{"id":6189,"date":"2026-07-05T00:08:04","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T00:08:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/18kenglish.com\/chinglish-mistakes-taiwan\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T00:08:04","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T00:08:04","slug":"chinglish-mistakes-taiwan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/18kenglish.com\/id\/chinglish-mistakes-taiwan\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinglish: 12 Common Mistakes to Avoid | \u4e2d\u5f0f\u82f1\u6587"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nQuick Answer (\u5feb\u901f\u89e3\u7b54):<\/strong> Chinglish (\u4e2d\u5f0f\u82f1\u6587) happens when you translate Chinese word-for-word into English. The most common mistakes for Taiwan learners are saying “open the light” instead of “turn on the light,” dropping articles like a<\/em> Dan itu<\/em>, doubling up “because… so…”, and forgetting plural -s<\/em>. Fix them by learning English as whole phrases, not word-by-word swaps.\n<\/div>\n

Ask any cram-school teacher in Taipei and they will tell you the same thing: the errors that give a Taiwanese speaker away are not rare grammar traps. They are the same eight or nine Chinglish (\u4e2d\u5f0f\u82f1\u6587) habits, repeated by almost everyone, because they come straight from Mandarin sentence logic. “Open the light.” “I very like coffee.” “There have many people.” None of these sound wrong in your head, because in Chinese they are correct. That is exactly why they are so hard to catch. This guide walks through the 12 most common Chinglish mistakes I hear in Taiwan classrooms, why each one happens, and the exact fix.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Speaking out loud is where Chinglish habits either break or get reinforced.<\/em><\/p>\n

What Is Chinglish (\u4e2d\u5f0f\u82f1\u6587)\uff1f<\/h2>\n

Chinglish is English that has been built on a Chinese frame. The words are English, but the grammar, word order, and logic are borrowed from Mandarin. It is not the same as having an accent, and it is not about “bad” English \u2014 some of the most fluent speakers in Taiwan still make these errors, because these patterns are automatic. The technical name for this is first-language interference<\/em>: your native language quietly hands you a structure, and you fill it with English words.<\/p>\n

The reason this matters is trust. A recruiter reading “There have three reasons I want this job” doesn’t think you’re multilingual \u2014 they think you’re careless. The good news is that Chinglish clusters into a small number of fixable patterns. Learn to spot the pattern and you fix dozens of sentences at once.<\/p>\n

Why Taiwanese Learners Make Chinglish Mistakes (\u70ba\u4ec0\u9ebc\u6703\u6709\u4e2d\u5f0f\u82f1\u6587)<\/h2>\n

Mandarin and English disagree on some fundamentals. Chinese verbs never change form \u2014 \u53bb is \u53bb whether it happened yesterday or happens every day. Chinese has no articles, no plural -s<\/em>, and no distinction between “he” and “she” when spoken (both are t\u0101<\/em>). So when you build an English sentence at conversation speed, your brain reaches for the Chinese blueprint because it is faster. The English words get poured into a Mandarin mold.<\/p>\n

This is also why memorizing more vocabulary doesn’t fix the problem. You already know the words. The fix is retraining the mold \u2014 learning English in chunks and full phrases so the correct structure becomes the automatic one.<\/p>\n

\"English<\/p>\n

Good correction targets the pattern, not just the single sentence.<\/em><\/p>\n

12 Common Chinglish Mistakes to Fix Today (12\u500b\u5e38\u898b\u4e2d\u5f0f\u82f1\u6587\u932f\u8aa4)<\/h2>\n

Here are the repeat offenders, roughly in order of how often I hear them. For each one, the ❌ line is the Chinglish version and the ✅ line is what a native speaker would actually say.<\/p>\n

\"Handwritten<\/p>\n

1. “Open \/ Close the light” (\u958b\u71c8 \/ \u95dc\u71c8)<\/h3>\n

In Chinese, \u958b covers both “open” and “turn on,” and \u95dc covers both “close” and “turn off.” So the light, the TV, and the air conditioner all get “opened” and “closed.”<\/p>\n

❌ Please open the light. Close the computer before you leave.
\n✅ Please turn on<\/strong> the light. Turn off<\/strong> the computer before you leave.<\/p>\n

Rule of thumb: you open<\/em> things with a lid or a door \u2014 a box, a window, a bottle. You turn on<\/em> things with electricity.<\/p>\n