Common English Mistakes, and How to Fix Them

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If you speak English as a second language, you’re going to make mistakes. Hell, even native speakers do! Mistakes are a natural part of any learning process, the problem is when they go uncorrected and become ingrained in your speech. While it can feel like an overwhelming challenge to fix all of them, it’s possible to make progress with practice and dedication.

Here at My English Coaches, we’ve compiled a list of some of the most typical mistakes along with what makes them so common, difficult, or downright annoying. Obviously, mistakes are personal, and while some generalizations can be made, it’s important to remember that we’re all different. What bothers one person, might not even register to another! Use this exercise as a guide to help you identify your own mistakes and determine which ones you want to focus on correcting. 

Let’s get started:

Most Common Mistakes: First up, let’s take a look at the most common mistakes made by English language learners. Not everyone makes the same mistakes; your native language, the way you learned English, and your level all factor into the errors you make. That being said, there are some English language problems that seem to be difficult for just about everyone. What are they? See if you can identify them in the following sentences (answers at the end of this article)

  1. When I was student, I loved learning English.

  2. Every day, Stephan eat sausage rolls for breakfast.

  3. Yesterday, I go to the store to buy milk.

  4. Could I get a hot choc-o-late please?

  5. English is more easy than Hungarian.

  6. I falled off my bicycle and broke my arm when I was a child.

  7. Her decision depends of the situation.

  8. The name of my nephew is Ben.

Most Annoying: While native speakers are relatively tolerant of mistakes (which is probably why they never correct you when you make them), well-educated or grammar conscious native English speakers often find certain mistakes more annoying than others. These tend to be the little errors that don’t create problems of communication during spoken conversations, but show up constantly in writing. The mistakes mentioned above typically fall under this category, but here are some others that even native speakers make, can you spot them? (Answers at the end of this article)

  1. You’re dog is so cute! Can I pet him?

  2. I wonder if there friends are coming too.

  3. Bill and me had a great time.

  4. I ate alot of cake at the party.

But again, most native speakers don’t really mind. It’s just the so called “grammar police” and internet trolls who attempt to win arguments by pointing out your incorrect grammar who really care.

Most Difficult: Interestingly enough, this next category has two very opposite sides. The mistakes that are the most difficult to correct tend to be the things that are either very similar in your native language or don’t exist at all. Naturally, if a particular tense, grammatical element, or sentence structure doesn’t exist in your language, it can be very hard to understand how to use it correctly. For example, the present perfect tense in English doesn’t exists in most languages, so the concept of a tense that connects the past to the present is very foreign to many non-native speakers. Thus, it takes a lot of studying, practice, and error correction to get it right.

On the other hand, things that are very similar to your own language can also become big problems when you translate or have to speak quickly. For example, many languages have prepositions that are similar to those used in English, often denoting the same concepts of on, in or at. This, however, gives speakers a false sense of familiarity: “Since ‘on’ means the same thing in my language for X, surely it must be used the same way for Y.” Often, these mistakes are made very early on at a beginner level as learners translate directly from their own language. Without constant correction, the mistake perpetuates itself and becomes as natural as in your own language, which makes it a very stubborn habit to break.

Most Confusing: We’re not talking about how confusing it is to learn the grammar (let’s face it, that would be half of English!), here we’re talking about mistakes that have the potential to create the most confusion when you make them. Native speakers might misinterpret what you said, or won’t be able to understand you entirely when you make these particular errors! Look at a typical example below:

"I stopped to smoke when I was pregnant." (Explanation at the end of this article)

However, the most confusing award definitely goes to pronunciation. You can speak English with perfect grammar, but if you have a thick accent, you can bet you’ll be asked to repeat yourself a lot. Typical examples of pronunciation confusion can be seen when pronouncing the words here:

  1. My wife is 16. My wife is 60.
  2. I’m very hungry. I’m very angry.
  3. I sat on the grass. I sat on the glass.

Other confusing mistakes can be found in the following areas:

  • Phrasal Verbs: Phrasal verbs are created when adding a preposition after a verb changes the verb’s meaning. The prepositions usually have no grammatical sense whatsoever, but you can’t just exchange them whenever you want. Compare the two sentences below. What’s the difference? (Explanation at the end of this article)

  1. “I have to pick up my kids every afternoon.”
  2. “I have to pick on my kids every afternoon.”

  • Present Perfect vs Past Simple Tenses: While using the present instead of the past simple can usually be understood in context, mixing up your perfect and past simple tenses can lead to misunderstanding:

  1. “I didn’t do my homework.” (and I’m not going to)
  2. “I haven’t done my homework.” (but I probably will later)

  • False Friends: Also known as “false cognates,” these are words that exist both in your own language and in English. Unfortunately, their meanings have changed slightly (or more than slightly!) over the years. Take a look at some false friends from particular languages:

  1. Spanish: The “librería” in Spanish is where you buy books. In English, a library is where you rent them.
  2. French: The word “sensible” in French means sensitive. In English, it means reasonable.
  3. British English: In the UK, “chips” are what you eat with hamburgers. In America, we call these french fries. Don’t get us started on the word ‘pants’ either...

Most Serious: This is a subcategory of confusing mistakes that goes from just creating confusion to being rude, insulting, or extremely embarrassing. Many of these errors will be vulgar or sexual in nature. Some of the most well known examples are listed below, have you made them before?

  1. Long vs short ‘e’ sounds: ‘bitch’ vs. ‘beach’, ‘shit’ vs. ‘sheet’
  2. Mispronounced vowels: ‘focus’ vs. ‘fuck us’
  3. Misused prepositions in phrasal verbs: ‘to get on with someone’ (have a good relationship) vs. ‘get off with someone’ (have an orgasm)

As we saw before, false friends can create a lot of confusion. They can also create some of the most seriously embarrassing mistakes. Take a look at some of our favorites:

  1. Spanish: The word “constipado” in Spanish means to have a cold. In English, constipated means you’re having difficulties going to the bathroom.
  2. French: The word “preservatif” in French means condom. In English,  preservatives are common additives in food and other goods to prevent decay.
  3. British English: Again, in the UK, a “rubber” means eraser. In the US, it’s slang for condom.

While there are a lot of mistakes here, you probably don't make all of them. Even if you do, it's possible to correct them yourself with a little bit of time and motivation. Once you've identified what your own common mistakes are, you're one step closer to correcting them and speaking like a native!

Answers:

Most Common Mistakes:

  1. When I was a student, I loved learning English (articles)

  2. Every day, Stephan eats sausage rolls for breakfast (3rd person 's')

  3. Yesterday, I went to the store to buy milk (past simple)

  4. Could I get a hot choc'late please? (reduced vowel pronunciation)

  5. English is easier than Hungarian (comparatives)

  6. I fell off my bicycle and broke my arm when I was a child (irregular past tense)

  7. Her decision depends on the situation (prepositions)

  8. My nephew's name is Ben (genitive)

Most Annoying Mistakes:

  1. Your dog is so cute! Can I pet him?

  2. I wonder if their friends are coming too.

  3. Bill and I had a great time.

  4. I ate a lot of cake at the party.

Most Confusing:

"I stopped smoking" means you quit, while "Istopped to smoke" means you stopped another action so that you could smoke. It literally means "While I was pregnant, I stopped doing things so that I could smoke."

Phrasal Verbs:

"Pick up” means collect, whereas "pick on" means insult, make fun of, or tease.