Chinglish: 12 Common Mistakes to Avoid | 中式英文

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 (中式英文) 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.

Speaking out loud is where Chinglish habits either break or get reinforced.

What Is Chinglish (中式英文)？

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 — 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: your native language quietly hands you a structure, and you fill it with English words.

The reason this matters is trust. A recruiter reading “There have three reasons I want this job” doesn’t think you’re multilingual — 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.

Why Taiwanese Learners Make Chinglish Mistakes (為什麼會有中式英文)

Mandarin and English disagree on some fundamentals. Chinese verbs never change form — 去 is 去 whether it happened yesterday or happens every day. Chinese has no articles, no plural -s, and no distinction between “he” and “she” when spoken (both are tā). 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.

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

Good correction targets the pattern, not just the single sentence.

12 Common Chinglish Mistakes to Fix Today (12個常見中式英文錯誤)

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.

1. “Open / Close the light” (開燈 / 關燈)

In Chinese, 開 covers both “open” and “turn on,” and 關 covers both “close” and “turn off.” So the light, the TV, and the air conditioner all get “opened” and “closed.”

❌ Please open the light. Close the computer before you leave.
✅ Please turn on the light. Turn off the computer before you leave.

Rule of thumb: you open things with a lid or a door — a box, a window, a bottle. You turn on things with electricity.

2. Dropping articles: a / an / the (冠詞)

Mandarin has no articles, so they are the first thing to disappear under pressure. “I am teacher.” “She bought car.” To an English ear, a missing article sounds unfinished.

❌ I am teacher. I want to buy car.
✅ I am a teacher. I want to buy a car.

Quick default: if a singular countable noun has no other word in front of it (my, this, one), it almost always needs a, an, or 這. For a full breakdown, see our guide to a, an, and the.

3. “Because… so…” doubled up (因為…所以…)

Chinese uses 因為 and 所以 together as a matched pair. English uses only one of them — using both makes the sentence redundant.

❌ Because it was raining, so we stayed home.
✅ 因為 it was raining, we stayed home. (or: It was raining, 所以 we stayed home.)

The same trap hits “Although… but…” — pick one, never both.

4. Forgetting plural -s (複數)

Chinese nouns don’t change for number; the number word does the work (三隻貓 = three cat). English forces the noun itself to change.

❌ I have two cat and three book.
✅ I have two cats and three books.

If there is a number or a word like “many,” “some,” or “a few” in front, the countable noun almost certainly needs an -s.

A dictionary catches direct-translation errors, but not structural ones — those need practice.

5. Verbs that never change (動詞變化)

Because Chinese verbs have one fixed form, English tense and third-person -s get flattened. This is the single clearest marker of a Chinese-shaped sentence.

❌ He go to work at eight. Yesterday I eat noodles.
✅ He 去 to work at eight. Yesterday I ate noodles.

Two things to drill: add -s for he/she/it in the present, and use the past form for anything that already happened.

6. Mixing up “he” and “she” (他 / 她)

In spoken Mandarin, 他 and 她 are both tā. In writing you see the difference; in speech you don’t — so the wrong pronoun slips out.

❌ My sister called. He said he is late.
✅ My sister called. 她 說 she is late.

This one is pure habit. The only fix is slowing down enough to picture the actual person before the pronoun leaves your mouth.

7. “There have…” instead of “There is / are” (有)

Mandarin 有 means both “to have” and “there is.” So “有很多人” becomes “There have many people.”

❌ There have many people in Ximending.
✅ There are many people in Ximending.

Use there is / there are to say something exists. Save “have” for possession — a person or thing that owns something.

8. Time and place in the wrong spot (時間地點的位置)

Chinese puts time and place before the verb: 我昨天去. English usually puts them after.

❌ I yesterday went to the night market. I at home study English.
✅ I went to the night market yesterday. I study English at home.

The reliable English order is subject → verb → object → place → time.

Writing forces you to see word order that speech lets you rush past.

9. “Very like” (很喜歡)

很 attaches directly to a verb in Chinese, so “很喜歡” becomes “very like.” But English “very” can’t modify a verb.

❌ I very like bubble tea.
✅ I really like bubble tea. (or: I like bubble tea a lot.)

Use really 或者 a lot with verbs. Save very for adjectives and adverbs — “very good,” “very quickly.”

10. “Play phone / play computer” (玩手機 / 玩電腦)

玩 works with almost anything in Chinese, but in English you only “play” games, sports, and instruments.

❌ I played my phone all night. He is playing computer.
✅ I was on my phone all night. He is using the computer.

You play basketball, play the guitar, and play video games. You use a phone or are on it.

11. “Too” used for emphasis (太)

太 in Chinese often just means “so” or “really” (太好吃了 = so delicious). In English, “too” signals a problem — too much of something.

❌ This beef noodle soup is too delicious!
✅ This beef noodle soup is 所以 delicious!

“Too” means excessive: “too spicy,” “too expensive.” If nothing is wrong, use 所以 或者 really.

12. Missing “it” as an object (缺少受詞)

Chinese lets you drop the object when it’s obvious. English usually needs it, especially after verbs like 喜歡, 享受, ， 和 make.

❌ Do you like here? I made by myself.
✅ Do you like it here? I made it myself.

When a verb needs an object and the thing is understood from context, English still wants a placeholder — usually it.

How to Stop Making Chinglish Mistakes (如何改掉中式英文)

Correcting these habits is not about studying harder — it’s about changing what you copy. The learners who fix it fastest stop memorizing single words and start memorizing whole phrases. “Turn on the light” learned as one unit never becomes “open the light.” This is the same reason learning collocations does more for natural-sounding English than any vocabulary list.

Reading your writing out loud is the cheapest fix available. Chinglish word order hides when you read silently, because your brain auto-corrects; it exposes itself the moment you hear it. Ten minutes a day of reading your own emails or messages aloud will catch more errors than an hour of grammar drills.

Ten low-pressure minutes a day beats one stressful marathon session.

One more habit worth building: when a native speaker phrases something differently than you would have, write down their version, not just the meaning. Collect the real phrase. Over a few months, those collected chunks quietly replace the Chinese molds — and the errors that separate you from the job, the client, or the conversation start to disappear.

The interview room is where a single Chinglish slip costs the most — and where fixing it pays off.

Chinglish FAQ (常見問題)

Is Chinglish the same as having an accent? No. An accent is about pronunciation. Chinglish is about grammar and structure — the words and word order, not the sound. You can have a strong accent and zero Chinglish, or perfect pronunciation and constant Chinglish.

Do native speakers understand Chinglish? Usually yes, in casual settings. But “understandable” and “professional” are different bars. In a job interview, an email, or a presentation, Chinglish reads as carelessness even when the meaning is clear.

What’s the fastest single fix? Reading your own writing out loud every day. It surfaces word-order and article errors that you skim past when reading silently. If you want a second quick win, master articles (a/an/the) — they are missing in Chinese and account for a huge share of Chinglish.

來源

1. 15 Chinglish Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them — Carl Gene Fordham — Detailed breakdown of recurring translation-interference errors.
2. Common Errors that Chinese Speakers Make in English — ChineseTrack — Overview of grammar and pronoun patterns from first-language interference.
3. Conquering Chinese English in the ESL Classroom — The Internet TESL Journal — Teacher-focused analysis of Chinglish in Taiwan classrooms.
4. 5 Must-Know Common Chinglish Phrases — That’s Mandarin — Real examples of word-for-word translation errors.