Grammar In Use: Even Native Speakers make mistakes in English

I posted common mistake in English for Korean Speakers. But did you know that native speaker also makes mistakes in English which is their first language. I got to wondering why native speakers make these mistakes. Of course, one possible reason is lack of education. Native speakers don’t grow up learning their language in an academic setting; they just seem to pick it up.

Therefore, many probably don’t even know that they’re making a mistake. This would then mean that they’re making an error, not a mistake, because they haven’t yet learned what is correct. Some might argue that even native speakers make numerous errors and are still understood perfectly well and no one would think that they’re not a native speaker.

So, the paragrah below is what native speakers makes.

real/really

Real is often used in place of really, most often in conversational English.

Example 1 (incorrect usage): I am real tired today.
Example 2 (correct usage): I am really tired today.

Although this error is somewhat acceptable in informal conversation, it is actually incorrect and should never be used in writing. The reason that real is incorrect when used this way is simple: Real is an adjective, and as you can see in the first example above, real is incorrectly used as an adverb. In the example, real is describing tired, which is an adjective, so the adverb really is needed to make the sentence correct.