Common mistakes when learning English
You study the language, memorize new vocabulary, learn grammar rules, and still make mistakes? That’s normal. Do you ever make mistakes in your native language? Sure! Do mistakes occur when learning a foreign language? Of course, they do!
What are the most common mistakes students make when learning English, and what to do about them?
If you’re starting learning English, avoiding mistakes is practically impossible – you are only beginning to gain experience and understand the peculiarities of a completely different language. Ahead, there will be many more basic grammar rules and exceptions, as well as new vocabulary, specifics of its usage, pronunciation, and spelling.
In general, in the context of language knowledge, all mistakes can be divided into grammar, vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation.
Grammar mistakes occur when a student does not know grammar rules or tries to construct a phrase by analogy with their native language. These include mistakes related to:
- Sentence structure: Unlike some other languages, in English, the word order in affirmative and negative sentences is fixed. That is, words must appear in a direct order – subject, predicate, and other parts of the sentence, e.g., I read an interesting book. (subject + predicate + objects).
- Tense usage. English has the three tenses – Present, Past, and Future – but also aspects: Simple, Continuous, Perfect, and Perfect Continuous. Often, due to lack of experience and practice, or not understanding the nuances of usage, students confuse Past Simple and Present Perfect, get lost when choosing the right tense for future actions or events (Present Continuous, will, to be going to, Present Simple, etc.), and so on.
- Absence of equivalents in the native language. For example, articles: definite or indefinite? How to use them correctly? When? Why? Perfect tenses also cause difficulties. In addition, there are gerunds, perfect infinitives, etc.
- Attempts to apply native language rules to a foreign one.
Examples of such mistakes:
❌ I am agree. → ✅ I agree.
❌ I late. → ✅ I am late.
❌ Rain goes. → ✅ It rains.
❌ It depends from… → ✅ It depends on…
Vocabulary mistakes happen when words are used incorrectly or when students neglect collocations. The most common types of mistakes are:
- False friends: e.g., magazine, actually, data, intelligent, etc.
- Calques from the mother tongue: make a photo instead of take a photo.
- Incorrect use of prepositions: discuss about instead of discuss something.
- Overuse of the same words: very big → huge; very good → excellent. Or overusing universal verbs (do, make, get) instead of more precise ones (e.g., make dinner vs cook). Note that it’s perfectly fine to say very big or make dinner, but enriching vocabulary is a necessity.
- Confusing near-synonyms: say vs tell, speak vs talk, fun (noun) vs funny (adjective), remember vs remind, opportunity vs possibility, etc..
- Collocation mistakes: strong rain instead of heavy rain; do a mistake instead of make a mistake; a high temperature but a tall man.
- Ignoring context and style. For example, a neutral word friend, in informal contexts, often becomes pal, mate, buddy, dude, but in formal business settings, colleague or associate is more appropriate.
Spelling mistakes – incorrectly written words – with wrong letter order, unnecessary doubling, or missing letters: taugh instead of tough, acommodation instead of accommodation, wonderfull instead of wonderful, etc..
It’s also worth noting the difference between American and British spelling: center vs centre, favorite vs favourite, color vs colour.
Phonetic mistakes – incorrect pronunciation of words.
- Vowels and consonants: Some English sounds are not typical for other languages, so pronunciation needs attention. Among the hardest are th, the variability of ch, the specific pronunciation of r, p, t, and the different sounds of c and g ([s]/[k] and [dʒ]/[g]), as well as vowel shifts depending on the position in words.
(We examine pronunciation features in detail in our recent material:https://bubbles.center/en/rules-of-reading-in-english/ . Highly recommended!)
- Word stress. Stress in English is not fixed and can fall on any syllable. For example, present (noun/adjective) is /ˈprez.ənt/, but to present (verb) is /prɪˈzent/.
Regular practice, listening, and working on pronunciation quality help overcome these mistakes.
Since we are talking about mistakes, let’s explain why teachers don’t always correct them immediately during speaking. A fluent speaker without teaching experience might think the teacher is “ignoring” errors and have some doubts concerning their competence. In reality, an experienced teacher knows about developmental errors and accepts them.
Developmental errors happen due to a lack of knowledge at a certain stage. For instance, a beginner student practicing Present Simple might say: For breakfast, I usually have 2 eggs and many cheese. “Cheese” is uncountable, so much should be used, not many. But since the student hasn’t yet learned this rule, it’s acceptable. The Present Simple usage is correct, and that’s what matters at this stage. The teacher may or may not correct many cheese, but sometimes avoiding correction prevents confusion, overload, or frustration.
Finally, let’s say it once again: the only person who doesn’t make mistakes is the one who does nothing. Mistakes are a natural part of learning and a growth opportunity. Treat them as stepping stones – study and practice English with enjoyment!
Read also:
- Rules of reading in English
- How to quickly learn and memorize English words
- Selection of online English dictionaries and their useful features
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