Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • Hello, everyone. Let me read an excerpt for you from my book. "We shall soon see

  • that the hand is divided into three zones or parts, which are bound by

  • certain lines to be hereafter... hereafter explained." Huh? Did you

  • understand any of that? I didn't. So, one of my things that I like to do is

  • really, really get you out of your textbook, and get you into speaking

  • real-life English. And we can do this with private lessons. I have a website,

  • www.englishwithronnie.com, where I teach you all the proper things, all the fun

  • things, and how to speak naturally; not like a person fromoh, I don't know

  • the 1800s. And in today's lesson, we're going to go through some of these

  • things; things that you've learned in grammar booksoh, godthings that

  • you've learned in your classes or from people. And, honestly, we just don't use

  • them when we speak normally to people. Idioms. That's number two. But let's

  • start with number two. I'm never going to go to a shopping center or the

  • grocery store, and use idioms when I'm speaking to people. Nowhere would I use

  • an idiom. And to prove my theory, I spent two hours listening to the radio.

  • More than that. And nobody in the land of radio used an idiom. So, take your

  • idioms, throw them away. Okay? Just learn to speak normally. But we're going

  • to get back to those.

  • Let's look with the first one. Look at the first one. "Who" and "whom". Wow.

  • So: "Whom do you trust?" Mm, unless you're living in the 1800s, we would

  • just never use the word: "whom". Okay? So, take it out of your vocabulary; you

  • don't need that. Just put: "who". We would say: "Who do you trust?" You can

  • trust me. But this word: "whom" — take it out; we never say it. But there's one

  • thing you have to know when you're learning English: You have to know your

  • purpose. Are you learning English because you'd like to be a creative

  • writer? Hey, if you want to be a creative writer, maybe you want to learn

  • to use "whom", but this is all about speaking and communicating with people.

  • If you're working at a job or you'd like to get a job where they use a very

  • formal 1800 languagemaybe you want to learn about "whom", but no. But know who

  • you are, know your audience, know who you're talking to. Old peoplethey're

  • cool to hang out withthey're probably are not going to say: "whom" either. So,

  • get that out of your brain.

  • As I said, the wonderful idioms. Here's one: "The grass is always greener on the

  • other side." You're not gonna have a conversation with this about someone.

  • You're not gonna be walking down the street and go: "Wow. There's that really

  • hot guy I want to talk to. Hey, how's it going? The grass is always"... What? No,

  • just talk to the people like normal humans. "Hi. How are you?" This is one

  • thing that I... never ceases to amaze me about high-level English courses. I see

  • all these high-level English courses, and people who are advanced in English,

  • and they're studying idioms. It's like: "Oh my god. There has to be more than

  • idioms." Don't worry about idioms. If you want to learn idioms, because

  • they're fun and clever, go ahead; but we're not going to use them in normal

  • speech. So, be careful what you're studying in your advanced or

  • intermediate classes.

  • Oh, everyone hates it. Yes! Present perfect. Guess what? You don't need to

  • use it. Now, if you're just beginning to learn to speak English: Just use the

  • simple pastit's all you need. If you're advancing and you're getting the

  • hang of things in English, and you'd like to improve your English, of course,

  • you can step into the boundaries of hell with the present perfect. But, as I

  • said, if you're just beginning and the present perfect really, really makes you

  • angryforget about it. Just use the simple past. An example of the present

  • perfect is: "I have eaten". Good for you. I can also just say: "Yeah, I ate".

  • Uh-huh. It's the same idea. Nobody's gonna be confused and go: "Oh, hold on.

  • That was the simple past." But it doesn't matter. Just use the simple

  • past. Bye-bye present perfect. Toilet. See ya.

  • Oh, this is a fun one: Reported speech. Now, grammar textbooks love to teach you

  • the reported speech. And you gotta change the grammar around and make sure

  • the time reflects in the day. (blows tongue). Ronnie says: (blows tongue).

  • This is how we say these in normal English. And if you don't believe me,

  • watch a video. Not only this one. Watch a movie, listen to people speak, go on

  • all those social media things that you're so addicted to, and listen to how

  • real people actually talk about something that's reported. "She said

  • that she had eaten already" is reported speech. Yeah, we don't say that. We use:

  • "went" and "goes". Let me show you how. "She goes: 'I ate already'. Or: "He

  • went: 'Oh my god'". So, instead of having to change all the grammar around

  • in the sentence, all you have to do is put: "goes", instead of: "said"; and you

  • can also use "went". I can say: "She went: 'I ate already'". It doesn't

  • matter. You can use: "went" and "goes". Doesn't matter the grammar; it doesn't

  • matter the time. You don't have to change anything. Reported speech,

  • bye-bye. If you're writing as a creative writer, you can use reported speech, but

  • we never use it when we speak.

  • Next one. This is fun. Fuji, this for you. "Who" in relative clauses. So,

  • you've learned in your textbook; it's very proper grammar. Okay? "She is the

  • one who ate it." By the way, a "relative clause" is giving more information about

  • the subject. So, I'm giving you more information about the subject: "she".

  • So, the rule is: If it's a person, you have to use: "who". You have to say:

  • "She's the one who ate it." Do you know what? When we speak, we don't say that.

  • We just say: "that". Because in the relative clause, without a human... with

  • a person, we use: "that". I can say: "Oh, this is the book that my great

  • grandmother gave me." I can say: "She is the person that gave me the book." So,

  • when you're using relative clauses, even if it's a personignore the grammar

  • rule. You don't need that rule. Rules are (blows tongue).

  • Number seven. Number five. Number seven, yes. Stative verbs. Yeah. Yeah, these

  • are fun. Right? So, you've learned about stative verbs. "Stative verbs" are verbs

  • you cannot use with: "i–n–⁠g"⁠. Example: "I'm having a car". No, that's wrong.

  • You can say: "I'm having a baby", but you can't say: "I'm having a car". And

  • these are rules of stative verbs. You must say: "I have a car". If you're

  • talking about possessionthings that you buy; not babiesyou can say: "I

  • have a car", not: "I'm having a car". But thanks to our modern society,

  • specifically, a restaurant that serves millions and billions of people; has

  • some golden arches over there. Their slogan is wrong. Their slogan is: "I'm

  • lovin' it". Hey, guess what? "Lovin'" or "love" is a stative verb, but doesn't

  • matter. We don't care anymore. We say: "Wow. I'm loving your new car."

  • Grammatically wrong, but that's how we speak. You're in a restaurant, and the

  • waitress comes by and says: -"Hey. How is everything?" -"Oh, I'm lovin' the

  • soup." That's not... that's fine. Hey. People at the table are like: "Oh, you

  • just used a stative verb wrong." Nobody cares. We don't care about that; stative

  • verbs. The next one is, of course, the opposite is: "hating". Okay? "Ah, I'm

  • hating you right now. You've ruined my life!" You can say thatthat's fine.

  • We should say: "I hate you." But we have to say: "I'm hating my new job. I... Er.

  • It drives me crazy." And notice I don't say: "hating"; I say: "hatin'". "I'm

  • lovin'"; "I'm hatin'". Sounds like a country.

  • Another verb that we can use in this stative form, but we're not supposed to

  • don't tell my momis: "costing". So, if you have to pay a lot of money for

  • something, you can say: "Wow. It's costing me so much." Or you go into

  • someone's apartment, say: "Wow. How much is this place costing you a month?"

  • Grammatically wrong. Feel free to point that out to them, but it's how we change

  • language. So, I can say: "Well, this must be costing you a pretty penny."

  • See? That one... that idiom is so old. We don't even have pennies anymore, so

  • come on. Come on. "Understanding". Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. "Oh, do you know what?

  • I'm not really understanding you." Oh. Grammatically wrong, but: Hey, guess

  • what? We can say that. "I'm understanding you now! Yeah!" Cool.

  • Again, your grammar teacher would faint or roll over in his or her grave. But

  • guess what? Rule's off. You can say that. So, I hope that you are

  • understanding all of this lesson, and just be careful about grammar and all

  • these rules you have. Make sure that what you're learning is actually

  • relevant and up to date, because the last thing you want to do is sound like

  • someone that came from the 1800s and is hanging out, enjoying life. So, I'm

  • Ronnie; and grammar (blows tongue).

Hello, everyone. Let me read an excerpt for you from my book. "We shall soon see

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it