Hello and welcome to my podcast My Life and Other Funny Stories. My name is Dagmar Tomášková, I am an English tutor and coach and I created this podcast for English students who want to improve their oral comprehension. As always you can find the transcription of this episode and vocabulary list in the notes of the podcast. 

Today we’re talking about a topic that many of my Czech listeners will find super helpful: common mistakes Czech people make in English.

Now, I’m not going to talk about broad grammar topics like the present perfect or prepositions—those are topics for another day. Instead, I’ll focus on specific mistakes I hear all the time. And we’re going to make this interactive! I’ll say a sentence, and you’ll have a chance to spot the mistake before I explain what’s wrong. Are you ready? Let’s get started!

#1

Here’s the sentence: Can you learn me how to drive?
Did you catch the mistake?

The problem here is with the word learn. In English, learn means “to receive knowledge,” while teach means “to give knowledge.” So, the correct sentence is: Can you teach me how to drive?

You can always remember it by the fact that TEACHER is the one explaining and giving you information so teaching will always be the activity where you explain something to someone. While learners are the people getting the knowledge, they are students. 

#2

Here’s another one: Some clients are always coming late.
Can you hear what’s off about this?

The issue is the use of the present continuous (coming). In English, we use the present continuous for actions happening right now or for very close future plans, not for regular habits. If you’re talking about something someone does normally, always, habitually or every day, you need the present simple: Some clients always come late. 

I know you know the rule. Everyone knows the present simple because it is the first thing people learn when they start with English. But they forget about the general usage of it. We don’t use it only to describe our daily routine. If we want to describe something that happens sometimes, often or always, we will use it too.

#3

This one is super common. Listen to this: One of my colleague is on holiday. 

And I will give you a second one:

 One of the condition is that you have to start immediately.

What’s the mistake here?

In the first one, tt’s with the word colleague. After one of, you always need a plural noun: One of my colleagues is on holiday.

Just like the next example, after one of, we need a plural noun. So, it should be: One of the conditions is that you have to start immediately.

We always say “One of MANY”. It is the same in Czech. That is why we never put a singular noun but always plural. 

#4

Here’s a tricky one: Before every lesson, I control the homework of my students.
What’s the issue?

In English, control usually means “to manage” or “to have power over something.” For example “It was a very scary situation, the police couldn’t control the people” – here it means that the police didn’t have power over the people and it couldn’t manage them.

If we talk about homework or that we want to see if something is okay,  we need to use the word check. The correct sentence is: I checked the homework of my students.

Another example would be: “She went to check on her daughters.” – she went to see if everything was fine.

#5: 

This is less about grammar and more about pronunciation, but it’s important! Can you hear a mistake in this group of words:

architecture, school, psychology, chemistry.

Yes, it is the pronunciation of CH – CH sound DOESN’T EXIST in English. We can pronounce it in three ways:

1) as “č”, as in “church, match, choice, children”, 

2) as K – which is the biggest problem for Czech people- we say “architecture, school, psychology, chemistry” 

3) as “š” as in parachute, machine, Chicago and words borrowed from French such as “champagne”, “cliché” and “chauffeur” 

But never as CH. Never, never, never.

#6

Now listen to this: We were three at the restaurant.
Can you hear why this sounds strange?

In English, we usually say: There were three of us at the restaurant. It’s a small difference, but it makes a big impact on how natural you sound.

Remember this phrase: There were …number … of us …somewhere.

There were five of us in the kitchen.

There are six of us in the group.

Okay?

#7 

How about this one: I hadn’t time for this.
What’s wrong here?

This is quite easy to figure out. Usually, when I point it out, students immediately know that it is a mistake but there is still this tendency to say it. In English, we don’t say I hadn’t without adding got or using didn’t. The correct sentence is: I didn’t have time for this.

#8

Finally, here’s the last one: We went on lunch yesterday.
What’s the mistake?

In English, we say go for lunch, not on lunch. So the correct sentence is: We went for lunch yesterday. The same goes for breakfast and dinner.

At 7 am, we went for breakfast.

We went to a very nice restaurant for dinner.

That’s it for today’s episode! These mistakes might seem small, but fixing them can really improve how natural your English sounds. Did you spot any mistakes you’ve made yourself? Let me know!

Thank you for listening! If you liked this episode, please leave a five-star rating and share it with your friends. Don’t forget, you can find the transcript and vocabulary list in the podcast notes. See you next time.