Rank your errors by damage, not by embarrassment
The band descriptors care about whether an error causes a misunderstanding. So the errors worth your study time are the ones that change what your sentence means, or delete information the examiner is listening for — not the ones that merely mark you as a learner.
Fix the expensive things first. Articles will come slowly, over years, and that is fine.
The expensive errors
1. Dropped -s and -ed
Japanese does not mark plurals or agreement, and Japanese phonology does not allow the consonant clusters English uses to carry these endings (walked ends in /kt/, asks in /sks/). So the endings get dropped in speech and then, because you cannot hear yourself dropping them, in writing.
- She work at a bank. → She works at a bank.
- Yesterday I walk home. → Yesterday I walked home.
- Many student come. → Many students come.
This is the single most valuable thing on this page. It costs you grammar (a systematic error, which caps a band) and pronunciation (the listener cannot hear the tense). Practise the endings out loud, deliberately, in full sentences — reading them silently does nothing.
2. Tense in a sequence
Japanese tense works differently in subordinate clauses, and the result in English is a timeline the listener has to rebuild.
- Yesterday I go to the shop and I am buying bread. → Yesterday I went to the shop and bought bread.
- When I was a child, I am playing baseball. → When I was a child, I played baseball.
3. Countable and uncountable
Japanese does not grammatically distinguish them, so this produces a specific, predictable, and highly visible set of errors.
- informations, advices, researches, equipments, knowledges, homeworks — all of these are uncountable and take no -s.
- To count them: a piece of advice, an item of equipment, a body of research.
- And the determiner follows: much information (not many), less traffic (not fewer).
4. The missing subject
Japanese drops the subject freely when it is obvious from context. English almost never allows this, and the sentence collapses without it.
- Is very difficult. → It is very difficult.
- Think that governments should act. → I think that governments should act.
- Because was raining, stayed home. → Because it was raining, I stayed home.
English requires a subject even when there is nothing to put there — hence the it in it is raining, which refers to nothing at all. Get used to inserting it.
5. Topic-comment word order
The Japanese は construction encourages an English sentence that announces a topic and then comments on it. It is comprehensible and it reads as broken.
- About the environment, I think it is important. → The environment matters because…
- As for me, my opinion is that… → I think…
This one is also worth fixing because it wastes words — and it produces the vague, contentless opening that Task Response penalises.
The politeness problem: too many maybes
This is specific to Japanese speakers and it is almost never explained to them, because it is not a grammar error at all.
Japanese conversation is built on softening. Asserting a bare opinion feels rude, so learners transfer the habit and produce English like:
Maybe I think that maybe the government should perhaps consider to do something, I think.
You do not have to sound aggressive. English has its own hedges, and using them once is sophisticated:
- Governments should act. — a clear position. This is normal English, not rudeness.
- This tends to happen when… — one hedge, precise, academic.
- It is arguably the most effective option. — hedged and confident at the same time.
One hedge per claim. Not three. And never maybe and I think in the same sentence.
Katakana words that are not English words
Loanwords in Japanese have drifted, and the drifted meaning is what surfaces under exam pressure. These are precise, checkable errors and they read as vocabulary mistakes to an examiner.
| Katakana | What you mean | What the English word means |
|---|---|---|
| マンション | an apartment / a flat | mansion = a very large, grand house |
| クレーム | a complaint | claim = an assertion, or a demand for money |
| スマート | slim | smart = intelligent (or well-dressed) |
| ナイーブ | sensitive, innocent | naive = foolishly inexperienced (an insult) |
| テンション | mood / energy | tension = strain, conflict, anxiety |
| コンセント | a power socket | consent = permission |
| ハンドル | a steering wheel | handle = a thing you grip to open a door |
| サービス | free of charge | service = the work done for a customer |
| チャレンジ | to attempt | challenge = to question or confront (as a verb) |
Naive is the one to be careful with, because calling someone naive in English is not a compliment.
Smaller errors worth a look
| Instead of | Write |
|---|---|
| I have a plan to go. | I am planning to go. / I intend to go. |
| Almost people think… | Most people think… (almost is not a quantifier) |
| I want to say about my hometown. | I want to talk about my hometown. |
| It is depend on the situation. | It depends on the situation. |
| I am agree with this. | I agree with this. |
| My English is not enough. | My English is not good enough. |
| Please teach me the way to the station. | Please tell me the way. (teach is for skills) |
And finally, the articles
Last, deliberately.
Japanese has no articles, so English articles are genuinely difficult and will take years, not weeks. That is normal, it is not a personal failing, and — the important part — it is not what is capping your band.
Two rules are worth having, because they recur in every essay:
- General statements take no article. Children need exercise. (Not The children.)
- Specific things take the. The children in my class need exercise.
That distinction is worth learning because it changes what you are claiming. The rest of the article system — when to use a, when to use nothing — you will acquire slowly through exposure, and worrying about it is a poor use of the six weeks before a test.
Spend that time on -ed.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most common English mistake Japanese speakers make?
Dropping the -s and -ed endings. Japanese does not mark agreement or plurals, and its phonology does not allow the consonant clusters English uses to carry these endings — so they disappear in speech, and then in writing, because you cannot hear yourself dropping them. It is the most expensive error available: it deletes tense and number, and it costs you on grammar and pronunciation at the same time.
Should Japanese learners study English articles?
Eventually, and not first. Japanese has no articles, so they will take years to acquire — that is normal rather than a failing. But a missing article almost never obscures meaning, while a dropped -ed deletes when something happened. Learn one distinction now (general statements take no article: 'children need exercise'; specific ones take 'the') and let the rest come slowly through exposure.
Why do Japanese speakers say 'maybe' and 'I think' so much?
It is politeness transferred from Japanese, where asserting a bare opinion can feel rude. But an examiner does not hear politeness — they hear a candidate with no position, and Task Response explicitly rewards a clear, developed, supported view. Use one hedge per claim, not three: 'governments should act' is normal English, not rudeness, and 'this tends to happen when...' is a single precise hedge.
Which katakana words are false friends in English?
Several, and they surface under pressure. 'Mansion' is a grand house, not an apartment. 'Claim' is an assertion, not a complaint. 'Smart' means intelligent, not slim. 'Tension' means strain or conflict, not mood. 'Consent' is permission, not a power socket. And be careful with 'naive', which in English means foolishly inexperienced and is an insult.
Why do I forget the subject in English sentences?
Because Japanese drops it freely when context makes it obvious, and English almost never allows that. 'Is very difficult' needs an 'it'; 'think that governments should act' needs an 'I'. English requires a subject even when there is nothing real to put there — which is why we say 'it is raining', where 'it' refers to nothing at all.