5. I don’t know where is it

• I don’t know where is Diego. ❌
• I don’t know where Diego is. ✅

The problem is with the word order. It should be “I don’t know where Diego is.” Most students see “where” or another similar wh-question word and immediately switch the subject-verb order of the words after it from a statement to a question.

• Where is Diego? ✅

But, with “I don’t know” at the beginning, the sentence becomes an indirect or embedded question and we should have a statement word order, subject + verb

• I don’t know where Diego is. ✅

Indirect questions: examples

• I don’t know who she was.
• I wonder who’s coming.

We don’t use a question mark when the introductory phrase has a subject-verb word order. This is the case with “I don’t know” and “I wonder”

We can also use introductory phrases like “Do you know” or “Could you tell me” to create indirect questions. We use a question mark because the introductory phrases have a question word order: verb + subject

Here are a couple of examples:

• Do you know where Helena is? (not where is Helena)
• Could you tell me what time it is? (not what time is it)

6. depend

• It depends of the weather. ❌
• It depends on the weather ✅

The preposition “of” is incorrect. We need to use the preposition “on” – It depends on.

In informal English, it’s common to drop “on” before wh-words and “how”

• It depends where you’re going

In formal English, you should always use “on” or “upon” – that’s another option, though it’s less common and more formal

• It depends upon how much funding the project receives.

In answers to questions, we can simply say “It depends” or even just “depends” in casual conversation, missing the subject altogether.

• Are you coming tonight? – It depends. I’ll see how I feel or Hm, depends. I’m pretty tired.

7. Fun vs Funny

Which of these sentences is more likely?

• My holiday in Greece was really funny and I didn’t want it to end.
• We watched a comedy show yesterday. It was really funny

The second one, of course! “Funny” means making you laugh, like a comedy show. Another example:

• Stephen’s so funny! He’s always making us laugh.

In formal English, “fun” is used as an adjective to describe something that you enjoy, so you could say:

• My holiday in Greece was really fun.

“Fun” is more often used as an uncountable noun, meaning that something or someone is entertaining or enjoyable. You might say:

• My holiday in Greece was so much fun!
• We had great fun together at the fair.

8. Fine

• Are you fine? ❌

Grammatically, this question is ok, but it’s not something British English speakers say when asking how someone is or how they feel. In other varieties of English, it might be more common, so listen out for it! But in British English, we usually say:

• How are you?
• How are you doing?
• How’s it going

People often say “Are you fine?” because the common answer to “How are you?” is “I’m fine, thanks.” We tend to use “fine” in positive answers rather than questions. Here’s a correct example:

• How’s your wrist? I heard you sprained it. – It’s fine now, thanks.

“I hope you’re fine” is another common mistake. I see it a lot in emails. People usually want to say, “I hope you’re well.” As in, 

• Hi Lucy, I hope you’re well. I’m writing….

9. Listen

• You have to listen your teacher! ❌
• You have to listen to your teacher! ✅

I often see students leave out the preposition “to” in this kind of sentence. 

• I love listening to music while I’m exercising.
• Sorry, I wasn’t listening to you.

Make sure you don’t forget to add “to” after adverbs too: 

• Now, listen very carefully to what your mother’s saying.