Catching Your Own Mistakes in English

At B2 you have the knowledge to be accurate. The gap is noticing — errors slip out under time pressure and you don't hear them. Self-correction is a trainable skill.

The repeat offenders

1. Third-person -s Under pressure, this is the first thing to disappear.

• ❌ He work in Berlin. → ✅ He works in Berlin.

2. Articles Especially with abstract or general nouns.

• ❌ I'm interested in the technology. (if you mean technology generally)
• ✅ I'm interested in technology.

3. Present perfect vs. past simple

• ❌ I have seen him yesterday. → ✅ I saw him yesterday. A finished time means past simple, always.

4. Countable vs. uncountable

• ❌ I have many informations. → ✅ a lot of information Uncountable in English: information, advice, news, research, equipment, furniture, luggage, progress.

5. Preposition slips

• ❌ depend of → ✅ depend on
• ❌ discuss about → ✅ discuss

6. Word order with adverbs

• ❌ I speak fluently English. → ✅ I speak English fluently. Don't put an adverb between the verb and its object.

A method for self-correction

1. Know your own top three. Everyone has a personal pattern. Find yours — record yourself speaking for two minutes and transcribe it. Your errors will repeat.

2. Check backwards after writing. Read your last sentence looking for one specific thing — say, third-person -s. Checking for everything at once catches nothing.

3. Slow down at complexity. Errors cluster where sentences get complicated. When you start a long sentence, slow slightly.

4. Self-correct out loud, briefly.

• He work— he works in Berlin. This is completely normal in speech and shows control rather than weakness. Don't apologise or restart the whole sentence.

The mindset

The goal isn't zero errors — even native speakers self-correct constantly. The goal is noticing, because an error you can hear is an error you will eventually stop making.

Try it yourself

The quiz below contains the six patterns above. Find the error.