Hi. I'm Rebecca from engVid, and this lesson
will help you to write better letters.
Whether you need to write a letter for your
IELTS exam, or at work, or in life in general,
this lesson will help you because we're going to
focus on eight common letter-writing mistakes.
Okay? Let's see if you know what they
are, and also how to correct them. Okay.
Number one: "I look
forward to see you.",
"I look forward to see you."
What's wrong with that? Well, this is a very common
error, actually. Most people don't realize that they're
making it, but it's a really important
thing to correct. So, it should be not:
"I look forward to see you."
But: "I look forward to
seeing you.",
"I look forward to seeing you.",
"I look forward to meeting you.",
"I look forward to discussing
these ideas with you." Right?
Whatever verb you put here, you need
to say it or write it with "ing".
Remember that. Okay.
Next, number two:
"Tanks your letter." Okay?
This person has written:
"Tanks your letter."
Now, the person
actually wants to say:
"Thanks", but many people
make a mistake, first of all,
in the spelling of this word.
It does have an "h" in it,
so it should be: "Thanks",
and then there's another mistake. Right
now it says: "Thanks your letter."
But that's not correct.
It should be: "Thanks",
what's the right preposition?
"Thanks",
"Thanks for your letter." Okay?
Or:
"Thank you for your letter." Okay.
Next, number three:
"Please to give my regard to Mr.
Smith.",
"Please to give my regard to Mr.
Smith."
Okay. There are two mistakes, here.
See if you can find them. Okay. So,
the first one is right here.
We don't say: "Please to give", "Please
to write", "Please something".
No. We just say: "Please
give", "Please reply". Right?
"Please respond", "Please ask".
Don't say: "to ask" or
anything like that.
"Please give my
regard" is not right.
It should be
"regards".
"Please give my regards to Mr. Smith."
All right? We can't say "regard"
just like that, without the "s",
so make sure you add an "s" there.
Number four: "I am
interesting your products.",
"I am interesting
your products."
That's not right. We need to say, what?
Can you find the mistake?
Here.
"I am interested", okay?
"I am interested", your products are interesting.
So the thing you're talking about is with
the "ing". The product is interesting, the
book is interesting, the movie is interesting.
Okay? But when we talk about my feelings or
somebody's feelings about that, we have to
say that with the "ed". "I am interested",
"I am excited", okay? Like that. But there's
still one other small mistake, now.
Now it says:
"I am interested your products."
So this part is right: "I am interested", but
we need to have a preposition after that.
What is it? "I am interested
in",
"I am interested in your
products." Okay? Good.
Number five:
"When I will be in
London, I'll call you."
Okay?
"When I will be in
London, I'll call you."
In many languages, this would... This
kind of structure would be correct, but
in English, it's not, because there are really
two parts to this sentence. Right? This one:
"When I will be in London",
and then the other
part: "I'll call you".
So I'll help you to find the
mistake by telling you that
this part of the sentence
is actually fine.
"I'll call you" is short
for "I will call you",
that's fine, but in this
part of the sentence
which has a conditional word-all right?-we
do not put the future tense. We write, here,
we use, here, the present simple tense. So,
instead of saying: "When I will be in London",
we say: "When I"...
"When I am in London" or "When I'm
in London, I'll call you." Okay?
So when you have a sentence like that in the
future and you're going to... You have two
parts that have future in one section, in the
other section don't use the future tense,
just use present simple. And it doesn't matter
what the order is. It's the same principle
if the sentence was:
"I'll call you", right?
"I'll call you when
I'm in London."
So even if we change the order, the
principle stays the same. Okay.
Number six: "It was
pleasure to meet you."
This one's almost right,
but not completely right.
So, what's wrong, here?
It should be: "It was
a pleasure".
Okay? We need to have
that article "a".
"It was a pleasure
to meet you.",
"It was a pleasure
to see you again."
And so on.
Number seven: "We must
to inform the client.",
"We must to inform the client."
Well, that's wrong. In this case
we don't have to add something;
we need to take something out.
What is it?
We need to take out the word
"to". So, after a modal like
that, "must", we can't use "to".
Not: "We must to inform", just:
"We must inform the client.",
"We should inform the client.",
"We could inform the client."
All those kind of words-right?-"could",
"should", "must",
we don't need to say "to". So just:
"We must inform the client." Good.
And the last one, look at it carefully.
It says:
"Yours sincerely,"
the words are right,
but there is still a mistake there.
Can you find the mistake?
"Yours sincerly,"
this word is one of the most misspelled
words in the English language.
So, I hope you're not
making that mistake.
So the correct spelling
of "sincerely" is...
Okay? Sincere, just
like the word "sincere"
has an "e" at the end, keep that
"e" when you add "ly". Okay?
S-i-n-c-e-r-e-l-y.
Many people leave out the "e". All right? So
make sure you're not one of them, especially if
you sign your letters saying: "Sincerely," or:
"Yours sincerely," which is a very common
way to end a general letter or a
general business letter. Okay?
So make sure that you are not making these
very common mistakes. If you want to make
sure that you understand this... These mistakes
really well and that you don't make them,
please go to our website
at www.engvid.com.
There you can do a quiz
on this subject, and also
watch hundreds of other videos that will help
you to improve your English much faster.
Okay?
Thanks for watching. Good
luck with your English.
Bye for now.
