Here’s the truth: you’re probably making the same 35 mistakes that most English learners make, regardless of their level. And you know what? That’s completely normal! Your brain naturally tries to apply patterns from other English structures or from your native language, which is often why these errors keep appearing in your speaking and writing.

But here’s the exciting part: once you understand why these mistakes happen and learn the correct structures, you can eliminate them forever. This gives you the story behind mistakes so the corrections actually stick in your brain for good.

1. I think yes

• I think yes. ❌
• I think so. ✅

Why does this happen?

It’s usually the result of a direct translation from other languages but it’s just not right in English! Instead, we usually say, “I think so”.

A: Is Katherine coming today?

B: I think so. ✅

You can also say “Yes, I think she is” or “I think she is, yes.”

“Yes” is optional in those sentences. But never: I think yes! Erase that phrase from the English-speaking section of your brain.

An extra note: We don’t say “I think no” in English either! We usually say “I don’t think so.”

Does Mark eat meat?

• I don’t think so. ✅
• (No,) I don’t think he does. ✅
• I don’t think he does (,no). ✅

2. How is it called?

How is it called? ❌

Why does this happen? Again, this is most likely a direct translation from other languages, but we don’t say it in English. We also don’t say “how do you call it?” There are more common errors I often hear, like:

• How’s it like? ❌
• I don’t know how it is in English. ❌

Instead, we replace “how” with “what” in questions to ask for specific information about something or somebody.

• What is it called? ✅
• What do you call it? ✅
• What’s it like? ✅
• I don’t know what it is in English. ✅

3. Married with

• I’m married with Will. ❌
• I’m married to Will. ✅

To identify our husband or wife, we use the structure “married to”

Examples:

• He’s been married to Alice for 50 years.
• She got married to her long-term partner last week.

We can also say we’re figuratively married to something figuratively. This means someone is extremely committed to something and so involved with it that thay don’t have time for anything else.

• Ellie’s married to her job. (She works all the time)

Now, “married with” isn’t always incorrect. You’ll see “married with children” as a phrase. This means a person is married and has children.

• Ken’s married with 3 children. (He is married to someone and he has 3 children.)

4. Explain me

• She explained me the rules.
• Can you explain him how this works?

“Explain me” or “him” isn’t right. Explain is not generally followed directly by a person, whether that’s an object pronoun, like “me” or “him” or a noun referring to a person. We’d never say:

• She explained John the rules. ❌
• He explained people the history of the building. ❌

Explain + noun

You can explain something, so explain can be followed by a noun that is not a person

• She explained the rules. (“The rules” is the direct object.)
• Pete explains difficult concepts clearly. (We can use adjectives before the noun, like in “difficult concepts.”)

Explain to

If you want to mention a person, you can “explain to somebody.”

• It’s hard to explain to people who aren’t in the industry.

Often, there’s a noun after “explain”. For example:

• She explained the situation to us. 
• Will you explain it to me? (“It” is an object pronoun, but it refers to a thing, not a person.)

Explain: no subject

Explain can be intransitive, meaning it doesn’t always require an object.

• Please, let me explain! (Not, let me explain you!)

Explain + clause

We can follow “explain” with a clause beginning with the words “how”, “who”, “where”, “what”, “when” or “why”.

• The boss explained who each person is and what they do.
• Please explain why you haven’t finished yet.

Explain + to

We also have the structure “explain to somebody what, who, how,” and so on.

• Ian explained why you haven’t finished yet.

Explain + that clause

And we can use explain + that clause.

• He explained that he hadn’t been feeling well.