Not a generic list. These are 63 errors taken from marked homework by Chinese speakers, each one repaired and then explained by what Chinese actually does differently. The heaviest areas here are subject-verb agreement, articles and determiners, collocation. Nothing on this page is behind a sign-up.
An error you can name the cause of is an error you can stop making.
Mandarin verbs never change for the subject – wǒ qù ('I go'), tā qù ('he goes'), tāmen qù ('they go') all use the same qù. So English is/are and the third-person -s have to be supplied entirely on the English side, and under speed they get guessed. The copula compounds it: Mandarin often leaves the 'be' word out altogether before a describing word, so tā gāo is a complete sentence meaning 'he tall', with no is in it at all. English never allows that – every sentence needs a verb, and where there is no other verb, the verb is a form of BE. Two habits follow from one typological fact: add the ending, and never drop is or are.
The takeawayBefore every verb, ask two questions: who is doing it, and is it one or many?
Mandarin has no articles at all. The predicted error, and the one that fills early reports, is omission – I went to restaurant, the book is on table. What is happening now is the interesting part: articles are no longer being left out. One is being put in where English forbids it, in front of a name – which is the same signature that produced an article before a city name many sessions earlier. This is hypercorrection: the learner has learned that English demands these small words, and the rule is being applied slightly too widely. It is a more advanced error than omission, and it responds to one line: a name takes THE only when an ordinary word is hiding inside it – the United Kingdom, the Yangtze River, the Great Wall; but Shanghai, Beijing, London.
The takeawayIf a name has no ordinary word hiding inside it, it takes no the.
It matters to say when an error is not the first language's doing, because otherwise the notes become a list of things to blame. 'Drive a bicycle' is one of those. Mandarin distinguishes the two verbs just as carefully as English does – qí for things you sit astride (a bicycle, a horse, a motorbike) and kāi for things you steer from inside (a car, a bus) – so the first language would have given the right answer if it had been asked. What happened instead is an ordinary English overgeneralisation: drive is the verb you meet first and most often, so it gets stretched to cover one vehicle too many. That is a guess, not interference, and guessing is how vocabulary grows.
The takeawayRide a bicycle, drive a car – the same line your own language already draws.
Mandarin is topic-prominent: you routinely put the topic first and comment on it – zhè bù diànyǐng, wǒ hěn xǐhuan, literally 'this film, I really like'. That is almost exactly English fronting, so the emphasis structures absorbed today sit on a foundation the first language already provides. It is a real advantage, and worth naming, because the same typology that makes tense marking hard from Mandarin makes inversion, clefting and fronting comparatively easy. English emphasis is not a new idea here; it is a familiar idea wearing English word order.
The takeawayThe topic-first habit your first language gives you is exactly what English fronting wants – use it.
The aspect particles le (completed event) and guò ('have ever done X') feel like cousins of the English perfect, but the mapping isn't one-to-one. le very often lines up with the English past simple – zuótiān wǒ chī le is 'yesterday I ate', not 'I have eaten' – and guò is close to have ever but not the same as the continuous. Underneath sits a bigger fact: Chinese verbs have no tense endings at all, so wǒ chī can mean 'I eat', 'I ate' or 'I will eat', with time shown by separate words. English instead changes the verb and stacks an auxiliary (HAVE / HAD / WILL HAVE) in front of the past participle. The English rule to trust is the time signal: yesterday → past simple; already / ever / since → present perfect.
The takeawayIf you would use le in Chinese, use the English past simple – not the present perfect.
Mandarin points with zhè ('this') and nà ('that'), and – here is the key – they don't change whether you mean one or many. zhè zuò chéngbǎo is 'this castle'; zhè xiē chéngbǎo is 'these castles', and the zhè itself never moves – a separate little word (xiē) does the pluralising. English hides the number inside the pointing-word instead: this flips to these. So 'this castles' is a completely logical thing to say from where the learner is standing; English simply insists the demonstrative agree. The same pair then does a second job English cares about and Mandarin splits differently: distance in time. English uses this for now and near, and that for finished and away – so a past event takes that: on that day we cleaned the classrooms.
The takeawaythis = one, these = many; and anything finished has moved away, so it takes that.
Mandarin tā serves as both 'he' and 'him' – the pronoun never changes shape according to its job in the sentence. English keeps two forms and switches between them: he when the pronoun is doing the action, him after a verb or a preposition. So 'with he' is that single Mandarin form arriving in an English slot that wanted the other one; the meaning is perfectly clear, which is why the fault is invisible from the inside. The pairs are few and worth learning as a block – I/me, he/him, she/her, we/us, they/them – and the trigger is mechanical rather than semantic: after any preposition (with, to, for, between, from) English always takes the second form.
The takeawayAfter a preposition, always the second form: with him, to her, for me, between us.
Mandarin builds these by putting nouns together: Zhōngguó rén is literally 'China person', and Ōuzhōu guójiā is literally 'Europe countries'. Both are perfectly formed Mandarin. Translate them straight across and you get China people and Europe countries – which is exactly what happened, twice, in one lesson. English won't allow it: the place has to change shape before it can describe a noun (China → Chinese, Europe → European, Korea → Korean, Japan → Japanese, Spain → Spanish, France → French, Poland → Polish), and the ending is different almost every time. There is no rule that predicts the ending; you learn them one at a time. Nothing in Mandarin prepares you for that, so it is a list, not a rule.
The takeawayBefore a noun, the place name has to change shape – and the ending is a list you learn item by item.
Mandarin compares with bǐ ('compared to'): wǒ bǐ tā gāo – 'I compared-to him tall' = 'I am taller than him'. Superlatives use zuì: zuì gāo = 'the tallest'. Notice how lean that structure is – no am, no -er, no than – and the second half can be very short indeed, because context carries it. English is fussier: it wants a verb, an ending, than, and a second half that matches the first in kind and in number. So when a comparative is built perfectly and then trails off into a mismatched second half, the form is not the problem; the first language has simply allowed the tail of the comparison to stay as short as it is allowed to be at home.
The takeawayEnglish wants both sides of a comparison to match: point at them and check they are the same kind of thing.
This is worth noticing because it is genuinely hard. Chinese puts the relative clause before the noun, joined by de: cóng guówài lái de huòwù is literally 'from abroad come de goods' = 'the goods that come from abroad'. English puts the clause after the noun. Handling that flip in both directions – and then dropping the pronoun altogether for reduced relatives (the people living here, the book I read) – is a real achievement. Modals, by contrast, are a system Mandarin already has in full: néng / kěyǐ ('can'), yào / děi ('must, have to'), yīnggāi ('should'), kěnéng ('might'), so the meanings are familiar and only the English refinements (must for certainty as against obligation, can't for impossibility) are new.
The takeawayEnglish hangs the clause after the noun; Chinese hangs it in front. Same idea, opposite side.
Mandarin can mark the passive with bèi (bèi jiāo, 'be taught'), but it isn't used the same way or as often as the English passive, and it carries no tense. English builds the passive analytically – BE + past participle – and then puts the tense on BE: is taught, was taught, has been taught, is being taught. That is the whole system in one line, and it is why the passive is easier than it looks from Mandarin once the pattern is seen: only BE changes. The second Mandarin habit that travels is naming the doer. Chinese usually names it, so by people, by someone, by them follow the learner into English – where the passive exists precisely to leave an obvious doer out.
The takeawayEvery passive is BE + past participle, and only BE changes for tense.
Chinese builds vivid words by joining pieces together – mènghuàn, literally 'dream-fantasy' – so coining something like dreamful is a very natural move from the inside. It just isn't an English word. English is fussier about which endings attach where: hopeful and colourful exist, dreamful does not, and there is no way to predict that from the pieces. The instinct is worth protecting – reaching for a strong, precise word is exactly what a good learner does – but it needs one extra step in English: check the word exists, and if it doesn't, take the nearest real one (here, dreamlike or magical).
The takeawayKeep coining ambitious words – then check the English one actually exists before you use it.
Chinese marks an action as finished or experienced with the particles le and guo, but it does not change the verb the way English does. That is why 'I already finished my homework' feels complete to a Chinese-L1 speaker, when English wants 'I have finished my homework'. The English perfect tenses are not really about when something happened – they are about what was already true at the moment you are talking about. Every perfect tense links two moments in time: a point, and the state of affairs that preceded it. Because the Chinese particles attach to the clause rather than reshaping the verb, the English helping verb has nothing prompting it, and the most common surface fault is the dropped have / has / had rather than a wrong choice of tense.
The takeawayA perfect tense always needs its helping verb – have, has, had or will have. Do not say 'I already win three titles'; say 'I have already won three titles'.
Grouped by grammar point, heaviest first. Every line is real.
Subject-verb agreement 10
some people think pets is a part of their lives
...pets are a part of their lives
Match plural to plural: a plural subject takes a plural verb (pets are).
WhyChinese verbs never change for the subject – the same verb is used whoever does it – so English agreement has to be built fresh.
technology affect education negatively
technology affects education negatively
Add the -s for he/she/it: one thing → affects.
WhyChinese verbs never change for the subject (yǐngxiǎng doesn't add anything), so the English ending is the new habit. A quick 'who, one or many?' check catches every one.
food are spicier
food is spicier
The rule underneath: food is uncountable → food is; cars is plural → cars are.
WhyMandarin verbs don't change for the subject (wǒ qù, tā qù, tāmen qù – all the same), and nouns don't mark number, so is vs are gets guessed.
American food are more unhealthy
American food is more unhealthy
An uncountable subject takes a singular verb, however plural the idea feels.
WhyMandarin nouns don't mark number and the verb never agrees, so the English is/are choice has no counterpart to copy from.
Chinese cars is more expensive
Chinese cars are more expensive
A plural subject takes are – and the comparative itself never changes; only the verb has to agree with the subject in front of it.
WhyMandarin marks neither agreement nor number, so the plural noun gives the verb no signal.
Shanghai receive a lot of goods
Shanghai receives a lot of goods
When the subject is he, she, it, or a singular name/thing, the present-tense verb takes -s. A quick check: singular subject + present tense → add -s.
WhyChinese verbs never change their form for the subject (wǒ chī, tā chī – same chī), so this -s is a pure English add-on.
my school teach a lot of students
my school teaches a lot of students
A singular subject in the present needs -s on the verb: my school teaches, the port handles.
WhyChinese has nothing for the -s to copy, so it has to be added by habit rather than recalled.
its bring a lot fun to us
it brings a lot of fun to us
When the subject is one thing (it, she, the school), the present verb takes -s. Also its means 'belonging to it'; the word you wanted is it.
WhyMandarin verbs don't change shape (chī is 'eat' in every tense and for every person), so the third-person -s is the layer that slips when your attention is on the bigger idea.
our school encourage us to draw some painting
our school encourages us
One thing → -s: our school encourages.
while I were doing my homework
while I was doing my homework
I takes was; only we/you/they take were. (The time clause itself is correctly assembled – the fault inside it belongs to another system.)
WhyMandarin offers one verb form where English asks you to choose between two, so the agreement system is asking for a decision the first language never requires.
Articles and determiners 9
We went to the Paris and met the Sarah at the station.
We went to Paris and met Sarah at the station.
Proper nouns take no article – the longest-running habit in this learner's file, and now two consecutive clean sheets. Banked.
The Hong Kong is the most expensive place
Hong Kong is the most expensive place
Most city names take no article at all. (A few names do keep the – the USA, the UK, the Philippines – but those are the exception, usually plurals or 'republic/kingdom' names.)
WhyMandarin has no articles, so they get added in unexpected places – specificity comes from demonstratives (zhè 'this', nà 'that') and word order instead.
the Chinese was taught in my primary school
Chinese was taught in my primary school
Names of languages take no article: Chinese, English, French (and school subjects too). Use the Chinese only for the people (the Chinese are...) or a specific thing (the Chinese you learned).
WhyMandarin has no a/an or the; definiteness rides on word order, measure words and demonstratives (zhè/nà). So English articles are an extra decision every time – and sometimes one slips in where English wants none.
tiniest people in my family
the tiniest people in my family
The -est ending always travels with the: the tiniest, the tallest, the best, the most important – because a superlative points to one unique top of the group, and the is how English marks 'the one and only'.
WhyChinese has no articles and marks the superlative with just zuì ('most'): zuì xiǎo ('most small' = 'the smallest'). So the the is added English-side.
I will get a good English
I will get good English
English (the language) is uncountable, so it takes no a: good English, my English is improving.
WhyChinese has no a or the: wǒ de Yīngyǔ hěn hǎo is 'my English very good' – no article anywhere. And Yīngyǔ is a whole-mass idea you would never count with a, so a English sounds wrong in Chinese too.
the table tennis are popular
table tennis is popular
A sport named in general takes no the and counts as one thing: table tennis is popular, football is fun.
Whypīngpāngqiú hěn shòu huānyíng is 'table-tennis very receive-welcome'. Chinese would never add the, never add -s and never change the verb for number – pīngpāngqiú is simply the topic.
there are some children playground
a children's playground
A playground for children is a children's playground – the possessive does the work, and the noun phrase still needs its article.
WhyMandarin doesn't mark plural on the noun, so this is a decision English adds.
in very kind way
in a very kind way
a ... way always takes a: in a kind way, in a similar way.
WhyMandarin has no articles at all, so the small word has to be supplied English-side every time.
safe areas have been built in mountains
safe areas have been built in the mountains
The small words still have to be chosen: a specific, known range takes the.
WhyMandarin has no article system, so every English article is an added decision – the last thing to settle even when the big structure is correct.
Collocation 6
computer games practice your brain
computer games train / exercise your brain
You train or exercise your brain – you practise a skill, like the piano.
a lot fun
a lot of fun
a lot of – the of is part of the phrase: a lot of fun, a lot of people.
I spent a good time with him
I had a good time
English has a good time; it spends time. Both work, but they take different objects: have a good time, spend time (no a, no good needed).
drive a bicycle
ride a bicycle
English splits by vehicle: you drive a car, a bus, a lorry (things with a wheel you turn) but you ride a bicycle, a horse, a motorbike (things you sit on top of).
WhyThis one is not the first language pulling you the wrong way: Mandarin makes exactly the same distinction – qí for things you sit astride, kāi for things you steer from inside – so Mandarin would have given the right answer. It is an ordinary English overgeneralisation of drive.
more bamboo woods are being grown
more bamboo forests are being planted
Collocation, not grammar: you plant forests, and the English word for a large managed stand of trees here is forest.
The Great Wall was built by people over many countries centuries
The Great Wall was built over many centuries
Centuries (time), not countries (places) – and by people says nothing, so drop it. The passive exists so you can leave an obvious doer out.
Countability 4
We stayed indoor and played game all afternoon.
We stayed indoors and played a game all afternoon.
Mandarin marks neither number nor definiteness, so both the -s and the a have to be added deliberately until they become automatic.
the scenery there are beautiful
the scenery there is beautiful
Scenery is uncountable – one of that awkward English group that feels plural because it describes many things but behaves as one: scenery, furniture, luggage, information, advice, weather, traffic. Always a singular verb.
WhyMandarin verbs never change for the subject and adjectival predicates often take no copula at all – tā hěn gāo is 'he very tall', a complete sentence with no 'is' in it.
draw some painting
draw a painting / some paintings
Decide singular or plural and commit: a painting (one) or some paintings (several) – not some painting.
WhyMandarin doesn't mark plural on the noun, so number is a decision English adds.
bake honey biscuit
bake honey biscuits
A batch is countable, so the noun goes plural.
WhyMandarin doesn't mark plural on the noun, so the -s is supplied English-side.
word formation 4
dreamful
dreamlike / magical
English is fussy about which endings attach where: -ful gives hopeful and colourful, but there is no dreamful. When you coin a clever word, check it exists.
WhyChinese builds vivid words by joining pieces (mènghuàn, 'dream-fantasy'), so inventing dreamful is a very natural move – it just isn't an English word.
some Europe countries interest me
some European countries interest me
The place has to change shape before it can describe a noun – China → Chinese, Europe → European, Japan → Japanese, Spain → Spanish – and the ending is different almost every time. It's a list, not a rule.
WhyMandarin builds these by putting nouns together: Ōuzhōu guójiā is literally 'Europe countries' and Zhōngguó rén is literally 'China person'. Both are perfectly formed Mandarin; translate them straight across and you get Europe countries and China people.
I'm a music instrument master now
I've mastered a musical instrument
English changes a word's shape for its job: music is the thing, musical is the describing word – a musical instrument.
I experienced some difficult
I had some difficulty / some difficulties
difficult is the describing word, but after some you need the noun: some difficulty, some difficulties.
The copula 3
AI just a tool
AI is just a tool
Every English sentence needs a verb, and where there is no other verb the verb is a form of BE.
WhyChinese often leaves out the 'be' word, especially before describing words – tā gāo means 'he tall', with no is. English always needs it: AI is just a tool, he is tall.
if I mix blue and yellow paint it be green
if I mix blue and yellow paint, it is green
English bends be to fit its subject and time – am / is / are; here, it → is. Everything else in the zero conditional was already right.
WhyIn Chinese the 'be' word shì has one form forever – it is never bent to match its subject. So turning be into is is a purely English step.
sometimes it's be difficult
sometimes it is difficult
It's already contains is, so be has nothing left to do. (If you mean it happens occasionally: it can be difficult.)
Whyhěn cōngmíng ('very clever') needs no copula at all in Mandarin, which is why the be turns up as an extra, unattached word in English.
verb tense 3
we are very angry
we were very angry
A finished event takes the past tense: were is the past of are. Pair a past time-word with the past verb – then / that day + were.
WhyChinese verbs don't change for tense at all – wǒmen kàn is 'we see', 'we saw' or 'we will see', with time shown by context or a particle like le for a completed event. So the past form is a pure English-side habit.
we see
we saw
A past event needs the past verb – saw is the irregular past of see.
WhyWhere English marks past, Chinese often marks completion with le: wǒmen kàn le ('we saw', the seeing is done). A useful bridge: if you'd use le in Chinese, use the past form in English.
they fight with the Japanese army in world war two
they fought against the Japanese army
Finished events take the past form – fought. And when two sides oppose each other English says fought against; fight with can mean 'fight alongside'.
WhyMandarin leaves the verb unchanged and lets a time word carry the tense, so English's endings are the layer to watch.
Cohesion 2
maths is but Chinese isn't
I did well in maths but not in Chinese / maths was good but Chinese wasn't
Ellipsis keeps the auxiliary: the verb stays, and it stays in the tense the situation needs – for a finished test, maths was, Chinese wasn't.
I turn on my computer firstly
I turn on my computer first
For a real sequence of actions English prefers plain first; firstly is for listing points in an essay.
Comparatives 2
China people are taller than Korea
Chinese people are taller than Koreans
A comparison has two sides, and in English both sides must be the same kind of thing. Match the sides: people to people, or country to country.
WhyMandarin compares with bǐ ('compared to'): wǒ bǐ tā gāo – 'I compared-to him tall'. That structure is lean – no am, no -er, no than – and the second half can be very short indeed, because context carries it.
Chinese people are taller than Korean
Chinese people are taller than Koreans
Both sides of a comparison must match in kind and in number: people is plural, so the second side must be too.
WhyMandarin's bǐ comparison lets the second half stay very short, because context carries it; English wants a second half that matches the first.
demonstratives 2
in this day we clean our classrooms
on that day we cleaned
For a finished day, use that, not this: this points to now, that points away, to the past.
WhyEnglish uses this for now and near and that for finished and away; Mandarin's zhè / nà pair splits distance differently and does not do this job for time in the same way.
this castles are in the air
these castles are in the air
this / these must match the noun: this for one, these for many.
WhyMandarin points with zhè ('this') and nà ('that') and they don't change whether you mean one or many: zhè zuò chéngbǎo is 'this castle', zhè xiē chéngbǎo is 'these castles' – the zhè itself never moves; a separate little word (xiē) does the pluralising. English hides the number inside the pointing-word.
Prepositions 2
we enjoy some food in there
some food there
There already means 'in that place', so in there doubles up.
I dislike about it
I dislike it
dislike takes its object directly, with no preposition. The about has probably wandered in from complain about or talk about, which do need it.
pronouns 2
I'll take some photos and show it with my friends
... and show them to my friends
The pronoun has to match the plural noun it points back to – photos is plural, so the pronoun is them, not it – and the verb is show ... to, not show ... with.
WhyMandarin doesn't mark plural (the marker -men is human-only and optional), so the English plural – and the pronoun that should agree with it – is the work.
I spent a good time with he
I had a good time with him
After a preposition, English switches the pronoun to its object form: with him, to her, for me, between us.
WhyMandarin tā serves as both 'he' and 'him' – the pronoun never changes shape according to its job in the sentence, so with he is that single Mandarin form arriving in an English slot that wanted the other one.
purpose clauses 2
I wanted to feel healthier so that I stopped eating sweets.
I stopped eating sweets so that I could feel healthier.
So that points at the goal, and the goal goes second. Action first, purpose after.
The hill was very steep that we had to walk.
The hill was so steep that we had to walk.
Keep the SO in so … that. Very cannot carry a result clause.
Relative clauses 2
we help the people work there to do some cleaning
the people who work there
who links the two halves so you don't have to start a new sentence: the people who work there.
WhyMandarin often names a topic and then comments on it, sometimes repeating the thing with a pronoun: the book I read, it was good. English prefers to stitch the two parts with a single reference word instead.
a playground where is for children
a playground which is for children
A playground is a thing, so it takes which (or that), not where. Save where for a place you do something in: a playground where the children play.
gerunds 1
do sports can bring their health, they can keep healthy
doing sports can improve their health; it keeps them healthy
When an action is the subject of a sentence, English uses the -ing form: Doing sports..., not Do sports... And the word pairing is improve or be good for your health – bring health doesn't quite fit.
WhyMandarin verbs take no endings and can sit side by side (a serial-verb pattern: zuò yùndòng 'do sport'), so an action can head a sentence without the -ing English needs.
infinitives 1
they don't need pay any money
they don't need to pay any money
Need, as an ordinary verb, takes to + base verb: need to pay, need to go. The only time to drops is the negative needn't – but with don't, you keep the to.
participial adjectives 1
It's so bored.
It was so boring.
The film is boring; you are bored. -ing describes the thing, -ed describes the person feeling it.
The passive 1
They should be protect by us
They should be protected
After a modal the passive still needs the full participle: modal + be + participle. Quick check – point at the last verb; if it isn't a participle (protected, seen, built, made), the passive is unfinished.
phrasal verbs 1
high building block out it
high buildings block it out
A short pronoun object slips inside the phrasal verb: block it out, not block out it.
Punctuation 1
We waited outside ,Dan was late.It rained all day.What a start.
We waited outside. Dan was late. It rained all day. What a start.
Chinese full-width punctuation carries its own spacing, so it transfers as a space before the comma and none after the full stop. English: no space before, one space after.
reflexive pronouns 1
If I learn this skill I can cook for me
I can cook for myself
Same person → myself: if you cook and you eat, it's cook for myself (myself, yourself, himself...).
Sentence boundaries 1
Ryan practises every day as a result he is the fastest.
Ryan practises every day. As a result, he is the fastest.
As a result is a linking adverb, not a joining word. Like however and therefore, it needs a full stop in front.
spelling 1
We planed the trip and I block the goal twice.
We planned the trip and I blocked the goal twice.
Both slips arrive under speed, not from not knowing: the doubled n in planned, and the -ed that speech swallows.
verb patterns 1
I keep eat it
I keep eating it
After keep, the -ing form. The same goes for stop, enjoy, finish, avoid, mind: I keep eating, I enjoy reading, I finished writing.
Whywǒ yīzhí chī is 'I continuously eat' – Mandarin puts the idea of continuing into a separate adverb (yīzhí) and leaves the verb untouched. English does the reverse and changes the verb itself.
These are the Chinese corrections only. The full archive holds every language side by side, filterable by grammar point and level: the marking archive. Other languages: Ukrainian, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Korean, Turkish.
A rule earns its place by being produced correctly and unprompted, not by being explained once.
The hidden-common-noun rule
A name takes THE only when an ordinary word is hiding inside it. Names of people and cities take no article at all.
CautionIt is a rule of thumb, not a law of nature: it works because the ordinary word (kingdom, river, wall) is the thing THE is really attached to.
The proper-noun groups list
Most proper nouns take no article – people, cities, most countries, continents, single mountains. But a small group does take the, and it is worth learning as a list: rivers, seas and oceans, mountain ranges, deserts, and plural or union countries.
CautionOne person, no the. One river, the. There's no logic – it's a list. A useful hook, not a rule: one thing takes nothing; long or many things take the.
The empty by-phrase test
Keep the agent only when it earns its place. The passive exists so you can leave the doer out – that is the whole trick. Ask: does the by-phrase tell the reader something new?
CautionIf the agent is people / someone / they / workers-in-general, cut it. If it names a surprising or specific doer, keep it.
The unfinished-passive check
After a modal, the passive still needs its full participle: the pattern is modal + be + participle. Point at the last verb – if it isn't a participle, the passive is unfinished.
Does the clause pick, or just add?
A defining clause picks one out of many – no commas. A non-defining clause adds extra information about something already unique – commas on both sides. Quick check: is the noun already unique, such as a name or my school? Yes, commas.
CautionChinese doesn't mark the difference at all (both are de-clauses), so the commas are doing work the first language never asks for – which is why they go missing rather than being misplaced.
Point at both sides
A comparison has two sides, and in English both must be the same kind of thing – and match in number. Before finishing any comparison, point at the two things and confirm.
CautionEnglish lets you drop the repeated noun, but only if you leave something behind to prove it was there – the pro-form that, or an apostrophe: my school is bigger than my cousin's.
Learn FROM a person, learn AT a place
When the lesson comes from a person, English uses learn from. You learn at a place, but from a person.
CautionChinese marks 'learn from someone' with a word like gēn or xiàng, which doesn't line up neatly with either English preposition – so store the pair learn from together as one item.
The nouns that feel plural and aren't
A small group of English nouns describes many things but behaves as one: no -s, no a, and always a singular verb.
CautionIf you need to count them, English borrows a word – a piece of furniture, two pieces of advice – which is very nearly the classifier system Chinese already uses (yī gè rén), just in far fewer places.
Number first, then distance
this is one thing near you, these is many things near you – English changes the pointing-word for number. Then distance in time: this is for now and near, that takes over for anything finished or far.
CautionMandarin's zhè doesn't change for number and doesn't split near from far in time, so this is a habit to build rather than a rule to puzzle over.
The perfect links two moments
Every perfect tense links two moments in time: a point, and what was already true before it. Change where you stand in time and a different set of perfect tenses opens up.
CautionIf the action connects to now, use have/has + V3, not the past simple: not 'I played since I was six' but 'I have been playing since I was six'.
One pattern, four windows: every perfect tense is a form of HAVE + the past participle.
Every passive is BE + past participle. Only BE changes.
One = is, many = are. Uncountable = is.
Every sentence needs a verb. Don't drop is / are.
Names take no THE.
A person's name never takes the. A river always does.
this = one, these = many. that = away, and in the past.
Point at both sides: people to people, country to country.
It's already means IT IS – nothing goes after it.
Keep EATING. Enjoy READING. Finish WRITING.
With HIM. To HER. For ME. After a preposition, the pronoun changes.
Drive a car. RIDE a bicycle – just like qí and kāi.
le is not the present perfect: Chinese le usually equals the English past simple.
One thing gets -s; finished gets the past form. cleaned, fought, taught.
The superlative always travels with THE: the tiniest, the tallest, the best.
'there' already means 'in that place' – so food there, not food in there.
A report that only lists faults teaches you nothing about what to keep.
I was taught Chinese at my primary school.
CreditedA past simple passive produced under control, with the language name correctly bare of an article – a carryover from the previous session held without a nudge. A valid alternative to the expected answer, too: the person taught can be the subject as well as the language.
Hunting pandas has been stopped by strict rules
CreditedA present perfect passive in free writing, unprompted – and the by-phrase earns its keep, because it tells us how. It also runs an -ing subject with a singular verb, a pattern drilled earlier in the same set, live and correct.
pandas have been looked after well
CreditedA phrasal passive kept whole: the particle stays with the verb instead of being dropped, which is where most learners lose the phrasal verb in the passive.
...more beautiful than that in Shanghai.
CreditedThe pro-form that, used unprompted, twice in one set. It saves the repeated noun while keeping both sides of the comparison the same kind of thing – the exact fault corrected in the lesson, fixed by a device the learner was only shown once.
it might have been her
CreditedAn upgrade made unprompted: it might be her was revised to the past-deduction chain, modal + have + past participle, without being asked. That is the difference between knowing a form and choosing it.
the girl who sits by the window
CreditedA defining relative clause in free writing, with the third-person -s held inside the clause – the learner's longest-running slip, surviving intact in unsupervised production while attention was on the story.
if I were
CreditedProduced twice, unprompted, and not once as if I was. The subjunctive were is the hardest single word in the English second conditional, and it appeared while the learner's attention was entirely on something else.
an old recipe book which has yellow pages
CreditedA defining relative clause chosen freely in a piece of the learner's own writing – which for a thing, and the -s held on has. The pointing words that were still being caught in class landed by themselves on the page.
the most expensive place
CreditedOne of four consecutive comparative and superlative forms produced correctly in a single conversation – spicier, more unhealthy, more expensive, the most expensive place – with none of the classic traps (more tall, the most tallest) anywhere near them.
This is the marking talking to itself. It is here because it is the honest evidence that the rest of the page came from somewhere.
Four errors were logged in the session and not one of them touched the cohesion work: they were all agreement, the copula, and a single preposition.
The verdict is inferred from absence rather than from positive production, and the report says so rather than dressing it up: the topic was not heavily tested in writing yet, so it is recorded as a provisional win and the homework is set to put it to work. An absence of errors is treated as evidence, but weaker evidence than a correct production.
Every comparative and superlative form produced was correct: spicier, more unhealthy, more expensive, the most expensive place.
The errors sitting next to these forms were agreement and articles, never the comparison itself – so they are charged to their own counts and the comparative is graded clean. The 'at structural form' tier exists precisely for this: the frame is built correctly and the fault inside it belongs to another system. Four itemisable productions license the x4.
Ellipsis was attempted – 'maths is but Chinese isn't' – and the instinct is exactly right; it just needs the past form for a finished test. Reference slipped once: 'show it' for a plural antecedent, where English wants show them.
Attempted-and-nearly-right is not the same as absent and not the same as absorbed. The structure was reached for unprompted, which rules out avoidance; two identifiable faults inside it rule out a clean pass. PARTIALLY ABSORBED is the honest middle, and it names what is missing rather than averaging it away.
Knowing the pattern your first language produces is most of the work. Knowing which of them you are still making takes someone reading your writing.
Every lesson comes with a written report: the marking line by line, the criteria, and one priority for next time. A worked example shows exactly what comes back. Lessons are £20 for fifty minutes, one to one, in proper British English; the first step is a discounted trial lesson.