Everyone makes grammar mistakes, including native speakers. The good news is that most errors fall into a small number of patterns. Learn to spot these 12, and your writing and speaking will improve quickly.
1. Subject-Verb Agreement
A singular subject needs a singular verb. ❌ She don’t like coffee. ✅ She doesn’t like coffee. ❌ The list of items are long. ✅ The list of items is long. (The subject is “list,” not “items.”)
2. Wrong Tense
❌ I have seen him yesterday. ✅ I saw him yesterday. Use the past simple with finished time expressions. See our guide to English tenses.
3. Missing or Wrong Articles
❌ He is engineer. ✅ He is an engineer. See our guide to a, an and the.
4. Its vs. It’s
It’s = it is or it has. Its = belonging to it. ❌ The dog wagged it’s tail. ✅ The dog wagged its tail.
5. Your vs. You’re, Their vs. There vs. They’re
Your = belonging to you; you’re = you are. Their = belonging to them; there = a place; they’re = they are. ✅ They’re leaving their bags over there.
6. Uncountable Nouns Used as Plurals
Words like information, advice, furniture, equipment, homework and news are uncountable. ❌ Can you give me some advices? ✅ Can you give me some advice?
7. Wrong Prepositions
❌ I am married with her. ✅ I am married to her. ❌ She is good in maths. ✅ She is good at maths. Learn prepositions together with the words they follow.
8. Double Negatives
❌ I don’t know nothing. ✅ I don’t know anything. or I know nothing.
9. Run-On Sentences and Comma Splices
❌ I love reading, I read every night. ✅ I love reading; I read every night. or I love reading, so I read every night. See our punctuation guide.
10. Fewer vs. Less
Use fewer with countable nouns and less with uncountable nouns. ✅ fewer students, less time.
11. Wrong Word Order in Questions
❌ Where you are going? ✅ Where are you going? But in indirect questions, use normal order: ✅ Can you tell me where you are going?
12. Dangling Modifiers
❌ Walking to school, the rain started. (The rain wasn’t walking.) ✅ Walking to school, I got caught in the rain.
How to Avoid Grammar Mistakes
- Keep an error log: write down your mistakes and the corrections, and review them weekly.
- Read your writing aloud: you will hear many errors.
- Use a grammar checker, but understand each suggestion rather than accepting it blindly. See our grammar checker guide.
- Read widely to absorb correct patterns.
- Proofread for one type of error at a time, such as verbs first, then articles.
Conclusion
Most grammar mistakes come from a few common patterns. Learn these 12, check your own writing for them, and you will see your accuracy improve quickly.
