oh that's sad it's true Charlie has less

girlfriends than Harry well that's an

obvious one isn't it any mistakes there

no let's put London to the test with a

grammar test let's go

[Music]

Isabella yes

I'm going to show you a sentence okay

and it may have a grammar mistake it may not

I'd like you to correct the sentence if

you think there is a mistake okay you

should have been that okay is that correct

the aim of this is to make me look really stupid isn't it

no not at all not at all

thank you very much you should have been there

I would say

you should have been there

can you read it out loud you should have been there

no you should of

you should of been there should of been there okay

can you go ahead and correct it if it needs correcting

all right thank you very much

so they all got this right but this is

actually a really really common

orthographical error amongst native speakers in English

but why do native

speakers commit this error the reason is

because the pronunciation of the

contracted form of the auxiliary verb

have is pronounced exactly the same as

the word of in connected speech

for example instead of going out last night

you should've stayed in instead of

going out last night you should've

stayed in əv əv əv

so in connected speech the of

changes to əv and likewise with the

contracted version of the auxiliary verb have

that changes from av to əv əv using the schwa again

so then when we go to write words

like should've would've and could've

sometimes native speakers get confused

and they write should of would of could of

it's clear that a zebra can't change its stripes

it's clear that a zebra can't change its stripes

is there a mistake in this one

yes go ahead do okay

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err so first off it's like that it's clear that a zebra can't zebra can't change

is there a correction to be made yes

all right go ahead

I think that's correct I well done man perfect

yeah very good well done Isabella

because it is is grammatically correct so you put the apostrophe there to change it from it is to it's

now you might be thinking this is quite an easy sentence

to correct but actually for lots of native

speakers it's quite difficult and

you might have noticed that some of our

participants in this video did actually

find it quite tricky when it came to

this second its

so we put this in to try

to confuse people because often people

incorrectly put an apostrophe before the

S thinking that the possessive adjective

requires an apostrophe but of course it

doesn't now why do they think this it's

because when it comes to singular nouns and we're talking about possession

we need to use an apostrophe

for example this is Charlie's whiteboard

the girl's bike the president's suit and

then what people do is they incorrectly

apply this possessive apostrophe to the

third-person non gender-specific

possessive adjective like this the

zebra hated its stripes but of course it

should be it's without the apostrophe

the same thing occurs as well with 'whose'

people often put the apostrophe before

the S incorrectly but it should be who's like this

Charlie has less girlfriends in Harry. Charlie has less girlfriends than Harry.

Oh that's sad! it's true. Charlie has less girlfriends

than Harry. Well that's an obvious one isn't it?

Charlie has a less girlfriends than Harry

Any mistakes there? No

Is there a correction to be made? And if so, go ahead! No

May I correct it? All right, going over to the other side

no no no than is a...don't do it! Had less..wait!

No you can do it in present, has less than 'cos you're comparing! 'Than' we're gonna keep it 'charlie has less gfs than Harry

no mistakes unless you spell Charlie a

different way. Ha ha yeah. Or you could say not

as many if you wanted to do that. Assuming

Harry has any girlfriends. Good question, does he?

He's good looking enough.. ha ha

there we go

it should be fewer girlfriends than Harry

okay. And I think the apostrophe's

wrong too isn't it? Yes the apostrophe should

be there 'cos it's plural and that should be fewer

it's like the Sainsbury's queue isn't it?

five items or less

they've changed it now to five items or

fewer there we have it Sainsbury's even

make the mistake as do many natives the

correction should be fewer and it's

because girlfriends is accountable

Charlie has fewer girlfriends than Harry

I'm the monogamous of the two and of

course we had an apostrophe over here

that needs to be removed because it's just the plural of girlfriend

And of course we do not need an apostrophe for plurals

now do we? We're not mental! That's

all for today but thanks for watching

and we hope you have found this both

useful and entertaining if you're a

native English speaker please comment

below if you make any of these mistakes

and if you're an English Learner we hope

this video reassures you that it's okay

to make mistakes if native speakers do

it why shouldn't you please give us a

thumbs up if you want to see part two of

this grammar test and see you again soon

for another video