Common English Errors by Chinese Speakers
CEFR B1-B2 • ESL • Articles, plurals, tense markers — the structural gaps between Mandarin and English
The structural mismatches between Mandarin and English
Mandarin and Cantonese are excellent languages for getting meaning across with less grammatical machinery. English, by contrast, requires articles ("a," "the"), plural -s, verb tense markers, and subject-verb agreement on every sentence. These structural mismatches produce the most common English errors by Chinese speakers — not because the speakers do not know the rules, but because their first language did not need them. This page covers the 25 most frequent errors with side-by-side fixes.
Group 1: Articles (the biggest cluster)
"I went to library to read book."
"I went to the library to read a book." (Articles required.)
"I am engineer at Acme."
"I am an engineer at Acme."
"She made decision yesterday."
"She made a decision yesterday."
"The man I met yesterday is engineer."
"The man I met yesterday is an engineer."
Quick rule: singular countable nouns in English ALMOST ALWAYS need an article ("a," "an," or "the") or another determiner ("my," "your," "this"). When in doubt, add one.
Group 2: Plural -s missing
"I have three friend at the office."
"I have three friends at the office." (Plural -s required after numbers.)
"There are many bug in this version."
"There are many bugs in this version."
"We hired five engineer last quarter."
"We hired five engineers last quarter."
Quick rule: any countable noun preceded by a number, "many," "several," "few" must take plural -s.
Group 3: Tense markers (no past -ed)
"Yesterday I work at office."
"Yesterday I worked at the office." (Past tense -ed required.)
"Last week I send three emails."
"Last week I sent three emails." (Irregular past: send → sent.)
"I already finish the report."
"I have already finished the report." or "I already finished the report."
Group 4: Subject-verb agreement
"He work in the engineering team."
"He works in the engineering team." (Third-person singular -s.)
"She have three meetings today."
"She has three meetings today." (Has, not have.)
"The team have many issues."
"The team has many issues." (American English: collective nouns are singular.)
Group 5: Word order in questions
"You can tell me what is the deadline?"
"Can you tell me what the deadline is?" (Embedded questions: statement order.)
"I want to know where is the meeting."
"I want to know where the meeting is."
Group 6: "There is" vs "There are"
"There is many bugs in the system."
"There are many bugs in the system." (Plural noun → 'are.')
"There are no problem with the deploy."
"There is no problem with the deploy." (Singular noun → 'is.')
Group 7: Comparative -er vs more
"This solution is more better."
"This solution is better." (Use 'better' alone — never 'more better.')
"The migration is more difficult than I expect."
"The migration is more difficult than I expected." (Past tense: expected.)
Group 8: Possessive 's
"This is Marina report."
"This is Marina's report." (Possessive 's required.)
"The team office is on the third floor."
"The team's office is on the third floor." or "The team office is on the third floor." (Both work — possessive or compound noun.)
Group 9: Pronouns (he/she confusion)
"My manager, he is very supportive." (Mandarin uses "他/她" for both genders in spoken)
"My manager is very supportive." or "My manager — she is very supportive." (No double-subject in standard English.)
"My sister told me he will come."
"My sister told me she will come." (Match pronoun to gender.)
Group 10: "On" vs "in" prepositions
"I will see you on Wednesday afternoon."
"I will see you on Wednesday afternoon." (This one is correct! 'On + day' is fine.)
"The meeting is in 3 PM."
"The meeting is at 3 PM." ('At' for clock times.)
"I live at Beijing."
"I live in Beijing." ('In' for cities/countries.)
Hear all the corrections
"I went to the library to read a book. I have three friends at the office."
"Yesterday I worked on the project. I have already finished the report."
"She works in the engineering team. The team has three open positions."
"Can you tell me where the meeting is? The deadline is at 3 PM on Friday."
"This solution is better than the previous one. It is more efficient in production."
Quick self-test
1. "I am engineer at Acme."
Fix: "I am an engineer at Acme." Singular countable noun → article required.
2. "Yesterday I send three emails."
Fix: "Yesterday I sent three emails." Past tense: send → sent (irregular).
3. "He work at the office every day."
Fix: "He works at the office every day." Third-person singular -s required.
4. "There is many bugs in the system."
Fix: "There are many bugs in the system." Plural noun ('bugs') → 'are.'
5. "This solution is more better."
Fix: "This solution is better." Never 'more' before a comparative -er adjective.
Pronunciation notes for Chinese speakers
- Final -s and -ed: often dropped or weakened. Practice fully pronouncing "walks," "lives," "called," "thanked." These endings carry critical grammatical information.
- "L" vs "R": Mandarin and Cantonese do not distinguish between /l/ and /r/. Practice in pairs: light/right, lake/rake, lice/rice. Hold the tip of your tongue against the roof of your mouth for /l/; curl it back without touching for /r/.
- "Th" sounds: like Portuguese, Mandarin and Cantonese have no /θ/ (think) or /ð/ (this). Practice tongue-between-teeth pronunciation.
- Word-final stop consonants: Mandarin syllables often end in vowels or /n/ /ŋ/. English ends in /p/ /t/ /k/ /b/ /d/ /g/ frequently. Fully pronounce them: "lab" not "la," "step" not "ste."
- Stress and rhythm: Mandarin is tonal — each syllable has equal stress. English uses stress to emphasize meaning. Listen for which syllables native speakers stress and mimic.
Practice: Test yourself
Tap each question to reveal the answer.