I should call this part 1, but I don’t really want to make that commitment. There are many grammar mistakes, and I don’t want to single out any that are particularly worse or bigger, or more common than others. I’m limiting myself to three here because you have to draw the line somewhere, and I just chose that one. If this proves to be popular, I can be talked into doing another, though.
These three are the ones that I come across the most often and crossing the most L1 (first language) students. What I mean by that is, all my students are studying English, but if one student’s L1 is Spanish, he’s going to have different problems from someone whose L1 is, say, Polish.
These grammar issues are more common in some languages than in others, but I’ve found them to be chronic issues all over the world, regardless of the L1. A second issue is that making these grammar mistakes is very likely to make the speaker’s message difficult to understand. While a lot of people with experience crossing cultures and languages might confidently say, “Well, I can tell when someone doesn’t understand me,” I want to point out that not being understood is not that big of a problem. The problem is when your listeners understand you perfectly…but they’re wrong. That can be a very big problem indeed.
So! Let’s get started.
Mistake 1. Not using verb tenses
This one will always surprise me no end, even after almost 30 years of teaching. If you tell me about your weekend in our Monday morning lesson, doesn’t it seem obvious that you should use the past tense? I mean, Monday is the day after the weekend. I’m clearly not asking about next weekend, am I? The past tense is the first tense that we teach once the basic verbs are covered.
* Why is this a problem?
Because, for one thing, you remember the basic verbs, but past forms in English are confusing. Sure, regular verbs just end with -ed in the past form, but many – too many – verbs in English are not regular. Go / went / gone, do / did / done, etc. That’s confusing. More importantly, too many teachers focus on GRAMMAR or VOCABULARY or SENTENCE STRUCTURE rather than, you know, speaking bloody English. So, when I’m focusing on a student or class on free speaking, the grammar goes right out of their heads, because previous teachers have never asked or expected students to use grammar in a conversation. Some teachers may not even have conversations with their students.
* How can you fix this?
First off, just use the regular form (“yesterday I goed…). Unless you know for sure what the past form is, just to get in the habit of using the correct tense. In the meantime, google “English irregular verbs” and download a chart to study. But also…well, we have good news and bad news here, and the same good news/bad news will be carried over to every tip in this article. The good news is you already know this stuff. The bad news? You’ve already allowed this to become a habit. Applying new information isn’t so hard. Breaking a habit is INSANELY hard. What can you do? First, you need a teacher, tutor, or language partner who will not go along with, “Oh, I know what you mean.” You need someone to help you break this habit. That person can’t do it for you though, unfortunately. YOU have to do the work. Think about your grammar and vocabulary while you’re speaking casually. It’s not easy, at least not at first. The thing is, the more you do this, the more natural it becomes. Have you ever learned to play a musical instrument? If so, you know what I mean. No? Not a musician? OK, can you drive? Ride a bicycle? Use a computer? Try to take your memory back to when you were first learning to do those things. You couldn’t do it. There were too many different things to concentrate on. But eventually (and faster than you originally thought), you COULD do these things, and easily.
So why does improving your English seem to take so much longer than learning to drive? Because you drive all the time. Maybe several times a day, or at least several times a week. I have students ask me, “Why don’t I seem to be making any progress?” And I tell them the truth – “I told you this when we started. If our lessons are the only time you speak English, and we only have one lesson for one hour a week, it will take you forever to improve, if you ever do at all. Because it takes time and practice to break a habit. One hour per week simply isn’t going to help.” That’s the honest, painful truth. If you want to learn a language, you have to spend time with that language, and above all, SPEAK that language.
How to get more speaking practice isn’t the purview of this article, but I already have an earlier video that you can find here to help with that problem.
Mistake 2. Using the wrong pronouns
First, pronouns are words that represent nouns. Nouns are words that represent things in the real world; pronouns are words that represent those nouns. Pronouns include words like I, she, they, us, this, that, it, and so on. So, in the sentence:
Gregor is my teacher. He’s really good!
“Gregor” and “teacher” are nouns, and “he” is a pronoun. I have a lot of students from many different first languages who screw this up, and it’s SUPER confusing when they do.
For example, you can be talking about your mother:
“My mother was such a great cook. Her dinners were always delicious, but he was best at making desserts!”
Uhh…what? Who is “he”?? This is a simplistic example, but in a longer conversation, it can be a pretty serious problem.
Another example:
(my holding up a pen) What is this?
(My student) This is a pen.
Uh…no. “What’s this?” “It’s a pen.” NOT “this”. I’ve already used “this”. In fact, the students’ answer is doubly wrong. For one thing, “this” is only correct from the speaker’s point of view. “This” unnamed thing is in my hand. But from the student’s point of view, it’s still in my hand, not the students’. So, to the student, it’s “that”, not “this”. “This” is right here, with the person speaking. To the listener (who is now speaking an answer), it’s not “this”, it’s “that”. From the student’s point of view, it’s still with ME, not the student.
But that’s only the first issue. I said it’s doubly wrong. The second problem is that the answer is neither “this is” nor “that is,” the answer is “It’s a pen.” Because “this” and “that” are pronouns used to introduce a thing. Once the thing is introduced, everyone in the conversation knows what they’re talking about. So, the thing becomes “it”.
What’s this?
It’s a pen.
And that brings me to one more very common problem:
What are these?
It’s pens.
OR
It are pens.
Nope. The plural form of “I” is “we”. The plural form of “he”, “she”, or “it” is “they”. For some reason, a lot of my students aren’t comfortable using “they” for things. They think that “they” is only for people. I don’t know why. “They” can be used – in fact, in many cases, must be used – for things.
Some of you already know this, and it’s a matter of breaking a bad habit. For some of you, this may be new information. In either case, the only way to improve this is PRACTICE.
Mistake 3. Misuse Or Non-Use of Articles
This problem is huge, and it’s widespread. Some languages don’t have articles at all. Some have them, but they’re used in a very different way.
Well, this can be an entire course by itself. It’s impossible to give comprehensive rules for this in one blog post, but here are the basics:
What’s this?
It’s pen.
NOPE:
It’s a pen.
This is Penn:
His name is Penn Jillette. If you don’t use a singular article with a singular noun, you’re giving a name.
Basically – and there are some exceptions to this – singular nouns require “a” or “an”. (I want an apple.) But this only works with singular nouns. “A” and “an” literally mean “one”. If the word is plural (more than one) or uncountable (like milk, gold, etc.), you can’t use “a” because you are literally counting to one.
As for “the”, this is necessary for nouns – singular, plural, or uncountable – when it’s clear which noun we are talking about:
I have two pets, a cat and a dog. The cat is male, and the dog is female. Again, you need “the” because in English, without an article, you are naming something or someone. I literally have a friend called Cat, and Dog is a common nickname for men, among friends.
OK, those are three big grammatical mistakes that English learners make. You can’t just fix these problems with this blog post alone! You need professional help. There is a lot of practice, plus some trustworthy grammar sources, and I strongly recommend an experienced, qualified, and knowledgeable teacher or tutor to help. It doesn’t have to be me, but if you’re reading this, you know where to find me!
