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

If your first language is Mandarin or another Chinese language, many of your English mistakes follow Chinese grammar and sounds: verbs that do not change form, no articles, no plural ending on most nouns, one spoken word for "he" and "she", and a tone on each syllable where English has word stress. They are transfer from a first language, not carelessness, and each one has a clear fix.

The best known are in the grammar. 1) No tense change: "Yesterday I go" instead of "Yesterday I went", and "I ever went to Japan" (曾经) instead of "I've been to Japan". 2) Missing articles and plurals: "I bought book" instead of "I bought a book" or "I bought some books". Uncountable nouns go the other way: "furniture", never "furnitures". 3) "He" and "she" mixed up in speech, because 他 and 她 sound the same. 4) "I very like it" (很喜欢) instead of "I really like it". 5) Both halves of a Chinese pair: "Although it was cold, but I went" (虽然…但是) and "Because I was tired, so I left" (因为…所以). English uses one conjunction, not two.

Then come words and sounds. 6) "Open the TV" and "close the light" (开, 关) instead of "turn on the TV" and "turn off the light". 7) "I played with my friends" (玩) where an adult would say "I hung out with my friends", and "How to say this in English?" (怎么说) instead of "How do you say this in English?" 8) "Yes" to a negative question when the meaning is no: if someone asks "You don't like it?" and you don't, say "No, I don't." 9) Sounds: dropped final consonants ("ca" for "cat"), "th" said as "s" ("sink" for "think"), "v" said as "w" ("wery" for "very") and clusters cut short ("firs" for "first"). 10) Stress: an English word has one syllable that is longer and louder, as in "comPUter" and "imPORtant", and the word is harder to recognize when every syllable gets the same weight.

A list on a screen does not change a speaking habit. What helps is saying the sentence out loud and seeing the fix while you are still in the conversation. Airi is a voice AI partner for that kind of practice: she answers out loud, shows one small fix at a time and keeps the conversation going. Below are the literal translations, word-order habits and sounds this list leaves out, and a routine for drilling them. Free to start, no card needed.

Literal translations from Chinese that English listeners notice

Chinese and English are unrelated languages with few look-alike words, so false friends are rare. The trap is a phrase that is perfect in Chinese, translated one word at a time. Listeners usually understand it, so it often goes uncorrected.

Six Chinese sentence habits that carry over into English grammar

• "Is" goes missing, then turns up in the wrong place. 她很忙 has no word for "is", so "She very busy" slips out. Overcorrecting gives "He is work at a bank." Use "is" before an adjective or a noun, never before a base verb: "She's very busy", "He works at a bank."
• Questions keep statement order. Chinese makes a question by adding 吗, or by putting the question word where the answer would go: 你想吃什么 is, word for word, "you want eat what". The subject and the verb never swap, which gives "Why you didn't come?" English puts a helping verb (do, did, is, can) before the subject: "Why didn't you come?", "What do you want to eat?"
• Time comes before the verb. 我每天坐地铁上班 becomes "I every day take the subway to work." English puts a time phrase such as "every day" or "last week" at the end, or sometimes at the very start: "I take the subway to work every day."
• The topic comes first. "My hometown, the weather is very hot" follows the Chinese order of topic, then comment. English wants a single subject: "The weather in my hometown is very hot" or "It's very hot in my hometown."
• Small words after verbs disappear. 等我 and 听音乐 need no preposition, so "wait me" and "listen music" feel complete. Say "wait for me" and "listen to music". Objects vanish too, because Chinese can leave them out: "Yes, I like" should be "Yes, I like it" or "Yes, I do."
• "A" or "the": a rough test. Chinese has no articles, so the choice is new. If 一个 would fit in the Chinese sentence, use "a". If 这个 or 那个 would fit, or the listener already knows which one you mean, use "the": "I bought a phone and a case. The phone was on sale."

English sounds that Mandarin syllables do not prepare you for

A Standard Mandarin syllable ends in a vowel, "n" or "ng" (or the "r" of 儿), and there are no consonant clusters like the "str" in "street". Mandarin has no "th" sounds and no "v", and most syllables carry a full tone, so they get similar weight. Many of the habits below follow from those facts.

How Chinese speakers can drill these patterns with Airi

Knowing the rule does not stop the Chinese sentence from arriving first. What helps is saying the English pattern many times in a real exchange. Airi answers out loud and shows one small fix at a time. She does not score pronunciation or analyze individual sounds, so use her for the grammar and word-choice patterns and treat the sound drills as your own work. The 600 free credits you get when you sign up with Google cover about eight minutes of speaking, enough for one or two of these drills.

1. Set the target: "Chinese is my first language. Please tell me when I say 'there have', leave out 'to' or 'for' after a verb, or ask a question without 'do' or 'did'."
2. For 有, say "Ask me about my city" and answer with "There is" and "There are": "There are two universities, and there's a night market near my apartment."
3. For question order, you ask the questions. Aim for eight in a row with the helping verb before the subject: "Why did you ...?", "Where do you ...?", "What are you ...?"
4. For time phrases and past forms, describe yesterday: "I walked to work, called a client and finished a report." Airi can show a fix when a past form is missing from your sentence, but she does not judge how clearly an ending was said. Record yourself on your phone and listen for the "-ed".
5. After each small fix, say the corrected sentence out loud, then reuse the pattern with a new noun or verb.

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Last updated: 2026-10-03