5 Common English Grammar Mistakes with Easy Fixes
When you are speaking English do you get stuck because you’re worried about making English grammar mistakes? Do you have that distracting voice in your head that makes you nervous and asks ‘was that right?‘
Today is your chance to stop worrying and fix some of the most common grammatical mistakes. Once you are aware of these mistakes and do a little bit of correction, you can confidently say what you want to say without wondering whether you got it right.
Let’s talk about 5 Common English Grammar Mistakes and how to fix them with some easy solutions.
The 5 most common English grammar mistakes I hear.
Lesson by Annemarie
Additional Practice for Common English Grammar Mistakes
In the Confident English video, you learned my favorite strategies for how to fix common grammar mistakes.
But I want to give you additional practice. Remember: repetition creates habits. And I want you to build good habits in your English.
So take some time today, tomorrow, and the next day to practice.
Using Ask & Tell
Whenever you use told or ask, right after the verb you need the object pronoun, so basically the person who is being told or asked needs to come in right away, with no ‘to’ in between. How would you complete these?
How could you say you told your brother the news?
I ___________.
How could you say you asked your boss, Maria, a question?
I ____________.
👇Share your answers with me in the comments section below.
The Present Perfect in English
Remembering the have/has for present perfect takes your English to the next level. So whenever you talk about something that is still true now, including where you currently work, a hobby you started in the past and still do now, remember present perfect:
How long have you worked at your current job?
I _______________________.
How long have you lived in your neighborhood?
I ______________________.
How long have you known your best friend?
I ______________________.
👇Share your answers with me in the comments section below.
Noncount Nouns
In English we have some nouns that almost never need an ‘s’ added even when we have more than one of them. They are already plural and hardly ever need an ‘s’, we call them uncountable nouns. Accidentally adding an ‘s’ to these nouns is all too easy to do, but this mistake is also really easy to fix.
Here are the 20 most common uncountable nouns that almost never need an ‘s’ when we have more than one of them.
- advertising
- advice
- assistance
- damage
- equipment
- energy
- evidence
- furniture
- hair
- housework
- information
- homework
- pollution
- rain
- rice
- rubbish/trash
- sunshine
- traffic
- violence
- water
To practice: choose 3 words from this list that you use the most. Create your own sentence using that word, for example:
- One of my job responsibilities is to provide timely responses and information to clients.
- I love to offer advice to my friends.
👇Share your answers with me in the comments section below.
Additional Confident English Lessons on Grammar:
So, now that you know what these 5 common mistakes are, you are ready to avoid these in your English and to sound more in control, more proficient and more fluent.
There is no time like the present, so let’s get started right away. Can you find and correct these mistakes?
- My neighbor love it here. She lived here for 10 years. (clue: my neighbor still lives here now)
- I asked to her which equipments is best for a home gym.
- My colleague taking a day off work tomorrow so I covering for her.
Bonus Question: Can you identify and share other noncount nouns that you know of? If so, list them here. Your list will help others in the Confident English Community.
Have a fantastic Confident English Wednesday!
~ Annemarie
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I find your method and skills of teaching very engaging and easy to digest, especially non native speakers like me. I have browsed on YouTube for few years now looking for advance lessons catering for people like myself and I just came across to your videos. One word, hallelujah! 😀 I speak English ok but I second guesses myself most of the time, even now as I’m writing this comment. Thank you so much 👍🏽. I will check out your other videos.
What a lovely comment! Thank so much, Veni. I’m thrilled to hear you’re enjoying my lessons and I wish you much continued success.
I told my brother the news . I asked my boss a question . I have worked as a kitchen associate at Wetherspoons for 4 years . I have lived in New town for almost 2 years . I have known her for all my life . I am always willing to offer advice and assistance to whoever asks me to . Living in England made me appreciate sunshine I hope there is no traffic on my way back home . My neighbor loves it here. She has lived here for 10 years I asked her which equipments is best for… Read more »
Hi!
What is the difference between “I have lived here for 10 years” and “I have been living here for ten years”? and what is the right option?
I told him the news.
I asked boss a question.
I have worked for 3 years.
I have lived for 5years.
I have known her for 10years.
Yesterday, there was heavy rain in my town.
I have full energy to step up the next level of my life.
My neighbor loves it here. She has lived here for 10years.
I asked her which equipment is best for a home gym.
My college is taking a day off work tomorrow so I am covering for her.
I told him the news.
I asked my boss a question.
——————————————-
I have been a student since 2012, and I have never had any job for about 7 years.
I have lived here since I was a child.
——————————————-
I have known him since I went to kindergarten so we are very friendly until now.
——————————————–
The information show one of the important cause of raising the world’s temperature is releasing pollution to air, such as carbon dioxide.
Awesome, Ehsan. I’m glad to see you practice these challenging grammar issues. You’ve got some great examples here.
Two things:
1. I have known him… so we are very friendly until now. –> Until now suggests that this has changed. Something happened and now you are suddenly no longer friendly. Is that true? If not, what could you change?
2. The information show –> There’s something wrong with the verb here. What might it be?
I have lived in my neighborhood since 2015
I have been living in my neighborhood for last few years
I have known my best friend since childhood
In continuous form?
I told my brother the news
I asked my boss a question
Perfect examples with these two confusing words, Saba! Nicely done.
I told my brother the news I asked my boss a question Perfect Present tense answers: – I’ve been developing Java apps for 10 years – I’ve lived in my neighborhood for about 15 years. – I’ve known my bestie for about 20 years at least. Others sentences: – I was all of a sudden surprised because of people violence at the end of the football match. – Actually, it’s quite annoying to move the furniture back and forth all the time. – When I was in school, I remember that the teacher gave me too much homework hard to… Read more »
Wow Gerson! You’ve done a fabulous job here! You have some excellent sentences. In fact, there are only 2 things you would need to change here to make it absolutely perfect. We just say ‘violence’, so the word people is not used here, it is implied that it is people from the match who are being violent. Second ‘hard to come by’ is a great phrase but doesn’t work in this sentence. It really means ‘scarce’ or ‘difficult to find’. Other than that you have really nailed it! I am really impressed with your effort!
I told him the news. I asked my boss a question. I have been working here for 7 years. I have been living here for 11 years. I have known her for 2 months. The rubbish is everywhere on the street. Google has provided a lot of assistence in self learning. The collected evidence is very important to let us free from the charges. My neighbor loves it here. She has been living here for 10 years. I ask her which equipment is the best for a home gym. My colleague is taking a day off work tomorrow so I… Read more »
Wonderful, Srek Ashraff! Thank you for sharing your answers. I like the sentences you’ve created. Great work with the present perfect and the present perfect continuous!
Wow Srek, you have been working hard here! Great job! I like what you are trying to say in your sentence about evidence. If you rephrase like this the grammar flows nicely: The collected evidence is very important to free us from the charges.
Thank you. I appreciate your advice.
I told him the news
I ask maria a quation
I have worked for 2years
I have living for 3 years
I have knowing her for 10 years
I don’t have any information about my father where he is living
My hair is damaged and I don’t know wich shampoo is good for me
Yesterday I cook rice for launch
Awesome, Ruta! Thanks so much for sharing your answers. I’m thrilled that you did all the activities. 🙂
Just a few corrections:
1. I have _____ living _____ for 3 years. –> We’re missing two words here. The first is helping verb, the second we need a place. What would you change?
2. I have knowing…. let’s fix knowing. Here we want the third form of the verb. What might it be?
Hello Annemarie.
I appriciate for replying my comments.I am so thrilled.
I tried as i can to fix my mistakes.
Preposition is FROM
Possessive pronoun is OUR
the phrase is,
We are always getting
assistance from our teacher in our class.
Have a great day.
Munira.
Excellent. Good corrections, Munira.
I told my brother the news
I have worked at this job for two years
Good work, Ahmed.
Using ask /tell 1: I told him the news 2: I asked Maria a question Present perfect 1: I have worked at this job for 10 years 2: I have lived in this neighborhood for many years 3: I have known my best friend since 1990 Hi dear Annamrie, I have a question; in these phrases, could I use the present perfect continuos instead of the present perfect? Thank you 🙂 Noncount nouns ” I always do my homework in the garden” “What a mess! I must sort out the furniture in my room!” “You need a lot of energy… Read more »
Hi Daniela,
Great work with ask/tell and the present perfect. And yes, in those situations you could also use the present perfect continuous if you want to indicate it’s likely to continue into the future. Good question.
I love your examples with the noncount nouns. Well done!
Hi Annemarie! thank you for teaching us with your wondering expression.
I don’t wanna repeat the first question because maria already answer all of them but I wanna try to make a sentence by uncountable noun.
1. we have to keep clean our environment from air pollution.
2.the police has got full evidence to take a jail.
3. I have a lot of homework for tomorrow.
Great work, Yage! You’ve done well with the noncount nouns.
Let’s fix one thing though: “The police has…” Is there anything you would change with this verb? Why?
Could it be: “The police has gotten full evidence to take a jail.”
‘Police’ is a noun that is only ever used as plural, so ‘has’ is not the correct verb choice because police are ‘they’, so which verb should it be? – he has, she has, it has, I have, you have, we have, they … ?
Hello Annemarie. Thank you Confident English for sending us wonderful lesson , it’s really helpful . Using Ask & Tell. How could you sayyou told your brother the news? A-You could have told your brother the news. How could asked your boss Maria a question? A-You could have asked your boss Maria question The Present Perfect in English. How long have you worked at your current job? A-I have worked in my current job since 2018. How long have you lived in your neighbourhood? A-I have lived in my neibghbourhood for 3 years.. How long have you known your best… Read more »
Wow! Well done on doing all the tasks in the lesson, Munira. Bravo! Great work with tell vs. ask and the present perfect. And I’m glad to see you use the noncount nouns correctly.
Let’s fix just one thing though. ‘We are always getting assistance ______ ______ teacher in our class.’ We’re missing two words here. One is a preposition and the other is a possessive pronoun. What would you change?
I told my brother the news. I asked Maria a question. I have worked at my current job for almost three months. I have lived in my neighborhood for two years and a half. I have known my best friend for twenty-seven years. In my house, as part of my housework taks are cleaning the furniture and taking out the rubbish. My neighbor loves it here. She has lived here for 10 years. I asked her which equipment is the best for a home gym. My colleague is taking a day off work tomorrow so I am covering for her.
Wow, Maria!! 👏👏👏You did all the practice activities + the challenge questions and got them all right. Nicely done! Great work using furniture and rubbish as noncount nouns!
It sounds like maybe you have a new job since you’ve been there for 3 months. I hope you’re enjoying it. 🙂
Using ask & tell:
1. I told him the news.
2. I asked Maria a question.
Present Perfect:
1. I have worked at this job for 10 years.
2. I have lived in this neighborhood for many years.
3. I have known Anniemarie for a few months.
Noncount Nouns:
1. I like to watch the sunshine every morning.
2. Getting stuck in traffic can be frustrating at times.
3. It is ok to seek for advice from good friends.
Perfect work here, Paulz! You get each one correct and I like the sentences you’ve created with the noncount nouns. Well done. 🙂