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reality it's open on Mondays in the

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summertime so she was correcting my

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reality or you might say she's actually

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dating someone I can't believe it

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this is a shocking reality like in our

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first sentence I actually fell asleep on

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the flight we could say she's actually

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dating someone here we're comparing what

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I thought would happen that she would

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never date someone to the reality whoa

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she's actually dating someone what about

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the word now this means in this moment

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at this moment this is a little more

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straightforward and

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easy than the word actually but let's

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talk about a couple of samples and it

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says anyway

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I can't watch the movie because I have

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to study now at this moment I have to

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study he finished his degree and now

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he's a mechanical engineer alright let's

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go to the last pair of commonly misused

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words in American English I have a

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little test for you I wouldn't know

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which one of these two sentences do you

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think is correct although it was raining

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we still went on a hike though it was

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raining we still went on a hike the two

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words here are although and though which

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one of these feels the most correct to

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you I have some bad news

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this was a trick question but both of

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these are grammatically correct but we

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use neither of these in daily

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conversation the word although is rarely

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used in daily conversation it feels a

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little bit formal the only way that I

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use it is when I'm talking about

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changing my mind I could say oh the

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wedding was so boring although the food

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was pretty good so I'm changing my mind

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about the wedding the wedding was boring

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okay although the food was pretty good

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so there's there was one thing that was

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good about it the food this is almost

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the same as adding the word but the

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wedding was boring but the food was

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pretty good what about the word though

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what's wrong with saying though it was

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raining we still went on a hike well we

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hardly ever used the word though at the

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beginning of a sentence it sounds too

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stiff and formal though it was raining

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no we hardly ever use this if you want

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to use the word though at the beginning

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it's better to add the word even even

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though it was raining we still went on a

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hike that sounds much more natural let's

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go back to that wedding example the

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boring wedding you might say the wedding

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was boring but the food was pretty good

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though we're using the word though at

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the end

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decay that there's kind of an exception

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oh the wedding was boring overall but

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the food was good though you could even

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take out the word butt and make two

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sentences the wedding was boring the

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food was good though okay great

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if you'd like to study the word though

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in depth I recommend checking out this

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lesson that I made up here that uses a

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lot of examples and all of the different

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nuances of the word though alright

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before we go let's do a quick review

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I don't want cake or ice cream for

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dessert I don't want either I don't like

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politics me neither I can't believe that

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I actually fell asleep on the flight the

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food looks strange but it was actually

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good actually the museum is open on

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Mondays in the summer I can't watch a

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movie because I have to study now the

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wedding was kind of boring

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although the food was pretty good the

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wedding was kind of boring but the food

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was pretty good though even though it

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was raining we still went on a hike I

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hope you enjoyed this quick but intense

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common mistakes correction lesson I want

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to know in the comments which one of

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these mistakes did you use to make but

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now I hope you won't make it anymore

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because you know the correct way to use

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these commonly misused words thanks so

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much for learning English with me and

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I'll see you again next Friday for a new

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lesson here on my youtube channel bye

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the next step is to download my free

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ebook 5 steps to becoming a confident

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English speaker you'll learn what you

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need to do to speak confidently and

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fluently don't forget to subscribe to my

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youtube channel for more free lessons

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thanks so much

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bye