You've been learning English for years. You can hold a conversation, follow a film without subtitles, and navigate a meeting in English without breaking a sweat. But somewhere in the background, a handful of common English grammar mistakes keep sneaking into your writing and speaking — and they're quietly undermining how professional you sound.
The tricky part? Most of these mistakes feel right. They're patterns that get reinforced through repetition, and unless someone specifically points them out, they stick around for years. Let's fix that.
Mixing Up Present Perfect and Past Simple
This is probably the single most common English grammar mistake for learners at intermediate level and above. The difference between "I've worked here for five years" and "I worked here for five years" isn't just grammatical — it changes the meaning entirely. The first means you still work there. The second means you don't.
The rule is simpler than most textbooks make it sound: if the time period is finished, use past simple. If it's still connected to now — still happening, or the exact time doesn't matter — use present perfect. "I've visited Berlin" (at some point in my life, and that life is still going). "I visited Berlin last March" (specific finished time).
Where people get stuck is with words like "already," "yet," and "just." These almost always signal present perfect in British English. "Have you finished yet?" not "Did you finish yet?" — though you'll hear both in American English, which doesn't help matters.
Using the Wrong Preposition After Adjectives and Verbs
Prepositions in English are, frankly, a nightmare. There's no logical system behind why we say "interested in" but "excited about," or "depend on" but "listen to." You can't reason your way through them — you just have to learn the combinations.
The most common offenders include "discuss about" (it's just "discuss"), "explain me" (it's "explain to me"), and "arrive to" (it's "arrive at" or "arrive in"). These don't cause misunderstandings, but they do mark your English as non-native in a way that's easy to fix.
The best approach isn't memorising a list. It's noticing. When you read something well-written in English, pay attention to which prepositions follow which words. Write them down together as a unit: not "depend" plus "on" as two separate things, but "depend on" as one chunk. That's how native speakers store them, and it's how they'll stick in your memory too.
Confusing "Make" and "Do"
"Make a decision" but "do your homework." "Make a mistake" but "do business." There's no rule here that covers every case — it's one of those areas where English is genuinely annoying. But there are patterns worth knowing.
"Make" tends to go with creating or producing something: make dinner, make a plan, make progress. "Do" tends to go with tasks or activities: do the washing up, do a course, do exercise. Neither pattern is watertight, but they'll get you right most of the time.
If you catch yourself hesitating between the two mid-sentence, that's actually a good sign. It means you're aware of the problem. With enough exposure, the right pairing will start to sound natural — and the wrong one will feel off before you even finish saying it.
Getting Word Order Wrong in Questions
This one tends to crop up more in speaking than in writing, especially when you're thinking quickly. "Where you are going?" instead of "Where are you going?" Or the classic embedded question trap: "Can you tell me where is the station?" when it should be "Can you tell me where the station is?"
The rule for embedded questions catches out even advanced learners. When a question is inside another sentence, the word order flips back to normal statement order. "I don't know what time it is" — not "what time is it." Once you hear the difference, it's hard to unhear it.
Overusing "Very" When Stronger Words Exist
This isn't a grammar mistake in the traditional sense, but it's a habit that weakens your English. Saying something is "very good" when you could say "excellent," or "very tired" when "exhausted" is right there, makes your English sound flat and repetitive.
English has an enormous vocabulary precisely because it absorbed words from Latin, French, Norse, and dozens of other languages. Take advantage of that. "Very big" becomes "enormous." "Very small" becomes "tiny." "Very important" becomes "crucial." Your writing and speaking will sound sharper immediately.
The thing about common English grammar mistakes is that they're not signs of failure — they're signs of progress. You only make these errors because you're actually using the language. The difference between someone who stays at the same level for years and someone who keeps improving is simple: the second person notices their patterns and works on them deliberately.
If you'd like help identifying your own blind spots, that's exactly the kind of thing we focus on at Kensington English. Our small-group classes give you space to practise, make mistakes, and get real feedback from experienced teachers. Take a look at our courses to see what we offer.
Getting Articles Wrong: A, An and The
Articles are among the most common English grammar mistakes for learners whose first language doesn't use them — and that's a huge number of languages, from Russian and Polish to Turkish, Japanese and Chinese. The errors are rarely serious enough to block understanding, but they're persistent, and they mark your English as non-native more reliably than almost anything else.
The core logic is simpler than it feels. Use a or an when something is new to the conversation or could be any one of many ("I saw a dog"). Use the when both you and the listener already know which one you mean ("the dog next door"). And use no article at all when you're talking about something in general using a plural or uncountable noun ("dogs are loyal", "water is essential") — adding "the" there ("the dogs are loyal") changes the meaning to a specific group.
A few patterns that catch learners out:
- Choose a or an by sound, not spelling: an hour (silent h), but a university (it starts with a "yoo" sound).
- Most countries take no article (I live in France), but a few do — the UK, the United States, the Netherlands.
- We say "go to school" or "in hospital" when we mean the purpose, but "go to the school" when we mean the building itself.
The fastest way to improve is to read attentively and notice every "the" and "a" a good writer uses — the same noticing habit that fixes prepositions works here too.
How to Actually Fix Your Grammar Mistakes for Good
Knowing a rule and applying it under pressure are two different skills, and this is the gap where most learners get stuck. You can recite the present-perfect rule perfectly in a quiz, then break it thirty seconds later in conversation. Fixing English grammar errors for good isn't about learning more rules — it's about building a system that catches the mistakes you already know.
The single most effective technique is keeping an error log. Every time a teacher corrects you, or you spot a mistake in your own writing, write down three things: the wrong version, the right version, and a one-line note on why. Reviewing that short personal list does far more than working through a generic grammar book, because it targets your specific patterns rather than everyone's.
Two more habits make a real difference:
- Slow down when it matters. In an email or an exam, give yourself one focused read purely to check your known weak spots — articles, tenses, that final "s" on he/she/it verbs. You'll catch most of your own errors this way.
- Get corrected out loud, regularly. Self-study can't tell you what you can't hear. Speaking with someone who points out the same slip kindly and consistently is how a mistake finally stops feeling natural and starts feeling wrong.
That last point is exactly why feedback-rich practice matters. In our small-group classes — capped at fifteen students — there's room for teachers to notice your individual patterns and correct them in the moment, which is something no app or textbook can replicate. You can see how that works across levels on our courses page.
Frequently asked questions
What are the most common English grammar mistakes learners make?
The most frequent ones are confusing the present perfect with the past simple, choosing the wrong preposition after verbs and adjectives, misusing a, an and the, mixing up much and many with countable and uncountable nouns, dropping the final "s" on he/she/it verbs, and getting word order wrong in questions. Most are easy to fix once you notice your own pattern.
How can I fix my grammar mistakes in English?
Keep a personal error log: write the wrong version, the correct version, and a short note on why. Review it regularly so you target your own recurring slips rather than generic rules. Add one focused proofreading pass to important writing, and practise speaking with someone who corrects you consistently, so the mistakes gradually start to sound wrong.
Why do I keep making the same grammar mistakes even though I know the rule?
Because knowing a rule and applying it under real-time pressure are different skills. In conversation your attention is on meaning, not form, so old habits resurface. The fix is repeated, kind correction and deliberate noticing until the correct form becomes automatic. Tracking your specific errors and reviewing them beats simply studying more grammar theory.
Do native English speakers make grammar mistakes too?
Yes, regularly — native speakers mix up its and it's, your and you're, and "should have" versus "should of" in casual writing. The difference is that their errors are usually slips in writing rather than gaps in knowledge. For learners, the reassuring point is that perfect grammar isn't the goal; clear, confident, broadly accurate English is.
