how to write an essay in english without grammar mistakes

How to Write Without Grammatical Errors: 9 Top Tips

Learn how to write without grammatical errors using our top tips.

No matter how eloquently you write or how captivating your story ideas, spelling, and grammar mistakes are offputting for readers. It doesn’t help that English is a complex language. So many grammar errors and spellings are easy to overlook as you write. But, this doesn’t mean you can’t fix them with the right skills and tools.

Thankfully, lots of tools are available to help you make ensure commas are in all of the right places and every preposition is used correctly.

Best Grammar Checker For 2023

• 1. Learn Basic Grammar Rules

3. Write Clearly and Concisely

• 4. Proofread Your Work

5. Write and Review At Different Times

6. read your work backwards.

• 7. Use A Spell Checker

8. Hire An Editor

Prowritingaid, a final word on how to write without grammatical errors, how can i write a paragraph without grammar mistakes.

• How to avoid grammatical errors in my writing?

1. Learn Basic  Grammar Rules

Before you can write without common grammatical errors, you must learn the rules. That way you can follow them… or break them. No tools and no amount of proofreading can overcome a lack of understanding of basic grammar rules.

Use online grammar classes to help you learn to avoid common grammatical mistakes. If you already have a solid handle on basic grammar, take a class to improve your sentence structure and word choices.

Read our guide to basic grammar rules .

Reading is just as important as daily writing.

Actively learning grammar rules is one thing, but nothing can help you understand how and why they work by reading. Reading will show you how to masterfully use these techniques in a way that flows well.

No matter how many times someone explains something like prepositional phrases, it just might not click until you read a really good example. A passage from a book might make much more sense than an example given in a grammar class. Plus, what you’re reading is likely to be similar to what you’re interested in writing. This can help you to see how you should be doing things.

Reading is also enjoyable and relaxing. What you’re reading doesn’t really matter – unless it’s super abstract poetry, which throws grammar out the window. It doesn’t matter if you’re reading a novel or any genre, a newspaper, or a magazine. As long as the writing is good, subconsciously learn what works.

Read our guide to the  best grammar books

If you’re writing something important like an academic essay or even submitting an article for publication, you will likely be penalized for grammar mistakes. Best not to take too many chances while you’re still learning. Stick to what you know first. Keep your writing concise and clear.

Hemingway Editor  is ideal for producing concise, clear prose, and it’s free.

For example, if you’re struggling to understand when to use semi-colons, write shorter sentences instead. If what you’re writing is strictly personal, like a piece of fiction you don’t plan on publishing or a diary entry, you can practice and experiment with grammar rules until you get it right.

If it’s not an essay or business piece, you also don’t always have to listen to the  grammar nazis .

4.  Proofread  Your Work

When writing, always proofread your work prior to hitting submit or publish. This will help you catch basic spelling errors and typos. Proofreading also helps you double-check your word choice and sentence structure. You might not notice repetitive words or crutch phrases you use until revision time. While these might not always count as grammatical errors, they can be annoying for readers.

When you proofread, consider reading out loud. Many writers overlook writing mistakes when reading silently because their minds naturally read the sentence with the correct usage of the word.

If it’s a long piece, I recommend changing the font to Courier and the size to 14. Then print it out. This way, your eye will spot issues more easily.

Read our list of proofreading tips .

Even if you’re a pro at grammar rules and know how to use independent clauses, a semicolon or an apostrophe correctly, you can still make silly mistakes. Lots of typos aren’t caught because the writer has been looking at the same document for a long time.

So, if you have tired eyes, these little errors aren’t going to jump out. Even if you’ve already proofread your work in the same sitting, you might not catch everything.

If you’re not on an immediate deadline, take a short break from the work and then return to editing. Once you come back, you’re likely to notice some more errors.

If you’re in a rush, change the font. This will also make the piece look fresher, so you can catch more errors. Change the font back to the original once you’re done.

Alternatively, if you’re writing in something like WordPress, rather than proofreading through the backend, select “Preview.” Once you see the piece laid out like it will when published, some more mistakes will catch your eye.

As mentioned above, sometimes the problem isn’t that you don’t know grammar rules. It’s down to missing obvious mistakes because you’ve labored over a piece for hours.

Another method of catching grammar mistakes is to proofread your piece from the bottom up. This will also make the body of work look fresh and different in your mind, so you’re much more likely to find errors that have been there the whole time.

7. Use A  Spell Checker

After you proofread your piece, use spell check software to scan for common English. These are often built into your word processing software, but paid versions with more reports are available too.

A spell checker will catch errors that you missed in your personal proofreading. Set for American English or British English, depending on where you are writing.

However, this built-in software can be limited. If you really want to ensure you have every adverb and participle in the right place, you will need the help of a proofreader. They’ll pick up on issues like misspelled names.

Read our guide to the best spell checker software .

Sometimes, it’s just hard to understand the rules. How a book explains a certain grammar rule might not make sense at first read. If that’s the case, ask a friend or even an editor to look at your piece. There’s no shame in needing a little extra help.

While a grammar checker might catch an error, if you don’t understand why it was wrong in the first place, you’ll probably keep making the same mistakes over and over again.

So, don’t be afraid to ask someone else to take a look at what you’ve written. Be sure to ask them to explain why they’re making certain changes to the piece. Once you understand, you probably won’t encounter the issue again. 

If it’s a short piece, show a friend, family member or a colleague. It’s a longer piece, like a book draft, hire an editor using a service like  Reedsy .

9. Use Grammar Checking Software

If you want to eliminate all English grammar errors in your writing, invest in some English grammar checking software. This software is more robust than the checkers built into your word processor. It checks structure for problems like dangling modifiers or split infinitives. Some grammar checkers can even offer writing tips, suggestions to avoid word overuse or help so you can write more like a native speaker.

We’ve profiled some of the best grammar checkers out there, but here are three top selections:

Grammarly is our top choice for grammar checking. It has two options; a free option and a paid option. With the free option, you’ll get excellent grammar checking and spell checking tools, as well as help with often confused words and punctuation problems.

If you are looking for writing tips and even more in-depth suggestions about sentence structure, go for the paid version. It will help you avoid wordy sentences and give you suggestions for overused words.

To use Grammarly, you can either upload your document to the online grammar checker website, or you can put a plugin on your browser or word processor to check your grammar as you write. Grammar suggestions show up in a sidebar, making it easy to scroll through and make appropriate changes.

Read our Grammarly review

ProWritingAid integrates with your word processor and has a desktop app and plugin you can use for other writing needs. You can also paste your text into a web editor to use this grammar checker.

ProWritingAid has many different types of reports about your writing. It not only checks grammar but also provides tips that let you improve your writing skills, such as suggestions to remove cliches from your writing and improve overall sentence structure. It also offers a Flesch Reading Score readability metric, so you can see just how easy your piece is to read.

When you put your piece into ProWritingAid, it pops up with suggestions on the sidebar. Click on the suggestion to automatically make the change and improve your writing.

Read our  ProWritingAid review

Ginger is one of the older grammar checkers available to today’s writers. It has a browser extension for Chrome and both Windows and iOS apps. It highlights grammar and spelling errors and provides suggestions to limit overused words.

If you want to get context and explanations for the grammar mistakes found in Ginger, you need the premium version. Once you complete your English writing, you can use Ginger to translate it into many different languages, which is helpful if you write for an international audience.

Ginger has a strong grammar checker, but it may not catch every missed commas. To change the errors highlighted, hover over them with your mouse and select the change. It also has a virtual writing tutor and translation features that can help non-native English speakers use the software.

Read our Ginger vs Grammarly comparison

Writing without grammar mistakes should be the goal of every English writer, unless you’re consciously breaking the rules! Remember, you always need to double-check your writing for problems like subject-verb agreement or sentence fragments. Thankfully, you can use software and proofreading tools to get started.

Although these tools are good, no software is a replacement for the human editor and a firm knowledge of how to write.

FAQs on How to Write Without  Grammatical Errors

To write a paragraph without grammar mistakes, first, you must know English grammar well. Then, you need to write the paragraph and proofread it thoroughly. Finally, you need to use grammar checking software to check it further for any remaining grammar mistakes and errors.

How to avoid  grammatical errors  in my writing?

To avoid grammar mistakes in your writing, make sure you use a number of different grammar-checking software options. This will ensure you find all potential mistakes before publishing your work.

Nicole Harms has been writing professionally since 2006. She specializes in education content and real estate writing but enjoys a wide gamut of topics. Her goal is to connect with the reader in an engaging, but informative way. Her work has been featured on USA Today, and she ghostwrites for many high-profile companies. As a former teacher, she is passionate about both research and grammar, giving her clients the quality they demand in today's online marketing world.

View all posts

Tutorialdeep

English Grammar Tutorial

Advertisements

Tutorialdeep » blog » English Writing FAQS » How to Write Without Grammatical Mistakes (7 Proven Tips)

How to Write Without Grammatical Mistakes (7 Proven Tips)

• By : Roshan Parihar
• / In : English Writing FAQS

Last Updated on July 22, 2022 by Roshan Parihar

If you want to learn how to write without grammatical mistakes, you have come to the right place. The short answer is to use the grammar checker tools to easily find out errors and mistakes. It does not require English grammar knowledge to use and eliminate errors.

Learning English grammar can be a tough task for you and complex for beginners. It’s hard to improve your grammar skills by learning grammar. You need more practice and expertise to learn and eliminate mistakes in English.

When English is not your primary language, it can be the biggest challenge for you to learn it. If you are a writer, you definitely need to write error-free content.

In this post, you will learn how to write without grammatical mistakes in English. You can easily fix your grammar mistakes with the right tools and tips given here. So, let’s get started.

Affiliate Disclosure: At Tutorialdeep, we believe in transparency for our users. In this blog, there are some referral links. If you signup with these links we will earn some commission at no extra cost to you. We recommend these links because they are our trusted brands.

Table of Contents

Common Grammatical Mistakes in English

• Incorrect Use of Tenses : If you use ‘ have take ‘ in your sentence, you are using the wrong tense. The correct form is ‘ have taken ‘ according to the English grammar tenses.
• Missing or Misplaced Comma : Comma creates a pause when used correctly makes a meaningful sentence. If you use ‘ English is not, a mother tongue ‘, it makes the wrong meaning. You have to use ‘ English is not a mother tongue ‘ that makes a meaningful sentence.
• Spelling Mistakes : the English language has many complex words to spell. You need to know the correct spelling of the word to write meaningful sentences. Using wrong spelling makes your sentence meaningless. For example, if you use ‘ Goverment ‘, you are missing ‘ n ‘ in the word. The correct spelling is ‘ Government ‘.
• Missing or Wrongly Added Apostrophes : Apostrophes are a little bit confusing when you don’t have an idea of how to use them. For example: if you use ‘ The recipient email address is full ‘, it contains an error of apostrophe. The correct word is ‘ recipient’s ‘ to replace it with ‘ recipient ‘ in the sentence.
• Subject-Verb Agreement Rules : The verb in a sentence must match the subject. You have to find out the singular and plural use of the verb. For example: if you use ‘ It go ‘, you are using the wrong subject-verb. The subject is singular where you have to use ‘ It goes ‘ to make a correct subject-verb agreement.
• Comma Splices : Splice means connecting one sentence with another. Connecting two independent sentences together is called comma splices. For example, If you use ‘ I was hungry, I have taken lunch ‘, you are using a comma splice that’s wrong here. The correct use is ‘ I was hungry. So, I have taken lunch ‘.

How to Check and Correct Grammatical Mistakes While Writing (2 Top Tools)

Here are the top 2 tools that can help you easily check and correct grammatical mistakes while writing:-

#1. Grammarly

Grammarly is the #1 tool to easily write without making grammatical mistakes in English. The tool comes with free and paid options.

In the free option, you can Eliminate Spelling Errors, Comma Errors, Comma Splices, Grammar Mistakes, Punctuation Errors, and many more. It can help you easily find out the errors and eliminate them while writing online.

If you are a beginner, you can start with a free version that marks all the errors you made in your writing. After that, you just have to take your mouse over these errors and writing mistakes. You will get suggestions for corrections that you made in your writing. You can click the suggestion to make the correction to your content.

For more advanced suggestions on lengthy sentence structure and extra clear writing, you can go for the premium plan. The premium plan comes with features like Tone Adjustment Suggestions, Correct Use of Sentences, Plagiarism, Professional Writing Suggestions, and many more.

To use Grammarly, you can add the Grammarly Chrome extension to check your writing mistakes while online. After installation of the extension, you check and eliminate errors directly on Gmail, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. It also comes with an extension for All Major Browsers, Windows, Mac, MS Office, Google Docs, iPhone, iPad, etc.

➜ Try Grammarly Now (It’s free)

#2. ProWritingAid

ProWritingAid is the premium tool to easily check English writing mistakes while writing online. It is specially designed for Professional Writers, Publishers, and Authors. You will get an in-depth analysis of your writing and real-time suggestions.

It can help you easily check and correct mistakes while writing online. You will get real-time unique suggestions on Grammar Mistakes, Spelling Errors, Comma Errors, Punctuation, and many other writing mistakes.

You can easily improve your sentences and create meaningful content for your audience. It comes with an extension for All Major Browsers, Windows, MAC, MS Office, Google Docs, and many other integrations.

The advanced tracking reports help you easily find out your progress in writing. You can easily identify what type of mistakes you have done in your writing. This can increase your creative writing skills as after getting reports, you can focus more on your weak points.

➜ Try ProWritingAid Now

Tips to Write Without Grammatical Mistakes (7 Proven Tips)

Here are proven tips that you can follow to write without Grammatical mistakes:-

1. Write Short Form Sentences

Short forms of sentences can bring more value to your audience. Long sentences are difficult to understand the meaning and the purpose. When you start using short sentences in your content, you can actually help them easily understand the meaning of the sentence.

You can also be writing short sentences easily without making writing mistakes. If you make any mistakes in writing, shorter sentences are easier to make corrections with the above tools.

It can help you in writing a clear form of sentences without giving extra load to your audience. You can make easily make your content more readable with good writing.

2. Proofread Your Content

Proofreading is the process to read your written content and marking errors in writing or make corrections to sentences. After you have completed writing your content, you should cross-check your content before making it live for your audience.

Check for Spelling Mistakes, Duplicate Words, Phrases that are not Meaningful, etc. Revise your work and mark the errors and mistakes in your writing. After that, make corrections to your mistakes to eliminate errors.

The primary goal of proofreading is to highlight common mistakes. Proofreading can consistently improve your reading and writing skills. You can easily remove the negative part of your writing that can damage your reputation as a writer.

3. Learn Grammar Rules

Learning grammar can help you know to exact rules of writing the correct form of sentences in English. Start from Parts of Speech as it’s the important part of English grammar. After that, learn about Tenses to know the correct use of the subject, verb, and object.

The correct use of grammar also comes from reading passages, Essays, and newspapers. Start reading English newspapers loudly to learn phrases. Reading loudly can help you remember the correct use of grammar in your writing.

Apply your reading in your writing and read and write daily. At the starting point of reading and writing, you may write manually. But, after practicing more, you will write technically and more professionally without making grammar mistakes.

4. Find Correct Spelling of the Word Online

Making spelling mistakes is common as it’s not possible to know the correct spelling of all the words present in a dictionary. In that case, you can use Google to find the correct spelling of your words.

Write a few letters of your word on Google to get the correct spelling. For example: if you write the spelling ‘ Goverment ‘, it’s wrong and the correct spelling is ‘ Government ‘. When you write a few letters of this word, you will get the exact correct spelling from the online dictionary of Google as shown below.

Similarly, you find the correct spelling of other words present in your content. This way, you can also remember the correct spelling and will not make spelling mistakes in the future with more practice.

5. Think More Before Writing

Think more and more before you write anything. Focus more on the meaning of the content you want to explain to your audience with your writing.

Create an overview of your content and start writing from start to end. Write paragraphs with headings that can help people easily understand the topic. Thinking habits can help you write quality content and bring more value to your audience.

Take a copy and pen and write the main topic of your content. After that, write the heading for which you want to create inner content. After that, you can start writing content for each heading. Write short sentences with clear meaning. Also, write only two to three-line paragraphs that look easy to read for people.

Writing without thinking cannot help you create meaningful content for your audience. So, thinking is important before writing anything.

6. Practice More

To write without grammatical mistakes, you need to keep writing content each day. It can also increase your writing habit. Read your content often times to make corrections to your content.

Every people make mistakes even a native English speaker can make mistakes while writing. With each mistake, you will learn different lessons to easily improve your content. With each day of practice, your writing will improve.

Practice can also improve your English grammar to write without grammatical mistakes. Look for more examples online and read them to remember and write the correct content.

7. Hire a Professional Content Writer

If you still think, you cannot easily follow the above rules and make corrections to your writing. You can hire a professional writer to write content without grammatical mistakes.

When you make corrections to your writing, you should learn and remember the errors and possible corrections. If it’s hard for you to remember the possible correction, you can use the English writing tool (like Grammarly and ProWritingAid) to easily find and eliminate them.

However, if you still think you cannot write good content for your audience yourself. Professional writers can help you easily write quality content that brings more value to your audience. You can easily hire professional writers from HireWriters . They only offer the highest qualified native English-speaking writers.

FAQS on How to Write Without Grammatical Mistakes

Q1. how can i improve my grammar mistakes when writing.

Answer : To improve your grammar mistakes when writing, you need to write daily and practice more. When you practice writing daily, you will become a pro in writing content. After a few months, you will definitely find some difference in your writing ability. It improves gradually with each piece of content your write.

Find out what are the common mistakes you made in English. After that, take a copy and pen and write the type of mistake to make in English writing. Work on these mistakes and practice daily. You will definitely write better without making mistakes.

Q2. How Can You Avoid the Grammatical Errors?

Answer : Here are the top 5 ways to avoid grammatical errors:-

• Write Short Form Sentences
• Proofread Your Content
• Learn Grammar Rules
• Find Correct Spelling of the Word Online
• Practice More

Q3. What are Five of the 10 Common Mistakes?

Answer : Here are the five of the 10 common mistakes:-

• Duplicate words
• Comma mistakes
• Spelling mistakes
• Subject-verb agreement
• Wrongly added apostrophes

Q4. How to Write English Without Spelling Mistakes?

Answer : The first solution is To write English without spelling mistakes, you need the first mark the words that look tough to spell. After that, use Google to find the correct spelling of your marked words. Type a few starting letters of the word in Google to get the correct spelling from an online dictionary. If your spelling contains errors, you can replace it with the correct word that you have just found online.

The second solution is to use the Grammarly tool that automatically marks all the words containing spelling errors and mistakes. After that, you can take your mouse over those marked words to get the correct spelling from the dictionary. You need to just click the suggestion to replace it with words containing spelling errors.

Conclusion on How to Write Without Grammatical Mistakes

Making mistakes is common among every people. If you are a native English speaker, you can make mistakes while writing. You need a tool that can help you easily find your mistakes and give suggestions for correction.

Grammarly tool is a top-notch solution that can help you check writing errors and mistakes while writing. It is an online tool that requires an only internet connection to find and eliminate mistakes in real-time.

So, what are you waiting for ➜ Try Grammarly Now (It’s free)

Learning English grammar is a tough task for writers. You can take the benefits of the Grammarly tool to easily write content and make corrections while writing offline or online on Facebook, Gmail, Twitter, and many others.

Related Posts:

• How to Write Emails Without Grammar Mistakes (Top 3 Tips)
• How to Write English Without Spelling Mistakes (Top 3 Tips)

Leave a comment

Cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

• HTML Reference
• CSS Property
• jQuery Reference
• HTML Attributes
• MS Excel Functions

Common Grammar Mistakes In Writing Essays With Examples

If you’re a student, essay writing is probably the main challenge of your academic life. Not only finding compelling ideas for your essays can be difficult, but you also have to follow strict grammatical rules or your ideas may be entirely rejected. Learning about common grammar mistakes is the first step to avoid grammatical traps.

You’ve probably noticed there are grammatical rules that can easily become confusing in certain contexts. While studying grammar may seem tedious, making a grammar mistake can undermine all your efforts in writing a good essay.

List Of The Most Common Grammar Mistakes

Most  common writing mistakes  can easily be avoided if you pay attention to each sentence and keep in mind some rules that can avoid confusing situation. The grammar mistakes examples below should help you take your writing to the next level.

Subject-Verb Agreement

The subject of a sentence must always be in agreement with the verb. They are both either singular or plural.

The best band at the concert was on the main stage.

The best bands at the concert were on the main stage.

Who vs. That

Formally, when writing about a person or a named animal, you must use “who”. The word “that” must be used only to refer to objects or animals without a name.

The girl who spoke is my sister.

The dog that runs was not mine.

There vs. Their vs. They’re

This is certainly one of the most common grammar mistakes in English that even many native speakers struggle with. To understand the differences between these similar words, it is important to remember that “there” expresses a location, “their” is a possessive pronoun, and “they’re” is a contraction of “they are”.

Their house is there.

They’re in their house.

Your vs. You’re

To avoid this common grammatical error, it is enough to remember that “your” refers to owning something, while “you’re” refers to being something.

Your bag is on the table.

You’re great!

You’re at home, and your sister is at school.

Its vs. It’s

The simplest way to avoid this confusion is to check what exactly you want to express because while “its” is a possessive term, “it’s” is a contraction of “it is”.

It’s great to be here.

My phone is great, but its screen is cracked.

Dangling Modifiers

One of the most common grammar mistakes, a dangling modifier occurs when a word or phrase is improperly separated from the words it describes or modifies. Writing thus gets confusing and awkward.

Incorrect:  After getting dirty, Paul washed the car.

Correct:  After getting dirty, the car needed a wash.

Many people confuse the two in writing, especially since they are both personal pronouns. To distinguish them, remember that “I” is always the subject of the sentence while “me” is the object.

Send the work to me.

He and I work in the same office.

Who vs. Whom

This is one of the most common grammatical errors among native speakers as well. While “who” always refers to the subject of a sentence, “whom” refers to the object of a verb or preposition.

To whom did you send the letter?

Whose vs Who’s

“Who’s” is the contraction of “who is” while “whose” expresses ownership.

Whose jacket is this?

Who’s in the house?

Less vs. Fewer

This is a common confusion that can easily be explained. You can only use “fewer” for quantifiable things and “less” for things that aren’t quantifiable.

I took fewer trips than usual.

I did less work than usual.

Comma Splice

To separate two independent clauses, many believe that using a comma is enough. A comma, however, cannot connect two independent clauses unless you also use a coordinating conjunction such as and, nor, but, or, yet, for, so. To avoid a comma splice, you can use a semicolon instead of a comma.

Incorrect:  Maria left the park, she went to the cinema.

Correct:  Maria left the park, and she went to the cinema.

Was Vs. Were With The Subjunctive

The subjunctive is used to express hypothetical situations or hopes. While it is not difficult to use, there is a rule that people often forget: when the subject is oneself or a singular object, you should use “were” instead of “was”.

Incorrect:  If I was rich, I would buy a mansion.

Correct:  If I were rich, I would buy a mansion.

Faulty parallelism

This grammatical mistake refers to having paired constructions or items in a series which are not grammatically similar in form.

Incorrect:  He loved music, food, and plays football.

Correct:  He loved music, food, and playing football.

Imprecise Use of Pronouns

Pronouns are meant to replace nouns to make writing flow better, but when a person or thing a pronoun refers is unclear, this can leave the reader confused.

Incorrect:  When Ana found her sister, she was happy.

Correct:  Ana was happy when she found her sister.

Colon Mistakes

The colon is useful when you want to introduce a word, phrase, list, or quotation after a complete sentence. The role of the colon is to suggest that what follows is an explanation of a complete sentence.

Incorrect:  I love: music, food, and sports.

Correct:  I love three things: music, food, and sports.

Then vs. Than

These two words are often confused in writing, although they serve different grammatical functions. While “than” is a conjunction most commonly used in comparisons, “then” is an adverb that situates actions in time.

Correct:  My house is bigger than yours.

First I saw you, then I saw him.

Of vs. Have

Due to speech contractions, grammatical mistakes such as writing “should of” instead of “should have” are prevalent even among English native speakers. For many, “should of” sounds like a shortened version of “should have”. The actual shortened version, however, is “should’ve”.

Incorrect:  I should of done my homework.

Correct:  I should’ve done my homework.

The role of semicolons is to connect two independent clauses that are closely related, so it makes sense to join them. The semicolon is also useful when looking to separate items in a list when those items contain commas.

Send me the text; I’ll provide some feedback.

You have two options: go to Paris, where you will spend a lot of money; or go to Avignon, where it is cheaper.

Between vs. Among

The word “between” is used usually to refer to two things that are clearly distinct from each other. The word “among” is used to refer to things that are part of a group or mass of objects, so they are clearly separated.

I walk among my friends.

I chose between pizza or a hamburger.

Missing the Comma after an Introductory Phrase

While some overuse commas, others forget to add them. Without all the proper commas in place, your writing loses its natural flow. Adding a comma after the introductory phrase is essential to maintain a rhythm.

Incorrect:  After I went home I had to do some work. Correct:  After I went home, I had to do some work.

Like many other languages, English is a complex system with some tricky rules which cannot be logically inferred.  Developing writing skills , however, is impossible without a good grasp of all the grammatical intricacies.

Tools That Help Minimize Common Grammatical Errors In Your Essay

If you’re still not confident in your grammar skills and would like some help, there are several professional tools that allow you to keep your writing in check and quickly identify most prevalent grammatical errors in your essay.

A powerful writing assistant based on artificial intelligence, Grammarly is one of the most powerful grammar tools on the web. It can quickly scan your text and identify all common grammar mistakes in writing.

Ginger Grammar Checker

Using innovative technology, Ginger Grammar Checker can quickly correct grammar and spelling mistakes, without disregarding the context of each sentence.

Virtual Writing Tutor

Virtual Writing Tutor is a grammar check and proofreading website. The software provides accurate and comprehensive suggestions that can help you correct your grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

Using these tools does not prevent you from all possible mistakes, including those mentioned in the previous paragraphs, but this will definitely provide you with that double-check option to ensure that everything you wrote sounds the way you wanted.

How To Become A Better Writer?

Writing a good essay is a challenge, but there are several  steps to writing an essay  which can make the task easier if you take some aspects into consideration.

Edit Thoroughly

Editing is not a task for a couple of minutes after spending hours or days working on an essay. Good writers suggest you should spend at least two hours editing for every hour you spend writing. When writing, you focus on the content, and during editing you focus on form, correcting grammar mistakes and bringing your essay to a concise and powerful shape.

Know the Rules

Grammar is tedious, but it is more tedious to doubt every sentence because you are uncertain whether you are using the correct structure and whether your punctuation makes sense. Learning grammar rules gives you a certain ease in writing and allows you to write clear sentences fast.

When writing, most of us focus on our ideas, but the truth is, presenting those ideas is equally important. Grammar problems indicate a lack of professionalism and can easily invalidate your great ideas. Learning the essentials of grammar is a long-term investment that will help you carve perfect essays effortlessly.

Don't waste time

Get a professional assistance from certified experts right now

You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience.

• How it works
• Homework answers

How to Write an Essay with No Mistakes

Everyone knows the life lesson “you learn from your mistakes” and “no one is perfect.” Although these may ring true, there are certain things in life that you should dramatically decrease the margin for errors and mistakes, and school is one of them. 

Not only does your future depend on your mistakes or lack thereof, but it’s also something that you can work on and improve, especially when it comes to writing. Far and few people write something once and have it be perfect. It goes through several drafts and edits until it’s absolutely perfect.

You might be thinking, “how can I write so perfectly?” There are several secrets that can save you and your writing scores and assignments. 

Make good writing habits 

This will be your savior in your future writing endeavors. But what is a good writing habit, actually? Remember that habits are behaviors that are formed and repeated over a long period of time. These aren’t instant changes and will require you to practice these things over and over again. 

Take your time. The biggest thing that students do that leads to mistakes is moving too quickly. You rush everything and miss all the obvious mistakes but even more so missing all the small mistakes. Take the time you need to make sure your essay is in tip-top shape. Remember that time wasn’t built in a day, and your perfect essay isn’t either. 

Spell Check as you go. People usually use spell check at the very end of the writing process. You’re better off using spellcheck and autocorrect sooner than later so you can catch all those misspellings and even grammar mistakes when you make them. 

Read and reread every sentence you write out loud. When you’re writing it seems like what you write sounds good, but actually there’s a small mistake. If you read your sentences out loud it might make less sense than it was in your head. Doing this will significantly reduce the amount of mistakes you have.

Organize your thoughts. You may think it’s a waste of time and you’re better off doing something else like actually writing, but the planning stage is crucial. Making outlines and putting your thoughts into diagrams will help you write quicker and more efficiently. Your spur of the moment ideas can be written down and organized into your essay rather than get lost inside your brain! 

Revise revise revise! Once you think you’re done, it’s necessary to check it over and have someone else check it over. We all know the feeling of rushing towards the end of an assignment just to get it done, and this causes mistakes. Make your due diligence and double, triple, and quadruple check your work to make absolutely sure that it’s perfect. 

What are the most common mistakes?

When writing essays, you can run into a number of problems. For each student, their problems may vary, but there are several pitfalls that students just can’t seem to avoid. Here’s some things to do instead, and how you can fix these common mistakes. 

Run-On Sentences

These are the types of sentences that can drag on for an entire paragraph, usually missing some line break or punctuation mark. Students want to sound smarter by making longer sentences, but in the end they just make it more unreadable and sometimes just awful.

Instead: Be efficient with your words. This means removing the fluff and getting straight to the point. The less words it takes you to make a point the better off you’ll be. Students usually try to add “fluff” to make it sound sophisticated, but actually your professors can see right through it. Different verb tenses and vocabulary words can help you manage your efficiency. You’ll score higher marks if your professor can read your essay without any comprehension problems. On top of that, your essay will convey your meetings much better. 

Too Repetitious

Some of us aren’t as creative and can’t think of other ways to express an idea in the form of a sentence or words. So you use words that are familiar to the topic – even if it means repeating it. It’s okay if the same word or phrase is used again, but only do so sparingly. This demonstrates your lack of vocabulary. 

Instead: Use a thesaurus. The best writers forget all sorts of words, so they lean on thesauruses to help them out. A writer’s best friend, a thesaurus can help you avoid repetition and upgrade your language. Just make sure the word is being used appropriately in the right context. Using a thesaurus also improves your vocabulary, allowing you to look at new words you might not have ever used before. Some thesauruses even have phrases and idioms to go along with your word.

Sentences are too simple

Although we want to avoid run-on sentences, we also want to avoid making the essay too simple and easy to read. The English language employs several different verb forms and lots of different ways to linguistically organize your ideas. Think about relative clauses, passive voice, phrasal verbs, and so on. If you use a good combination of grammar, you won’t have to worry about your sentences being too simple AND avoiding run-on sentences. You’ll kill two birds with one stone!

Instead: Practice your grammar. If you’re looking to write with no mistakes, grammar will be your best friend. It’ll help you avoid blunders in language and comprehension and will tighten up your essay. The difference between “then” and “than” is important for the meaning. Just as using the word 

Finding the right way to write an essay isn’t easy, because there isn’t a right or wrong way. There are several ways for you to learn how to write an essay with no mistakes – and some of them are formed habits that will take some time to develop. The best thing to do is to make sure you look over your essay several times, and adjust accordingly. There’s no such thing as perfect, but with these tips you can get very close.

• More Networks

British Council Germany

• Teach English
• Show search Search Search Close search

How to write an essay in English

By ielts expert, 29 june 2023 - 16:00.

Many students say writing is the worst part of their English, but it’s often just a case of confidence. With practice, and the tips in this post, you can gain the confidence you need to maximise your English and really show it off. This post will look at the three stages of writing - planning, writing the text and reading it back.

If you are preparing for an exam, please be aware that for the latest information on exam format you should always go straight to the source – IELTS website . You can practice free online IELTS Academic Writing tests or General Training Writing tests . You can also practice writing your answer by downloading an IELTS Writing Answer Sheet .

Planning is an integral part of your writing. You might say “I don’t plan”, but somewhere in your subconscious, you do! By raising your awareness of your own planning process you can improve enormously. As a teacher, I see many students who plan and many who don’t. In general, the students that plan produce much better work, so if you are in the “no plan” camp, you should at least experiment with some of the ideas coming up.

Planning 1: Address the question

If you are writing for a class assignment or an exam, it is crucial that you address the question given. Adequate planning (five minutes is better than nothing) will keep you on track. 

Start by breaking the question down into its parts. There will usually be two or three aspects to the question. You want not only to cover all aspects of the question, but also make it obvious to your teacher or the examiner that you have done so, and the best way to demonstrate this is to give each aspect its own paragraph.

Planning 2: Brainstorm vocabulary as well as ideas

Once you have identified your paragraphs, think about what vocabulary you have at your disposal. Perhaps you would like to write one paragraph from a particular angle, but when you start planning you might find there are holes in your vocabulary and you are better able to write from a different angle. Choose ideas which best overlap with what you can clearly state in English.

Planning 3: Write chunks of language

Even with all the vocabulary in the world, some ideas are complex to express in writing. Causality, speculation and hypothetical scenarios are all abstract concepts which make it more challenging to say exactly what you want, but these are also an opportunity to push your English ability to the max and show your grammatical range. 

Sound out in your head how you will make your arguments, and when you get stuck, try writing this part down in your plan. It might be a whole sentence of just a clause. This will help you decide if you have enough English ability to get across a really impressive idea, or if you need to simplify your thoughts in order to remain clear to the reader.

Writing the text 1: Use your plan!

I have seen many students write logical, competent plans that address the question, only to go off on a random tangent when they start writing! 

Of course, you might change some things as you go along, for example if you have a new idea, but keeping an eye on your plan will prevent you from getting distracted and bring you back to the question you must answer. It will also keep you aware of how you are doing for word count and time.

Writing the text 2: Write your introduction last

You should at least consider this idea. The purpose of an introduction is to tell the reader what they are going to read, so how can you write the introduction when you haven’t written the content yet?

Introductions are fiddly to write on a blank canvas, but much easier when we already have the content written in front of us.

If you are writing on paper, it is still possible to write the introduction last - you just need to leave a few lines for it.

Writing the text 3: Make sure your introduction and conclusion match

Your introduction and conclusion should also match the content of your main body paragraphs. This might seem obvious, but I wish I had a euro for every time I have seen an introduction passionately in favour of something followed by body paragraphs and a conclusion that were passionately against.

This problem can be avoided by writing your conclusion last, as suggested above. It will also be avoided by planning, and thinking a little more deeply how you feel about the question before you start. When I say a little more deeply, I’m talking about a minute or so, not hours.

Writing the text 4: Use linkers

Linkers are often misunderstood as simply a way of showing “formal English” but in fact, we use linkers all the time, even when chatting with friends. We use them in speech and in writing to indicate “I’m going to add to what was just said,”  “I’m going to contradict what was just said,” and generally to help the listener or reader understand where we are going next.

After writing the text

This is another area where many students are very reluctant - you need to read what you wrote! 

Check for spelling errors, missing third person s, capital letters, whatever errors you are prone to make… and if you don’t know what errors you are prone to make, it’s because you aren’t checking your writing, so you need to start today! You can be the expert on your own writing strengths and weaknesses, and this will just make you better and better.

Moreover, you should read back your text because it’s enjoyable to see how skillfully you put your ideas down and how convincing your arguments are. You did it! Well done! Enjoy the moment with some positivity!

• Test dates, fees and locations
• Prepare for your IELTS test
• Study abroad with IELTS
• Why choose IELTS?

• EXPLORE Random Article

How to Avoid Common Usage and Grammar Mistakes

Last Updated: April 2, 2023

wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, 19 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. This article has been viewed 101,921 times.

Are people always nagging you about your improper grammar? Are the grammar police hunting you down? With this nifty guide, you will be able to improve your English language skills with ease.

Grammar Help

Avoiding Common Mistakes

• Grammar checkers usually only cover the basics. Ask an English teacher or someone else proficient at English grammar to help.

• "Sofia and I are eating tacos for dinner tonight." (" I " is the subject because if you remove "Sofia and" and replace "are" with "am", you'll see that the sentence will still make sense.) "I am eating tacos for dinner tonight."
• " Me " would be the subject in the following sentence: "Would you like to have dinner with Sofia and me?" (Still not convinced? Remove "Sofia and" from that sentence and re-read it.) "Would you like to have dinner with me?"
• "Your acne has really cleared up!"
• "Thanks! You're the first person to notice."
• "Bye, Mom. I'm going to the movies with Danny and Logan. They're going to meet me at the front."
• "Do you know how to get there by yourself in case they're late?"
• "Yeah. Their sister showed me how to get there from here."
• "They're going there with their sister too?"
• "No, it's just the three of us."
• "Look, Nate! A frog! It's hiding behind the leaves."
• "Wow, its eyes are huge!"
• "The girls' dog likes to bark a lot."
• "Hobart's dog likes to bite a lot."
• A good exception to note: Children is already plural, so for possession, you add the apostrophe before the s, even though there is more than one individual; you'd say "children's dog."
• "I walked out of my house and then locked the door."
• "I would rather lock my door than have someone break in while I'm gone."
• "The disastrous hurricane affected many people."
• "The overall effect was that homes and businesses were destroyed."
• "Have you been good to your little sister today, Tommy?"
• "Yeah, she still doesn't feel well."
• "I just got invited to Keith's pool party."
• "Wow, me too!"

• Taco -----> Tacos
• Branch -----> Branches
• Movie -----> Movies
• Baby -----> Babies

• "Who forgot his or her lunch in the cubby?" ( Who is the subject of this sentence.) The common mistake people would make is, "Who forgot their lunch..." or even worse, "Who forgot there lunch...". My goodness... the tingles are crawling up my back already.

• "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost
• "My Girl" by The Temptations
• __Of Mice and Men__ by John Steinbeck
• __Back to the Future__, the movie

• Incorrect : I love pumpkin pie, it's my favorite dessert.
• Correct : I love pumpkin pie; it's my favorite dessert.
• Incorrect : There are so many things I'd like to see, and so many things, I want to do in the city.
• Correct : There are so many things I'd like to see, as well as do, in the city.
• (Commas are often used as another form of parenthesis (). By using a set of commas like in the correct sentence above, you can avoid a run-on sentence. To make sure you're using this trick correctly, remove the phrase in between the two commas, remove the commas, and read the sentence to make sure it makes sense. In this case, you would get, "There are so many things I'd like to see in the city.")
• This thing right here ; is called a semicolon . You may recognize it as the winky-eyes. A semicolon is used to separate two independent clauses. An independent clause is a statement that can stand alone.
• "This party sucks; I don't know anyone here and the music is bogus."
• An incorrect way to use a semicolon is to use it like a comma: "If you think this party sucks; maybe you should just leave."

• "Thomas Edison invented the phonograph."
• "The Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776."
• "Ruby Tuesday's is located on Pine Street in Fake City."
• Improper capitalization can also lead to some really bizarre sentences:
• Correct : "Can you help your friend Jack off the horse?"
• Incorrect : "Can you help your friend jack---" (Well, you see where that one is going. Though this is an extreme example, it could happen very easily!)

• "After meowing constantly for hours, I finally let my cat inside." (Why were you meowing constantly for hours?) The opening phrase should always modify what immediately follows.
• Instead, the sentence should read, "After my cat was meowing constantly for hours, I finally let him inside."

Community Q&A

• You can also use websites dedicated to helping people with their grammar. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Using grammar properly is important for corresponding with people outside of your personal circle; oftentimes, people may judge your professionalism based on your grasp of proper language usage. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• No one's grammar is perfect. However, you can definitely improve yourself over time. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• By using grammar improperly in a sentence, what you mean could mean something completely different to how it's read. Thanks Helpful 26 Not Helpful 1

You Might Also Like

About this article

Did this article help you.

• About wikiHow
• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• Do Not Sell or Share My Info
• Not Selling Info

Published on November 2, 2021 by English Proficiency Editorial Team

30+ Tips to Speak English Without Grammar Mistakes

Often, non-native English speakers and even those who have English as their first language make mistakes.

However, these mistakes are preventable if one has adequate knowledge of the rules of grammar. 

This article aims to define what grammar is and highlight common grammar mistakes. It also touches on the guidelines that govern English grammar and gives helpful tips on the best ways to refine your grammar and expand your vocabulary. 

What Is Grammar?

7 common grammar mistakes, 1. proper use of punctuation marks, 2. subject-verb agreement, 3. subject-verb object agreement, 4. present tense, 5. past tense, 6. future tense, 7. regular verbs, 8. irregular verbs, 9. adjectives, 11. pronouns, 12. adverbs.

• 13. Determiners 
• 16. Interjections 
• How To Refine Your English Grammar? 

According to dictionary.com , “grammar” is referred to as “the study of the way the sentences of a language are constructed; morphology and syntax.”

Simply put, grammar is a system of rules and principles that guide the speaking and writing of language.

It can also be the study of words and how they work together to form sentences.

Grammar exists so that English language speakers have a standard set of language rules to ensure understanding.  

Grammar mistakes are simply errors that occur either in speaking or writing. It is said that a  mistake has been made when a statement does not conform to the rules of grammar.

Usually, such a mistake ends up confusing the listener or reader to whom the statement is made.

Some of the common grammar mistakes people often make include : 

1. Misusing The Tenses

It is perhaps the most common grammar mistake, both in speaking and writing. It is essential to avoid the mistake of switching from the present to past tense and vice versa. 

The present tense depicts a consistent or ongoing action, while the past tense refers to something that has already happened.

 When speaking or writing about the past, one does so in the past tense. When speaking of writing about an ongoing or consistent action, one does so in the present tense.

Switching between or interchanging the tenses leads to information not being properly conveyed. 

• Incorrect ==  “When I was a kid, I eat a lot of candy”.
• Correct == “When I was a kid, I ate a lot of candy”.

2. Incorrect use of Commas

The Comma is used to represent a short pause in a sentence.

A comma prevents one sentence from running into another.

In the case of compound sentences,  there should be a comma before the conjunction to indicate that the two sentences are related. 

The incorrect use of commas can give a sentence a meaning different from what the writer intends.  

• Incorrect == “ Jim went to the store and Pam went with him” .
• Correct== “ Jim went to the store, and Pam went with him”.

3. Misuse or Omission of Articles

Articles in sentences are used to indicate whether the noun in a sentence is specific or general.

There are two types of articles used in writing or conversation in English. They are the definite article (the) used when referring to a specific noun. 

Definite articles are used with both singular, plural, and uncountable nouns.

The other type of article in English is the indefinite article (a/an).

Indefinite articles are used when a noun refers to a general thing rather than something specific. 

Indefinite articles usually appear before singular nouns. The misuse or omission of these articles in sentences shows a lack of proficiency in the English language.  

Example: Definite Article

• Incorrect ==  “What is the name of a boy we met yesterday?”
• Correct == “ What is the name of the boy we met yesterday?”  

Example: Indefinite Article

• Incorrect == “I live in the apartment in the city.”
• Correct == “ I live in an apartment in the city.”

4. Incorrect Use of Nouns and Pronouns

The incorrect use of nouns and pronouns occurs when the pronouns do not agree in number with the nouns to which they refer.

The cardinal rule is that singular nouns should be used with singular pronouns and plural nouns. 

• Incorrect ==   “Every boy has their bag.”
• Correct == “Every boy has his bag.”

5. Subject-verb Disagreements

Mistakes with the subject-verb agreement can be the source of many grammatical errors.

When speaking or writing in the present tense, a sentence must have subjects and verbs that agree in number.

If the subject is singular, the verb must be singular.

If the subject is plural, the verb must be plural also. 

• Incorrect == “These bananas is good for baking.”
• Correct == “These bananas are good for baking.”

6. Not Using Punctuation Marks.

The use of punctuation marks is essential. They help to give readers clarity.

Punctuations show readers how sentences are constructed and how to read them. They also make the meaning of sentences clear. 

• Incorrect == “I am sorry I will come early tomorrow.”
• Correct == “I am sorry, I will come early tomorrow.”

7. Missing or Misplaced Apostrophe

We use the apostrophe to show that someone owns something or is in close relation with it.

• Incorrect ==  “Is that Jacks car?”
• Correct ==  “Is that Jack’s car? “

We also use the apostrophe to connect words and shorten sentences.

• Without Apostrophe == “ It is my box.”
• With Apostrophe == “It’s my box.”‘

How to Learn English Without Grammar Mistakes?

Grammar mistakes make it difficult for a speaker to pass information across. Such errors also make it difficult for writers to capture the attention of readers.

When your speech or writing is error-free, it becomes easier for listeners or readers to understand the message you intend to convey.

 Do your best to comply with grammar rules, whether speaking or writing. The knowledge of grammar guidelines provides a foundation for both speaking and writing in English.

The rules of English grammar are numerous, and we will be examining some of these rules below: 

 The correct use of punctuation marks is necessary to guide against misunderstanding or confusion in writing.

Punctuation primarily helps indicate the pauses and the emphasis on the ideas or thoughts that a writer wishes to convey.

Proper punctuation also helps to make a piece of writing logical and readable.

• Incorrect ==  “ The girls is ready to go.”
• Correct ==   “The girls are ready to go.”

 The subject and verb within a sentence need to agree with each other in number.

The agreement is important for a sentence to convey the proper meaning, and this is the central rule that forms the background of the concept.

• Incorrect ==   “The girls is ready to go.”
• Correct ==  “The girls are ready to go.”

 However, if two subjects are joined by and, they typically require a plural verb.

• Incorrect ==  “Jim and Pam is married.”
• Correct ==   “Jim and Pam are married. “

 The Subject verb object agreement is a sentence structure where the subject comes first, the verb, second, and the object third.

The subject usually acts; the object is the receiver of the action, while the verb reveals the subject’s action.

Sentences like this usually require a monotransitive verb (or a verb that only requires one subject).

• “He killed the slave.”
• “ Angela sells clothes. “  

The present tense is a grammatical tense whose primary function is to locate a situation or event in the current time. We use the present tense for actions that are consistent or currently occurring.

The present tense is one of the two tenses in the English language.

The present tense has four forms:

a. Simple Present

The simple present tense is a verb tense with two main uses.

We use the simple present tense when an action is happening or when it happens consistently.

• “Michael is jogging.”
• “ Michael jogs daily. “  

The simple present tense has three forms:

I. Affirmative

Affirmative simple present tense refers to a sentence in the positive form (positive means a basic sentence, not a negative or a question).

The affirmative simple present tense is formed by using the root form of the verb or by adding s or es to the end.

• “Jamie loves pie.”  

II. Negative

The process for making a simple present verb negative is by adding do/does + not to the root form of the verb.

• “Jamie does not love pie.”

III. Interrogative

When making a sentence in the simple present tense interrogative, you add “do/does” + the subject + the root form of the verb.

• “Does Jamie love pie?”  

b. Present Continuous Tense

The present continuous tense is a way to convey any action or situation that is happening currently, happens frequently, and maybe ongoing.

It adds energy to writing, and it helps readers understand when the action is happening.

The present continuous tense is used together with dynamic verbs, that is, those that show action, e.g., walk, and not stative verbs, that is, verbs that do not change, e.g., deserve.  

• “I am walking home.”
• “My brother is arriving tomorrow.”  

c. Present Perfect Tense

We use the present perfect tense when referring to something that occurred indefinitely in the past or when referring to something that began in the past and has continued into the present time.

This tense is constructed by adding have/has to the past participle of the root verb.

However, you can not use past perfect when you are specific about when something happened.

• “We have baked with this oven before.”
• “She has worked here in the past.”  

d. Present Perfect Continuous  

The present perfect continuous tense indicates that something started in the past and is continuing at present.

The present perfect continuous tense’s structure is “has/have been” + the present participle + the root verb + ing.

Recently and lately are words used with verbs in the present perfect continuous tense.

However, not all verbs are compatible with continuous action. Examples of such verbs are to arrive and to own.

• “I have been swimming since I was little.”
• “He has been studying for over 6 hours.”

The past tense is a grammatical tense whose function is to place an action or situation in the past.

We also use the past tense to talk about hypotheses. It is the second form of tenses in the English language.

The past tense has four forms:  

a. Simple Past Tense

The simple past tense emphasizes a concluded action. We use verb tenses when talking about things that happened or existed before the present.

We also employ the simple past tense when discussing a past state of being, such as how someone felt about something.

• “We had some chocolates.”  

The simple past tense has three forms:  

i. Affirmative

The affirmative simple past tense is formed by adding -ed to the root form of the verb or adding just -d if the root form already ends in an e. We use this in the case of regular verbs.

• “Walk” to “walk(ed)”
• “Love” to “love(d)”

In the case of some irregular verbs, the root forms do not change. E.g., “cut ” remains even in the past tense.

Verbs in the simple past tense, except for the verb to be, do not agree in number with their subject.

• “I furnished the apartment myself.”
• “They furnished the apartments with the help of an interior decorator.”  

ii. Negative

The negative simple past tense is formed by adding did not to the root form of the verb.

In the case of the verb to be, we replace the “did” with “was.”

• “We did not walk home because it rained.”
• “Her sister was not happy with her.”  

iii. Interrogative

You can form a question in the simple past tense is by adding -did to the subject, then to the root form of the verb.

In the case of the verb to be, did is replaced with was or were.

• “Did you go to school yesterday?”
• “Was she at home last week? “

b. Past Continuous Tense

The past continuous tense refers to a continuing action or event happening at some point in the past.

We form the past continuous tense by adding the past tense of to be, i.e., was or were, to the verbs present participle.

This verb tense often describes conditions that existed in the past.

• “The sisters were attending their first party.”  

In addition, the past continuous tense sheds light on what was happening at a precise time in the past.

• “At Six p.m, I was preparing dinner.”

This tense also refers to habitual actions in the past.

• “Todd was constantly working to make ends meet two years ago.”  

c. Past Perfect Tense

We often use this verb tense to talk about actions that were completed before another in the past.

To form the past perfect tense, you add the past tense of the verb “ to have,” which is “had, ” to the past participle of the root verb.

• “They had met before the conference.”

The past perfect tense shows that an action happened before something else.

• “She failed her exam because she had not read enough.”  

The tense also indicates that an action happened before a specific time.

• “I had gotten home before Eight p.m.”  

d. Past Perfect Continuous

The past perfect continuous tense indicates that an action that started previously continued until another time in the past.

We form the past perfect continuous tense using had been with the verb’s present participle, that is, root verb + -ing.

• “They had been waiting in line before it started raining.”  

The future tense expresses an action that has not yet happened or a state that is not yet existing.

The future tense has four forms:

a. Future Simple Tense

We often use the future tense to talk about an action or condition that will begin and end in the future.

We can further divide the future simple tense into two:  

i. Future Infinitive Tense.

We use the simple future tense when an action is promised to happen in the future.  

• “My brother will come to London tomorrow.”  

ii. Future Negative Tense

We form the negative simple future tense by adding will to not and then to the root form of the verb.

• “I will not wait if you are late tomorrow.”  

b. Future Continuous Tense

We make use of the future continuous tense when an action is promised or thought to be going on at a specific period in the future.

We form a sentence in this tense by putting the subject first, then shall or will, followed by -be and the root verb plus ing.

• “I will be traveling by this time tomorrow.”
• “We shall be having breakfast with my parents.”

c. Future Perfect Tense

The future perfect tense indicates an action that is guaranteed to be done by a specific time in the future.

We make a sentence in this tense by putting the subject first, then adding shall or will, followed by “have” and the root verb in the past participle.

• “He will have cooked the meal before I get back from work.”
• “They will have finished building the house by January.”  

d. Future Perfect Continuous Tense

This tense describes actions that will continue into a particular time in the future.

• “By 5 pm, I will have been waiting for 30 minutes.”

Regular verbs a defined as verbs whose past tense are formed by adding the letters -ed or -d to the root verb.

Regular verbs have three forms:  

The present form is the most common verb form in the English language. We use this form to express habits and general truths, among other things.

We form the present form by taking a subject pronoun and combining it with the corresponding verb conjugation.

• “He writes daily. “

b. Past simple

These are verbs used to describe an action completed in the past.

• “He walked away.”
• “She moved out. “

c. Past participle

To form the past participle of most regular verbs in English, we add the suffix -ed to the base form of the verb.

• “Call” — “call(ed)”
• “Walk” — “walk(ed)”  

Irregular verbs do not take on the regular –d or -ed suffixes of the simple past tense. They are also known as strong verbs.

Irregular verbs have the following forms:  

a.Base form

The base form of a verb is the version of the verb without any endings. It is the most basic version of a verb.

Verbs in the base form are also called the infinitive or root form. Examples: cut, choose, take, break. 

b. Past Simple

The past simple is the tense used to express situations that occurred in the past and have now ended.

No rule explains how to derive the past simple form of irregular verbs. Writers and speakers have to learn the verbs and their past forms by heart.

• “We broke a plate.”
• “He cut the tree yesterday.”

C . Past participle

There is also no rule explaining how to derive the past participle of irregular verbs.

• “She had broken the seal before reading the instructions”.
• “He has taken the vaccine since last week”.  

Adjectives are words that qualify or describe the state of nouns. We also use them in describing the number of nouns.

• “The hat she made is beautiful”.
• “We are expecting many people”.  

There are three degrees of adjectives:

a. Positive Adjective

A Positive adjective describes something in its own right.

• “A brilliant girl”.
• “A fine man”.  

b. Comparative Adjective

Comparative adjectives usually make a comparison between two or more things.

For most monosyllabic adjectives, we make the comparative by adding the suffix -er, Ir only -r if the adjective already ends with an e. For adjectives with two syllables ending with -y, the -y is replaced with -ier.

For multi-syllable adjectives, the word more is added.

• “A more brilliant girl”.
• “A finer man”.  

c. Superlative Adjectives

Superlative adjectives show that something has the highest degree of quality in question.

Monosyllabic adjectives become superlatives by adding the suffix -est or -st for adjectives that already end in -e.

With two-syllable adjectives ending in -y, the -y is replaced with -iest. Using multi-syllabic adjectives requires that you add the word “most.”

When you use an article with a superlative adjective, it will usually be with the definite article the, rather than a or an. Using a superlative automatically implies that you are talking about a specific person or thing.

• “The most brilliant girl”.
• “The finest man”.  

A noun is a word that serves as the name of a particular object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.

Nouns play several roles in sentences, ranging from subjects to objects.

There are different types of nouns serving several purposes, they are:

a. Concrete nouns

We identify a concrete noun through any of the five senses.

b. Abstract nouns

The term abstract noun refers to nouns that are not perceivable using one of the five senses.

c. Collective nouns

Collective nouns are names used to refer to a collection of several people or things.

Collective nouns are also words for single things comprising more than one person, animal, place, thing, or idea.

• “An array of colors”
• “A herd of cattle”  

d. Compound nouns

Compound nouns are a type of noun formed by putting two existing words together to make one noun.

They can be written together as one word, for example, firehouse. We can also write them as separate words, for example, ice cream, or hyphenated words, for example, well-meaning.

• “We waited at the bus stop”
• “They have a swimming pool”  

e. Possessive nouns

A possessive noun indicates ownership of something. It is easy to distinguish by the apostrophe that comes before the letter -S. However, this is not applicable in all cases.

• “Phil’s phone is ringing”
• “I am scared of the cat. Its nails are very sharp”

f. Regular plural nouns

Most singular regular nouns are made plural by simply putting an -s at the end. There are many plural noun rules, and since we use nouns repeatedly when writing, we must know all of them.

The proper spelling of plurals usually depends on what letter the singular noun ends in.

• To pluralize regular nouns, add s to the end. ( “Boy” — “Boys” )
• If the singular noun ends in sh, -ch, -s, -ss, -x, or -z, add es to the end to make it plural. ( “Church” — “Churches”)
•  If a noun ends with f or -fe, the -f is usually changed to ve before adding the -s to construct the plural. ( “Wife” — “ Wives” ).
• If the singular noun ends in o, In most cases, you need to add es to make it plural. ( “Potato” — “Potatoes” ).

g. Irregular nouns

Irregular plural nouns are nouns that do not become plural by adding -s or -es, as is usual for most nouns in the English language. Irregulars do not have specific rules.

It is best to check for the proper pluralization using the dictionary, especially for non-native English speakers.

• “Man” — “Men”
• “Tooth” — “Teeth”
• “ Child “ — “ Children “

A pronoun is a word used instead of a noun or a noun phrase to avoid unnecessary repetition.

We can classify pronouns into the following:  

a. Subject pronouns

These are the pronouns that are the actors of sentences. Examples include We, They, I.

• “I bake daily.”
• “They ran a marathon.”.

b. Object Pronouns

Object pronouns are the pronouns that receive the action in a sentence. Examples include Me, Them, you, her.

• “She went with me.”
• “Had is waiting for them.”

c. Possessive adjectives

Possessive adjectives include your, his, my, her, its, our, or their. It is used with a noun to show that one person or thing belongs to another.

• “I love her dog.”
• “That is my father.”

d. Possessive pronouns

These are also called Absolute or Strong pronouns.

Possessive pronouns show possession or ownership. Examples are “His”, “Hers”, “Mine”, “Yours”.

• “Nina said the book is hers.”
• “The pink shoes are mine.”  

e. Reflexive pronouns

Reflexive pronouns include yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, and themselves. They point back to a person or thing. We also use reflexive pronouns are when the subject and the object of a verb are the same.

• “The cat hurt itself.”
• “Tom is unsure of himself.”

An adverb is a word used in describing a verb, an adjective, another adverb, or an entire sentence. In most cases, adverbs often end in -ly.

The different kinds of adverbs are:

a. Adverbs of time

An adverb of time is a word that describes when, for how long, or how often a particular action occurred.

• “She left for school yesterday.”

b. Adverbs of place

Adverbs of place always answer the question where? An adverb of place always talks about the location where the action of the verb is carried out.

• “He hid the toy underneath the couch.”

c. Adverbs of frequency

An adverb of frequency describes how often an action occurs. We often use adverbs of frequency to indicate routine or repeated activities, so they are often used with the present simple tense.

• “Ted jogs daily.”
• “We see each other frequently.”

d. Adverbs of manner

An adverb of manner describes how and in what way an action, denoted by a verb, is carried out.

• “Andy walks briskly.”
• “We took our time to catch up, so we are slowly.”  

e. Adverbs of degree

An adverb of degree tells to what extent we do something or something happens. Adverbs of degree show the intensity of something.

Adverbs of degree are usually placed before the adjective, adverb, or verb that they modify, but for some exceptions.

• “Getting to the summit of the mountain is extremely dangerous.”
• “The water is too cold.”

f. Adverbs of reason

Adverbs of reason usually answer the question, why? They are used to explain the reason why an occurrence happened.

• “She did not go to work because she was not feeling well.”
• “Since I woke up late, I missed my flight.”  

g. Interrogative adverbs

We use interrogative adverbs to ask questions. The interrogative adverbs are why, where, when, and how.

• “How did you lose your wallet?”
• “Where is the event happening?”

h. Relative adverbs

Relative adverbs are words that give more information about the people, places, or things being discussed.

In addition, they join clauses and sentences together. e.g., when, where, why.

• “That is the place where I bought my car.”
• “2002 was the year when my brother was born.”

13. Determiners  

We make use of determiners to provide information about a noun or to introduce a noun. Determiners usually come before a noun, not after.

Determiners also come before any other adjectives used to describe the noun.

Determiners are required before a singular noun but are optional when it comes to introducing plural nouns.

• “Do you want this piece of chicken?”
• “Some boys missed school today.”

14. Prepositions  

Prepositions specify what relationships exist between subjects or objects and other words in a sentence.

Often, prepositions tell you where something is or when something happened.

Prepositions also tell us where one noun is in relation to another. They include for, in, off, on, over, besides, and under.

• “The remote is beside the couch.”
• “She has a pen on her table.”

15. Conjunctions  

Conjunctions are words that connect other phrases, words, or clauses to each other.

Conjunctions allow the formation of complex, elegant sentences and avoidance of the abruptness of multiple short sentences.

It is essential to ensure that the phrases joined by conjunctions share the same structure.

Conjunctions have three forms:  

a. Coordinating conjunctions

They include words like and, yet, but, so, for.

• “I wanted to study quietly, so I went to the library.”  

b. Correlating conjunctions

They consist of words like either/or, neither/nor.

• “You can pick either the blue shawl or the purple one.”

c. Subordinating conjunctions

Subordinating conjunctions include although, while, whereas, though, and because.

• “I am here because I need to be.”

16. Interjections  

Interjections are words intended to express different levels of emotion or surprise. These words or phrases can stand alone or before or after a sentence.

Exclamation points usually follow interjections. e.g., “wow! “, “Oh!”, “Alas!” .

• “Oh! What a pleasant surprise.”
• “ Alas! Her mother died yesterday. “

How To Refine Your English Grammar?  

Grammar rules are numerous. Learning these rules can be stressful for native and non-native speakers of the English language.

However, correct grammar is important for writing and speaking, whether as students or employees, because good grammar guarantees that you stand out. It is therefore essential to know some simple methods to improve your grammar.  Here are some tips for you to try!

1. Study the Grammar Rules

Understanding the rules of grammar is crucial. Any time a grammatical question arises, you can refer to rules you’ve learned to get your answers.

Studying these rules also helps to avoid making basic mistakes. 

2. Think in English

For a non-native English speaker, it is natural to think in a language familiar to you.

However, practicing thinking in English helps you get a grasp of the language faster. 

3. Widen Your Vocabulary

It is crucial to keep widening your vocabulary by learning new words and their meaning.

Anytime a word seems new to you, get its spelling, check out its meaning in the dictionary, you will find out that your vocabulary will keep expanding. 

4. Practice Your Writing Skills

Writing out words makes you more familiar with them.

It is advisable to keep a notebook where you write new words or rules of grammar that you learn.

Practice writing these words out daily, either on paper or electronically, until using those words comes naturally to you. 

5. Read and Read-out Loud

Learning the English language becomes easier when you read wide.

Studying how various authors use language will improve your understanding and comprehension.

Try to read several genres and styles of writing.

You can choose from classic literature, fiction, non-fiction, biographies, online blogs, essays, and articles.

Pay attention to how sentences are structured, word order, spelling, and all the creative ways the authors use language.

Try reading aloud so you also get an idea of how the language sounds in conversation and so that someone can correct you if you are pronouncing a word wrong.  

6. Learn to Punctuate

Improper punctuation can mean that the meaning you are trying to convey can be confused or lost.

Learning to punctuate correctly is as essential as it is to learn writing properly in English. 

7. Play Word Games

Word games are fun, mentally tasking, and a great way to improve your use of grammar.

These word games are educational, and they usually provide explanations for wrong answers so you can learn from your mistakes. 

8. Watch English Shows and Movies

In addition to the options listed above, watching English shows and movies with subtitles is a great way to refine your grammar.

It is definitely a great way to practice pronunciation as you are watching native English speakers. 

9. Improve Your Listening Skills

Actively listening to people speak is another way to refine your grammar.

Pay attention to how other people form their sentences. Notice how and where they place words in sentences.

Also, notice how they say common phrases and pay attention to the vocabulary they use. 

10. Imitate the Native Speakers

Try imitating what people who are native speakers of English say.

Imitation makes it easier to understand how to form sentences and to expand your vocabulary. 

11. Do Not Be Afraid to Speak

By speaking as you learn, you have more opportunities to be corrected if you make a mistake.

Do not keep quiet and assume you know everything. 

12. Accept Criticisms

Everyone is rooting for you to speak as fluently and correctly as possible.

When you inevitably make mistakes and are corrected, learn to take these corrections gracefully. 

 Final Thoughts

In conclusion, learning the English language is not easy.

The process requires a lot of patience and determination.

However, the decision to learn the language has numerous advantages earlier highlighted.

Additional Reading — ENGLISH GRAMMAR

• What is British English?
• What is American English?
• What is Canadian English?
• What is Australian English?
• What Are Idioms?
• What Are Verbs?
• What Are Nouns?
• What Are Adjectives?
• What Are Pronouns?
• What Are Adverbs?
• What Are Tenses?
• What Are Punctuation Marks?
• What Are Prepositions?
• What Are Loanwords?
• What are Phrasal Verbs?
• What Are Collocations?
• What Are Conjunctions?
• What are Modals?
• What is Subject-Verb Agreement?
• What Are Sentence Structures?
• What Are Sentence Parts?
• What are Sentence Functions?
• What Are Clauses?
• What are the Common Slang Words in the English Language?
• What are the Commonly Misspelled Words in English?

A group of language enthusiasts with a shared commitment to helping you succeed in your English language journey. With years of experience, relevant certifications, and a deep love for languages, we're here to provide you with the support and resources you need to excel in exams like IELTS, TOEFL, OET, Duolingo and many others. We take pride in helping individuals like you achieve their language goals.

Subscribe for English language proficiency tips

English Proficiency is not owned by or in any way affiliated with the institutions that handle the official Duolingo English Test, TOEIC®, TOEFL iBT®, IELTS, TOEFL ITP®, Cambridge C2, C1 Advanced, or any other English language proficiency exams listed or discussed on our website. We receive an affiliate commission for any purchases you may make on links to third party affiliate websites.

• ABBREVIATIONS
• BIOGRAPHIES
• CALCULATORS
• CONVERSIONS
• DEFINITIONS

Grammar Tips & Articles »

How to avoid grammar mistakes in your writing, overlooking grammar mistakes is easy especially if you are editing your work yourself. however, these common grammatical errors, even though they are small, have the potential to damage readability. readers may choose not to continue reading especially if they are taking time to try and understand what do you mean. if you are writing an essay for your professor, numerous grammar mistakes will leave a permanent bad impression about your writing in general, especially now, as you text more than speak with people face to face. with your spelling and grammar, you have the chance to make a terrible or a great first impression..

The truth is, it is nearly impossible to write a 3000-word essay that is completely free of grammar and spelling errors. However, there is a great chance that you can minimize the errors so much that the reader will not notice the small issues. This article will give you great tips that you can use to minimize the grammar mistakes in your essay so you get the chance to make a nearly-perfect first impression. Do not always rely on word’s spell checker While this tool is great, most of the time, it does not always catch all the mistakes. In most cases, it is not even right. The so-called grammar checker in MS Word is even worse. It will suggest words and highlight sentences that make sense while overlooking the ones that are full of errors. So always go through your paper before you submit it. For this part, avoid proofreading right after you finish writing. Take a few hours or days off the work and proofread later. After taking rest you would be able to look on the sentences from a different perspective. Have someone to proofread for you You may already know that when you are aware of how the sentence you have written will end, you are likely to miss critical errors. Therefore it is important that you ask someone you trust to read through the work. If there are any errors you may have overlooked, they will notice and correct them. A fresh pair of eyes may be all you need sometimes. In fact, they may also suggest how you can improve grammar skills for the future writing assignments. If you opt to hire assignment writing service, you need to thoroughly proofread that work before you submit it. Use a dictionary There is nothing more boring than having to read an essay that uses the same words over and over. It is irritating and makes the article less interesting. If you realize that this is one of your biggest issues, consider looking for a dictionary. Apps like the Merriam Webster give you a great pool of words that you  can use, it also comes with the thesaurus so you can find alternatives of the frequently used words to diversify the vocabulary in your paper. There are also a ton of other dictionaries online that you can use. They offer more than just an information. Use the apostrophes correctly The apostrophe is one of the most commonly misused signs that if used incorrectly makes your grammar look terrible. If you find that the use of apostrophes is your biggest issue, you may want to consider looking for a lesson online. If the word is not possessive or does not require a contraction, leave the apostrophe out. It’s instead of its The ‘it’s’ with a contraction is often used to depict a possessive pronoun but ‘its’ is the correct word you need to use. ‘It’s’ means ‘it is’. Before you place it in your work, consider saying it out loud. It will help put everything in perspective for you. Incomplete comparisons ‘Jane is funnier and smarter.’ Than who? What are you comparing her to? There is 50% less sugar in soda. Than in what other drink? Always make sure that when you use comparative adjectives, there are two elements. Grammarly is a great tool to check this. It will help you find out which sentences contain incomplete comparisons. Other commonly confused words

• Affect vs. effect
• Principle vs. principal
• Fewer vs. less
• They vs. their
• That vs. who

If you find that there are words that you commonly mistake for others, choose to omit them. If you must use them, make sure you check that you wrote the right ones before you submit your essay to ensure that you have used them in their correct form. Conclusion Choosing to correct your grammar mistakes is only the first step in making sure that you write great essays. If you are writing a blog, search engines will penalize you for mistakes whether your readers notice them or not. Grammatical errors are indicators of poor quality content so try to avoid them if you want to be ranked high.

 Email    Print    

Have a discussion about this article with the community:

Report Comment

We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe. If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.

You need to be logged in to favorite .

Create a new account.

Your name: * Required

Your email address: * Required

Pick a user name: * Required

Username: * Required

Password: * Required

Forgot your password?    Retrieve it

Use the citation below to add this article to your bibliography:

Style: MLA Chicago APA

"How to Avoid Grammar Mistakes in Your Writing?." Grammar.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 8 May 2024. < https://www.grammar.com/how_to_avoid_grammar_mistakes_in_your_writing >.

The Web's Largest Resource for

Grammar & spelling, a member of the stands4 network, free, no signup required :, add to chrome.

Two clicks install »

Add to Firefox

Browse grammar.com.

Free Writing Tool :

Instant grammar checker.

Improve your grammar, vocabulary, and writing -- and it's FREE !

Try it now »

Are you a grammar master?

Identify the sentence with correct use of the preposition 'under':.

Improve your writing now :

Download grammar ebooks.

It’s now more important than ever to develop a powerful writing style. After all, most communication takes place in reports, emails, and instant messages.

• Understanding the Parts of Speech
• Common Grammatical Mistakes
• Developing a Powerful Writing Style
• Rules on Punctuation
• The Top 25 Grammatical Mistakes
• The Awful Like Word
• Build Your Vocabulary

More eBooks »

• Features for Creative Writers
• Features for Work
• Features for Higher Education
• Features for Teachers
• Features for Non-Native Speakers
• Learn Blog Grammar Guide Community Events FAQ
• Grammar Guide

Write Better Essays: 7 Mistakes to Avoid

Cari Bennette

Academic essays are an unavoidable part of the educational journey. Learning to write well may be one of the greatest skills you gain during your college years. Most students, however, will commit many errors before learning the art of academic essay writing.

While you can't avoid writing essays, you can avoid making some of these common mistakes:

Writing a Synopsis, Not An Analytical Essay

Not having a strong thesis statement, using too many quotes in an essay, making grammar, spelling and pronoun mistakes, not having a good bibliography, using resources that aren't credible, want to improve your essay writing skills.

The point of an essay is to create an argument and defend a thesis. If you're writing about a work of literature, some background to clarify the topic can be helpful. But the majority of your essay should involve your analysis based on credible research. Don't simply restate what happened in the book.

Coming up with a strong thesis statement is essential to writing a good essay. The thesis statement is the hook on which the rest of your essay hangs. It should state an opinion and be as specific as possible. Example weak thesis statement: The Great Gatsby is a great example of American Literature. Example strong thesis statement: The Great Gatsby captures the essence of America's Jazz Age in its decadence, materialism and ultimately, its tragic emptiness.

The essay is supposed to reflect your understanding of the topic and the research you've done to back up your argument. Overuse of quotes either from the work you're analyzing or from the research you've done undermines your authority on the topic. Quotes should be used sparingly and only when they drive home a point with an eloquence you can't match with your own words.

Defined as “the practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own,” plagiarism is a serious offense. Colleges and universities have strict policies against plagiarism and use various tools to check your work for plagiarised content. You won't get away with it, and sometimes it can even get you suspended. Professors can recognize if something sounds like a student wrote it or if it came from another source, so don't try to fool them.

There are two kinds of plagiarism:

• The first kind is directly taking the words from a source and using them in your paper without quoting or giving credit.
• The second kind is trickier and you should take special care to make sure you're not committing this kind of plagiarism. It consists of rewording an entire article or section of an article. In this case, instead of coming up with your own original ideas and analysis, you're just rewording someone else's ideas including the order in which they present those ideas.

Your essay should contain your own original thesis, analysis and ideas backed up by credible research from academic authorities.

Worried about plagiarism? ProWritingAid's plagiarism checker checks your work against over a billion web-pages, published works, and academic papers so you can be sure of its originality. Did you know that many of the free plagiarism checkers online sell your writing to other sources? With ProWritingAid, you can be certain that your original work is secure. Paying for this kind of service might feel like a lot, but trust me, it's worth it.

Okay, let's break these down:

• Get your contractions right. You're = you are. Your = second person possessive. It's = it is. Its = third person possessive. They're = they are. Their =third person plural possessive.
• Make sure your subjects and verbs agree.
• Beware of incomplete sentences (there must be both a subject and a verb to be complete).
• Use your spell check.
• Essays should be written in the third person (he/she/it/they). Don't use the first or second person (I, you or we) in an essay.
• Follow proper formatting ( MLA formatting is a common example.

You can check for all of these errors using ProWritingAid. The Homonym report will highlight all of the words in your essay that sound the same as others but are spelled differently. This will help you avoid any 'its/it's or 'their/they're/there' mistakes.

The bibliography format for academic essays is usually the MLA style unless your professor specifically requests a different format. For a complete list of how to cite resources in MLA style, check out this site . Don't lose points over your bibliography. The hard part of your essay should be coming up with an original analysis of your topic. The bibliography is formulaic and easy to get right if you give it a little effort.

In the age of the Internet, it's easy to type in a keyword and find dozens of articles on it. But that doesn't mean all of those articles are credible. Make sure that the resources you use come from academic experts. For tips on how to find credible academic resources online, check out this site .

Avoiding these mistakes will improve your essay writing, so you can achieve higher quality and confidence in your academic writing. And it will make your professors happy, too.

Use ProWritingAid!

Are your teachers always pulling you up on the same errors? Maybe your sentences are too long and your meaning is getting lost or you're using the same sentence starter over and over again.

ProWritingAid helps you catch these issues in your essay before you submit it.

Be confident about grammar

Check every email, essay, or story for grammar mistakes. Fix them before you press send.

Cari Bennette is an avid blogger and writer. She covers different aspects of writing and blogging in her articles and plans to try her hand in fiction writing.

Get started with ProWritingAid

Drop us a line or let's stay in touch via :

How To Avoid Grammatical Mistakes In English

• 32515 Views
• July 18, 2019
• Writing Tips & Tricks

Language has a strong basis, built over centuries; yet it is dynamic and always evolving. Grammar is the system of a language and helps maintain structure and readability.

This system for the world’s most widely spoken language, English, is complex, tricky and even funny sometimes. The grammatical rules are hard to follow and familiarity with grammar skills needs to be cultivated from a young age.

It is an added challenge for us in India, given that English is not our primary language. Our country has 22 registered languages, each having even more dialects. Contrary to popular belief, none of our states are completely English-speaking. However, it is imperative for us to learn English, to communicate at a global level.

Image Courtesy Babbel.com

With the boom of the internet and growth of the social media space, written and oral communication has become even more intimate and important for individuals across the globe. These situations have placed a huge focus on the usage of English as its medium for communication.

Grammar and in particular, using complete sentences is vital for clear communication on this global platform. A grammatical error brings incoherence, leading to faulty communication. People now get called out and even trolled for incorrect usage of the language. Which is why we wanted to write a blog on common grammatical mistakes in English.

English Grammar 101

Any English language learner should start with the basics, so here they are.

Grammar comprises of two components:

• Morphology – Form and structure of words 
• Syntax – How words are arranged in sentences 

Correct usage of grammar makes communication of content clear, comprehensible, effective and appealing.

What Are the Most common grammar mistakes in English?

Here are few of the common grammatical errors that individuals make while writing.

1. Inappropriate Use of Tenses:

There are 12 tenses in English. A sentence has to maintain the same tense throughout the sentence. Dropping in words with different tenses makes the sentence incoherent.

Wrong: Sonia will went to school tomorrow. Correct: Sonia will go to school tomorrow.  

2. Subject-Verb Agreement:

Image courtesy www.ed2go.com

The subject and verb in a sentence must agree to be of the same number. Both have to be either singular or plural.

Wrong: My dog growl at the post man. Correct: My dog growls at the post man.

3. Missing or Misplaced Apostrophes:

Apostrophes are used to indicate possession and as a stand-in for a missing letter in a contracted word. But these often get confused and people either miss using them or put them in the wrong place. Both these errors can change the whole meaning of a sentence.

• Singular & Plural words indicating possession: 

One Customer: Wrong: The custome rs complaints were ignored. Correct: The custome r’s complaints were ignored. Multiple Customers: Wrong: The customer s’s complaints were ignored. Correct: The customer s’ complaints were ignored.

• Contraction:

Do not becomes Don’t They are becomes They’re 

• Indicate Time and Quantity Expressions:

Time: Wrong: It is an hours walk from here. Correct: It is an hour’s walk from here. Quantity: Wrong: I have one liters worth of milk. Correct: I have one liter’s worth of milk.

• Common Mistakes:

4. Comma Mistakes:

People overuse, misuse or just not use commas in their sentences. Commas enhance the reading experience providing appropriate pauses in a sentence. Just like apostrophes, when commas aren’t used appropriately, they can change the meaning of the sentence and make reading a strenuous experience.

Wrong: The desk, is too small. Correct: The desk is too small. Wrong: Additionally the project was delayed. Correct: Additionally, the project was delayed.

5. Misplaced or Dangling Modifiers:

A word, phrase or clause that describes a word, phrase or clause is a modifier. When the modifier is wrongly placed or not clearly and logically related to the word it is modifying, then we call it a misplaced or dangling modifier respectively. These mistakes can create confusion and they not only create barriers while reading but also sound awkward and ridiculous.

• Misplaced Modifier:

Wrong: On her way back, Diana found a gold man’s watch. Correct: On her way back, Diana found a man’s gold watch. Explanation: The word ‘gold’ is the modifier here and it is describing the watch. Changing its position in the sentence structure changes the meaning. 

• Dangling Modifier:

Wrong: Having been broken, Ali could not use the phone. Correct: Having been broken, the phone was of no use to Ali. Explanation: Having been broken is the dangling modifier. In the first sentence it suggests that Ali was broken and therefore couldn’t use the phone. But, with the rearrangement of the sentence, it’s meaning changes and we understand that the phone was broken. 

Similar to this is the error of incorrect pronoun reference. When one uses a pronoun, they have to make sure that it clearly refers to the noun they are replacing.

E.g.: Wrong: After putting her book in the bag, Sybil lost it. What did Sybil lose, the book or the bag? There is a lack of clarity here. Correct:  Sybil lost the book after putting it in the bag.   

6. Comma splice:

A common mistake while attempting to correct a run-on sentence is the usage of a comma splice. It occurs when two or more independent clauses are joined only by a comma.

For e.g. If we used a comma to correct the examples given above, it would read as follows:

The sky was clear, we went for a picnic.

My teacher saw me crying, she comforted me. 

As you can see a comma isn’t strong enough to separate these two independent clauses by itself. And hence, we use any one the three methods mentioned above to correct a run-on sentence.

7. Spelling Errors:

Image Courtesy Me.Me

The letters of a word, denote its spelling. These are fixed and vary only occasionally. Spellings are among the first literary concepts introduced to the child and they are the backbone of any language. Getting them wrong can create complications and is considered a major flaw in one’s literary skills. Considering that the English language is filled with commonly confused words, much care needs to be given here.

8. Run on sentence:

It is a faulty sentence where two or more independent clauses are joined without coordinating conjunctions and a punctuation mark to separate them. One can use one of the two methods to correct a run-on sentence:

Run on sentence:  The sky was clear we went for a picnic. My teacher saw me crying she comforted me.  Correct using a period:  The sky was clear. We went for a picnic. My teacher saw me crying. She comforted me.  Correct using a coordinating conjunction and a comma: The sky was clear, so we went for a picnic. My teacher saw me crying, and she comforted me.  Correct using a semi colon: The sky was clear; we went for a picnic. My teacher saw me crying; she comforted me.

How to Correct Grammatical Mistakes While Writing

• Avoid Spelling Errors: If you are unsure about spelling, check it before using the word.
• Punctuate: A misplaced punctuation mark can change the entire meaning of the sentence or make it sound like a nonsensical sentence. So, make sure to put those commas, apostrophes etc. in the appropriate places.
• Don’t Write Too Fast: When an individual is writing, their mind is usually working faster, racing in fact, in comparison to the hands that are typing or writing. This difference in pace also creates what are today called ‘typos.’ Avoid writing too fast by creating pointers beforehand or jotting your ideas in a journal.
• Read Out Loud: Whatever you write, read aloud to yourself. Listen carefully. Trust your instinct or gut when a sentence doesn’t sound right. Cross-check that sentence.

How to Check Grammatical Mistakes

No matter how cautious we are while writing, we are likely to make errors. How does one check that their written piece has no grammatical errors? Here are some points that may help:

• Get Someone Else To Read Your Material: You should ask someone familiar with the language and thorough with grammar to go through your writing. They may be able to see your work more objectively and highlight any errors you may have missed.
• Use Online Resources: Today there are apps and websites that offer assistance at the click of a button. You could check for errors using them too. These online tools highlight and sometimes also offer alternate solutions to make the sentence correct.

How to Over Come Grammatical Mistakes

Correct grammar cannot be something one focuses on only while writing. Here are some ways to overcome grammatical mistakes in the long run:

• Listening Is Learning:  Pay attention to people when they speak in English. Watch shows, cartoons and movies in English to understand the language and bring about familiarity with the system of the language.

• Play Word Games, Grammar Games, Language Games: Today learning has been made fun with a variety of tools at our disposal, just a touch away. Playing games that increase our comprehension and hone our language skills is a more interesting way to understand the language.
• Find Reference Resources To Improve: You can find a variety of books, videos, worksheets that aim to help people overcome the fear of the language. These are great reference resources for when you are in doubt, need some questions to be answered or want to look at more examples.
• Increase Your Vocabulary: English language has a rich vocabulary and you should definitely try to use new words to enhance your writing. But the correct usage and spelling are imperative.
• Practice, Practice, Practice: This age-old method is golden. To improve your grammar, you have to keep working on your language. Write often. Get it corrected. Talk to people in English. Make mistakes and learn from them. If your grammar is strong it has the overall ability to improve your writing.
• Accept Criticism Gracefully: It is difficult to say ‘I don’t know’ or ‘I made an error’ in front of others. But if you do and someone corrects you, accept it gracefully and work on it to improve your language. You’re the one benefitting from this whole process.

Image Courtesy – unsplash.com, Josh Applegate

• Read: The importance of reading books cannot be stressed enough. Reading makes people familiar with the language. One subconsciously absorbs vocabulary, spellings and sentence and word structures. This familiarity helps with your instinct or gut reaction to a grammatically incorrect sentence. Reading exposes an individual to a host of genres and to different forms of writing. On GetLitt! you can find a wide range of interesting books across genres and reading levels.

We hope that this article has helped you gain some clarity and get actionable next steps to improve your grammar while writing. For more articles like these check out our blog. Don’t forget to subscribe to Getlitt! and get access to over 200+ children’s books!

Happy Reading!

Read: How to Increase Vocabulary of a Child

Read more: How to Write an Essay In English

Read Even More: How to Write a Book Review for Kids

Comment (1)

Sarv Angad Singh

That was a really amazing article and will definitely help a lot of people. I write about avoiding mistakes while writing content as well. Please do have a look.

https://writerena.com/content-writing-samples-mistake/

Leave your Comments

Please enter an answer in digits: 17 + nine =

Notify me of follow-up comments by email.

Notify me of new posts by email.

• Book Launch
• Expert Interviews
• List of Books
• Must reads for 6-8 year olds
• Must reads for 8-12 year olds
• Must reads for Toddlers
• Reading Hacks & Tips

Common Essay Mistakes—Writing Errors to Avoid [Updated]

One of the most critical skills that students gain during their college years is assignment writing. Composing impressive essays and research papers can be quite challenging, especially for ESL students. Nonetheless, before learning the art of academic writing, you may make numerous common essay mistakes.

Our specialists will write a custom essay specially for you!

Such involuntary errors appear in:

• essays’ content;
• academic style;
• structure and overall organization;
• spelling and punctuation;

Good news for you! Our experts prepared a list that contains and explains all of them. Find out about common mistakes in essay writing and do your best not to make them.

• 📃 Content Mistakes
• 🔍 Stylistic Mistakes
• 📝 Structural Mistakes
• 🔤 Grammar Mistakes
• 📘 Vocabulary Mistakes
• ✍️ Spelling Mistakes
• ⁉️ Punctuation Mistakes

📃 Content Mistakes in Essays

A perfect essay usually has an impressive introduction, well-organized content, and a powerful conclusion. Lousy college essays often lack structure or content and do not impress the reader.

What should you do?

Follow these six tips when writing any type of essay:

Just in 1 hour! We will write you a plagiarism-free paper in hardly more than 1 hour

• Always write an essay that includes relevant facts, concrete details, and specific examples. If you just write down a few paragraphs that have something to do with your topic, you will not succeed in writing a good essay. Read the question carefully before you start writing. Single out the keywords and then elaborate on your ideas with facts, details, and examples.
• Write a good introduction. An exciting introduction gives the background for the whole essay. In the introduction, you should make your presentation of the essay topic. To write a good introduction paragraph , tell your reader what you are going to write.
• Write a strong thesis statement. The thesis statement expresses the writer’s thoughts on the topic and tells the reader how the idea will be developed. A good thesis statement explains two critical things to the reader: what you plan to argue in your essay and how you plan to do it. Always support your thesis with your ideas in the central part of the paper.
• Never write a thesis statement if you do not have enough ideas to support it. While planning your essay, you should think carefully and ask yourself whether you have enough ideas to support your thesis. And if you are not sure, formulate another one that you will be able to argue.
• Use ideas that you can prove with examples. Keep in mind: Any idea should be clarified and proved. So always give appropriate examples. If some of your writing has awkward wording, you can use an online sentence changer to fix it.
• Write a powerful conclusion. In the end, take advantage of your last chance to say something important to your readers. You should emphasize the purpose and importance of what you wrote in your essay.

The thesis is the hook on which any essay hangs.

🔍 Stylistic Mistakes in Writing

Even if it’s written interestingly, your essay may make a poor impression if you do not use the correct style.

These are five essay mistakes that most students make:

• Word repetition. Here is the truth: Your essay will look dull and childish if you use the same lexical sets. So, use synonyms and word substitutes to avoid repeating the same nouns or verbs.
• Too many passive structures. When you use the passive voice in your sentences, they sound more impersonal and objective, but they are longer and harder to read. On the contrary, active sentences are clear and direct. So, if you want to write a good essay, you should use both types. A good rule of thumb is to write less than 20 percent of your sentences in the passive voice.
• Sentences that are too long or too short. If you use sentences that are too long, you make your essay harder to understand. On the other hand, you can destroy your idea’s logical development if your sentences are too short. Try to use a balance of both long and short sentences.
• Sentences beginning with coordinating conjunctions. Coordinating conjunctions are mainly used to connect words and clauses in the same sentence. Sometimes we can also use them to start a sentence. But if you begin too many sentences with coordinating conjunctions, your essay will be monotonous. It’s better to use corresponding conjunctive adverbs like nevertheless , moreover , or however , which have the same meaning. They are more appropriate in a formal context.
• Overly formal or informal words and phrases. Many students forget that an academic essay requires a vocabulary layer that we do not use in our everyday lives. Never use slang expressions and nonstandard verb forms like gotta or wanna in your academic papers. Check English slang dictionaries if you struggle to find a proper replacement phrase or word. You should use formal constructions and high-level vocabulary.

In doubt, always consult a good dictionary to choose the proper word. If you’re unsure whether you can implement a phrase in context, see it in other text. You can do it by typing it in a search engine.

Receive a plagiarism-free paper tailored to your instructions. Cut 15% off your first order!

📝 Structural Mistakes In Student Essays

An essay is a long-established form of academic writing, and there are strict rules for writing every type. They make it more manageable to organize one’s thoughts without limiting creativity.

The most common structural mistakes are:

• You can expand the fragment into a complete sentence by supplying the missing elements such as subjects, verbs, and clauses.
• You can incorporate the fragment into an adjacent sentence.
• Run-On Sentences: Run-on sentences occur when you join two or more main clauses together without appropriate punctuation. Run-on sentences confuse the reader. What can you do to correct them? Fortunately, this is pretty simple: Divide a run-on sentence into separate sentences to fix it, or add coordinating or subordinating conjunctions.

• the introduction,
• two main body paragraphs,
• and the conclusion.

Your text and sentences should have a clear structure and present your ideas’ complete development.

In the following sections, you’ll see how to avoid grammar, vocabulary, and spelling mistakes.

🔤 Grammar Mistakes in Writing

A successful essay must be grammatically correct. Learn the most common types of such errors in student essays, not to repeat them yourself.

Get an originally-written paper according to your instructions!

• Noun form mistakes. You should study key grammar areas to help you succeed. Review the rules concerning countable and uncountable nouns. Make sure you know how to use determiners with singular and plural nouns.
• Subject-predicate agreement Pay attention to the cases when words like both , some , or neither introduce compound subjects and still take the plural predicate.
• Pronouns Pronouns always agree with the noun they refer to. Some indefinite pronouns can have only a plural form or merely a singular form, but some can have both depending on the situation.
• Verb form mistakes. Remember the main grammar rules related to the use of stative and auxiliary verbs and correct use of the infinitive and modal verbs.

For more information about correcting grammar mistakes in essays, consult grammar and writing resources around the web. To avoid them, proofread your writing. Always check whether you have used the grammar forms mentioned above correctly.

Still uncertain about what not to write in a college essay? You can get help from essay writing companies that provide editing and proofreading services.

📘 Vocabulary Mistakes in Essays

Even if you develop your ideas logically, your grammar is correct, and your style is perfect, your writing can be a disaster. How so? You may make vocabulary mistakes that can ruin your paper.

The three most common language errors in essay writing are:

• Misuse of homonyms. Many students typically misuse the following homonyms: hear vs. here , hole vs. whole , its vs. it’s , and many more.
• Wrong word form. When we write quickly, we may write a word form that differs from what we meant to write. For example, students often write verb forms instead of adjectives. This can result in an unintended change of meaning ( disable people instead of disabled people ).
• Confused words. Spellcheck will not identify the incorrect use of such words as loose – lose , affect – effect , quite – quit – quiet , and accept – except . You should proofread your essay carefully to make sure you’ve used the correct words.

You can use the following strategies to eliminate such errors:

• Plan your writing ahead, picking lexicon.
• Use a dictionary or Google to ensure the right meaning.
• Leave enough time for composing so that you won’t hurry.
• Always proofread your writing, paying attention to the language you used.

If you can, leave your paper for several days. Finish your first draft and forget about it for a while. Checking it for essay errors proves to be efficient when you’ve rested and haven’t seen the text some time.

✍️ Spelling Mistakes in Essays

Numerous students say that the English language’s spelling system is the most unpredictable in the world. That is not true. There are some tricky words in English , like weigh , Caribbean , or island . You can do nothing but memorize their spelling. But several other words do follow special rules.

The most common spelling mistakes are the following:

After you have written your essay, read it carefully and correct your spelling mistakes. Make a list of the words that you usually misspell and practice writing them over and over.

⁉️ Punctuation Mistakes in Writing

Punctuation is essential in essay writing. It is used to separate ideas, relate ideas to one another, and clarify meaning. Without correct punctuation, your readers will get confused and frustrated rather quickly.

Proper punctuation is required in college essays and research papers. Learn the rules regarding the use of commas, apostrophes, and hyphens to avoid making punctuation errors.

Here is a list of the vital punctuation rules to remember:

• Put a comma after the introductory dependent clause.

An introductory dependent clause is a phrase before the subject that does not form a complete sentence.

• Incorrect: Since Miss Ostin got promoted to the chief editor position she decided not to change her workplace.
• Correct: Since Miss Ostin got promoted to the chief editor position, she decided not to change her workplace.
• Use a comma to separate non-essential info in the sentence.

Are there some clarifications that may be removed from the sentence, and the reader will still get the key idea? Separate this information with punctuation marks!

• Incorrect: My sister who recently got married is pregnant now. 
• Correct: My sister, who recently got married, is pregnant now.
• Put commas around interrupters.

Interrupters are the words that provide additional detail by breaking the flow of the sentence. Always separate them with commas.

• Incorrect: Hopefully my essay topic is suitable for the given type of assignment. 
• Correct: Hopefully, my essay topic is suitable for the given type of assignment.
• Use semicolons in too complex sentences.

Sometimes the sentence is too long, yet the information should be taken together. In such cases, put a semicolon between two parts instead of separating them with a period.

• Incorrect: I was planning to study abroad however due to certain family issues I took a gap year and stayed at home. 
• Correct: I was planning to study abroad; however, due to certain family issues, I took a gap year and stayed at home. 

And now, last but not least. Here’s a helpful video about the most common mistakes in ESL student essays. The essay writing techniques explained in this video lesson are useful for any student who wants to write good papers.

Thank you for visiting our page! Use our tips and avoid common errors in essay writing. Don’t forget to leave your comment and share the article with your friends!

This might be interesting for you:

• Useful Revising and Editing Checklists
• Essay Checklist: How to Write an A+ Essay
• Effective Writing Strategies for College Students
• How to Control Words per Page
• Basic Writing Rules – Common Mistakes & Fixes
• 200 Powerful Words to Use Instead of “Good”
• List of Credible Sources
• An Ultimate Punctuation Guide

✏️ Frequent Questions

There are several tips to improve grammar in your article:

• Avoid overly complex grammatical structures;
• Use ready-made connecting phrases and collocations;
• Proofread your text several times, perhaps read aloud and correct your mistakes;
• Run your text through a grammar checker (through desktop software or online).

There is quite a few you should avoid in order to write a good essay, e.g.:

• Too colloquial phrases;
• Excessive repetition of some words;
• Misprints, mistakes, and wrong formatting;
• Too emotional and subjective sentences;
• Too long sentences with complex grammatical constructions, etc.

There are particular “stop”-words that you should not include in an article. They can be divided into the following groups :

• colloquial language, rude comments;
• simplified connecting words (e.g., “And,” “But,” “Or” at the beginning of a sentence);
• excessively complex and almost obsolete words.

You may correct your text in various ways. Some possible strategies are:

• Read the essay aloud;
• Ask your friend to proofread the essay;
• Read the paragraphs from the bottom to the top;
• Run an automatic checker (in desktop software or online), etc.
• Share to Facebook
• Share to Twitter
• Share to LinkedIn
• Share to email

You’re probably thinking: I’m no Mahatma Gandhi or Steve Jobs—what could I possibly write in my memoir? I don’t even know how to start an autobiography, let alone write the whole thing. But don’t worry: essay writing can be easy, and this autobiography example for students is here to show...

Some people know which profession to choose from childhood, while others decide much later in life. However, and whenever you come to it, you may have to elaborate on it in your personal statement or cover letter. This is widely known as “Why I Want to Be a Teacher” essay.

Assigned with an essay about friendship? Congrats! It’s one of the best tasks you could get. Digging through your memories and finding strong arguments for this paper can be an enjoyable experience. I bet you will cope with this task effortlessly as we can help you with the assignment. Just...

When you are assigned an autobiography to write, tens, and even hundreds of questions start buzzing in your head. How to write autobiography essay parts? What to include? How to make your autobiography writing flow? Don’t worry about all this and use the following three simple principles and 15 creative...

A life experience essay combines the elements of narration, description, and self-reflection. Such a paper has to focus on a single event that had a significant impact on a person’s worldview and values. Writing an essay about life experience prompts students to do the following: You may struggle with such...

Who has made a significant impact in your life and why? Essay on the topic might be challenging to write. One is usually asked to write such a text as a college admission essay. A topic for this paper can be of your choice or pre-established by the institution. Either...

Are you about to start writing a financial assistance essay? Most probably, you are applying for a scholarship that will provide additional funding for your education or that will help you meet some special research objectives.

What does it mean to grow up? Essays on this topic might be entertaining yet challenging to write. Growing up is usually associated with something new and exciting. It’s a period of everything new and unknown. Now, you’ve been assigned to write a growing up essay. You’re not a kid...

Probably, a murder essay is not a fascinating assignment to complete. Talking about people’s deaths or crazy murderers can be depressing. However, all assignments are different, and you are supposed to work on every task hard. So, how are you going to deal with a murder essay? You can make...

Are you a nursing student? Then, you will definitely have an assignment to compose a nursing reflective essay. This task might be quite tough and challenging. But don’t stress out! Our professionals are willing to assist you.

Throughout our life, we meet plenty of people and participate in various events. If some of them are just regular, the other people or occasions play a critical role in our fates. Your life-changing experience might become a perfect ground for creating a remembering essay.

Environment vs. development is a multifaceted present days’ dilemma. On the one hand, environmental problems are increasing year after year. We have more polluted areas on our planet, more polluted rivers, fewer trees that produce oxygen. On the other hand, can we stop development and progress in various fields? Is...

is there a set author taking credit for publishing this information ? because i would love to reference the author in my paper

Hello! You can reference it as a web source/web page.

People do not have much time for essays and are usually distracted in different things. Essays writing requires tons of concentration and a particular flow that the writer should maintain. Otherwise, it will not be interesting for the audience. Planning is so important in essay writing. Thanks for sharing these tips.

Thanks for your hard work