{"id":7611,"date":"2026-07-21T00:09:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T00:09:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/18kenglish.com\/common-english-mistakes-taiwan\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T00:09:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T00:09:25","slug":"common-english-mistakes-taiwan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/18kenglish.com\/ko\/common-english-mistakes-taiwan\/","title":{"rendered":"12 Common English Mistakes Taiwanese Learners Make | \u4e2d\u5f0f\u82f1\u6587\u5e38\u72af\u932f\u8aa4"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nQuick Answer (\u5feb\u901f\u89e3\u7b54):<\/strong> The most common English mistakes Taiwanese learners make come from translating Chinese word-for-word \u2014 saying “open the light” instead of “turn on the light,” dropping the plural “-s,” skipping articles like “a” and “the,” and putting “very” in front of a verb (“I very like it”). Fix these 12 Chinglish (\u4e2d\u5f0f\u82f1\u6587) habits and your English will sound far more natural.\n<\/div>\n

After twenty years teaching English in Taipei, I can usually spot a learner’s first language within two sentences. Not because the grammar is bad \u2014 plenty of my students score above 800 on the TOEIC \u2014 but because the same handful of errors show up again and again, and almost all of them trace back to one thing: translating directly from Chinese. These are the common English mistakes that survive years of study and still slip out in a job interview or a work email. The good news is that once you can name a mistake, you can kill it. Here are the twelve I correct most often, with the fix for each.<\/p>\n

\"Taiwan
A little focus on the right habits fixes most recurring English errors.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

1. “Open the Light” \u2014 Translating Chinese Word-for-Word (\u76f4\u8b6f\u7684\u4e2d\u5f0f\u82f1\u6587)<\/h2>\n

This is the classic. In Chinese you \u958b\u71c8 and \u95dc\u71c8, so “open the light” and “close the light” feel completely logical. In English, lights, TVs, computers, and taps all use turn on<\/strong> \uadf8\ub9ac\uace0 turn off<\/strong>. You turn on the light, turn off the AC, turn up the volume. The verb “open” is reserved for things with a lid, a door, or a cover \u2014 you open a window, a box, or a bottle. Whenever a phrase feels like a straight swap from Chinese, treat it as a red flag and check how a native speaker would actually say it.<\/p>\n

2. Dropping the Plural “-s” (\u5fd8\u8a18\u8907\u6578)<\/h2>\n

Mandarin nouns don’t change for number \u2014 \u4e00\u672c\u66f8, \u4e09\u672c\u66f8, the word \u66f8 stays the same. English forces you to mark it: one book, three books<\/em>. “I read two book last week” is the single most frequent grammar slip I hear, and it’s an easy one for listeners to notice. Train yourself to hear the number and the “-s” as a pair. If a number or a word like “many,” “some,” or “a few” comes first, the noun almost always needs its plural ending.<\/p>\n

3. Skipping Articles: A, An, The (\u51a0\u8a5e\u554f\u984c)<\/h2>\n

Chinese has no articles, so English “a,” “an,” and “the” feel like decoration you can drop. They aren’t. “I am teacher” should be “I am a<\/strong> teacher.” Use “a\/an” the first time you mention a countable thing, and “the” once both people know which one you mean. It’s the hardest feature of English for Chinese speakers precisely because there is no equivalent to transfer from \u2014 you have to build the habit from scratch. When you write, pause before every singular countable noun and ask which article belongs there.<\/p>\n

\"English
Articles and plurals are the two grammar points Chinese speakers have to build from zero.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

4. “I Very Like It” \u2014 Adverb Placement (\u526f\u8a5e\u4f4d\u7f6e)<\/h2>\n

In Chinese, \u6211\u5f88\u559c\u6b61 puts \u5f88 (very) right before the verb, so “I very like it” feels natural. English doesn’t allow “very” to modify a verb. You have two clean options: use “really” or “a lot” \u2014 “I really<\/strong> like it” or “I like it a lot<\/strong>” \u2014 or attach “very” to an adjective or adverb instead, as in “very good” or “very quickly.” Keep “very” away from verbs and this mistake disappears overnight.<\/p>\n

5. Forgetting Past Tense (\u6642\u614b\u6d88\u5931)<\/h2>\n

Chinese marks time with words like \u6628\u5929 (yesterday) or \u4e86, not by changing the verb. So “Yesterday I go to Taipei 101” sounds complete to a Chinese ear. English makes the verb itself carry the tense: “Yesterday I \uac14\ub2e4<\/strong>.” The time word is not enough \u2014 you have to change “go” to “went,” “eat” to “ate,” “buy” to “bought.” Irregular verbs are the tricky part, which is why they deserve their own study session. A quick test: say what you did yesterday out loud. If every verb still looks like its dictionary form, your tense marking hasn’t become automatic yet.<\/p>\n

6. Bored or Boring? The -ed \/ -ing Trap (\u5f62\u5bb9\u8a5e\u6df7\u6dc6)<\/h2>\n

“I am so boring” is a sentence students say when they mean the opposite. An “-ing” adjective describes the thing that causes the feeling; an “-ed” adjective describes the person who feels it. A long meeting is boring<\/strong>; you are bored<\/strong>. A movie is exciting; you are excited. So “I am boring” literally tells people you are a dull person. The same trap catches interesting\/interested, tiring\/tired, and confusing\/confused.<\/p>\n

\"Taking
Writing errors down \u2014 with the correction beside them \u2014 is how they stick.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

7. “Fun” vs “Funny” (\u6709\u8da3\u9084\u662f\u597d\u7b11)<\/h2>\n

Both translate loosely to \u6709\u8da3, but they aren’t interchangeable. Fun<\/strong> means enjoyable \u2014 a trip to Kenting is fun. Funny<\/strong> means it makes you laugh \u2014 a comedian is funny. Call a party “funny” and you’ve just said the party was a joke. If you enjoyed something, it was fun; if it made you laugh, it was funny.<\/p>\n

8. Say, Tell, Speak, Talk \u2014 Four Verbs, One Chinese Word (\u8aaa\u7684\u56db\u7a2e\u8aaa\u6cd5)<\/h2>\n

Chinese leans heavily on \u8aaa and \u8b1b, so English gives learners four verbs where they expect one. You say<\/strong> something, you tell<\/strong> someone, you speak<\/strong> a language, and you talk<\/strong> to a friend. “He said me the news” should be “He told<\/strong> me the news.” The quick rule: “tell” is followed directly by a person, “say” is not. I’ve broken all four down with examples in our guide to the difference between say, tell, speak, and talk<\/a>.<\/p>\n

9. Wrong Time Prepositions: In, On, At (\u6642\u9593\u4ecb\u4fc2\u8a5e)<\/h2>\n

“See you in Monday” is a small slip that instantly marks a non-native speaker. English sorts time words by size: ~\uc5d0<\/strong> for clock times (at 3 p.m.), ~\uc5d0<\/strong> for days and dates (on Monday, on July 21), and ~\uc5d0<\/strong> for longer stretches (in July, in 2026, in the morning). Picture a zoom lens \u2014 the more precise the time, the smaller the preposition. Prepositions rarely translate one-to-one from Chinese, so memorize these three as fixed pairs.<\/p>\n

\"English
Most of these errors are caught and fixed fastest with a teacher or a speaking partner.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

10. He, She, and the Missing “-s” (\u7b2c\u4e09\u4eba\u7a31\u55ae\u6578)<\/h2>\n

Spoken Chinese uses one sound, t\u0101, for he, she, and it, and verbs never change for the subject. English does the opposite in the present tense: “He \uacf5\uc7a5<\/strong> in Taipei,” “She likes<\/strong> coffee.” That third-person “-s” is easy to drop because Chinese never asks for it. It’s worth drilling, because “He work here” is one of the most noticeable errors to a native ear. Our full walkthrough of subject-verb agreement<\/a> covers the trickier cases.<\/p>\n

11. Pronunciation: Dropped Endings and L \/ R (\u767c\u97f3\u554f\u984c)<\/h2>\n

Mandarin syllables mostly end in a vowel or a nasal sound, so English final consonants tend to vanish \u2014 “rice” becomes “rye,” “cold” becomes “coh.” The L and R sounds also blur, turning “rice” and “lice” into the same word. These aren’t grammar problems, but they cause more real-world misunderstandings than any tense error. Slow down and finish your consonants; it does more for clarity than a bigger vocabulary. We break down the specific sounds in our English pronunciation guide for Taiwan learners<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Confused
When two words sound identical, context usually saves you \u2014 but clear endings save you faster.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

12. “Too” vs “Very” (\u592a vs \u5f88)<\/h2>\n

“I’m too happy to meet you” is meant as a warm greeting, but “too” carries a negative edge in English \u2014 it means more than you want<\/em>. “Too hot” means uncomfortably hot; “too expensive” means beyond your budget. To simply intensify something positive, use “very,” “so,” or “really”: “I’m \uadf8\ub798\uc11c<\/strong> happy to meet you.” Save “too” for when there really is a problem.<\/p>\n

How to Actually Fix These Common English Mistakes (\u5982\u4f55\u6539\u6b63)<\/h2>\n

Reading a list won’t rewire a habit \u2014 output will. Pick the two mistakes on this list you recognize in yourself and hunt for just those for one week. Record a two-minute voice memo describing your day, play it back, and count how many times the plural “-s” or the past tense slips. Awareness is most of the battle; the errors you can hear are the errors you can stop. Keep a running note on your phone of every correction a colleague or teacher gives you, and review it on your commute.<\/p>\n

Here’s the part most textbooks skip: these mistakes cluster. A learner who drops the plural “-s” almost always drops the third-person “-s” too, because both come from the same root cause \u2014 Chinese verbs and nouns simply don’t change shape. So you rarely have twelve separate problems to fix. You have two or three underlying habits, and each one clears several items on this list at once. That’s why I tell students to stop chasing individual errors and instead ask, “What Chinese rule is my brain still applying here?” Answer that, and the corrections start to feel obvious instead of endless. Progress in English is rarely about learning more words \u2014 it’s about noticing the pattern underneath the slip.<\/p>\n

\"Office
Work email is where these mistakes cost the most \u2014 and where fixing them pays off fastest.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One more thing worth saying plainly: making these mistakes doesn’t mean your English is bad. It means your brain is still running on Chinese grammar, which is completely normal and totally fixable. Every fluent speaker you admire made this exact list of errors on the way up. Focus on the patterns, not on being perfect.<\/p>\n

Watch: Common Mistakes Taiwanese Learners Make (\u5f71\u7247)<\/h2>\n

This short video walks through several of the same Chinglish patterns with spoken examples \u2014 useful for training your ear alongside the reading.<\/p>\n

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