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hi i'm rebecca from invit in this lesson

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i'll show you how to correct a very

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simple error that's often made by

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english learners especially at a

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beginner or intermediate level

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and this mistake is called using a

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duplicate subject what does that mean it

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means using the subject more than once

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all right so i'm going to show you

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exactly how

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what it sounds like and how to correct

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it okay here we go

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so let's look at these three sentences

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my brother is a doctor

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now in this sentence which is the

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subject

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it's

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my brother right

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what's the verb

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is that's fine

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but there's one subject and one verb

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now instead of saying my brother i could

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use a pronoun right

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so then i could say he

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is

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a doctor all right again one subject one

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verb

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but let's look at this one so this was

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right this was right but let's look what

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happened here

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here it says my brother

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he is a doctor

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so what's wrong there well what happened

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is that you had brother which was the

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subject

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and you also have here he

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and that's called a duplicate subject

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using this subject more than once which

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in english

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is wrong okay it's possible in different

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languages that it's okay to speak like

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that but in english it's correct

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not to do that okay it's wrong to do

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that it's incorrect to do it so here you

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would either need to say go back to

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saying my brother is a doctor or you can

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say he is a doctor but not both all

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right that's the important thing

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okay

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now here we had one subject but it

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doesn't matter sometimes in an english

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sentence we have more than one subject

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and that's okay

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as long as we don't repeat them in the

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pronouns let's look at an example of

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that

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so here we have sarah and john

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are writers okay so what's the subject

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here

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so it's this whole thing sarah john

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right

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and then we have r which is the verb so

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here we have a compound subject

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connected by and that's that's fine

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that's not repeating anything because

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these are two different people we talked

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about them once

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or we could say so this one's okay

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instead of saying sarah and john we

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could call them

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they

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right

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one subject

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are one verb that's fine and that's also

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correct

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but let's look at this one

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sarah and john

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they are writers

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is that correct no that's wrong

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because we had sarah and john but then

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we repeated it

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by saying they

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right that's not correct

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okay so we would have to take that out

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we could say sarah and john are writers

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or we could take out sarah and john and

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just say they are writers like we did up

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here but you cannot do both all right

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and that's what tends to happen

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sometimes when people are just starting

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okay they tend to use both not sure

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exactly why it happens as i said maybe

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it's possible in other languages but in

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english it's not it would be wrong

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let's look at another example okay now

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that you i think understand what's going

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on you will see it before i do

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so here we could say tom never eats

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dessert tom is the subject that's fine

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here instead of saying tom we use the

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pronoun he

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so he never eats dessert that's fine too

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only one subject

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and here we said tom he never eats

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dessert

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is that right

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no by now you know that's wrong why

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because we had tom and we had he and we

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can't do that because tom and he are the

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same subject the same person

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so what you have to remember is this

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rule that if you use a pronoun you use

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the pronoun

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to replace the subject

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not in addition to it okay so you either

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use the subject the main subject let's

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say a name or something

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tom

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or use the pronoun he

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but you don't say tom and he in the same

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sentence okay because that would be

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duplicate subject and we can't do that

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in english now this is really important

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of course when you're speaking but also

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in any exam that you're doing any kind

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of writing any academic writing any exam

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writing any business writing you don't

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want to make this mistake because it's a

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very basic mistake and it doesn't make

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you look good okay but it's very easy to

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clean up let's do a little practice now

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so you can do just that all right so now

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we're gonna go through these eight

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sentences

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one by one and you tell me whether it's

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right or it's wrong okay try to think in

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terms of is there one subject or are we

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repeating the subject unnecessarily okay

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that's what you're looking for and again

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remember some are correct some are not

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so number one

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the car it was going too fast

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now you should be able to tell me right

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away okay

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if it's right or wrong

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so

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this is

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wrong okay

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now if you can't tell me right away then

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pause the video okay think about it and

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then put it back on and then i'll give

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you the answer okay

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so why is this wrong because what's the

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subject here the car

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and then what happened we put in

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it okay so we repeated the pronoun uh

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sorry we included a pronoun

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and we also have the actual subject so

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we have a double subject which you do

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not need okay number two they went to

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bed early

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is that right or wrong tell me quickly

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it's

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right

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okay good what's the subject they

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okay happens to be a pronoun that's okay

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your subject can be a regular noun a

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pronoun

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okay

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but just one all right not repeated

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number three steve he is so talented

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right or wrong

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that one is

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wrong why

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subject steve and another one repeated

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he

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wrong okay so let's take that out and

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make it correct steve is so talented up

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here the car was going too fast okay one

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subject nice and clean no repetition of

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the subject

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number four

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mr brown teaches very well

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is that right or wrong that one is

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right okay again what's the subject mr

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bro and we didn't repeat it okay so it's

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perfectly fine

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number five

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your package arrived today

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right or wrong

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okay that one is also correct

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the subject is package your package and

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then we go to the verb no repetition

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nice and clean okay

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you're getting it

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good

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number six

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rick and susan they will call me

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is that right or wrong

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okay

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that one is

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wrong why we have a compound subject

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rick and susan

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and we don't need to add the pronoun

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here okay so we take that out rick and

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susan will call me or if you know who

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you're talking about you could just say

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they will call me but not both all right

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good number seven

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the suitcase

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which it is brown

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is mine

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this one is a little bit different but i

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think you can still tell if it's right

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or wrong

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okay the suitcase which it is brown is

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mine

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that is wrong

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why

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because what's the subject here okay the

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suitcase all right

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and then we have here which it is brown

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no

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so we would just say the suitcase comma

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which is brown comma is mine

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okay

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here we have the verb

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all right

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and the last one dr greenberg isn't here

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today

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is that right or wrong

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that one is

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correct okay it doesn't matter if it's a

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positive subject or a negative subject

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that doesn't matter we're talking about

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whether we're repeating the subject and

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in this case no the subject was dr

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greenberg and we didn't repeat it so

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it's perfectly fine okay so pay

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attention to when you're speaking when

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others are speaking and listen for this

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mistake and if you make it in your

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writing or while you're speaking stop

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yourself correct yourself and say

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i don't need to work extra hard i don't

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need to add another subject so just have

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one subject either the subject itself or

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a pronoun but not both all right and if

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you want to really master this then of

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course do our quiz at www.invid.com

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and you can also check out lots and lots

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of other lessons there and if you want

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to keep correcting these kind of small

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mistakes that make a big difference in

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your english then subscribe to my

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youtube channel and you'll keep getting

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lots of lessons of this kind okay thanks

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very much for watching bye for now