By native language

Common English mistakes by native language

Your first language shapes the mistakes you make in English. Each guide below is written in that language, for its speakers.

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Why your native language matters

Most English mistakes are not random. They are your first language showing through. Linguists call it transfer: when you build an English sentence, your brain reaches for the grammar, sounds and words it already knows, and wherever English works differently, the old pattern leaks in.

That is good news. It means your mistakes are predictable. A Turkish speaker and a Spanish speaker at the same level make different mistakes, and each of them makes the same few mistakes again and again. Once you know your own pattern, a long list of grammar rules turns into a short list of habits to fix.

That is also why the guides on this page are not translations of one another. Each one is written separately, in its own language, about the mistakes that language produces. A German guide that explained Turkish problems would waste a German reader's time.

Guides by language

• Türkçe — Türklerin İngilizcede yaptığı hatalar ve bunları nasıl düzeltirsin
  Türklerin İngilizcede yaptığı hatalar: artikel, he/she, present perfect, /θ/ ve /w/ sesleri, yanlış dostlar ve 4 haftalık düzeltme planı.
• Deutsch — Typische Englischfehler, die Deutsche machen – und wie du sie abstellst
  Typische Englischfehler, die Deutsche machen: Grammatik, Aussprache, falsche Freunde und Stil – mit Beispielen und 4-Wochen-Plan.
• Español — Errores comunes en inglés de los hispanohablantes: por qué los cometes y cómo corregirlos
  Guía práctica de los errores comunes en inglés de los hispanohablantes: gramática, pronunciación, falsos amigos y un plan de 4 semanas para corregirlos.
• Português — Erros comuns de brasileiros no inglês e como corrigir cada um
  Guia completo dos erros comuns de brasileiros no inglês: gramática, pronúncia, falsos cognatos e um plano de 4 semanas para corrigir cada um deles.

One typical mistake per language

Each guide covers six to eight grammar patterns, five or six sounds, a table of false friends and a four-week practice plan. Here is one example from each, to show how different the problems are:

Five kinds of transfer

Almost every mistake in the guides falls into one of five groups. Knowing the group helps even before you open your own guide.

1. Words your language does not have

If your language has no articles, a and the feel like decoration and disappear under pressure. If it has no separate word for "is" in the present tense, she teacher sounds complete. The fix is not more rules but more exposure: read and listen with attention on these small words until their absence starts to sound wrong.

2. Time expressed differently

English splits the past in two: the simple past for finished time (I saw him yesterday) and the present perfect for time that reaches the present (I have lived here since 2019). Many languages use one form for both, or use the present tense with "since". Learn two signals: a finished time word means simple past; since and for with an ongoing situation mean present perfect.

3. Word order carried over

Languages that put the verb at the end, or move it in subordinate clauses, push English verbs into the wrong place: I know that he tomorrow comes. English keeps subject and verb together, early. Short sentences help: the shorter the sentence, the less room there is for the old order.

4. Sounds that do not exist in your language

Your ear files English sounds under the nearest sound you already have. That is why think becomes tink or sink, wine becomes vine, and ship and sheep sound the same. Minimal pairs — two words that differ by one sound — are the fastest way to train the difference, first by listening, then by saying them aloud.

5. False friends

Words that look familiar are the most dangerous ones, because you never think to check them. Eventually does not mean "possibly", actually does not mean "currently", and sympathetic is not "likeable". Each guide lists the false friends that trap speakers of that language specifically.

How to use your guide

1. Read it once, fast. Mark the mistakes you recognise in yourself. Most people find three or four that really matter.
2. Work on one pattern a week. Each guide ends with a four-week plan of 10-20 minutes a day. Short daily practice turns into habit more easily than long weekly sessions.
3. Test yourself in context. Write a short paragraph or speak for a minute, then check it for your marked mistakes only. Fixing four known patterns does more than chasing every error at once.

If you do not know your level yet, start with the free English level test. For grammar practice at your level, use the grammar exercises.

Practising in your own language

TalkSmart's web app and grammar explanations are available in 14 languages. When you write in English, the feedback explains your mistakes in your native language while the corrected sentences stay in English — so the patterns from your guide get pointed out in words you fully understand. Grammar, word game, reading, writing and listening work in the browser with a free account; speaking practice with an AI partner is in the iOS app.

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