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This is an All Ears English Podcast, Episode 157: “Announcement! TOP 15 FIXES for Your Biggest Mistakes.”

Welcome to the All Ears English Podcast, where you’ll finally get real, native English conversation with your hosts, Lindsay McMahon, the ‘English Adventurer’ and Gabby Wallace, the ‘Language Angel’, from Boston, USA.

All right, guys. The World Cup finished up, but now it’s time for the World Cup of leaving reviews for All Ears English on iTunes. We noticed that in June we had a lot of new reviews with Spain in the lead as the winner with eight reviews and Japan with seven, US- seven, China- six, and then some other countries left several reviews. But you guys, we wanna (want to) have a competition in August to see which country can leave the most reviews.

This is gonna (going to) be so cool. So we’re gonna (going to) be looking for Germany, Thailand, Brazil, Turkey, Russia, Italy, France, Mexico, Argentina, and Korea. Let us see your reviews guys.

Step it up and let’s see which country can really win for…

Come on!

Reviews in August. We’ll let you know the results at the end of August.

Excellent.

If you wanna (want to) tune up your English, today is the kickoff for the TOP 15 FIXES series for your most common mistakes in English.

Hey, Gabby. How are you doing today?

I’m great. How are you, Lindsay?

Excellent, and I heard you had a Porsche.

What? Me?

Yeah.

I wish!

What would you do if you had a Porsche?

If I had a Porsche, if I had a nice car like a Porsche, boy, I would be so happy. I think I would take great care of that Porsche. I would wash it every week, I would make sure it’s looking shine and…

Would you wax it…

Shiny and sparkly.

Wax it and wash it?

I would wax-on, wax-off.

Wow! You’d bring it to the carwash once in a while to make…

Yeah.

Sure it’s in prime condition for the road.

Oh, I would make sure that I always got it checked up and, and fine-tuned. You know what you guys, your English…

Is this Porsche.

Is like a Porsche. You have excellent English skills. That’s how you’re able to listen to this podcast, but you probably wanna (want to) fine tune those skills. So, we’re gonna (going to) help you with that. We’ve come up with 15 phrases, the 15 biggest FIXES that we’ve noticed that you need to make in order to really make your English sparkly and clean and… Both: …shiny…

And beautiful and running like the excellent vehicle that it is.

Just running along. Vroom, Vroom!

That’s right. So starting in August, ‘cause (because) it’s almost August, every Tuesday in August until mid-November, we’re going to give you one of the TOP 15 FIXES and go deep into that phrase. We’re going to explain what the problem is, how you can fix it, give you examples and tools to remember this fix so that next time you’re in a situation or you need to use this kind of phrase, you’re going to use it right.

Yeah, so you can hit the ground running…

Yeah.

With these fixes and you can go out there and communicate with confidence finally. So let’s do it David Letterman style.

All right.

And let’s go down {drum roll} – Drum roll.

Number?

Number 15.

15: ‘Listen versus hear.’

Oh my goodness.

Yeah, we’ve noticed some confusion between these two verbs, so we can consider Number 15 as a word versus word episode. We’re going to figure out when to use listen versus when to use hear.

And the next one is…

Say versus tell versus speak.’

Oh, I’m already confused.

So we have three different verbs that all have to do with, (you know), words and speaking and…

They’re so similar.

And talking, right. (Um), also I guess we can add talk into this.

Oh my!

‘Say versus tell versus speak versus… ‘

Don’t complicate things.

Talk’. So we’re gonna (going to) have a showdown between these four verbs.

I like it, I like it.

All right. And. {drum roll}

The next one is: ‘Wish versus hope’, (right).

I ‘wish’ or I ‘hope’. How do we know when to use these different verbs?

Yeah, they’re similar ideas, but we can’t use them in the same…

Interchangeably.

Yeah, we can’t use them in the same way. And… {drum roll}

Number 12: ‘To have or to be…’

An age.

Right, so when you’re talking about your age…

Yeah.

It’s really about which verb you’re using…

Yeah.

And some people are translating from their native language and it’s creating problems.

(Errnntt).

(Errnntt).

That’s what’s gonna (going to) happen when you guys translate, that’s, that’s what I think. I think (errnntt), wrong.

Okay, so we’re gonna (going to) fix that. (Um)…

Number… {drum roll}

Eleven.

What is it Gabby?

Using the correct verb tense. So I’m not sure how to say this, but when you talk about the future, sometimes you don’t need to use the verb ‘will’.

Yeah, we’ve got too many ‘will’s’ going on here.

I will, I will, I will.”

“Will, I will, I will.”

Yeah.

Stop with the ‘will’s.’ And we’ll show you how.

Nice.

All right. {drum roll}

Number 10: (Um), ooh, ‘bored versus boring.’

Are you bored or boring right now? Or are you both?

I will tell you on a future Tuesday. Yeah, this, this also has to do with (um), other similar adjectives like, (you know), ‘amazed’ or ‘amazing.’

Right. There’s a…

‘Interested’, ‘Interesting.’

Yeah. So you’re gonna (going to), you’re gonna (going to) learn a solution for all of those.

Yeah.

Right. Next one. {drum roll}

Going down. So, okay, so in this case, “Are you using ‘I have been’ or are you using ‘I was?’

Oh.

Right. I think this is another case of (mrn, mrn) translating from your native language.

Oh.

And we’re gonna (going to) tell you a little trick to speak, (uh) with American people, what American people tend to do in American English more often.

Nice.

Okay.

All right. {drum roll}

Number 8. So word versus word: ‘lend versus borrow.’ Both: Ooh!

Tricky.

Yeah, these are easily, (uh), not interchangeable, they’re easily confused.

So we’re gonna (going to) talk about the differences between those two verbs.

Going down. “I would like to invite you to dinner.” What am I doing when I invite someone to dinner?

Oh, yeah, you invited me to dinner.

Oh, my god. No, I – do I have to pay?

Free dinner.

Am I, am I gonna (going to) (p-) – Oh no.

No?

This is gonna (going to) create a…

Oh.

big…

We need to talk about this.

Guys. If you’re coming over here to the US or going to an English-speaking country, watch out for this common mistake.

Yeah, we’re gonna (going to) talk about that in seventh week. All right. {drum roll}

Number 6: Oh, another ‘will’ problem. ‘I will versus I’m going to’.

You’ve got ‘wills’ everywhere.

Will’ is also a common name.

It is.

So we do have ‘wills’ everywhere. All right. {drum roll}

When I talk about people, am I saying ‘People is’ or ‘People are?’

Oh, I don’t know. I think this is another (mrn, mrn) translation.

Yes. La Gente Esta Muy Loco (The People Are Very Crazy).

Oh, Espanol (Spanish).

Do you know that song?

Ta bien (Okay).

I’m singing a song. You guys don’t know that song? All right.

I don’t know that song, but maybe our listeners know that song.

It’s, it’s a dance song, so if you feel like dancing, look that title up. All right. Drum roll. {drum roll} Number 4: ‘Much versus many.’ Guys, this is a common issue. When do we use much, when did, when do we use many? This is a grammar issue, but it’s gonna (going to) affect how you sound in natural, everyday conversation. So, “Lindsay, do you have much problems?”

“Oh, my god. I have so many problems.”

Oh, wait, ‘much,’ ‘many?’

‘Much’, ‘many.’ (Uh-oh). Which one’s right? Come back for that episode. Let’s keep going down {drum roll} to… Both: Number 3.

Go ahead.

Do I make it, do I do it? Do I make it, do I do it? Do I make it? Oh my god, ‘make’ and ‘do,’ I’m so confused. Gabby, what do I do?

Well, you have to listen to our podcasts…

Exactly.

Tuesdays. {drum roll} Number 2: ‘By yourself or on your own.’ Oh…

It’s not ‘by your own,’ it’s not ‘on yourself.’

Are you sure?

Oh my god. Well, I don’t know.

Oh.

I better show up for the episode.

Oh, I have to wait. All right. And {drum roll}…

The Number 1…

Number 1 mistake. When to use…

‘the.’ [09:30].

For example, is this correct or not? “I want to study in US.”

Let’s take a vote.

Or, “I want to study in America.”

Actually, I’m not gonna (going to) tell you my vote.

Well, I wasn’t gonna (going to) ask for it.

So guys, you’ve just heard the TOP 15 common challenges and we’re gonna (going to) give you the 15… Both: FIXES…

Right.

15 solutions to make your English all cleaned up and waxed up and shined up.

Yes.

Get ready to take your car, (mm), out on the street.

That’s right. We want your English to be beautiful and something you can be proud of…

There you go.

Taking it out in the streets.

All right. So see you next Tuesday for this particular series.

See ya’ (you).

If you wanna (want to) put your ears into English more often, be sure to subscribe to our podcast in iTunes on your computer or on your smartphone. Thanks so much for listening and see you next time.