Common English mistakes Bengali speakers make, and how to fix them

If your first language is Bangla — in Bangladesh or West Bengal — your English mistakes follow Bangla grammar and sounds: one pronoun for he and she, one verb for eat, drink and take, and a sound system with no /z/ or /v/. Transfer, not carelessness, and each one has a clear fix.

The big ones. 1) He/she mixed ("se" is gender-neutral): "My mother… he" → "she". 2) /z/ as /dʒ/ and /v/ as /bh/ or /b/: "jero" for "zero", "bhery" for "very" — /z/ is a buzzing /s/; /v/ is top teeth on the lip. 3) "Give an exam" (porikkha deoa) → "take / sit an exam"; the teacher gives it. 4) "Eat medicine", "eat a cigarette" (khaoa covers eat, drink, take, smoke) → "take medicine", "smoke". 5) Continuous with stative verbs: "I am having two brothers", "I am knowing" → "I have", "I know". 6) Questions without inversion and the universal tag: "What you are doing?", "You are coming, isn't it?" → "What are you doing?", "aren't you?". 7) "Close the light" (bondho koro) → "turn off"; "open the fan" → "turn on". 8) South Asian usage that confuses abroad: "cousin brother" (cousin), "passed out" (graduated), "prepone" (bring forward), "today morning" (this morning), "years back" (years ago). 9) /ʃ/ and /s/ merged: "shame" for "same", "sip" for "ship" — keep them apart. 10) Missing articles and plural markers: "I am teacher", "two book" → "a teacher", "two books"; and a flat, syllable-timed rhythm — stress one syllable: "comPUter", "deVELop".

A list won't fix these; making them out loud and being corrected in the moment will. Airi is built for that: she hears the pattern, fixes the one mistake that matters in her reply, and keeps the conversation going. Speak with her daily and these stop being habits within a few weeks. Free to start, no card.

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