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

If your first language is Khmer, your English mistakes follow Khmer grammar and sounds — no tenses, no articles or plurals, one pronoun for he and she, unreleased final consonants, and a weak /r/. Transfer, not carelessness, and each one has a clear fix. (Good news: Khmer has plenty of consonant clusters, so "school" and "street" come out right.)

The big ones. 1) No tense change: "yesterday I go" → "went"; "I eat already" (haey) → "I've eaten". 2) "Have many people" (mian) → "There are many people". 3) He/she mixed ("koat" is gender-neutral): "My sister… he" → "she". 4) Missing articles and plurals: "I have meeting", "two book" → "a meeting", "two books". 5) "I very like" → "I really like"; "too much" for "very" → "very". 6) Questions without inversion: "You go where?", "You want what?" → "Where are you going?", "What do you want?". 7) "Open/close the light" (baek/bet) → "turn on/off"; "play with friends" (leng) → "hang out with friends". 8) Borrow and lend (khchei covers both): you borrow from someone; they lend to you. 9) Sounds: final consonants unreleased ("ca" for "cat"), final -s dropped (plurals unheard), /r/ as /l/ or silent ("lice" for "rice"), /v/ as /w/ ("wery"), "sh" as /s/ ("sip") — release the ending, tongue tip up and back for /r/. 10) Stress on the last syllable, Khmer-style ("comPUTER") → "comPUter"; one strong syllable per word.

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.

A quick example with Airi

Yesterday have many tourist at Angkor, I go there already with my brother, he very like it. You go where this weekend?

Very Khmer-to-English! Try: "There were a lot of tourists at Angkor yesterday — I went there with my brother, and he really liked it. Where are you going this weekend?"

There were a lot of tourists at Angkor yesterday, I went there with my brother, and he really liked it. Where are you going this weekend?

Perfect — 'there were', 'tourists', 'went', 'really', and a real question. Now 'rice' — tongue up and back: r-r-rice.

Try a conversation like this, free600 free credits, about 8 minutes of speaking. No card.

Khmer-to-English mistakes, with the Khmer pattern behind each

Khmer and English share subject-verb-object order. The slips come where Khmer grammar stops and English keeps going.

Khmer speakers often say	Natural English	The Khmer behind it
This soup spicy very.	This soup is really spicy.	Khmer adjectives work as verbs, so no "is" is needed, and ណាស់ (nah, "very") follows the adjective.
Why she not come to class?	Why didn't she come to class?	Khmer wraps the verb in មិន ... ទេ (min ... te) for "not". There is no helper like "did".
I bought a phone new.	I bought a new phone.	Khmer describing words follow the noun.
My mother work at the market.	My mother works at the market.	A Khmer verb has one form for every subject, and no Khmer syllable ends in s, so the ending is lost twice.
I study English three years already.	I've been studying English for three years.	ហើយ (haey, "already") at the end marks time up to now. English puts that into the verb, plus "for".
Can you borrow me your charger?	Can you lend me your charger?	ខ្ចី (khchei) is "borrow"; lending is ឲ្យខ្ចី, literally "give borrow". In English the giver lends.

Grammar that English marks and Khmer leaves to context

A Khmer word never changes its shape. Time, number and gender come from extra words or from context.

Verb tenses. Khmer adds a marker word: បាន (ban) for done, កំពុង (kompung) for in progress, នឹង (nung) for still to come. English changes the verb itself: "I called her last night." "I'm cooking right now." "I'll send it tomorrow."
Articles. Khmer has no "a" or "the". A singular countable noun needs one in English: "I found a job", then "The job starts in May" once the listener knows which.
Plurals. Khmer puts the number after an unchanged noun, as in សៀវភៅពីរ, word for word "book two". In English the noun carries the plural even after a number: "three tickets".
He and she. គាត់ (koat) covers "he", "she" and "they". English makes you choose every time, and "his" or "her" follows: "My aunt sold her shop."
Questions. A Khmer question word stays where the answer would go, and yes-or-no questions end in ទេ (te). English fronts the question word and adds a helper verb: "What did you buy?" "Does he live nearby?"

English sounds that are hard for Khmer speakers, and how to make them

Sh, th, z and the English v are not native Khmer sounds, so the nearest Khmer sound takes their place. That matters only where the swap makes a different English word.

Sound	Listeners may hear	How to make it	Pair to drill
sh in "she"	"see"	Start from s, pull the tongue back slightly and round your lips.	sip / ship
th in "think"	"sink"	Tongue tip lightly between the teeth, then blow.	sick / thick
th in "they"	"day"	The same position, with your voice on.	dare / there
z in "zoo"	"Sue"	Say s and add your voice until your throat buzzes.	price / prize
v in "vet"	"wet"	Khmer វ is close to w. For v, rest your top teeth on your lower lip.	west / vest

Word endings. A Khmer syllable closes with one consonant at most. Final p, t and k are held with no puff of air, and s, b and d never end a syllable. So "cars" can come out as "car" and "played" as "play". English keeps plurals and past tenses in those endings, so finish every word out loud: let the s hiss and the t or d be heard.

Word stress. Khmer stresses the last syllable of a word. Two-syllable English nouns tend to stress the first: TEA-cher, MAR-ket, DOC-tor.

Khmer verbs that split into several English verbs

These are not false friends. Each Khmer verb is wider than any one English verb, so word-for-word translation picks the wrong one.

Khmer verb	Its range in Khmer	English needs
បើក (baek)	Open, turn on, drive	"Open the window." "Turn on the fan." "She drives a truck."
មាន (mian)	Have, there is	"I have two brothers." "There's a pharmacy near my house."
លេង (leng)	Play, and anything done for fun: ទៅលេង is "go play", ដើរលេង is "walk play"	"I'm visiting my grandmother this weekend." "Let's go for a walk."

A practice plan with Airi for Khmer speakers

Airi answers out loud and shows one small fix when a sentence slips. She does not grade sounds, so do the sound drills with your phone's voice recorder. The free credits give about eight minutes of speaking: one habit per session.

For past tenses, tell her about last weekend. Every verb needs a past form: went, ate, met, watched.
For he and she, describe a man and a woman in your family, switching between them: "She teaches math. He fixes motorbikes."
For questions, ask her to play a new coworker and ask five questions with a helper verb: "Where do you live?" "What did you study?"
For "there is", describe your street: "There's a bakery on the corner. There are two schools nearby."
When a small fix appears, repeat the corrected sentence aloud before you go on.

How to get the most from it

'There are', not 'have'

Have many people → There are many people.

Change the verb for the past

'Yesterday' and 'already' aren't enough — 'went', 'ate'.

Curl the tongue for /r/

Rice, red, right — not 'lice'. Airi hears the difference.

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Frequently asked questions

Why do Khmer speakers say "have many people"?

Because មាន (mian) means both "have" and "there is". English splits the two: "I have a question", but "There are a lot of people here". It is transfer from Khmer, not carelessness, and the way to change it is to say "there is" and "there are" out loud in full sentences.

Why do Khmer speakers mix up he and she?

The everyday Khmer pronoun គាត់ (koat) is used for a man or a woman, so the choice English demands never comes up in Khmer. Slow down slightly at each pronoun until the choice becomes automatic, and remember that "his" and "her" follow it.

Why do Khmer speakers drop the ends of English words?

A Khmer syllable closes with one consonant at most, final p, t and k are not released, and s never ends a syllable. English endings such as -s and -ed, and clusters like the end of "next", have nothing to map to, so they are left out. The cost is grammar as well as sound, because plurals and past tenses live in those endings.

Which English sounds do not exist in Khmer?

The sh in "ship", both th sounds and z are not native Khmer sounds; sh and z turn up only in recent loanwords. The Khmer វ is also closer to w than to the English v. Khmer speakers tend to replace sh and the th of "think" with s, and the th of "they" with d.

Is Airi available in Cambodia?

Yes. Airi runs in the browser on a phone or laptop, anywhere in the world, with nothing to install. Sign up with Google and you start with 600 free credits, about eight minutes of speaking. After that there are one-off credit packs and no subscription.

Last updated: 2026-10-03