Not a generic list. These are 103 errors taken from marked homework by Russian speakers, each one repaired and then explained by what Russian actually does differently. The heaviest areas here are articles and determiners, countability, 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.
Russian doesn't backshift tenses in reported speech the way English does. Он сказал, что он студент ('he said that he is a student') is grammatical in Russian even though the speech event is past. English requires backshift in indirect speech: he said he WAS a student; she told me she HAD seen the film. Drill the rule as four moves: present to past; present perfect to past perfect; past to past perfect; will to would. The C1 refinement sits one layer above that: general truths may resist backshift, so 'she explained the lake IS the largest' is defensible when the lake still is. Knowing that you may choose is the advanced point.
The takeawayStep every tense back one when you report – except a truth that is still true, where you may leave it in the present on purpose.
Russian encodes many relations English marks with prepositions as case morphology, and the mismatches surface as wrong, extra or missing English prepositions. Играть на барабане uses the prepositional case, which puts an on into 'playing on the drum' – English plays instruments directly, with THE. The mirror case is more interesting: о котором мы говорили carries its preposition on the relative pronoun, so when English drops the pronoun ('the palace we talked...'), the about must stay behind, stranded at the end of the clause. The first language gives the preposition a fixed seat; English lets it end up somewhere that feels, from the outside, like nowhere.
The takeawayMemorise high-frequency verb-preposition pairs as fixed units – and remember that a dropped relative pronoun leaves its preposition stranded at the end.
Russian expresses degrees of certainty lexically rather than grammatically. Where English conjugates a modal verb, Russian reaches for a particle, an adverb or a set impersonal phrase: должно быть ('must be' – literally 'it-is-owed to-be'), не может быть ('it cannot be'), наверное ('probably'), вряд ли ('hardly'), кажется ('it seems'). None of these is a modal auxiliary in the English sense. English instead runs the whole system through four small verbs – MUST, MIGHT, COULD, CAN'T – each followed by BE, with the verb itself carrying the strength of the claim. The refinement worth keeping is the strength ladder: must be (I am nearly certain) to could be / might be (possible) to can't be (I am nearly certain it is not). Note that English uses can't, never mustn't, for negative deduction – a trap that catches many advanced speakers.
The takeawayThe modal carries the certainty: must be, might be, can't be – and it is never mustn't for a negative deduction.
Russian quantifiers govern the genitive case: большинство людей ('most people' – literally 'majority of-people'), большую часть времени ('most of the time' – 'greater part of-time'). Because English of is the closest translation of a genitive ending, the ear supplies it automatically – and English then rejects it, because most attaches directly to a bare noun. Two rules, learned as a pair: MOST + noun (most people, most days, most guests); MOST OF + THE / my / his (most of the time, most of my shifts). This pattern is worth flagging rather than simply correcting the moment it appears twice: the same slip appearing across consecutive sessions moves it from a slip to a habit forming, and habits are much easier to stop early.
The takeawayMOST + noun. MOST OF + THE. The of is your first language's genitive ending in English clothing.
Russian verbs come in aspectual pairs – imperfective and perfective – encoded morphologically rather than through tense. The imperfective covers habitual, continuous and incomplete action within a single form, so a Russian speaker has one verb where English demands a choice. Crucially, the English split is not about completion at all but about timeframe: present simple for what generally happens, present continuous for what is happening at this moment. Errors therefore run in both directions. The less common direction is the continuous used for a habit – 'I'm buying the groceries and they are cooking' describing a standing arrangement, where English wants the simple present.
The takeawayAsk whether you could add 'right now' and still make sense. If not, use the present simple.
Russian chooses a tense by aspect: is the action completed (написать / napisat') or ongoing (писать / pisat')? English doesn't ask that question at all. English asks about the time frame – open, closed or layered. When the Russian setting is left to make the English decision, you get 'I have been doing laundry yesterday' for 'I did the laundry yesterday'. And the same instinct reaches into the conditionals: бы (by) + past is one Russian form, so the English split between unreal-now (second, would do) and unreal-past (third, would have done) has to be chosen consciously. Three rules carry nearly all of it. Closed frame takes the past simple – finished time kills the perfect. An earlier layer takes had done, triggered by by the time, before, already, when I arrived. And the flashback downshift: the past perfect opens the door into the earlier scene, and the past simple tells the story inside it.
The takeawayOne question, asked at the moment of choosing – open, closed, or layered? – replaces the Russian completed-versus-ongoing feel.
Russian marks person and number richly on the verb, so an agreement slip in a Russian speaker's English is never a gap in their grammar. It is the English third-person -s – a morpheme that carries almost no meaning and does almost no work – dropping first when attention is on the content of the argument rather than on its form. The signature is unmistakable when it appears: 'every individual share' slipped while its twin 'every human being shares' landed correctly moments apart, in the same session. Two identical structures, one right and one wrong, minutes apart, is a load effect, not a knowledge gap – and it is treated differently in the marking because it responds to rehearsal rather than to explanation.
The takeawayIf the same rule lands and slips in the same session, drill for fluency, not for understanding – you already know it.
Russian discourse readily names a topic and then restates it with a pronoun: описание – оно субъективное, 'the description – it (is) subjective'. English permits one subject per clause, and the doubled pronoun reads as spoken-register looseness that an academic reader will hear immediately. The same structure appears twice on this sheet – 'her description it's a bit subjective', and again in a mock abstract where an abstract subject is restated by it before the verb. When the topic genuinely needs emphasis, academic English reaches for apposition or a cleft rather than a resumptive pronoun: 'her description, admittedly subjective, nonetheless...' – dropping which is to reduce the clause is the hallmark of formal register.
The takeawayName the topic once. If it needs emphasis, use an apposition or a cleft – never a second pronoun.
Russian has no words equivalent to a/an or the; specificity is carried by demonstratives (этот/эта/это/эти 'this'; тот 'that'), by word order (sentence-initial topic = often definite; post-verbal = often indefinite), and by case marking on objects. At C2 the residue is small but persistent, and it surfaces under the load of spontaneous argument – which is exactly the condition of speaking to a hostile question. Four touches in one session, each a different sub-rule: the abstract-faculty THE, the classifying A, and the demonstrative number (these features, not this features). Because the demonstrative is what carries specificity in the first language, it is also the piece most likely to be over-deployed or mismatched for number in English.
The takeawayAt the top of the scale the article system is not a knowledge problem but a load problem – make the classify-versus-identify choice automatic before you have to make it under pressure.
Russian has no a/an or the; specificity is carried by demonstratives (этот / эта / это near, тот / та / то far), by word order and by case. The article slot is therefore empty by default and has to be filled consciously in English – which is why articles stay a dominant signature even at C2. What makes this tractable is that the errors are rule-governed rather than random: superlatives always take THE (the best, the most popular); a first-mention singular countable takes A/AN (a hard task); place-nouns in fixed expressions take their set article (at the cinema, in British English); and a uniquely-specified noun takes THE (the British version – there is only one). At C2 these are memorisation lists, not concepts the learner is missing. Drill them as fixed patterns rather than as a rule to reason through in real time.
The takeawaySuperlatives and first-mention singulars are the two article sub-rules worth drilling as lists, not as logic.
Russian expresses 'happening' with intransitive verbs (случаться, происходить) and forms passives with the reflexive -ся or быть + participle, which are flexible about the boundary between active and passive. In Russian the boundary is soft: что-то происходит ('something happens') carries the reflexive -ся ending that also does passive-like work, so there is no felt difference between 'is happening' and a passive shape. English draws a hard line: only a transitive verb – one that takes an object – has a passive. Perform does take an object, so it passivises: the renovation is being performed. Happen does not; nothing 'happens something', the event simply occurs, so it has no passive form at all. The continuous already carries the 'in progress' meaning in the active: something strange is happening. Build the passive freely, but only on verbs that take an object.
The takeawayBefore you passivise, ask one question: can this verb take an object? If no – happen, occur, arrive, exist – stay active.
Russian doesn't reorder an indirect question: the word order of что это ('what is it') stays exactly the same whether it is a direct question or embedded inside a statement. English flips it. Inside a statement, the inversion is dropped and the subject goes back in front of the verb: I can only imagine what it is, not what is it. Because the Russian sentence is entirely well formed either way, nothing in the first language flags that anything needs to change – which is why this survives to C1 in speakers whose harder grammar is already secure. Drill it with the frames that force the shift: I wonder where they are, tell me what it means, I'd like to know how much it costs.
The takeawayA question inside a statement is not a question any more – drop the inversion: what it is, where they are.
Russian делать spreads across English verbs that do not overlap: делать ошибку → make a mistake; делать вывод → draw a conclusion. Same verb in the speaker's head, different verb in English, and there is no rule that predicts which. English pairs verbs and nouns by habit, not logic: you make a mistake but draw a conclusion; you take a decision or make one; you run a project but hold a meeting. These are stored whole, like vocabulary, and cannot be assembled from parts. At C1 and above, collocation is the thing that separates 'correct' from 'native' – which is why a repeat of the same underlying calque across two sessions, with two different English targets, is worth more attention than its error count suggests.
The takeawayBank collocations as whole phrases: make a mistake, draw a conclusion, take a decision.
Russian drops the copula in the present tense in most contexts: он врач ('he doctor' = 'he is a doctor'); она дома ('she home'); это интересно ('this interesting'). Past and future tenses do mark BE – он был врачом, она будет дома – which is why the error appears only in present-tense statements and never in the past. English requires the copula everywhere, in every present-tense statement, with no exceptions to learn. This is not carelessness; it is a documented feature of the first language, and the drill is correspondingly narrow: three predicate types, said aloud until automatic. IS/ARE + adjective (I am responsible), IS + noun (she is a product owner), IS + location (the team is upstairs).
The takeawayEnglish never drops the AM. Drill the three predicate types: I am responsible, she is a manager, the team is upstairs.
Grouped by grammar point, heaviest first. Every line is real.
Articles and determiners 26
a largest lake
the largest lake
Superlatives take THE, always: there is only one largest, so it is definite by nature. (If you mean one among several, say one of the largest lakes.)
WhyRussian has no words equivalent to a/an or the; specificity is carried by demonstratives, word order and case marking, so the English article has to be chosen consciously every time.
it's ancient palace
it's an ancient palace
A first-mention countable noun takes A/AN – and the vowel sound calls for AN.
WhyRussian marks no definiteness with a determiner, so a first-mention countable arrives in English bare.
it is hard job
it is a hard job
Every singular countable noun needs a determiner.
WhyRussian has no words equivalent to a/an or the, so both directions of error are predicted and both appeared in one session.
if I want to work in office
to work in an office
Every singular countable noun needs a determiner.
WhyWith no article system in the first language, the determiner has to be supplied consciously in English.
I don't have a spare time to look deeply into it
I don't have spare time to look into it deeply
Time here is uncountable and takes no article – the mirror of the missing-article errors, in the same session.
WhyA no-article first language produces over-supply as well as under-supply: the system is unfamiliar in both directions at once.
a dream to visit UK and Scotland
a dream of visiting the UK and Scotland
A country or organisation whose name contains a common noun takes THE; a plain name does not. That is why one half of the sentence needs THE and the other needs nothing.
WhyRussian treats the two names identically, and quite reasonably – they are both simply places, and Russian marks no definiteness anywhere. English treats them differently for a reason that has nothing to do with the countries: United Kingdom contains the common noun kingdom, and Scotland does not.
I need to enter European Union
I need to enter the European Union
An organisation whose name contains a common noun – Union, Kingdom, States, Republic, Emirates – takes THE.
WhyRussian marks no definiteness on names at all, so мечта посетить ... leaves every proper noun bare.
the room 12
room 12
A number-label takes no article at all.
WhyRussian carries no articles, so English asks a question the ear is not used to.
Please take a good care of them.
Please take good care of them.
Care is uncountable, so no a.
WhyRussian carries no articles, so the English determiner is supplied by feel – in both directions.
when I saw the familiar face
when I saw a familiar face
First mention of a countable noun takes a/an, even when the thing is familiar to the speaker.
WhyWith no article system in the first language, the choice between first-mention a and already-known the has to be made consciously.
travelled around the Europe
travelled around Europe
No the on continents and most countries.
WhyThe Russian no-article system pushes and pulls at once: it drops articles where English needs them and adds them where English wants none.
in big club
in a big club
First mention, countable, singular – it needs its a.
WhyThe same no-article first language producing the opposite error in the same set of sheets.
find best places
find the best places
English superlatives are obligatorily definite: the best, the most popular, the largest always take THE.
WhyRussian has no a/an or the; specificity rides on demonstratives (этот / тот), word order and case, so the article slot is empty by default. Russian найти лучшие места ('find best places') is complete without any determiner, so nothing in the first language flags the missing English THE.
it was hard task
it was a hard task
A singular countable noun after IS/WAS takes A/AN.
WhyRussian это была трудная задача – eto 'this' / byla 'was' / trudnaja zadacha 'hard task'. Russian marks definiteness through context and case, never through an article, so the slot for English A simply isn't there to fill.
if I watch them in cinema
if I watch them at the cinema
Place-nouns in fixed expressions take their set article: at the cinema, at the theatre (British English).
WhyRussian has no article system, so fixed English place-expressions have to be stored whole rather than derived.
especially British version
especially the British version
A uniquely-specified noun takes THE – there is only one of it.
WhyRussian carries specificity through demonstratives, word order and case rather than an article, so a uniquely identified noun arrives in English with the determiner slot still empty.
it was great party
it was a great party
A singular countable on first mention needs a/an.
WhyRussian has no article system, so the first-mention a/an has to be supplied by hand.
I was in a great company of my friends
I was in great company
In good/great company is a fixed expression that drops the a – or becomes in the company of...
WhyRussian has no articles, so errors surface in both directions: an article supplied where English wants none, and omitted where English requires one.
closer to mountains
closer to the mountains
A specific, identifiable noun takes THE.
WhyRussian carries specificity through demonstratives (этот / тот), word order and case rather than an article.
I'd like to explore the nature
I'd like to explore Ø nature
A general concept takes no article at all: explore nature, not the nature.
WhyBecause Russian would use the bare noun for the general concept, English article errors go in both directions – over-use here, omission elsewhere.
during last year
during the last year
Add THE to a specific past period: during the last year, over the past year.
WhyRussian has no article equivalent, so articles are added and dropped unevenly on the English side alone.
the public transport
public transport
Drop THE from a generic uncountable. The rule: specific or identified → the; generic mass → none.
WhyWith no Russian article system to translate from, the same speaker both adds and omits – the mirror-image errors are one system, not two.
I own pipeline of creating datasets from customers
I own the pipeline for creating datasets from customer data
THE marks a thing both speaker and listener can identify; and a noun's purpose takes for + -ing, not of.
WhyRussian has no a/an or the – specificity rides on demonstratives (этот / тот), on word order (a sentence-initial topic is usually definite, post-verbal usually indefinite) and on case. So I own pipeline isn't a slip: there is simply no Russian switch to translate.
I manage the team of about 6 people
I manage a team of about six people
First mention of a countable noun takes A. THE would imply the listener already knows which team.
WhyRussian has no words equivalent to a/an or the; specificity is carried by demonstratives (этот, тот), by word order and by case marking, so both directions of error are predicted.
I'm ready for next challenges
I'm ready for the next challenge
Next points to one specific thing, so it takes THE and a singular noun. If you mean challenges in general, use new with a bare plural: new challenges.
WhyWith no Russian article system, the determiner has to be chosen consciously in English rather than translated.
it's a mixture of this and the real life
it's a mixture of this and real life
Abstract generics take no article at all: real life, data quality, product management, urban planning.
WhyThis is the mirror of the omission errors: there an article was needed and left out; here one was supplied that English does not want. Both come from the same absent Russian system.
Countability 11
a lot of different kind of porridge
a lot of different kinds of porridge
A lot of different points at more than one, so the noun must be plural.
one or two person at a time
one or two people at a time
One or two points at more than one, so the noun must be plural.
I couldn't find many research
I couldn't find much research (or many studies)
Research is uncountable in English, so it takes much or little, never many or a research. For counting, switch to a countable synonym: many studies, several papers, a number of articles.
those are the most popular one
those are the most popular ones
A plural subject needs the plural pro-form: those are the popular ones.
WhyRussian это самые популярные – samye populjarnye 'most popular'. The adjective ending (-ye) carries the plural and there is no separate one/ones pro-form, so the English pro-form gets left singular.
every purposes
every purpose
Every is always followed by a singular noun, even though the meaning is plural.
WhyRussian agreement works differently around quantifiers, so the English quantifier rules have to be learned on the English side.
a lot of different variation
a lot of different variations
A lot of different... needs a plural. Pair it with every + singular: the two rules pull in opposite directions, which is what makes them worth learning together.
not a free day for every workers
for every worker
Every takes a singular noun – grammatical number over real-world count.
one of the most important experience
one of the most important experiences
One of the... is always followed by a plural: you are picking one out of a group, so the group has to be more than one.
one of the hardest one
one of the hardest (or: one of the hardest ones)
After one of the + superlative, either leave the noun out entirely or use the plural pro-form ones – never the singular one.
I would add an information that we don't only focus on simple metrics
I'd add that we don't only focus on simple metrics
Information is uncountable in English – no an, no plural, ever. Say I'd add that..., one more point, or a piece of information.
WhyRussian информация behaves as an ordinary count noun, so an information feels well formed. English information – like advice, news, research, feedback – takes no a and never pluralises.
17 millions votes
17 million votes
After a number, million / thousand / hundred stay singular. The plural only appears with of and no number: millions of votes.
WhyRussian numerals govern the case and number of the noun after them, so 17 миллионов голосов genuinely requires the plural form – the speaker is translating a plural Russian demands.
Collocation 10
It is faster to travel from the ground than to fly.
It is faster to travel by land than to fly.
The set takes by and no article: by land, by sea, by air, by rail, by car.
there are a lot of functions in phones
phones have a lot of features
English tech-talk says features, not functions – and the possession frame (phones have) is more natural than there are ... in.
WhyRussian функции reaches for the English cognate functions.
watching phones
watching series / videos on our phones
We watch the content, on the device. Watching phones is what a shop security guard does.
enter European Union from the ground
enter the European Union by land (or overland, or by road)
The travel set is fixed: by land, by sea, by air, by road, by rail – all with BY and no article. From the ground in English suggests you are digging.
WhyПо земле is exactly 'by land', and Russian is entirely consistent – по земле, по морю, по воздуху: one preposition for every medium. English is the awkward one, fixing on BY and dropping the article; there is nothing to derive, so the set must simply be stored.
we did some BBQ
we had a BBQ
English has a BBQ, has a party – the light verb is have, not do.
WhyRussian делать (delat') covers both do and make, so it is the default reach for any event noun; English selects have here.
attention for detail
attention to detail
Attention to detail is a fixed collocation – store it as a whole unit, not as noun plus a chosen preposition.
WhyRussian внимание к деталям ('attention to details') uses the dative к, and that case-marked к nudges towards the wrong English preposition.
make some conclusions
draw some conclusions
English fixes the verb as draw with conclusions. Collocations are learned as whole phrases, never assembled.
WhyRussian сделать выводы is literally 'make conclusions', so the calque transfers whole.
I made a conclusion
I drew a conclusion (or simply: I concluded)
English pairs verbs and nouns by habit, not logic: you make a mistake but draw a conclusion. These are stored whole, like vocabulary.
WhyRussian делать covers English's do and make and more besides: делать ошибку → make a mistake, делать вывод → draw a conclusion. Same Russian verb, two different English verbs, and neither is the one you would guess.
I hadn't visited any concerts for a while
I hadn't been to a concert in a while
English visits places and people (visit a client, visit a site) but goes to or has been to events (a concert, a conference, a meetup).
WhyRussian посещать covers both places and events, which is where the calque comes from.
multi-functional team
cross-functional team
Cross-functional is the standard term for a team drawn from several disciplines. Multi-functional is understandable but describes a device.
Prepositions 9
two people was playing on Hang (drum)
two people were playing the Hang
English plays instruments directly, with THE: play the drum, the piano, the guitar.
WhyRussian играть на + prepositional case (играть на барабане) is what puts the on there.
working in computer
working on a computer
English works ON a machine and IN a place: on a computer, on a laptop, on the phone, but in an office, in a kitchen.
complained regarding the facilities
complained about the facilities
One complains ABOUT something – regarding is not the partner word here.
WhyVerbs choose their own preposition, and Russian's case system often lends the wrong one; learn the preposition as a pair with the verb.
starts from checking
starts with / by checking
Something starts WITH or BY doing – not from.
WhyVerbs choose their own preposition, and the Russian case system lends the wrong one.
it affect on their money
it affects their money (no on)
Affect is transitive and takes a direct object with no preposition. The on only appears with the noun: it has an effect on their money.
WhyRussian encodes with case what English marks with prepositions, so влиять на ('to influence on') transfers the on straight across into affect on.
I was on a foam party
I was at a foam party
English fixes AT as the location preposition for events: at a party, at a conference.
WhyRussian marks the relation with case rather than a preposition, so the English preposition is chosen freshly each time and has to be stored as a fixed unit.
at those area
in that area
A bounded region takes in, not at. And those is plural – a single area takes that.
WhyRussian encodes location with case, so a location idea can surface as at where English wants in.
to do releases in time
to ship releases on time
On time = at the agreed moment, not late. In time = with enough time to spare (we got there in time to fix it). They are different words. English's verb for releases is ship or deliver.
in next company
at my next company
English needs a determiner before next company, and a company as a workplace takes AT: you work AT a company, IN a team, IN a sector, ON a product, WITH engineers, FOR a manager.
WhyRussian encodes with case morphology many relations that English marks with a separate preposition, so the English preposition cannot be derived and must be stored as part of a fixed unit.
Subject-verb agreement 7
two people was playing
two people were playing
People is plural, always WERE / ARE / HAVE.
every individual share
every individual shares
Every + singular noun takes a singular verb, always.
WhyRussian marks person and number richly on the verb, so an agreement slip is never a gap in the grammar – it is the English third-person -s, which carries almost no meaning, dropping first when attention is on the content of the argument.
places that was unused
places that were unused
A plural head noun takes a plural verb, including inside a relative clause.
WhyRussian marks agreement richly but on a different grid, so the English-specific concord rules are the ones that slip under speed.
everybody try to
everybody tries to
Everybody / everyone / nobody are grammatically singular in English despite their plural sense.
WhyRussian все 'everyone' takes a plural verb, which is the source of the slip.
everybody who are interested
everybody who is interested
The indefinite pronouns everybody / everyone / somebody / nobody are grammatically singular, and the relative clause agrees with them.
WhyRussian agreement is rich but organised on a different grid, so this is an English-surface tidy-up rather than a conceptual gap.
the renovation were being performed
the renovation was being performed
A singular noun subject takes the singular auxiliary, even when a plural sits nearby: was + being + past participle.
it affect their money and success
it affects their money and success
A singular subject takes the -s form of the verb.
Quantifiers 5
Most of people arrive after midnight.
Most people arrive after midnight.
Two different structures. MOST + bare noun for people in general; MOST OF + THE for a specific group already named.
I am on my feet most of the times.
I am on my feet most of the time.
Time is uncountable in this phrase. Most of the time, not times – the plural is the giveaway that the noun was chosen before the structure.
a few of churches
a few churches
A few, several and many attach straight to the plural noun. Of returns only with THE: a few of the churches we saw.
WhyRussian quantifiers govern the genitive case, and English of is the closest translation of a genitive ending – so the ear supplies an of that English then rejects.
most of people are complaining about the weather a lot
most people are complaining about the weather a lot
MOST attaches directly to the noun (most people, most days); most of requires THE or a possessive after it (most of the people in this town).
WhyRussian большинство людей puts people in the genitive, which whispers 'of' into the English. The ear is hearing a case ending and supplying the English word for it.
most of times I remember them
most of the time I remember them (or: most times I remember them)
MOST attaches straight to a noun (most people, most days); MOST OF requires THE or a possessive after it (most of the time, most of my shifts).
Whyбольшую часть времени ('the greater part of-time') puts времени in the genitive, and the genitive is precisely what English of translates – so the ear translates a case ending faithfully and English rejects the result.
Perfect tenses 3
What I see is surprising me.
What I see surprises me.
A reaction is a state, not an activity in progress. States – surprise, know, believe, mean, cost – take the simple.
and I never forgot to set an alarm again.
and I have never forgotten to set an alarm since.
An 'ever since' ending always takes the open frame – the present perfect – because it reaches to today.
WhyRussian has no English-style perfect family, so the open frame has to be built entirely on the English side.
I had have to discover or recognise or learn how to deal with juridical documents
I have had to discover / learn how to deal with legal documents
The shape is have / has + had + to + verb: the auxiliary comes first, then the past participle. That ordering rule runs through all the perfects.
WhyRussian grammar runs on aspect – perfective vs imperfective – rather than a present-perfect system, so the English perfect has no single Russian template to copy. The meaning was right ('a need, up to now'); only the auxiliary order was not yet automatic.
verb patterns 3
I'm trying not to stuck there too long
I'm trying not to get stuck there too long
Stuck is a state, not a verb; entering the state needs GET – get stuck, get lost, get bored.
That led me to taking a midday nap that went out of control.
That led me to take a midday nap that got out of hand.
Lead, cause, allow, encourage, remind + person + to-infinitive: the delay led me to take a nap. Only lead to + noun or -ing drops the person. And out of control is for machines and vehicles; plans, naps and evenings get out of hand.
it keeps reoccur
it keeps recurring
Keep takes the -ing form; and the precise verb is recur, so it keeps recurring carries the meaning without redundancy.
irregular verbs 2
spreaded
spread
Spread – spread – spread. No -ed on the irregulars.
the release of a new builded service
the release of a newly built service
Build is irregular: build / built / built.
WhyThis is the good kind of mistake – it means the -ed rule has been internalised so well that it was applied where English breaks its own rule.
Modal verbs 2
It can't be that they are underage, can they?
They can't be underage – can they?
The tag copies the subject and the auxiliary of the main clause. Say the deduction straight and the tag follows it.
He must have been having too many drinks.
He must have had too many drinks.
The original was already right – this one was broken by over-correcting under instruction. A completed cause takes must have had; the continuous adds nothing.
past simple 2
I was disappointed when England lose to Argentina
...when England lost to Argentina
A finished past needs its past form.
WhyRussian verbs come in aspectual pairs – imperfective and perfective – encoded in the stem rather than through tense: писать (IMPF) and написать (PERF) both mean 'to write'. Russian verb morphology is therefore busy doing something else, and English tense-marking is a layer added on top.
when we implement the system we started to use a formula
when we implemented the system, we started to use a formula
Both verbs sit in the same finished past, so both take the past form.
WhyRussian marks completion through aspect in the verb stem rather than through tense endings, so the meaning can feel complete before the English ending is reached for.
Pronunciation 2
a suite (pronounced as 'soot' or 'suit')
a suite = /swiːt/ – exactly like sweet
Suite rhymes with sweet. Not 'soot', not 'suit'.
expertise (pronunciation)
ek-sper-TEEZ
The stress lands on the final syllable and the ending sounds like -teez, not -tise. Contrast expert, which stresses the first syllable: EK-spert. English moves the stress when the suffix changes.
WhyRussian word stress is famously mobile and unpredictable, so the learner is already used to stress carrying meaning – an advantage. The English pattern to learn is that certain suffixes pull the stress towards themselves: EX-pert becomes exper-TISE; ANA-lyse becomes ana-LY-sis; MANage becomes mana-GER-ial.
Register and style 2
He was going up to the stage when the music stopped.
He was going on stage when the music stopped.
On stage is fixed and takes no article. Up to the stage describes the steps, not the performance.
The queue was that bad that we left. I only work on the weekend, and I asked where the restroom was.
The queue was so bad that we left. I only work at the weekend, and I asked where the toilets were.
Three British-English corrections in one line: so … that for the result pair; at the weekend, not on; and restroom is American – in Britain ask for the toilets, or the Ladies and the Gents.
Relative clauses 2
the palace we talked last time
the palace we talked about last time
The preposition must survive into the relative clause, stranded at the end.
WhyRussian о котором мы говорили carries the preposition on the pronoun; English drops the pronoun, so the about has to stay behind, standing guard at the end – a very English piece of engineering.
a B2B event concept, where eight couples performed
a B2B event concept, in which eight couples performed
A concept is not a place, so the relative adverb where cannot introduce it – use in which.
Sentence boundaries 2
They must be celebrating something special, I have to find a table.
They must be celebrating something special, so I have to find a table.
Russian punctuates by clause and a comma may legally join two full clauses. English punctuates by sentence. Cover each side of the comma: if both halves stand alone, you need a full stop, a semicolon, a dash, or and / but / so / because.
That can't be real, I must be dreaming.
That can't be real – I must be dreaming.
The dash is the right repair here: it keeps the speed of the thought, which a full stop would slow down.
Word order 2
I can only imagine what is it
I can only imagine what it is
In an embedded question – a question inside a statement – English drops the inversion: what it is, not what is it.
WhyRussian doesn't reorder an indirect question: что это ('what is it') keeps the same word order whether it stands alone or is embedded in a statement. English flips it.
it's enough strong
it's strong enough
Enough follows the adjective it modifies: strong enough, fast enough, clear enough.
WhyRussian достаточно сильный puts 'enough' before the adjective, where English puts it after.
Aspect 1
I'm buying the groceries and they are cooking
I buy the groceries and they cook
Present simple for what generally happens; present continuous for what is happening right now. A useful test: could you add 'right now' and have it still make sense? If not, use the simple present.
WhyRussian verbs come in aspectual pairs – imperfective and perfective – encoded on the stem rather than through tense, and the imperfective covers habitual, continuous and incomplete action in a single form. English splits that one Russian form in two, and the split is not about completion but about timeframe.
The copula 1
I also responsible for shipping the releases in time
I am also responsible for shipping the releases on time
English makes the copula obligatory in every present-tense statement: IS/ARE + adjective, IS + noun, IS + location.
WhyRussian drops the present-tense copula in most contexts – он врач ('he doctor' = 'he is a doctor'), это интересно ('this interesting') – while past and future tenses do mark it (он был врачом). That is why the error appears only in present-tense statements.
dangling modifier 1
Before escorting him to the table, he greeted our manager.
Before I escorted him to the table, he greeted our manager.
'Before escorting...' promises that the escorter and the following subject are the same person. When they are not, name the subject.
gerunds infinitives 1
it wasn't about develop the service itself
it wasn't about developing the service itself
After a preposition, English uses -ing: about developing, responsible for delivering, involved in building.
idiom 1
not to build from the zero point
not to build from scratch
The English idiom for starting with nothing is from scratch: we didn't have to build it from scratch.
WhyRussian с нуля is literally 'from zero', which produces the zero point in English.
nominalisation 1
some messages about different perceiving the nature of power by the citizens
messages about how citizens differently perceive the nature of power
English prefers to unpack a heavy noun phrase into a clause with a verb.
WhyRussian comfortably stacks meaning into a noun phrase; English tolerates far less weight there and reaches for a clause instead.
The passive 1
is being happened
is happening
Only transitive verbs – verbs that take an object – have a passive. Happen is intransitive (nothing 'happens something'), so it has no passive at all.
WhyRussian expresses 'happening' with intransitive verbs (случаться, происходить) and forms passives with the reflexive -ся or быть + participle, which are flexible about the boundary between active and passive. English draws a hard line at transitivity.
Possessives 1
A new girlfriend of the manager was waiting by the door.
The manager's new girlfriend was waiting by the door.
English prefers the Saxon genitive for people. The of-construction reads as translated, and it puts the wrong word first.
pronouns 1
we need to predict the data by ourself
we need to predict the data ourselves
The singular reflexives take -self (myself, yourself, himself); the plurals take -selves (ourselves, yourselves, themselves).
resumptive pronoun 1
even though her description it's a bit subjective
even though her description is a bit subjective
One subject per clause. The subject is stated, then restated by it, and the verb attaches to the pronoun – academic English does not permit the doubling.
WhyRussian topic-comment structure licenses it: описание – оно субъективное, 'the description – it (is) subjective', is perfectly natural in the first language.
Tense 1
I have been doing laundry yesterday
I did the laundry yesterday
Finished time kills the perfect: yesterday, last week, in 2019 all force the past simple.
WhyRussian chooses a verb by aspect – is the action completed (написать / napisat') or ongoing (писать / pisat')? English does not ask that question at all; it asks about the time frame. When the Russian setting makes the English decision, the perfect attaches to a dated, finished event.
transitivity 1
everyone enjoyed
everyone enjoyed it
Enjoy is transitive and needs an object – enjoyed it, enjoyed the party, or enjoyed themselves; it cannot stand alone.
WhySome English verbs insist on an object where Russian can leave it implicit, so the verb feels 'complete' without one.
word formation 1
based on the number of rewatchings
based on the number of rewatches
Rewatch is a count noun in its own right (a rewatch, two rewatches); the -ing nominalisation is a plausible coinage but not the form English settled on.
WhyRussian nominalises freely through suffixation – пересмотр 'a rewatch', пересмотров (genitive plural) – so building rewatchings follows that productive instinct. English happens to lexicalise the bare verb-noun here.
These are the Russian corrections only. The full archive holds every language side by side, filterable by grammar point and level: the marking archive. Other languages: Ukrainian, Polish, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Turkish.
A rule earns its place by being produced correctly and unprompted, not by being explained once.
The named-institution rule
English puts THE in front of a country or organisation whose name contains a common noun – Kingdom, Union, States, Republic, Emirates – or a plural form such as Netherlands. It puts nothing in front of a plain name. The rule is about the shape of the name, not about the nation.
CautionA single sentence can need both halves at once: a dream of visiting the UK and Scotland – THE on one, nothing on the other, from one rule. Learn the rule and the whole class comes with it; learn a list and you will over-supply THE on the plain names.
The three-step article test
Ask the three questions in order. Is it a number-label or an uncountable (room 12, care, advice)? Then nothing. Is it specific or already known (the best table, the terrace)? Then the. Otherwise, is it a first mention of a countable? Then a or an.
CautionFamiliar to you is not the same as already introduced to your reader: a familiar face is still a first mention, so it takes a.
The telling point
Every story has a telling point – the moment you speak from. Choose it first, and every frame then answers to it. Inside the story, now and the present are allowed, but nothing later may appear. After the story, the middle backshifts and an 'ever since' ending takes the present perfect.
CautionThe test: does anything in the piece happen after your 'now'? If yes, the now is in the wrong place. One decision, made once, anchors every frame in the piece.
Open, closed, or layered?
Russian chooses a verb by aspect – completed or ongoing. English does not ask that question at all; it asks about the time frame. So replace the aspect question with one English question, asked once, at the moment of choosing: is this open (still connected to now), closed (finished and dated), or layered (one past before another)? Closed takes the past simple, open takes the present perfect, layered takes the past perfect.
CautionFinished time kills the perfect: yesterday, last week, in 2019 force the past simple every time, however recent or however relevant the event still feels.
The classify-versus-identify article rule (academic writing)
When you classify a work as a member of a category, use A. When you identify a specific, already-introduced work, use THE. Abstract faculties in critical theory take THE. This single distinction is the most frequent precision point an academic reader will hear.
CautionReserve THE for the specific instance you have already named; a first classification is indefinite even when the work itself is famous and the reader knows perfectly well which one you mean.
The one of the... frame
One of the... is always followed by a plural: you are picking one out of a group, so the group has to be more than one.
CautionGet this frame wrong in a high-stakes spoken answer and it is the only part of an otherwise very good sentence a listener will hear. If the noun is obvious, drop it entirely – one of the hardest I've worked on – rather than reaching for the singular one.
Said he WAS. Said he HAD seen. Said he WOULD come. The clock steps back.
The earlier past wears HAD: by the time you arrived, we had already reset the room.
A few churches. Most people. Quantifiers touch the noun.
Play THE drum, THE guitar – no ON.
It must be. It can't be. It might be. The modal carries the certainty.
THE UK, THE European Union – but Scotland, France. A common noun in the name means THE.
MOST people. MOST OF THE time. The OF needs a THE after it.
I buy the groceries every week. I'm buying them right now.
By land, by sea, by air. On a computer, in an office.
Finished time kills the perfect: yesterday, last week, in 2019 – past simple, every time.
Earlier layer takes had done. Flashback downshift: past perfect at the door, past simple inside the scene.
Unreal NOW takes would do; unreal PAST takes would have done. бы stays in Russian – one Russian form, two English hypotheticals, chosen by time.
HAVE a BBQ, have a party – delat' does not cross over.
Research is uncountable: MUCH research, MANY studies.
These features, not this features. The demonstrative counts.
Every individual SHARES. Every + singular, singular verb.
One subject per clause: her description IS subjective – no stray 'it'.
IT'S means it is. ITS is the possessive. The apostrophe is the whole test.
Superlative takes THE: the best places, the most popular ones. After IS/WAS and with any superlative, the article is not optional.
EVERYBODY is singular: everybody tries, nobody knows.
Only TRANSITIVE verbs passivise. Happen, arrive and occur have no passive – something is happening, never is being happened.
AFFECT is transitive and takes no 'on' – it affects them. But the noun does: it has an effect on them.
Embedded question, no inversion: what it is, where they are.
EVERY plus singular; A LOT OF plus plural. Every purpose, a lot of variations – the two rules pull opposite ways, so learn them as a pair.
Auxiliary first, then the participle: I have had to – never I had have to.
Number plus million stays singular – 17 million votes. MILLIONS only appears with OF and no number: millions of votes.
I AM responsible. English never drops the AM.
A team on first mention. THE team once they know it.
ON time is competence. IN time is a near miss.
A report that only lists faults teaches you nothing about what to keep.
If the queue is short, it must be a quiet night
CreditedPlanted in the error hunt as the sentence that is already correct – a clean deduction with a correct article. Exactly the day's grammar, working. The hunt rewards knowing when NOT to correct.
the trainer told me the guest's name was the most important word I would ever say – and it still is
CreditedThis is the double clock, and the C1 edge case is nailed: the report steps back (was, would say) but 'and it still is' stays in the present, because the rule is still true. That is the whole point of the lesson, produced unprompted.
I inserted my USB and realised it needed different software
CreditedBackshift held under pressure, unprompted, in free writing – the exact structure that had been on the watch-list for four sessions, produced correctly inside the student's own story rather than in a controlled exercise.
based on the number of...
CreditedThe only passive form to surface in the whole session, and it was correctly built – a fixed passive participle, properly formed. That single correct production is what licenses the absence-inferred ABSORBED verdict, and it is also why the verdict was marked provisional rather than plain: one lexicalised participle is evidence, but it is not yet evidence of free construction.
My expertise is in geoanalytics and retail analytics
CreditedFlagged in the answer key as already strong, in a paragraph otherwise full of planted errors: grammatically clean, specific, and exactly the right length. It carries the copula the rest of the sheet was losing, and it shows that the missing am is a slip under speed rather than a gap in the system.
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.
Zero backshift or past-perfect errors across all twelve specimens logged. In the error-hunt paragraph, even a cold-case irregular verb (had spreaded for had spread) sat inside a correctly built past-perfect frame.
Two things lift this above a routine clean line. First, the typology: Russian does not backshift – 'he said that he is a student' is perfectly grammatical – and Russian has no perfect-tense family at all, so both halves of the target are imported machinery that must be built entirely on the English side. Absence of error in imported machinery is meaningful in a way that absence of error in a shared structure is not. Second, the arc: at an earlier session the past-simple-versus-past-perfect distinction was ruled PARTIALLY ABSORBED on the teacher's explicit report of struggle. Today the same distinction, dressed as flashbacks, was taught, exercised and produced no errors, with no struggle reported. The earlier file moves to resolved-pending-confirmation and the homework runs a full flashback narrative to seal it.
Not one modal error across eleven specimens, and one spontaneous correct production in the error-hunt paragraph – 'If the queue is short, it must be a quiet night' – which was planted as a sentence that is already correct and left alone.
The weight of this verdict is typological, not statistical. Russian does not express deduction with modal auxiliaries at all: it uses particles, adverbs and set impersonal phrases – должно быть ('must be'), не может быть ('it can't be'), наверное ('probably'), вряд ли ('hardly likely'). None of those is a modal auxiliary. English instead runs the whole system through four small verbs plus BE, an entire mechanism that has to be assembled on the English side – and it ran without a fault. Read next to the previous session, whose target (backshift and the flashback past perfect) was equally absent from Russian and equally clean, the finding is bigger than either verdict alone: this is a learner who absorbs imported machinery readily, and whose residue lives in small words rather than in large structures.
The error sheet for the session was clean on the target, but the teacher reported explicitly that the student struggled to distinguish the two pairs during the lesson. The recorded residue was elsewhere: we did some BBQ; travelled around the Europe; in big club.
This is the case that sets the convention: the teacher's word outranks a clean error sheet. A target can be absent from the written record simply because it was avoided, hedged around, or produced only under heavy scaffolding – and a live report of struggle is direct evidence of exactly that. Grading ABSORBED on the sheet alone would have recorded the wrong thing and moved the item off the working list. PARTIALLY ABSORBED keeps it live. The typological reason it stays live is that Russian бы (by) + past is one form covering what English splits into unreal-now (would do) and unreal-past (would have done): the forms have been sound since the first session, so the work is the type-selection, and type-selection is precisely what an error sheet cannot show.
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.