Are you ready to test your English?
We’ll ask you to identify 6 English mistakes and choose your answer before the clock stops ticking.
We’ll then explain what’s wrong and show you examples of the correct English in action so you can avoid common mistakes. We’ll also direct you to videos if you want more help with grammar and vocabulary.
In this video we look at:
– what does it mean?
– used to vs. in former times
– used to do vs. be used to doing and get used to doing
– good at
– actually vs. currently
– stop to do vs. stop doing

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Click here to see a video on stop to do and stop doing.
Click here to see a video on actually.
Click here to see a video on used to do and be used to doing.

Test your English and avoid common mistakes

Hello everyone. I’m Vicki.
And I’m Jay and we’re back with some more tricky English questions.
We’re going to test how good your English is, and we’ll also fix some common mistakes!
We have six questions for you today.
And you have to answer them before the clock stops ticking. Are you ready?
Let’s start with an easy one. This is a very common mistake.
Imagine you’re having an English lesson and your teacher is using the word ‘collocations’.
You don’t understand what the word means so what do you say?
What means ‘collocations’?
What does ‘collocations’ mean?
Do you know what ‘collocations’ means? Collocations are words that we generally use together.
We’ll look at one later, but first look at this useful question. ‘Mean’ is the main verb here and it’s a normal verb. So to form the question you need an auxiliary verb.
‘Do’ is the auxiliary verb, or help verb. Students often forget to use it so make sure you don’t.

Kathy, do you have a moment?
Yeah?
I just received this message and I don’t understand it. What does IDK mean?
The letters IDK?
Yes.
I don’t know.
Hmm. I’ll ask Vicki. Vicki, what does IDK mean?
I don’t know.
I don’t know either. People are so hard to understand. I’ll go ask Louise.

OK. What’s the next question?
This one’s about me. I’m British, but I don’t live in England anymore.
She lives in the US with me.
So what could you say about me?
In former times Vicki lived in England.
Vicki used to live in England.
Vicki’s used to living in England.
‘In former times’ is grammatically correct, but it sounds wrong.
Yes, it’s a direct translation from some other languages, but it doesn’t work in English.
It’s much too formal. We just don’t say it.
Say ‘used to’ instead. We use ‘used to’ to talk about things that were true in the past, but are not true now.
So things that we’ve stopped doing. We often use ‘used to’ to talk about past habits.

Jay, try some of this.
What is it?
Marmite.
We used to eat it all the time when I was growing up in England.

Never try Marmite. It’s horrible stuff!
Don’t listen to him. It’s really good!
And what about the other sentence?
Ah, now this is grammatically correct too, but it doesn’t work here because it’s not true.
Vicki’s used to living in the US, not England.
Exactly. The meaning’s different. When we are used to something, we’re accustomed to it.
And we can also get used to something’ – that means grow accustomed to it.

Where are the tomatoes?
You mean the tomatoes.
He’s still getting used to my accent.

These two structures look very similar but they have different meanings.
‘Used to’ is for describing past habits, and ‘be or get used to’ means accustomed to.
It’s very tricky. We should have another question about this.
OK, here’s another one. In the US, everyone drives on the right side of the road, but in England people drive …
On the wrong side.
People drive on the left side in England. I live in the US now so which sentence or sentences are correct here.
I used to drive on the right side of the road.
I’m used to drive on the right side of the road.
I’m used to driving on the right side of the road.
‘Used to’ is wrong here because Vicki drives on the right side now. It’s not a past habit.
And it’s wrong to say ‘I’m used to drive’ too. That’s because after ‘be used to’ we need a noun.
‘Used to’ is followed by a verb. But ‘be used to’ is followed by a noun.
If you want to use a verb after ‘be used to’, you have to use a gerund, a noun form of the verb. So we say driving not drive.
But you know, I think this sentence is wrong too.
Really?
Yeah, it’s grammatically correct but it’s not true. Sometimes you forget which side we drive on here, and you get in the car on the wrong side.
I think this should say you’re getting used to driving on the right side.
If you’d like to see more examples, follow this link.
What’s the next question?
It’s a quick one. Imagine you have a friend who speaks 6 languages.
What could you say about her?
She’s very good in languages.
She’s very good at languages.
When we’re talking about skills, we say ‘at’ – so good at, clever at, bad at, terrible at …
‘Good at’ is a collocation because we often use the words ‘good’ and ‘at’ together.
You know you’re so good at making coffee Jay.
Oh, thank you!
Could you make me another cup?
Let’s have the next question.
OK. This one’s about a word that’s a false friend in many languages.
A customer calls you on the phone and asks to speak to your boss. But your boss is on the phone at the moment, talking to someone else.
What will you tell your caller?
I’m afraid she’s actually assisting another customer.
I’m afraid she’s currently assisting another customer.
The word ‘actually’ might look similar to a word in your language.
But it probably has a different meaning in English.
Actually doesn’t mean ‘currently’ or ‘at the moment’ in English. It means ‘really’ or ‘in fact’.
So we often use actually when we’re saying something that’s surprising.
If you want to describe what’s happening now, actually is the wrong word. Say things like currently or at the moment instead.
And we also often use ‘actually’ when we want to correct someone, but in a gentle way.

You’ve written thirteen dollars, but actually it’s thirty.
Oh, is it?
Actually, that’s my coffee. That’s yours.
Oh.

Lots of students make mistakes with actually, so we’ve made a video with more examples.
I’ll put the link here.
OK, next question.
Right. You have a friend who you used to see on Facebook. But you haven’t seen any posts from him for a while.
One day you bump into him in the street and ask why. What does he say?
I stopped using Facebook.
I stopped to use Facebook.
Stop is a special verb because we can follow it with a gerund, so an -ing form of a verb, or we can follow it with an infinitive, a ‘to do’ form of a verb. Both are possible.
But the meanings are different. When we stop doing something we don’t do it anymore. And when we stop to do something we stop in order to do something else.

Can you two stop playing that game and come and help us with a delivery?
Yeah.
I got forty points.

So there are two actions in both these sentences, but the timing of the actions is different. In the first sentence ‘playing the game’ was the first thing that happened and ‘stopping’ was the second.
And in the second sentence ‘stopping’ was the first action to happen and ‘helping with a delivery’ came second.

Hmm. I’ve got a question. I’ll skype Jamie. Jamie. Jamie.
Hey Vicki, I can’t stop dancing.
I can see. I’ve just got a quick question. Just a quick one? Not to worry. I’ll ask Mr Marcus.
Hello. Ah. Hey Vicki. I can’t stop to talk to you now. These knives are sharp.
Oh, be careful. Be careful.
Don’t worry. I’ll google it instead.

So are we done?
Yes.
How did you do? Did you get all the questions right?
And was this quiz useful?
If you enjoyed it, give us a thumbs up and why not share it with a friend?
I’ll put the links in the description below to other videos that we’ve mentioned today.
And we’ll be back soon with a new video, so be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss it.
And click that notification bell so you know when our next video comes out. Bye everyone.
Bye-bye.

Click here and here to see more quiz videos.
Click here to see a video on stop to do and stop doing.
Click here to see a video on actually.
Click here to see a video on used to do and be used to doing.