10 Common Mistakes in Spoken English in 2024

Learning the common mistakes in spoken English is one of the most important things you can do when you’re trying to improve your English speaking skills.

Speaking English fluently and correctly is not a skill that comes easily, it takes lots of practice!

You can be fluent in English but if you don’t know when you are making mistakes, it can cause big problems.

The best way to improve this skill is to join our English conversation class, where you can:

• get someone to highlight your mistakes and explain them to you
• learn some of the common mistakes in English speaking that people often make

We’ve created a list of the top 10 common English mistakes our students make while speaking in our online English speaking class.

So if you’re not sure if you should describe your boss as stressed or stressful, read on!

Is my boss stressed or stressful? (Maybe both?)

(Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels)

One of the most common mistakes in spoken English for our students is to mix up “-ed” and “-ing” adjectives.

So they say “My job is tired” when they mean “My job is tiring” .

Only boring people get bored?

(Photo by Becca Correia from Pexels)

“Ed-Adjective”

• “Ed-Adjectives” usually describe our feelings.
  • “I am bored in class” describes how I feel about class.
  • “I am terrified of my sister” describes how I feel about my sister.

“Ing-Adjective”

• “Ing-Adjectives” describe a situation.
  • • “My class is boring” describes how class makes me feel. 
    • “My sister is terrifying” describes how my sister makes me feel.

Another common mistake in spoken English is to mix up “scared” and “scary“.

So they say “I had a car accident and I was scary” instead of “I had a car accident and I was scared” .

Scary!

(Photo by Marcelo Moreira from Pexels)

“Scared”

• “Ed-adjectives” describe my feeling.
  • “I am scared of spiders” describes my feelings.
    • Remember to use “of” after “scared”

“Scary”

• “Scary” describes how something makes me feel
  • “Spiders are scary” describes how spiders make me feel.

A super common speaking mistake is to confuse “stressed” and “stressful“.

Sometimes our students say “I am moving to a new apartment and I’m stressful“, when they should say “I am moving to a new apartment and I’m stressed” .

This kid is stressed!

(Photo by Anna Shvets from Pexels)

“Stressed”

• “Ed-adjectives” describe my feeling.
  • “I have been stressed at work” describes my feeling at work.

“Stressful”

• “Stressful” describes the situation.
  • “Work has been stressful lately” describes how work makes me feel.

Another spoken English mistake is to confuse “fun” and “funny”.

“I had a funny weekend” is a very rare sentence, unless you spent your whole weekend with a comedian.

This funny clown is lots of fun?

(Photo by Sachin Bharti from Pexels)

Oh no! These adjectives don’t have an “ed” ending. What is the difference? 

“Fun”

• “Fun” describes something that makes you happy or gives you enjoyment.
  • “The rollercoaster was fun” says you enjoyed the rollercoaster.
• • “My weekend was fun” says you enjoyed your weekend.
    • You could say “I had a funny weekend” if your weekend made you laugh, but we usually describe our weekends as fun!

“Funny”

•  “Funny” describes something that makes you laugh.
  • “The movie was funny” says you laughed during the movie. 

A very common spoken English mistake is to use “breathe” and “breath” incorrectly.

When discussing a topic like yoga or meditation, sometimes people say “I need to breath deeply”. Instead, they should say “I need to breathe deeply”.

The air is so cold you can see your breath.

(Photo by Liza Summer from Pexels)

“Breathe”

• “Breathe” is a verb and the corners of your mouth should stretch like a smile when you say this word.
• • “My lungs hurt when I breathe in cold air“

“Breath”

• “Breath” is a noun and your mouth and jaw should relax when you say this word.
• • “I can see my breath when it’s cold”

Misusing “advice” and “advise” is a very common mistake that students make in our English conversation class.

“Let me give you some advise” is never correct, but “Let me give you some advice” is.

Would you take their advice?

(Photo by August de Richelieu from Pexels)

“Advice”

• “Advice” is a noun and has an /s/ sound at the end. 
• • “My dad gives the best advice”
    • “advice” is uncountable. Never add an “s” at the end.

“Advise”

• “Advise” is a verb and has a /z/ sound at the end.
• • “The mayor advised us to stay calm”
  • “I have been advising my friends to study harder”

Our next common mistake in spoken English: “borrow” and “loan“.

“Can I borrow $10 for lunch, I forgot my wallet” is correct.

“Can you borrow me $10 for lunch, I forgot my wallet” is incorrect.

She is loaning money.

(Photo by Mikhail Nilov from Pexels)

These two verbs are opposites! They tell us the direction of the action. 

“Borrow”

• “Borrow” means take something temporarily.
• • “I borrowed my mom’s car” means I took my mom’s car.

“Loan”

• “Loan” means give something temporarily.
• • “My mom loaned me her car” means my mom gave me her car.

Be careful with “make a test” and “take a test” .

Students take a test.

Teachers make a test.

A student taking a test.

(Photo by RODNAE Productions from Pexels)

“Make”

• “Make” is similar to create, so to “make a test” is to create it. 
• • “My teacher made a difficult test” means your teacher created a difficult test.

“Take”

• “Take” is like “do” when we talk about tests.
• • “I took a test yesterday” means you did a test.

Another common speaking mistake: “hurtful” and “painful” .

You can’t say “It was painful when my friend missed my birthday.”

You can say “It was hurtful when my friend missed my birthday.”

A hurtful thing was said.

(Photo by Ketut Subiyanto from Pexels)

Both adjectives describe unpleasant feelings.

“Hurtful”

• “Hurtful” means to upset someone or cause emotional pain, but not physical pain. 
  • “Your words are hurtful” means you are emotionally upset by the words.
  • “I broke up with my boyfriend because his actions were hurtful” means you were emotionally upset by his actions. 
• “Hurt” is a verb that can describe physical pain.
  • “I hurt myself at the gym yesterday”

“Painful”

• “Painful” is used to describe deep emotional or physical pain.
  • “Your words are painful” means you are emotionally upset or in pain by the words.
  • “It was painful when I broke my arm” means you were in physical pain.
• When we use “painful” to describe something that causes emotional pain, it has a very strong meaning.
  • “I don’t think about that place because I have some painful memories there” means you can’t think about the place because it hurts you too much.
  • If we say “it was painful when my friend missed my birthday”, it means we are deeply saddened.

Our last common spoken English mistake: “look for” and “look at” .

If you lose your car in a parking lot, you can “look for” your car.

If you go car shopping, you can “look at” a new car.

She’s looking for something.

(Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels)

These prepositional phrases will change the meaning of the sentence. 

“Look for”

• “Look for” something means to search for it.
• • “I was looking for my dog” means your dog was lost and you were searching for the dog. 

“Look at”

• “Look at” something is simpler. It means you are using your eyes in a direction.
• • “I was looking at my dog” means your eyes were directed at the dog.

If these common English speaking mistakes are new to you, and if you want to practice your speaking, you should take a free trial lesson of our Online English Conversation Class.

Check out our online English Conversation Class.

• four students maximum
• 1 Canadian or American English teacher
• 50 minute classes
• free trial lesson