10 Common English Grammar Mistakes Indians Make (and Fixes)

Hindi and Marathi grammar is different from English. That is why some errors repeat across India, no matter how educated the speaker. The good news: these are fixed patterns, so once you know them, you can fix them for life. Here are the top 10 with clear rules and examples.

1. Subject-verb agreement

Wrong: "He do his work." Right: "He does his work." Use "does" with he/she/it. A simple test: if the subject is one person or thing, add -s to the verb.

2. Using "know" in continuous

Wrong: "I am knowing." Right: "I know." Some verbs (know, like, want, understand) describe states and are not used in -ing form.

3. "Myself" instead of "me"

Wrong: "Please give it to myself." Right: "Please give it to me." Use "myself" only for emphasis: "I did it myself."

4. Double negative

Wrong: "I don't know nothing." Right: "I don't know anything." Two negatives cancel out in English and sound wrong.

5. Article with general nouns

Wrong: "I love the music." Right: "I love music." No article for general things. Use "the" only for specific ones: "the music in this song."

6. "Since" vs "for"

Use "since" with a point: "since Monday." Use "for" with a length: "for two days." Mixing these is one of the most common Indian errors.

7. Prepositions

Wrong: "on phone." Right: "on the phone." Wrong: "discuss about." Right: "discuss" (no about). Prepositions rarely translate directly from Hindi, so learn them in phrases.

8. "Advice" vs "advise"

"Advice" is a noun. "Advise" is a verb. "He gave me advice." "He advised me." A quick memory trick: the verb ends in -se.

9. Word order in questions

Wrong: "What you are doing?" Right: "What are you doing?" In English, the verb comes before the subject in questions.

10. Tense mixing

Pick a time frame and stay in it. Don't jump from past to present in one story without reason. "Yesterday I go to market" is wrong; say "Yesterday I went to the market."

How to fix them

Record yourself speaking for one minute daily. Listen back. You will hear your own mistakes clearly. The SpeakNow app highlights tense and agreement errors automatically, so you don't need a teacher to spot them.

Small corrections, done daily, remove these habits in a month. Native-like accuracy is mostly about avoiding a known set of repeated errors - and you now have the list.

Why these persist

Schools teach rules but not correction. You pass exams writing 'I am knowing' if the test marks it right for tense. Break the pattern by consuming real English daily - subtitles, podcasts, news - and your ear will reject the wrong form naturally. Input quality decides output quality.

Start today

Choose two mistakes from this list that you make often. Write one correct sentence for each and say it aloud. Fixing two errors permanently does more for your English than learning two new grammar chapters you will forget.