Top 10 Confusing English Verbs for Beginners

Take 10 minutes and master these 10 English verbs. Learn or teach? Do or make? Win or beat? Learn the difference between the most commonly confused verb pairs in English. This is an important lesson for beginners because these are basic verbs that you need to use in everyday conversations. I'll explain exactly how each word is used, with examples on the board. Take the quiz to make sure you remember how to use these words correctly: http://www.engvid.com/top-10-confusing-english-verbs-for-beginners/

Next, study my free resource page on when to use "do" and "make": http://www.engvid.com/english-resource/do-make-expressions/

Your English will improve tremendously by correcting these errors, so let's get started!

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. I'm Rebecca from engVid. In this lesson you will have a chance to understand 10 of the most confused verbs in English. Now, if you're a beginner student, then you have a chance to learn them right to begin with. If you're an intermediate level student, you might still want to review these verbs just to make sure that you're really using them properly. And if you are making mistakes, no worries, I'm going to explain them to you and also show you how to correct them. Okay? Here we go.

The first set of words we have is "learn" or "teach". So, let me give you a sentence and you tell me what you think is right. What should we use here? Which verb? "Mrs. Cole learns us English" or "Mrs. Cole teaches us English"? Which is correct? If you had to think for more than one second about the answer, then I'm so glad you're watching. Okay? Because I'm going to give you this very important difference. I hope you said: "Mrs. Cole teaches us English." Okay. So, what's the difference between "learn" and "teach"? If you made a mistake, no problem. I'm going to explain it to you so you get it. So, "to learn" means to get knowledge or skills. All right? And "to teach" means to give knowledge or skills. So right now what are you doing? Are you giving knowledge or are you getting, are you receiving knowledge? I think you are receiving, so you are learning, you are getting. And I am giving, so I am teaching. I'm teaching, you're learning. Right? So, this is what it says here: "Teachers teach". Okay? That's also a big clue because the word "teacher" has the word "teach" in it, so: Teachers teach something, like I teach English. Teachers teach math, English, history, etc. Or teachers teach someone, they teach students, usually. Okay? And students learn something, like students learn English, or math, or history. And students learn from someone, usually a teacher. All right? So what are you doing right now? You're learning. What am I doing right now? I'm teaching. Good. Let's look at the next one.

The next one: "bring" or "take". Let's look at this example. "Please bring this book to Mrs. Smith on the second floor" or do we say: "Please take this book to Mrs. Smith on the second floor"? Take a second to think about it. What did you say? "Bring this book to Mrs. Smith" or "Take this book to Mrs. Smith"? Well, the correct answer is: "Take this book to Mrs. Smith on the second floor." Why? Well, let's look. "To bring something" means to move it towards the person who's speaking, to the speaker. Okay? And "to take something" means to move something away from the speaker. All right? So I could say to you: Bring it to me or take it away from me. Got it? And even if somebody else is telling you that on the phone. Okay? So it doesn't matter where that person is. What matters is: Who is the speaker? Who is saying that sentence? So, for example, you could say to the waiter if you're in a restaurant: "Please bring me some water." Right? Towards you. Or you could say to the waiter or waitress: "Please take my plate away." So now you're taking the plate away from you. All right? Got that? Let's look at another set of words.

Now, "borrow" or "lend". Let's look at an example. "My father borrowed me his car last night" or do we say: "My father lent me his car last night"? Which one is right? The sentence is in the past tense, so instead of "lend", we see "lent", but which is it? "My father", what should it be? "Lent me", "My father lent me his car." Let's understand why. Okay? In case you didn't get it right. And if you did get it right, let's be 100% sure why you got it right. Okay, so "to borrow something" means to take something temporarily, and with... And you expect to... You are expected to give it back. You plan to give it back. You're not taking it forever. You're just taking it temporarily. All right? For a little while. And "to lend" means to give something temporarily, and you also expect to get it back. For example, a person who lends is called a "lender". The person who borrows is called a "borrower". And "lend" we often... Most people are... Have heard of money lenders, right?