What Are The Common Mistakes You Will Make When Speaking In A New Language?

When learning a language you are going to make some mistakes and you will find that there are some fairly common ones among everyone.

I think it is important to note that every language is different, so really the exact mistakes that you might commonly make will depend on the language, but here I will go through some of the common mistakes that you can find globally across most languages.

These mistakes are nothing to worry about, they can be annoying, but they are all something that you will overcome with a little work and persistence.

Mistakes are inventible, so just embrace them and prepare to learn from them. 

Pronunciation

Every language uses slightly different sounds than the next, even if a language is similar to your own, its pronunciation will be slightly different and you get it wrong for a while.

You will probably never be perfect, but you can certainly reach a high level. This is why natives can always detect if you are not native; you just sound a little off.

I wouldn’t worry about being perfect, but I would worry about sounding correct and having a half decent pronunciation will solve a lot of this problem.

Your mouth will not be used to making the different sounds in the new language and you will almost have to retrain your tongue to get the right pronunciation, which can take a lot of practice.

However, this is time well spent as it will really help you sound a whole lot better when you are speaking.

(You can read more about – How To Improve Pronunciation When Learning A New Language)

Grammar

It doesn’t matter language you learn, grammar is going to be there and it is going to trip you up in one way or another. Even if the language you are learning is very similar to your own, there is always going to be some weird grammar rule that will confuse you.

Word Order

Word order can be subtle like French adjectives, or it can be extreme like Japanese sentence structure, either way, word order will usually cause confusion at some point in your language learning.   

It can seem so jarring to have words “in the wrong order” as we are so used to how they should be in English, but you have to remember that for the natives of other languages, English is in a crazy order.

Really the only way around this is more practice and more exposure. Eventually you brain will start to accept that the different order is normal.

Genders

If you are learning a language that has genders this can be a total minefield. As a native English speaker we do not have any of this and it can seem totally illogical as to why some words are one gender while others are a different one.

The logic behind it is not important, all that matters is that you just learn what is needed and accept that is how it is.

It can take a while, but with practice you will start to get a feel for what is what. 

Conjugation

Every language is going to have some form of conjugation and it’s a guarantee that you will mess it up.

It can seem impossible at times, especially when you see the endless amount of variations that a single word can have in some languages, but you will master it. It just takes time and lots of practice.

When I mention conjugation to English speakers they usually say we don’t have it, but we do, admittedly it’s not as extreme as some languages, but it’s there. It is just second nature to us and even the irregulars don’t bother us.

Just think about how we all know that the past tense of drink is drunk… not drinked. That’s conjugation and you can get to this level of efficiency in your new language with enough effort.   

Bing Too Scared To Speak

One of the biggest mistakes you can make when speaking …is to not speak.

We all get nervous about speaking a new language and it’s an awkward experience for a while. However, this will pass with time and practice.

Too many of us get overwhelmed with fear and end up suffering from brain freeze. This can be pretty normal, but too many of us let that bad experience knock our confidence and then the next thing you know we are avoiding speaking altogether and this is really harmful for your progress.

You have to fight through the fear and awkwardness and keep talking, if you avoid it, you will only regret it.

(You can read more about – Overcoming The Fear Of Speaking A Foreign Language)

Having A Lack Of Vocabulary

Having a lack of vocabulary is not really a mistake, but you will notice that it is an issue and it will be frustrating.

I think the common mistake around vocabulary is learning pointless words. Language apps are pretty guilty of this. They will try and teach you things that you may never use and it really annoys me. I have spent hours going through pointless lessons covering vocabulary I know I am never going to use.

You could argue that all words are important, which is true, you do want to learn as many as possible, but I think it makes more sense to focus on words you are going to be using a lot, as you progress you can start learning the obscure words.

If you want to spend your time productively …focus on words that you are going to use in your conversations. When you go to talk you will feel like you are actually making progress as you will know how to say the things that you actually want to say.

(You can read more about – What Are The Most Common Challenges When Speaking In A Second Language?)

Focusing Too Much On Slang

It can often be a mistake to focus too heavily on slang when you are speaking. This can easily happen as you want to sound more native and natural, but you can end up forming bad habits or making simple mistakes.

I know it’s boring, but you are better off focusing on the standard form of the language. Once you have this down, then you can look into slang. You are going to sound a little different to the natives, but let’s be honest, they are going to spot that you are not a native speaker anyway, so there is no point in trying to hide it.

Speaking the standard form is also hopefully going to encourage them to speak using less slang, which will hopefully mean you are less likely to get lost when they are speaking to you. 

(You can read more about – Frequently Asked Questions About – Speaking In Your New Language)

Focusing Too Much On Speaking

Speaking is an important part of the language, but you must not neglect the other areas as this can be a costly mistake. This is especially true when you are just beginning.

If anything, you may actually be better off focusing on input, such as listening and reading, these are probably going to be more beneficial for you than speaking. 

(You can read more about – Can You Learn A Language By Just Speaking?)

Conclusion

As you can now see there are quite a few different types of mistakes you can make when speaking any language, you will also probably notice that every single one of them can be overcome with practice, it really is that simple.

Mistakes will happen when you speak, and that’s okay, so long as you keep trying to improve them they will not be anything to worry about, with time you will master the language and be excellent at speaking. 

(You can read more about – How Important Is Speaking When Learning A Language?)