 Hello, students! It's Shayna, your teacher from EspressoEnglish.net. And today I'm going to teach you about two mistakes that students make with the word both. Pay close attention because you might be making both of these mistakes and you don't even know it. Okay, the first mistake is let's say you're at work and your manager gives you two projects to work on. And they are very difficult. Don't say both of projects are difficult. That's not quite correct. You can say both projects are difficult, okay? Both immediately followed by the plural noun projects. Both projects are difficult. Or you can use both of if you add an extra word before projects. You can say both of these projects are difficult or both of those projects. You can say both of the projects are difficult or you can say both of my projects are difficult. But you need to have that word either these or those, the, or a possessive like my, your, his, her, or there before the word projects. Got it? All right, let's look at the second mistake. Don't say I like both of soccer and tennis. Again, it's not quite correct. So you can use both and then say the two things specifically, but in this case you can't use of. The only way to fix this sentence is to eliminate the word of and say I like both soccer and tennis and that is correct. And it's true. I like both soccer and tennis. So let's review the three correct ways to use both or both of. So you can say both plus a plural noun. So both projects, both cars, both houses, both people. Okay, that's both followed by a plural noun. Or you can say both of these, those, the or possessive like my and then the plural noun. So both of my dogs, both of my children, both of these computers. Let's see both of the windows, but you need to have that word if you use both of. Or you can use both plus and then say each thing individually. So both soccer and tennis. I like both apples and oranges. I speak both English and Portuguese. Got it? Your homework for today is to write a sentence or two in the comments using both or both of in the correct way. One of these three ways actually try all three. It's good practice. So this is a really little mistake. And like I said, a lot of students don't even realize they're making it. And one of the best ways to improve your English and get your mistakes corrected is to have a native speaker and especially a teacher look at your work and correct it. And you can get that from me in some of my courses. So my vocabulary builder course as well as my idioms and phrasal verbs courses, each lesson has short answer exercises and you can send me your answers and I will correct them. My advanced English grammar course has writing tasks. So you can send me a little bit of a longer piece of writing and I will correct that. And then my everyday English speaking courses have speaking tasks. So you actually record your voice and send it to me and I will evaluate, correct and critique your speaking. You can click on the link in this video or in the description for more information about these courses. And I look forward to reading your comments using both or both of. Thank you for watching.