Beginner mistakes: 5 common mistakes in English speech

Everyone makes mistakes, both in life and in language. Let’s see what mistakes foreigners make most often when they speak English and try to fix them.

Why are some mistakes “typical”?
Anyone can make a mistake, especially when trying to speak a foreign language, and mistakes can be different – someone cannot remember the second form of the verb “forget”, someone is not given the subjunctive mood, and someone, for example, is mistaken, using the prepositions of time. People are different, and, accordingly, mistakes are also different.
But there is a group of mistakes that come across in the works or in the speech of most foreigners. Why it happens? This happens when we use forms, words and constructions in speech that sound normal in Russian, but will not be correct in English. That is, we are kind of tracing a Russian phrase, literally translating it into English. In most cases, the British, of course, will understand what we mean, but sometimes, due to a small mistake, the meaning of the statement can radically change.

Watching, analyzing and correcting
Wrong: I feel myself …
This is one of the most common mistakes – we are used to saying “I feel bad”, therefore in English the pronoun myself is often used, which is a gross semantic mistake.
So, the phrase “I feel myself.” English people understand it as “I touch (feel) myself”, so you can get into a very awkward position.
Correct: I feel … (f.e. Sick)
When you are trying to express your feelings, such as weakness, tiredness, dizziness, etc., simply say “I feel (dizzy)”.

Incorrect: I am agree
When we agree with something, we say “I agree”, where I agree is a short adjective, and we use an auxiliary verb in translation, but in English the phrase will sound “I agree”, where the word agree itself is a verb, therefore to be is completely unnecessary.
Correct: I agree

Wrong: If I will go to shop I will buy some milk
If I go to the store, I’ll buy milk
Correct: If I go to shop I will buy some milk
In this case, you need to remember about the agreement of tenses, and also that in the part of the sentence where the If is placed, the verb will is never used. In order to remember this rule, there is a rhymed saying:
IF and WILL make teacher kill!
And for WOULD (which is also not used with IF) – IF and WOULD are never good!
Usually, these funny rhymes are easy to remember and prevent repeating mistakes.

Wrong: some advices
Due to the fact that in Russian the word “advice” has a plural, many people think that the word “advice” in English also has a plural, and all that needs to be done is to add the ending “-s” …
No. Everything is completely different. To show that more than one advice was given, the English use the pronoun some, and most often they say “pieces of …”, for example, pieces of paper, pieces of advice, some pieces of information.
Correct: Some advice / some pieces of advice

Wrong: Finish the report until Friday
(Finish the report by Friday)
Very often mistakes are made when they say that something must be finished by some definite point in time, for example, before Saturday, before five o’clock, until tomorrow, etc. Guided by the fact that in Russian we use the preposition “before”, many simply translate it as until, although in this situation the English use the preposition by.
Correct: Finish the report by Friday

There are many errors of this type, but don’t despair! Read more books in English, listen to English speech, for example, on the way to work or study, turn on some British radio station, and gradually you will remember what is used and in what cases. Bumping into certain constructions in a language over and over again, your brain develops a certain language template, which you will later use on a subconscious level when constructing a phrase of this type.

Everyone makes mistakes, both in life and in language. Let’s see what mistakes foreigners make most often when they speak English and try to fix them.

Why are some mistakes “typical”?
Anyone can make a mistake, especially when trying to speak a foreign language, and mistakes can be different – someone cannot remember the second form of the verb “forget”, someone is not given the subjunctive mood, and someone, for example, is mistaken, using the prepositions of time. People are different, and, accordingly, mistakes are also different.
But there is a group of mistakes that come across in the works or in the speech of most foreigners. Why it happens? This happens when we use forms, words and constructions in speech that sound normal in Russian, but will not be correct in English. That is, we are kind of tracing a Russian phrase, literally translating it into English. In most cases, the British, of course, will understand what we mean, but sometimes, due to a small mistake, the meaning of the statement can radically change.

Watching, analyzing and correcting
Wrong: I feel myself …
This is one of the most common mistakes – we are used to saying “I feel bad”, therefore in English the pronoun myself is often used, which is a gross semantic mistake.
So, the phrase “I feel myself.” English people understand it as “I touch (feel) myself”, so you can get into a very awkward position.
Correct: I feel … (f.e. Sick)
When you are trying to express your feelings, such as weakness, tiredness, dizziness, etc., simply say “I feel (dizzy)”.

Incorrect: I am agree
When we agree with something, we say “I agree”, where I agree is a short adjective, and we use an auxiliary verb in translation, but in English the phrase will sound “I agree”, where the word agree itself is a verb, therefore to be is completely unnecessary.
Correct: I agree

Wrong: If I will go to shop I will buy some milk
If I go to the store, I’ll buy milk
Correct: If I go to shop I will buy some milk
In this case, you need to remember about the agreement of tenses, and also that in the part of the sentence where the If is placed, the verb will is never used. In order to remember this rule, there is a rhymed saying:
IF and WILL make teacher kill!
And for WOULD (which is also not used with IF) – IF and WOULD are never good!
Usually, these funny rhymes are easy to remember and prevent repeating mistakes.

Wrong: some advices
Due to the fact that in Russian the word “advice” has a plural, many people think that the word “advice” in English also has a plural, and all that needs to be done is to add the ending “-s” …
No. Everything is completely different. To show that more than one advice was given, the English use the pronoun some, and most often they say “pieces of …”, for example, pieces of paper, pieces of advice, some pieces of information.
Correct: Some advice / some pieces of advice

Wrong: Finish the report until Friday
(Finish the report by Friday)
Very often mistakes are made when they say that something must be finished by some definite point in time, for example, before Saturday, before five o’clock, until tomorrow, etc. Guided by the fact that in Russian we use the preposition “before”, many simply translate it as until, although in this situation the English use the preposition by.
Correct: Finish the report by Friday

There are many errors of this type, but don’t despair! Read more books in English, listen to English speech, for example, on the way to work or study, turn on some British radio station, and gradually you will remember what is used and in what cases. Bumping into certain constructions in a language over and over again, your brain develops a certain language template, which you will later use on a subconscious level when constructing a phrase of this type.

Everyone makes mistakes, both in life and in language. Let’s see what mistakes foreigners make most often when they speak English and try to fix them.

Why are some mistakes “typical”?
Anyone can make a mistake, especially when trying to speak a foreign language, and mistakes can be different – someone cannot remember the second form of the verb “forget”, someone is not given the subjunctive mood, and someone, for example, is mistaken, using the prepositions of time. People are different, and, accordingly, mistakes are also different.
But there is a group of mistakes that come across in the works or in the speech of most foreigners. Why it happens? This happens when we use forms, words and constructions in speech that sound normal in Russian, but will not be correct in English. That is, we are kind of tracing a Russian phrase, literally translating it into English. In most cases, the British, of course, will understand what we mean, but sometimes, due to a small mistake, the meaning of the statement can radically change.

Watching, analyzing and correcting
Wrong: I feel myself …
This is one of the most common mistakes – we are used to saying “I feel bad”, therefore in English the pronoun myself is often used, which is a gross semantic mistake.
So, the phrase “I feel myself.” English people understand it as “I touch (feel) myself”, so you can get into a very awkward position.
Correct: I feel … (f.e. Sick)
When you are trying to express your feelings, such as weakness, tiredness, dizziness, etc., simply say “I feel (dizzy)”.

Incorrect: I am agree
When we agree with something, we say “I agree”, where I agree is a short adjective, and we use an auxiliary verb in translation, but in English the phrase will sound “I agree”, where the word agree itself is a verb, therefore to be is completely unnecessary.
Correct: I agree

Wrong: If I will go to shop I will buy some milk
If I go to the store, I’ll buy milk
Correct: If I go to shop I will buy some milk
In this case, you need to remember about the agreement of tenses, and also that in the part of the sentence where the If is placed, the verb will is never used. In order to remember this rule, there is a rhymed saying:
IF and WILL make teacher kill!
And for WOULD (which is also not used with IF) – IF and WOULD are never good!
Usually, these funny rhymes are easy to remember and prevent repeating mistakes.

Wrong: some advices
Due to the fact that in Russian the word “advice” has a plural, many people think that the word “advice” in English also has a plural, and all that needs to be done is to add the ending “-s” …
No. Everything is completely different. To show that more than one advice was given, the English use the pronoun some, and most often they say “pieces of …”, for example, pieces of paper, pieces of advice, some pieces of information.
Correct: Some advice / some pieces of advice

Wrong: Finish the report until Friday
(Finish the report by Friday)
Very often mistakes are made when they say that something must be finished by some definite point in time, for example, before Saturday, before five o’clock, until tomorrow, etc. Guided by the fact that in Russian we use the preposition “before”, many simply translate it as until, although in this situation the English use the preposition by.
Correct: Finish the report by Friday

There are many errors of this type, but don’t despair! Read more books in English, listen to English speech, for example, on the way to work or study, turn on some British radio station, and gradually you will remember what is used and in what cases. Bumping into certain constructions in a language over and over again, your brain develops a certain language template, which you will later use on a subconscious level when constructing a phrase of this type.