Common English Mistakes: Choose the Right Form

For most present simple verbs, add -s or -es with he, she, it, or a singular name. Use the base form with I, you, we, and they, including singular they. Be and modal verbs follow different patterns. Check both the subject and the verb before choosing the form.

Verbs ending in sibilant sounds such as -ch, -sh, -ss, -x, or -zz require an extra syllable and an -es ending in the third person. Words like watch, wash, pass, and fix become watches, washes, passes, and fixes. Notice that the ending adds an extra vowel sound /ɪz/, which makes the spoken sentence distinct. Irregular verbs also change: have becomes has, do becomes does, and go becomes goes.

Reflexive pronouns: choose the right formとPast Simple Verbs: Choose the Right Formでこれをもう一度練習できます。

When you form present simple questions or negative statements with does or doesn't, the helping verb already carries the third-person marker. Because does shows both present time and singular agreement, the main verb following it must remain in its clean base form. Saying 'she doesn't likes' or 'does he works' puts the -s marker twice, which confuses your listener and sounds unnatural in workplace conversations.

A frequent slip in English conversation happens when speakers try to show past time twice in the same clause. In past simple questions and negative sentences, the auxiliary word did or didn't already signals that the event took place in the past. Therefore, the main verb that follows must stay in its base form. Never say 'did you saw' or 'I didn't went'. Keep the auxiliary in the past and let the main verb stay simple.

There, their, and they're often sound alike. There names a place or introduces something that exists. Their shows a connection or possession and can refer to a group or one person. They're means they are. Try expanding it to 'they are', then check the full sentence's meaning.

Many languages connect the action of listening directly to the object, leading learners to say 'listen music' or 'listen me'. In English, whenever listen takes an object to name what or who you are focusing on, you must place the preposition to between the verb and the noun phrase. Leaving out to sounds incomplete to native listeners. Remember that hear can take an object directly, but listen always requires to.

Learners often transfer speech habits from their first language and say 'explain me the problem'. In standard English, the verb explain cannot take a person directly as its object. The topic or item being clarified comes immediately after explain, and the person receiving the explanation follows with the preposition to. You can say 'explain the problem to me' or 'explain to the team why the plan changed'.

Check four patterns in your draft. Do present simple verbs agree with their subjects? Do main verbs after does, doesn't, did, or didn't stay in the base form? Have you chosen there, their, or they're for the meaning you need? Have you included to before the sound or speaker after listen, and before the recipient after explain?