Some mistakes are personal. These ten are almost universal — they show up across levels, backgrounds, and first languages, because English itself makes them easy traps. Here's each one, and the fix that actually sticks.
1. "I have 25 years" instead of "I am 25 years old"
Many languages use "to have" for age. English uses "to be." Fix: practice the full phrase as one chunk — "I am ___ years old" — rather than translating word by word.
2. Confusing "make" and "do"
We make a decision, a mistake, a plan. We do homework, a favor, business. There's no shortcut rule that covers every case — the fastest fix is learning them as fixed phrases, not as a grammar rule you apply each time.
3. "I am agree" instead of "I agree"
"Agree" is a verb on its own — it doesn't need "am." This mistake usually comes from translating an adjective structure from another language. Fix: remember agree, disagree, and think all stand alone as full verbs.
4. Misusing "since" and "for"
For a duration ("for three years"), since a starting point ("since 2020"). Say the sentence out loud and ask: am I naming a length of time, or a point it started from?
5. Dropping articles ("a," "an," "the")
If your first language doesn't use articles, this is genuinely one of the hardest habits to build — don't expect it to fix itself quickly. It improves fastest through reading aloud and noticing article use, more than through memorizing rules.
6. "Actually" to mean "currently"
In English, "actually" means "in fact" (often correcting something), not "right now." For "right now," use currently or at the moment. This false friend trips up speakers of several European languages specifically.
7. Overusing "very" instead of a stronger word
"Very tired" works, but exhausted says more with one word. Very big → huge. Very good → excellent. This isn't a grammar error, but fixing it is one of the fastest ways to sound more fluent immediately.
8. "I'm boring" instead of "I'm bored"
The -ing/-ed adjective pair trips up almost everyone at some point. The thing causing the feeling is -ing (a boring movie); the person feeling it is -ed (I'm bored). Same pattern applies to interesting/interested, exciting/excited, confusing/confused.
9. "Depends of" instead of "depends on"
A classic preposition mismatch from Romance languages. There's no logical rule here — English prepositions attached to specific verbs just have to be learned individually, ideally by noticing them in context rather than translating.
10. Overusing the present continuous
"I am understanding" and "I am knowing" sound natural to translate, but English treats verbs like understand, know, want, and believe as states, not actions — they normally stay in simple present: I understand, I know, I want.
None of these mistakes are signs you're bad at English — they're signs you're translating a system that makes sense in your first language into one that doesn't always match. That's completely normal, and it fades with exposure.
If you'd like a teacher to check which of these show up in your own speaking or writing, message us — we can point you to exactly which habits are worth focusing on first.
