15 Common Mistakes in English You Can Easily Avoid Making

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Now youve done it.

You made an English mistake, and youre feeling so embarrassed!

Your face feels hot and youd like to disappear.

Youd like to catch the next airplane to your home country.

Thats okay. Embarrassment is universal, and everyone makes mistakes when learning a new language. Often,
when youre learning a new language, embarrassment occurs as the result of a spoken or written error.

But you need to make mistakes in order to learn better !

Why You Should Learn About Common English Mistakes

Have you ever made a mistake while speaking in English? Perhaps you have had some awkward English language
situations.

For example, after English class you want to give your teacher a compliment, so you say, You teach English good.

It took quite a bit of courage to speak with your teacher directly.

She says, You think I teach English well? Thank you! Ah, you forgot that you should not use good to describe a
verb. Instead you should use well to describe a verb. English is so tricky. Instead of feeling pride in your attempt to
speakwhich is what you should always feelyou begin to feel ashamed of your grammatical mistake.

Heres another example. Perhaps a good English-speaking friend of yours is moving away to another town or
another country. To say goodbye, you tell them, I will always forget you. He begins to laugh, and says, I will never
forget you either.

Later, you realize that you mixed up the words forget and always, and so the meaning of your well-rehearsed
farewell speech makes you feel foolish.

Many English students seem obsessed with perfecting their language learning, and become frustrated when they
make errors and spend hours trying to correct those errors. Shame and embarrassment bother every one of us from
time to time.

However, while you might try to prepare for embarrassing moments, you can never fully prevent them. With a little
bit of skill, those uncomfortable moments can turn into opportunities for learning, humor and maybe even friendship.

It might be a relief for some to learn that even native speakers make mistakes. So before we make fun of non-
native English speakers, its important to realize that native speakers make mistakes all the time.

For example, on English-language TV programs, characters often say things like, This is your guys cat, right?
Actually, that sentence is supposed to be, This cat belongs to you guys, right?

Television writers might be trying to match the level of correct English grammar spoken in the real world, but they
end up creating more errors than they know.

After all, many English language learners are watching TV to learn how to improve their
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grammar. Misunderstandings and confusions occur when English mistakes prevent clear communication. Many of
these problems can exist in both written and spoken English.

Native English speakers also replace good with well all the time, so if youve ever done it, youre definitely not the
only one!

What follows are the top 15 English mistakes that English language learners make, and how you can avoid making
those same errors.

Each example has a common English mistake. See if you can figure out what the mistake is, and then read the tip
for more information.

Grammar Mistakes

1. Its or Its

Example Mistake: The spider spun its web. Its a very beautiful web.

Tip: Its, without an apostrophe, is the possessive version of a pronoun. In the above example, we should use the
possessive its to talk about the spiders web, because the web belongs to the spider.

Its, with an apostrophe, is a contraction of it is or it has. When talking about the beauty of the web, were
saying that it is a very beautiful web. Therefore, we should use the contraction its instead of its.

So, if youre not sure which spelling to useits or itstry adding it is or it has to the sentence. If neither of
those phrases works, then its is the word youre looking for. For example, the spider spun it is web and the spider
spun it has web do not make any sense. Thats why you should say the spider spun its web.

Correction: The spider spun its web. Its a very beautiful web.

2. Subject-verb Agreement

Example Mistake: The list of items are on the desk.

Tip: In the above sentence, the list of items is one singular list. Therefore, we should not use are. We should use
is.

Correction: The list of items is on the desk.

3. Gone or Went

Example Mistake: She had already went to the bathroom before they got in the car.

Tip: If you arent sure whether to use gone or went, remember that gone always needs an auxiliary verb before
it. Auxiliary verbs include: has, have, had, is, am, are, was, were, be .

Went cant have an auxiliary verb before it.

In the sentence above, we used went even though the auxiliary verb had is also present. Since the word had is
there, we should use gone instead of went.

Correction: She had already gone to the bathroom before they got in the car.

4. Watch, Look, See

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Example Mistake: Stop watching my private journal. / I look at the snow falling. / I dont play tennis, but I look at
them playing every day.

Tip: See, look and watch are often confused in meaning. However, they should be used in different situations.
The difference between the three verbs can be explained in the following way:

Look to look at something directly.

See to see something that comes into our sight that we werent looking for.
Watch to look at something carefully, usually at something thats moving.

So, we can see something even if we dont want to, but we can only look at something on purpose.

Correction: Stop looking at my private journal. / I watch the snow falling. / I dont play tennis, but I see
them playing every day.

5. Pronoun Misplacement

Example Mistake: Take a deep breath through your nose and hold it.

Tip: The singular pronoun in the sentence should stand in for nouns, but here its unclear which noun its standing
in for. The singular noun closest to the word it is nose, so it seems that hold it means to hold your nose. Instead,
we want someone to hold their breathnot their nose.

When we use pronouns properly, we must easily understand which single noun the pronoun stands for. Make sure to
be very clear. If its unclear, dont use the pronoun or change the sentence!

Correction: Take a breath through your nose and hold your breath.

Speaking Mistakes

6. Future Tense

Example Mistake: I will be going to the dance party yesterday.

Tip: The future tense is being used to talk about the wrong time in the sentence above, since the sentence is talking
about something that happened in the past, yesterday. You should only use the future tense when something has not
happened yet, but its going to happen in the future.

Correction: I will be going to the dance party tomorrow.

7. Literally or Figuratively

Example Mistake: Im literally melting because its so hot. / Figuratively speaking, its 100 degrees out here.

Tip: This is a mistake because literally means actually or really, and figuratively means not real. Figuratively
is used to exaggerate, or enlarge the meaning of something.

Correction: Figuratively speaking, Im melting because its so hot. / Its literally 100 degrees out here.

8. Loan or Borrow

Example Mistake: Can you borrow me that book? You can loan me my notes.

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Tip: The listener may be confused since loan means to give and borrow means to take. Its simple
memorization thats required to get the correct meaning.

For example, borrow me that book means take me that book in the above example. Where do you want the
listener to take the book? That isnt what you meant to say!

Instead, you would like to use the book, so you want someone to give it to you.

Correction: Can you loan me that book? You can borrow my notes.

9. Casual or Formal

Example Mistake: (At job interview) Hey, whats up?

Tip: Know your audience! Casual talk is for friends, not your boss. This isnt formal, its slang. It can even be
considered inappropriate or rude. To speak more formally in English, you should avoid contractions (say how is
instead of hows) and try to be more polite.

Correction: Hello, how is everything going?

10. Since or For

Example Mistake: I have known him for always. I saw him since last year.

Tip: You use for if you dont have to calculate the period of time, because the amount of time is indicated in the
sentence already. You use since if you have to calculate the period of time, because you only have the starting
point.

Correction: I have lived here for two months. (You dont have to calculate, you know the period is two months. ) / I
have lived here since 1975. (You have to calculate now. If you came in 1975the starting pointand now its
2016.)

Writing Mistakes

11. Academic English or Casual Texting Language

Example Mistake: (In an academic paper) If u want to know my opinion tho, IDK who should be president.

Tip: Try to break the habit of using text language to communicate your ideas. Write everything out completely. This
text style is inappropriate language to use for academic purposes. Slang words like IDK (which stands for I dont
know) are good for conversation and texting only.

Correction: If you want to know my opinion, I do not know who should be president.

12. Punctuation

Example Mistake: (in a business letter) Dear Mrs. Jones: I am still interested in the job and want to thank you for
the interview! I hope you will consider me for the following programs, A, B and C.

Tip: Be sure you understand the purpose for your punctuation.

In the example above, when you address Mrs. Jones, you should only include a comma.

Colons (:) are used when you want to make a list of something, and usually not when youre addressing someone.
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The exclamation point may be viewed as unprofessional. Often, theyre used to illustrate strong emotion, which is
something a potential employer might not care for.

Correction: Dear Mrs. Jones, I am still interested in the job, and I wanted to thank you for the interview. I hope you
will consider me for the following programs: A, B and C.

13. Run-on Sentences

Example Mistake: I am a woman and I am a good mother and I am an office worker.

Tip: If you cant say it in one breath, you shouldnt write it like that either. A run-on is a sentence in which two or
more independent clauses (i.e., complete sentences) are joined without appropriate punctuation. The example is
missing a period after woman, and the example should contain two separate sentences.

Correction: I am a woman. I am a good mother and an office worker.

14. Apostrophes

Example Mistake: A womans hat was left on the bus. / Two dogs use the dish. It is the dogss dish.

Tip: Apostrophes indicate that a noun owns something. There are no apostrophes in the first sentence, even though
youre talking about the hat which is owned by the woman.

In the second sentence, there is more than one dog, but the apostrophe is not used correctly. Singular nouns will
always add s when youre indicating possession, even if the noun ends with s. Plural nouns that do not end in s
also take an s. However, plural nouns that end with s have an apostrophe added after the s.

Correction: A woman s hat was left on the bus. / Two dogs use the dish. It is the dogs dish.

15. Capitalization

Example Mistake: one rainy day, i saw sarah at Union street library.

Tip: In this example, Union is the only item that has been capitalized when there should be more.

In terms of capitalization, ask yourself three questions:

Is this the first letter in a sentence? If the answer is yes, then you should capitalize that word. In this
sentence, the first word is one, so one should be capitalized.

Is this the pronoun I? If yes, capitalize. I should always be capitalized.

Am I using a name that someone gave to this thing or person? If yes, capitalize. Sarah should be
capitalized, and Union Street Library should be completely capitalized because its the given name of a
location.

Correction: One rainy day, I saw Sarah at Union Street Library.

Some people think that becoming fluent in another language means talking fast and using big, fancy
words. However, fluency is easy to achieve by simply talking.

If you practice speaking, you will be able to speak faster and with more confidence. You also want to make sure you
also have good comprehension as well. Its much better to be slow and correct than be fast and make tons of
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mistakes.

Why? If youre slow and correct, you can easily improve the way in which you speak, read or write. But first youve
got to practice. Eventually, youll feel like you can speak or write anything!

If you follow the above rules and still make a lot of mistakes when speaking, you should probably switch to writing for
a while. Its easier to produce correct sentences when writing because you can use the dictionary and the Internet to
double check your common mistakes. You dont even have to worry about good pronunciation.

Just take a deep breath and tell yourself that failure is just a part of the learning process. Take responsibility for your
mistakes, but dont make yourself crazy.

Enjoy yourself and have fun as you learn! Most importantly, admire your strengths and others will too.

Take the lessons youve learned and move forward.

When you turn each failure into a learning opportunity, youll grow stronger and more capable with each mistake you
make.

Michelle Suzanne Snyder is a freelance writer. She has taught ESL and lived in three different countries. She
believes the benefits of language learning are endless.

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