9 Most Common Grammar Mistakes Students Make

English is commonly perceived as an easy language to learn, but that doesn’t mean you are protected from making these nine common grammar mistakes. Check them out to make sure your English is as polished as it can be.

1. Subject-Verb Agreement

Different languages have different rules about subject-verb agreement, however, when speaking or writing in English you have to make sure the subject and the verb in a sentence are either both singular or both plural. Have a look at the examples below to see what we mean:

Examples: The dog always barks at the postman. / Dogs and wolves like to howl at the moon.

As you can see when you refer to one dog you have to use the third person singular form of the verb, while when you’re referring to a group of dogs you have to use the third person plural form of the verb.

2. Its versus It’s

One of the most common difficulties students experience when learning English is making the decision about whether or not to use an apostrophe. It is actually a very easy differentiation – when you talk about possession you don’t need the apostrophe, and when you want to say something is or has you put the apostrophe

Example: The kid lost its hat. It’s a blue hat.

The kid has possession over the hat, which is why you should not put an apostrophe in the first sentence. However, in the second sentence, the subject is the hat itself, which means you are actually saying “It is a blue hat”, so you need the apostrophe in that case.

3. Adjective order

If you don’t want to sound like a Martian, you have to order your adjectives correctly. There is a simple order, which adjectives in English follow. Here it is:

Quantity or number
Quality or opinion
Size
Age
Shape
Colour
Proper adjective (often nationality, other places of origin, or material)
Purpose of qualifier

The only way to make sure you order your adjectives correctly is to remember this list. An easy way to do this is to remember the first letters of each type of adjective. This gives you the following: OSASCOMP, or in other words – Opinion, Size, Age, Shape, Color, Origin, Material, Purpose. If remembering boring combinations of letters is hard for you, associate them a sentence like this:

On Sunday And Saturday Cool Oysters Make Parties

4. Switching up words because they sound similar

Even when you’re writing in English there is always a chance you might switch up accept and except. They sound almost the same but have completely different meanings, so you have to make sure you are using the right words. Check out the examples below:

You need to accept the invitation in order to attend the party.
Most people can attend the party, except for those without an invitation.

5. Run-on sentences

Run-on sentences are one of the most difficult things for students to get away from. English allows speakers and writers to include an indefinite number of clauses to a sentence, but this means you are in a great risk of creating a long, boring sentence, without any meaning. Try to stay away from sentences like this one:

Students can take up any class they like, they need to sign up for it beforehand.

To avoid run-on sentences, try to separate independent clauses into separate sentences. The example below will sound much better if it is structured like this:

Students can take up any class they like. They need to sign up for it beforehand.

6. Sentence Sprawl

Building on the problem with run-on sentences, a sentence sprawl means that you have included too many equally important clauses to your sentence, so it becomes hard to read and meaningless. Here is an example of a sentence sprawl:

A class had been planned for Wednesday, November 18, but some people were not going to be available at that time, so the university rescheduled it for Friday, November 20, and then everyone would be able to attend.

There is nothing grammatically wrong with this sentence, but it sounds heavy, and many people might get confused when reading it. It is always advisable to split such sentences, in order to improve the readability of your texts.

7. Split Infinitives

Split infinitives usually occur when you want to enhance the meaning of an infinitive verb by adding an adverb to it. Unfortunately, if you place the adverb between the “to” and the verb, you are creating a split infinitive, which sounds a little sloppy in English. Check out these examples of split infinitives, and read them out loud, to see what we mean.

He used to secretly talk to her.
I have to really watch how they behave.

Many experts believe these sentences would sound way better without the split infinitive, and written like this:

He secretly used to talk to her
I really have to watch how they behave.

8. There/their/they’re

Similar to accept and except, these three words are often misused because they sound almost the same. The proper usage is as follows:

There is a mouse in my apartment.
Their apartment is more spacious than mine.
They’re worried about a mouse infestation in the apartment.

In simple terms, there is used to refer to a place, their is used to state someone has possession over something, and they’re is the short form of writing they are.

9. Me, Myself and I

Using the right pronoun when referring to yourself in a sentence is one of the most important things you should learn if you want to be fluent in English. This is a very common mistake even with native speakers. Check out these examples to get a grasp of how these personal pronouns are used:

Correct usage of the subject pronoun I:

I spoke to my father on Sunday.
My father and I spoke on Saturday.

Correct usage of the object pronoun Me:

My father asked me a question.
My father got me a birthday present.

Correct usage of the reflexive pronoun Myself:

I bought myself a birthday present.
I did all the cleaning by myself.

As you can see these are three different types of pronouns, and they should be used accordingly.

How will avoiding these errors help you?

Once you get the hang of all these common grammar mistakes and start excluding them from your speech and writing, your English fluency will improve dramatically. It is important to keep track of such grammar rules because a rich vocabulary is not enough if you want to consider yourself fluent in English.

Of course, we are always available to help you if you want to go a step further and improve your English proficiency even more. Check out the rest of our informational pieces, and the services we provide if you are looking to better your understanding and use of this amazing language.

Snippets:

One of the most common difficulties students experience when learning English is making the decision about whether to put an apostrophe in this case.
If you don’t want to sound like a Martian, you have to order your adjectives correctly.
Building on the problem with run-on sentences, a sentence sprawl means that you have included too many equally important clauses to your sentence, so it becomes hard to read and meaningless.
Splint infinitives usually occur when you want to enhance the meaning of an infinitive verb by adding an adverb to it.
Using the right pronoun when referring to yourself in a sentence is one of the most important things you should learn if you want to be fluent in English.
Once you get the hang of all these common grammar mistakes and start excluding them from your speech and writing, your English fluency will improve dramatically.

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Tired of making the same mistakes over and over again? Check out our comprehensive guide on common grammar mistakes students make when learning English.

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