Common English mistakes Indian speakers make, and fixes

By WordSlick editorial team · Updated 2026-10-14 · 6 min read

If you grew up speaking Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Punjabi or Urdu, many of your English "mistakes" are not random. They follow the patterns of your first language. Your brain borrows the grammar and sounds it already knows, which is completely normal and happens to every language learner in the world.

The useful part is that these patterns are predictable. Once you know which ones apply to you, you can practise them directly. This guide covers the most common ones, explains why they happen, and gives clear corrections. A quick note first: Indian English is a real, established variety, and many of these forms are normal within India. The aim is not to erase how you speak, but to give you a version that works smoothly in interviews, international teams and exams.

1. Articles: a, an and the

This is the number one issue for speakers of almost every Indian language. None of these languages uses articles the way English does, so it is easy to leave them out or put them in the wrong place.

Quick rules to start with:

• Use a/an with a singular countable noun the first time you mention it: I bought a laptop.
• Use the when both people know which one you mean: The laptop is very fast.
• Use an before a vowel sound, not a vowel letter: an hour, a university.
• Jobs need an article: She's a doctor.

2. Word order: verb in the middle

Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali and the Dravidian languages (Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam) generally put the verb at the end of the sentence (subject, object, verb). English puts it in the middle (subject, verb, object). Usually this causes problems in questions and longer sentences rather than simple ones.

The last two are called embedded questions. Inside a longer sentence, the question word order goes back to normal statement order.

3. -ing with state verbs

Some English verbs describe states (knowing, owning, wanting, liking) rather than actions. These are usually not used with -ing. Indian English uses -ing much more widely, so this is a common difference.

Common state verbs: know, have (meaning own), want, need, like, love, understand, believe, belong, seem, prefer. Note that have can take -ing when it is an action: I'm having lunch is fine.

4. The universal "isn't it?"

In many Indian languages one fixed word works as a question tag for any sentence, like na in Hindi. In Indian English this often becomes isn't it? everywhere. Standard English changes the tag to match the verb and subject.

Rule: repeat the helping verb, flip positive to negative (or negative to positive), and use a pronoun. If that feels too hard in fast speech, right? works in most informal situations: You're coming tomorrow, right?

5. Pronunciation: v and w

Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati and several other languages have one sound somewhere between English v and w. So vest and west, or vine and wine, can sound the same.

• For v, touch your top teeth to your bottom lip and push air through: very, village, vote.
• For w, round your lips like a small circle, with no teeth involved: water, week, window.

Practise pairs: vest / west, vet / wet, vine / wine, veil / whale. Then sentences: We visited a very wet village.

Bengali speakers often have a different pattern: v may come out close to bh or b, so very sounds like bery. The same lip-to-teeth drill helps.

6. He and she mix-ups (Bengali speakers especially)

In Bengali, the third-person pronoun does not show gender, so one word covers both he and she. In fast English, the wrong pronoun often slips out: My sister is a teacher. He works in Kolkata.

Practice tip: when you talk about someone, say their name first, picture them, then choose the pronoun. Telling short stories about family members and colleagues is a good daily drill.

7. Voicing: p/b, t/d, k/g (Tamil speakers especially)

Tamil uses the same letter for sounds that English treats as different, such as k and g, or p and b, and the pronunciation shifts with position in the word. As a result, English pairs like bark / park, gold / cold and dime / time can be confused.

• Put your hand on your throat. For b, d, g you should feel a vibration. For p, t, k you should not.
• Practise pairs: pin / bin, tie / die, coat / goat, pack / back.

Speakers of Dravidian languages, where most words end in a vowel, sometimes add a short vowel at the end of English words: bus-u, pen-u. Try to close the word cleanly on the consonant.

8. Other sound patterns to know

• Extra vowel at the start: Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu speakers may say iskool or istation, because words in those languages rarely start with s + consonant. Practise starting directly on the s: sss-chool.
• z and j: some Hindi, Punjabi and Gujarati speakers say j for z, so zero sounds like jero. Keep the tongue in the s position and add voice: zoo, zip, lazy.
• s and sh: some Bengali speakers use sh where English has s: sheet for seat. Practise see / she, sea / sheet, sip / ship.

9. Words and phrases that confuse international listeners

These are common in India but may be misunderstood elsewhere.

Your first-language guide

Each language has its own mix. These pages list the main traps for speakers of each language, with examples:

• English for Hindi speakers
• English for Bengali speakers
• English for Tamil speakers
• English for Telugu speakers
• English for Marathi speakers

A two-week practice plan

1. Days 1 to 3: Record a two-minute talk about your job. Listen and count how many articles you missed.
2. Days 4 to 6: Write ten questions to a colleague, then say them aloud with correct word order.
3. Days 7 to 9: Practise state verbs. Describe your family and possessions without any -ing forms.
4. Days 10 to 12: Practise tags in short exchanges: It's hot today, isn't it? You've finished, haven't you?
5. Days 13 to 14: Do your sound drills (v/w, p/b or he/she, whichever applies) and re-record the Day 1 talk.

If you want to see your own traps in one place, WordSlick's Mirror page shows the mistakes your first language tends to cause, with no sign-up. Inside the app, the AI tutor corrects you gently and explains the why in Hindi, Bengali, Tamil and other Indian languages, and it remembers the mistakes you keep making so they come back for practice.