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.
