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The English language is well known for being the language of

international communication in the modern world – and wherever you
originate from, and whatever native tongue you speak, it’s likely that
learning English will be invaluable in both your personal and
professional lives. Of course, the English language frequently frustrates
new learners with various grammatical hurdles and stumbling blocks.

COMMON ENGLISH GRAMMAR MISTAKES

1) Present and Past Tense

Present tenses in English are used to talk about the present, the future
and to summarise a book, film or play when telling a story in the present
tense.
There are four present tense forms in the English language.
Present Simple: I Work
Present Continuous: I am Working
Present Perfect: I have worked
Present perfect continuous: I have been working
Rules:
You can use the past tense to talk about events or situations that have
finished. You can also use past tense in English to talk about long-
standing events and situations that have already happened in the past.
For example: When I was a young child, I lived in the countryside.
Here are some frequently used examples of verbs in past simple: are,
was, were and went.

2) How To Avoid the Overuse of Adverbs

Adverbs are a varied class of words that work in many different ways to
express many different kinds of meaning.
This can make adverbs a useful word group. You should, however, avoid
overusing these words to describe actions and events.
The most commonly overused adverbs are manner adverbs, this
particular type of adverb modifies the verb.
For example:
Emily Scott shook her head vigorously.
He was in a good mood now, smiling broadly as he grabbed his mug of
tea.

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A common issue in story writing occurs when you rely too heavily
on manner adverbs in your stories.
For example:
The curtain opened quickly, and Ben came slowly into the room. He saw
Emma looking flirtatiously with Jack and walked over to her
aggressively. ‘Why are you here?’ he screamed angrily.
Here is the same extract with the manner verbs highlighted:
The curtain opened quickly, and Ben came slowly into the room. He saw
Emma looking flirtatiously with Jack and walked over to
her aggressively. ‘Why are you here?’ he screamed angrily.
The correct use of adverbs is to show not tell the reader what is
happening in the story.

3) Your/You’re
These words are also troublesome homophones that cause many
problems.
Rules:
“Your” indicates a possession – and defines that something belongs to
you.
“You’re” is short for “You are”.

Here is how not to use these words:

Your beautiful.
Do you know when your going?
Can I have you’re coat?

How to get it right:

You’re beautiful.
Do you know when you’re going?
Can I have your coat?

4) Misplacing Apostrophes
You find apostrophes a little tricky, but once you follow the rules, it will
become easy. Putting an apostrophe in the wrong place is a common
mistake.
Rules:
Apostrophes indicate something belongs to something or is owned by
someone else.
To show that something belongs to one person, place the apostrophe
before the letter ‘S.’
For example – “The girl’s sheep”.

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To show that something belongs to more than one person, you need to
place the apostrophe after the letter ‘S’.
For example – “The girls’ sheep”.

Apostrophes are also used in contracted words such as “Can’t” to

indicate that the ‘O’ is missing from “Cannot.”
Apostrophes should never be used to make a word plural.

5) There / Their /They’re

You may find that these pesky homophones, a little bit of a headache.
Rules:
Use “There” to refer to a place that isn’t here, for example, “Over there.”
Use “Their” to refer to how owns something – showing that something
belongs to that person.
Use “They’re” is a shortened version of “They are”.

Here is how not to use these words:

Their going to be here soon.
We should contact they’re friend.
Can we use there house?
They’re is is an argument that says.

Here is how you use these words correctly:

They’re going to be here soon.
We should contact their friend.
Can we use their house?
There is an argument that says.

6) Confusing similar spellings and words

The English language is quite rich in words which sound similar, or are
spelled similarly, but which have different meanings and need to be
used in different contexts.
Perhaps the most common stumbling block experienced by people who
are learning English as a second language is making sure to use the
right word in the right context, rather than a similar but improper one.
The only way to avoid this issue is to learn which words fit in which
context, on a case-by-case basis.
Here are some words people often mix up:

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“Two,” “too,” and “to”

“Here” and “hear”

“Your” and “you’re”

“Weather” and “whether”

7) Using incomplete comparisons

Many words in the English language imply a comparison – and using

them without “completing the comparison” is a common grammatical
mistake.

Here’s an example of an incomplete comparison:

“It was much hotter today.”

To make this example grammatically correct, you would need to

complete this comparison. Here’s one way you could do that:

“It was much hotter today than yesterday.”

8) Getting adjectives and adverbs confused

Confusing your adjectives and adverbs often results in speech or writing

that comes off as very informal, and even uneducated – and it’s a great
way of infuriating many English teachers.

Often, you’ll notice this issue happening with words that end in “-ly.”

Here are a couple of grammatically incorrect examples:

“It was a real nice day today.”

“I ran quick to the bus stop.”

And here’s how these two examples would look if they were made
grammatically correct:

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“It was a really nice day today.”

“I ran quickly to the bus stop.”

9) Misplacing your modifiers

Language would be pretty dull without words to add a bit of extra

flavour to sentences and descriptive speech.

This is exactly where modifiers come in.

With modifiers, “the tiger” can become “the fearsome tiger,” “the
sunrise,” can become “the beautiful sunrise,” and so on.

The issue is that these modifiers need to be placed very close to the
word they’re modifying, or else the meaning falls apart.

“Misplacing your modifiers” means that you are putting these modifiers
too far away from the terms they are meant to be modifying, in your
sentence.

The result is confusion.

In fact, misplaced modifiers can even completely change the meaning

of your sentence in unintended ways.

Here’s an example of a misplaced modifier:

“He almost walked for the entire day.”

And here’s how this example would read with the modifier in the right
place:

“He walked for almost the entire day.”

In the example with the misplaced modifier, it is not clear if he “crawled”,

“ran slowly”, or simply “thought about walking” for the entire day.

In the correct example, the meaning is clear.

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10) Falling into pronoun disagreement

A common grammatical mistake for English learners is for their

pronouns and nouns to disagree, when dealing with singular and plural
examples.

The straightforward rule is that singular pronouns must go with singular

nouns, and plural pronouns must go with plural nouns.

So, for example:

“Every boy must sign in when they arrive” is incorrect. “Boy” is singular,
and “they” is plural.

The correct phrasing here would be:

“Every boy must sign in when he arrives.”

Grammar and punctuation are essential in the English language

and gaining confidence in how to avoid any grammatical errors is a
valuable part of your learning journey.
You should practice developing your grammar daily; it will help you to
become a confident writer with a firm grasp on the English language
COMMON ENGLISH GRAMMAR MISTAKES

1) Present and Past Tense

Present tenses in English are used to talk about the present, the future
and to summarise a book, film or play when telling a story in the present
tense.
There are four present tense forms in the English language.
Present Simple: I Work
Present Continuous: I am Working
Present Perfect: I have worked
Present perfect continuous: I have been working
Rules:
You can use the past tense to talk about events or situations that have
finished. You can also use past tense in English to talk about long-
standing events and situations that have already happened in the past.
For example: When I was a young child, I lived in the countryside.

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 g

Here are some frequently used examples of verbs in past

simple: are, was, were and went.

2) How To Avoid the Overuse of Adverbs

Adverbs are a varied class of words that work in many different ways to
express many different kinds of meaning.
This can make adverbs a useful word group. You should, however, avoid
overusing these words to describe actions and events.
The most commonly overused adverbs are manner adverbs, this
particular type of adverb modifies the verb.
For example:
Emily Scott shook her head vigorously.
He was in a good mood now, smiling broadly as he grabbed his mug of
tea.
A common issue in story writing occurs when you rely too heavily on
manner adverbs in your stories.
For example:
The curtain opened quickly, and Ben came slowly into the room. He saw
Emma looking flirtatiously with Jack and walked over to her
aggressively. ‘Why are you here?’ he screamed angrily.
Here is the same extract with the manner verbs highlighted:
The curtain opened quickly, and Ben came slowly into the room. He saw
Emma looking flirtatiously with Jack and walked over to
her aggressively. ‘Why are you here?’ he screamed angrily.
The correct use of adverbs is to show not tell the reader what is
happening in the story.

3) Your/You’re
These words are also troublesome homophones that cause many
problems.
Rules:
“Your” indicates a possession – and defines that something belongs to
you.
“You’re” is short for “You are”.

Here is how not to use these words:

Your beautiful.
Do you know when your going?
Can I have you’re coat?

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 h

How to get it right:

You’re beautiful.
Do you know when you’re going?
Can I have your coat?

4) Misplacing Apostrophes
You find apostrophes a little tricky, but once you follow the rules, it will
become easy. Putting an apostrophe in the wrong place is a common
mistake.
Rules:
Apostrophes indicate something belongs to something or is owned by
someone else.
To show that something belongs to one person, place the apostrophe
before the letter ‘S.’
For example – “The girl’s sheep”.

To show that something belongs to more than one person, you need to
place the apostrophe after the letter ‘S’.
For example – “The girls’ sheep”.

Apostrophes are also used in contracted words such as “Can’t” to

indicate that the ‘O’ is missing from “Cannot.”
Apostrophes should never be used to make a word plural.

5) There / Their /They’re

You may find that these pesky homophones, a little bit of a headache.
Rules:
Use “There” to refer to a place that isn’t here, for example, “Over there.”
Use “Their” to refer to how owns something – showing that something
belongs to that person.
Use “They’re” is a shortened version of “They are”.

Here is how not to use these words:

Their going to be here soon.
We should contact they’re friend.
Can we use there house?
They’re is is an argument that says.

Here is how you use these words correctly:

They’re going to be here soon.

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 i

We should contact their friend.

Can we use their house?
There is an argument that says.

6) Confusing similar spellings and words

The English language is quite rich in words which sound similar, or are
spelled similarly, but which have different meanings and need to be
used in different contexts.
Perhaps the most common stumbling block experienced by people who
are learning English as a second language is making sure to use the
right word in the right context, rather than a similar but improper one.
The only way to avoid this issue is to learn which words fit in which
context, on a case-by-case basis.
Here are some words people often mix up:

“Two,” “too,” and “to”

“Here” and “hear”

“Your” and “you’re”

“Weather” and “whether”

7) Using incomplete comparisons

Many words in the English language imply a comparison – and using

them without “completing the comparison” is a common grammatical
mistake.

Here’s an example of an incomplete comparison:

“It was much hotter today.”

To make this example grammatically correct, you would need to

complete this comparison. Here’s one way you could do that:

“It was much hotter today than yesterday.”

8) Getting adjectives and adverbs confused

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 j

Confusing your adjectives and adverbs often results in speech or

writing that comes off as very informal, and even uneducated – and it’s
a great way of infuriating many English teachers.

Often, you’ll notice this issue happening with words that end in “-ly.”

Here are a couple of grammatically incorrect examples:

“It was a real nice day today.”

“I ran quick to the bus stop.”

And here’s how these two examples would look if they were made
grammatically correct:

“It was a really nice day today.”

“I ran quickly to the bus stop.”

9) Misplacing your modifiers

Language would be pretty dull without words to add a bit of extra

flavour to sentences and descriptive speech.

This is exactly where modifiers come in.

With modifiers, “the tiger” can become “the fearsome tiger,” “the
sunrise,” can become “the beautiful sunrise,” and so on.

The issue is that these modifiers need to be placed very close to the
word they’re modifying, or else the meaning falls apart.

“Misplacing your modifiers” means that you are putting these modifiers
too far away from the terms they are meant to be modifying, in your
sentence.

The result is confusion.

In fact, misplaced modifiers can even completely change the meaning

of your sentence in unintended ways.

j
 k

Here’s an example of a misplaced modifier:

“He almost walked for the entire day.”

And here’s how this example would read with the modifier in the right
place:

“He walked for almost the entire day.”

In the example with the misplaced modifier, it is not clear if he “crawled”,

“ran slowly”, or simply “thought about walking” for the entire day.

In the correct example, the meaning is clear.

10) Falling into pronoun disagreement

A common grammatical mistake for English learners is for their

pronouns and nouns to disagree, when dealing with singular and plural
examples.

The straightforward rule is that singular pronouns must go with singular

nouns, and plural pronouns must go with plural nouns.

So, for example:

“Every boy must sign in when they arrive” is incorrect. “Boy” is singular,
and “they” is plural.

The correct phrasing here would be:

“Every boy must sign in when he arrives.”

Grammar and punctuation are essential in the English language

and gaining confidence in how to avoid any grammatical errors is a
valuable part of your learning journey.
You should practice developing your grammar daily; it will help you to
become a confident writer with a firm grasp on the English language