3 Common Mistakes in English

You might make these mistakes, you might not, but in any case, it's good to be aware of them. Alright, let's get right into it. You are listening to the 21st episode of season two of English with Dane. Hit it. Borrow versus lend. This one seems to come up, parece surgir, a lot actually. For some reason, the difference between the verbs to borrow and to lend seems to confuse a lot of my students. Maybe it confuses you too. So let's clear this up once and for all, de una vez por todas.

It's really a matter of perspectives, okay? Una cuestión de perspectivas. And here's what I mean. To borrow means to receive or to take something and use it with the intention of giving it back, right? So if you are borrowing something, you are receiving it, using it, and then giving it back. If you are lending something, however, you are the person giving it to someone else, right, for them to use, and again, with the understanding and the intention that you will get it back.

Let me repeat that. In other words, you borrow something from someone and you are lending something to someone. Okay, borrow from, lend to. Let's check out a few examples. Hey, can I borrow your pen? I need to write something down. Can I borrow a shirt? I spilled coffee on mine. Hey, let me borrow that when you're finished with it. Right now with lend. I will lend you my pen if you promise to give it back this time. I lent him 20 euros, but he hasn't paid me back yet.

Or hey, can you lend me your headphones? Now, depending on how you want to ask, you can use lend or borrow. And maybe this is where some of the confusion is, but like I said before, it's a matter of perspective. If you need 10 euros and you're going to ask your friend, you can say, hey, can I borrow 10 euros? Or hey, can you lend me 10 euros, right? Perspective. So depending on how you want to express it. The important thing here is that you don't say, can you borrow me?

Okay, never say that one. That never makes sense. Can you lend me or can I borrow? All right, I hope that one is clear. Next common mistake. This is one that comes up almost every class at some point. Fun versus funny. If this one isn't a mistake you make, you may think it's a weird one, but I guarantee you you've heard someone else make it.

So if something makes you laugh, de hacer, like a joke or a scene in a movie, or maybe just your friend talking about something, that joke, that scene or your friend is funny. Okay, f-n-n-y, as in ha ha ha, that's so funny. I can't stop laughing, right? Gracioso in Spanish. However, if you played a football match, let's say, with your friends at the park, or if you played Call of Duty on your PlayStation or picked up a new hobby, it's fun. F-U-N. Not funny, okay? Fun, divertido.

I can't stress this enough. This is a common mistake that I correct very, very often, and much more often than you think. So funny, ha ha ha, que gracioso, fun, divertido. Example time. My friend is so funny, she always makes everybody laugh. That was the funniest movie I've ever seen. I couldn't stop laughing. Now with fun. That game was so fun. I can't wait to play again. Or you should come to the party, everyone's going, it'll be really fun. Okay, I hope I cleared up that one too.

I've got one more, and this one is a classic. This one again is much more common among Spanish speakers and more common than you think, and it's adding the before nouns when we are talking about them in general. This is confusing because in Spanish we say something like me encantan las comedias, but in English we don't need that los, okay? We don't need the. We would just say I love comedies. Now you might be thinking, hey Dane, come on, man, we know, we know.

But it's a mistake I've corrected maybe 10 times in the last week or so, both from lower level students and higher level students. Sometimes students don't even realize they've said it and they don't believe me when I correct them. If you're talking about a specific group of something, like the trees in my garden are beautiful, versus the more general trees are beautiful, then yes, you do need it. But in general, watch out for this one because it's a sneaky mistake that you can prevent.

Alright, those are the common mistakes I wanted to talk about on today's show. Let me know if you found these useful. Let me know if there are any mistakes you find yourself making regularly or consistently when you speak English, and I'll put them in the next common mistakes episode. Alright, that's it for today. Don't forget to subscribe to English with Dane on Spotify and Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to the show.

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