The last few days I've been thinking about why almost everyone who teaches or learns languages says that native speakers of their mother tongue don't know how to use certain words or that they make a lot of grammatical errors. I can certify that this happens in Spanish, for example I know people who do not know how to use "porque" or "por qué" correctly, and these words are widely used in everyday life. There are many more examples, but this isn't the subject of this post. I also make mistakes in Spanish. Furthermore, I believe that part of this problem is due to the deficient education in my country.
In addition, I think it's important to discuss this issue in the language community because some people may lose the enjoyment of learning a language in the pursuit of fluency when there are native speakers who can live without fluency in their own language, and with making mistakes. It's clear that there are people who need to have the best possible level in a language for their job, so their situation is different.
However, I don't want to be misunderstood. I just want to express that even native speakers make grammatical mistakes, and that there is no shame in making mistakes, as you are discovering a new world. On the other hand, Of course you can reach a high level, make few mistakes, communicate easily, be happy with your skills, and enjoy using your new language in which you have put a lot of effort to be a good learner.
To conclude, I have heard that native speakers make mistakes in their own mother tongue and those languages are German, French and English, the languages I'm learning. Have you heard of this? Does it also happen in your native language? Let me know what you think in the comments.
I agree! In Swedish, my native language, the phrase for "See you!" is "Vi ses", which sort of means "We will be seen by each other". However, most people I meet say "Vi syns", which means "We are visible"! It's a super common phrase and yet a lot of people just say it incorrectly!
It's absolutely true. The level of education varies greatly among speakers and sometimes there is a tendency to go with the more colloquial way of saying things even if the speaker is well aware that it isn't grammatically perfect. My big failing is spelling, so I'm very happy that we live in the age of spell-checkers. By the way, your English is excellent.
Loke, your example is very fun 😂😂😂 Thanks for commenting.
Kathleen you're right, thanks for sharing your experience. Also thank you for your corrections, and your encouraging message.
There are a couple of different kinds of “mistakes” to think about. One is where a person speaks in a way that is not approved by the grammar books. I wouldn’t really call that a mistake, it’s just an accent or dialect. Another kind is the slip of the tongue - everyone makes these. A third kind is the learner’s mistake, when you say something that no native speaker would say in any dialect.
Native speakers of English also write things incorrectly all the time. There's a difference between there and their or your and you're. People also write plurals with apostrophes. It drives me crazy, especially when I see teachers use incorrect grammar. I can forgive more in spoken language, though.
There’s a fourth kind of mistake - many people were just never taught the correct word usage. For example, native English speakers (in the USA, at least) misuse the verbs “lie” and “lay” ALL the time.
Luis, it looks like you've got us all thinking about this interesting topic.