Speaking fluent English isn’t about sounding like a textbook — but small, repeated grammar mistakes can quietly undermine how confident and clear you sound in daily conversations, interviews, and professional settings. At CRELA, our Spoken English program in Nagercoil, we hear the same handful of mistakes from learners at almost every level. Here are the most common ones, and exactly how to fix them.
1. Mixing Up “Since” and “For”
Mistake: “I am living here since 5 years.” Correct: “I have been living here for 5 years.” / “I have been living here since 2021.”
Why it happens: Many regional languages don’t distinguish between duration and a specific starting point the way English does.
The fix: Use “for” with a duration (a length of time) and “since” with a specific starting point (a date, year, or event).
2. Incorrect Use of Articles (“a,” “an,” “the”)
Mistake: “I am going to market.” / “She is best student in class.” Correct: “I am going to the market.” / “She is the best student in the class.”
Why it happens: Many Indian languages don’t use articles at all, so it’s easy to forget them entirely in spoken English.
The fix: Use “the” when referring to a specific, known thing, and “a/an” when referring to something general or non-specific. Practicing this out loud, repeatedly, builds natural instinct faster than memorizing rules.
3. Wrong Preposition Choices
Mistake: “I will discuss about this later.” / “He is married with her.” Correct: “I will discuss this later.” / “He is married to her.”
Why it happens: Prepositions rarely translate directly between languages, and many verbs in English simply don’t need one where you’d expect it.
The fix: Certain verbs (like “discuss,” “explain,” “request”) are followed directly by an object with no preposition needed. Building a personal list of these “no-preposition” verbs helps avoid this mistake permanently.
4. Subject-Verb Agreement Errors
Mistake: “He don’t know the answer.” / “The list of items are on the table.” Correct: “He doesn’t know the answer.” / “The list of items is on the table.”
Why it happens: In fast, spoken conversation, it’s easy to match the verb to the nearest noun (“items”) instead of the actual subject (“list”).
The fix: Slow down slightly when a sentence has a phrase between the subject and verb, and mentally identify the true subject before choosing the verb form.
5. Confusing “Say,” “Tell,” and “Speak”
Mistake: “He said me to come.” / “Can you tell in English?” Correct: “He told me to come.” / “Can you speak in English?”
Why it happens: These three verbs often translate to a single word in other languages, so English learners frequently use them interchangeably.
The fix:
- Say + something (“He said hello”)
- Tell + someone + something (“He told me the news”)
- Speak/Talk + a language or about a topic (“She speaks English fluently”)
6. Using Present Tense for Past Actions
Mistake: “Yesterday I go to the shop.” / “Last week she call me.” Correct: “Yesterday I went to the shop.” / “Last week she called me.”
Why it happens: Under pressure to speak quickly, learners often default to the simplest verb form rather than pausing to adjust the tense.
The fix: Practice narrating your day out loud in past tense every evening — this single habit dramatically improves tense accuracy over a few weeks.
7. Double Negatives
Mistake: “I don’t have no time.” / “She didn’t say nothing.” Correct: “I don’t have any time.” / “She didn’t say anything.”
Why it happens: Double negatives are grammatically standard in many other languages, but in standard English, they cancel each other out and sound incorrect.
The fix: Pair negative verbs (“don’t,” “didn’t,” “can’t”) with “any,” “anything,” or “anyone” instead of a second negative word.
Why These Small Mistakes Matter
None of these errors will make you unintelligible — most listeners will still understand you. But in interviews, professional settings, and exams like IELTS, these patterns are exactly what separates an intermediate speaker from a genuinely fluent, confident one. The good news: every mistake on this list is fixable with awareness and consistent, corrected practice.
Practice These Corrections with CRELA, Nagercoil
Reading about grammar rules is a start, but real improvement comes from speaking regularly and getting corrected in real time — something self-study alone rarely provides. At CRELA, our Spoken English batches in Nagercoil combine daily speaking practice with personalized correction, helping learners fix these exact patterns and speak with genuine confidence.
Book a free Spoken English assessment with CRELA today and find out which habits are holding your fluency back.
CRELA – Nagercoil’s trusted center for Spoken English and IELTS coaching.