Common Grammatical Errors That Cost Marks

This final lesson brings together the most frequent grammatical errors that IELTS candidates make — errors that directly lower scores in both Writing and Speaking. Many of these are "fossilised" mistakes: habits so deeply ingrained that candidates do not even realise they are making them. By identifying and eliminating these errors, you can make an immediate and significant improvement to your band score.

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Error 1: Run-on Sentences and Comma Splices

A run-on sentence fuses two independent clauses without proper punctuation or a conjunction:

❌ Pollution is increasing the government must take action.

A comma splice uses only a comma where a full stop, semicolon, or conjunction is needed:

❌ Pollution is increasing, the government must take action.

Corrections:

✅ Pollution is increasing. The government must take action. (full stop)

✅ Pollution is increasing; therefore, the government must take action. (semicolon)

✅ Pollution is increasing, so the government must take action. (conjunction)

✅ Because pollution is increasing, the government must take action. (subordination)

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Error 2: Subject-Verb Agreement with "There is/are"

❌ There is many reasons for this problem.

✅ There are many reasons for this problem.

❌ There is a lot of people in the city.

✅ There are a lot of people in the city.

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Error 3: Countable vs Uncountable Noun Confusion

Common uncountable nouns (no plural, no "a/an"):

information, advice, research, evidence, knowledge, equipment, traffic, accommodation, furniture, luggage, homework, feedback, progress, behaviour, news

❌ The teacher gave us many informations.

✅ The teacher gave us a lot of information.

❌ I need an advice.

✅ I need some advice / a piece of advice.

❌ The researches show that…

✅ The research shows that… OR Several studies show that…

❌ Many equipments are needed.

✅ A lot of equipment is needed.

Using quantifiers correctly

Countable	Uncountable
many students	much time
few opportunities	little progress
a number of factors	a great deal of research
several reasons	a significant amount of evidence
fewer cars	less traffic

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Error 4: Preposition Errors

Prepositions are notoriously difficult and vary between languages. Here are the most common IELTS preposition errors:

Error	Correction
❌ depend of	✅ depend on
❌ interested for	✅ interested in
❌ consist in	✅ consist of
❌ increase of 10%	✅ increase of 10% (noun) / increase by 10% (verb)
❌ according with	✅ according to
❌ different of	✅ different from
❌ result of doing (cause)	✅ result in (cause) / result from (effect of)
❌ spend money for	✅ spend money on
❌ discuss about	✅ discuss (no preposition)
❌ emphasise on	✅ emphasise (no preposition)
❌ influence on something (verb)	✅ influence something (no preposition as a verb)

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Error 5: Misuse of "Although … but" and "Because … so"

You cannot use both a subordinating conjunction AND a coordinating conjunction for the same relationship:

❌ Although the economy improved, but unemployment remained high.

✅ Although the economy improved, unemployment remained high.

✅ The economy improved, but unemployment remained high.

❌ Because it was raining, so I stayed home.

✅ Because it was raining, I stayed home.

✅ It was raining, so I stayed home.

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Error 6: Word Form Errors

Using the wrong part of speech is a very common error:

❌ Education is importance for the economy. (noun instead of adjective)

✅ Education is important for the economy.

❌ The develop of technology has changed our lives. (verb instead of noun)

✅ The development of technology has changed our lives.

❌ People are increasingly dependent on technology. ✅ (correct — adverb modifying adjective)

❌ Technology has increasing changed our lives.

✅ Technology has increasingly changed our lives.

Common word families to master

Noun	Verb	Adjective	Adverb
development	develop	developed/developing	—
significance	signify	significant	significantly
economy	economise	economic/economical	economically
environment	—	environmental	environmentally
technology	—	technological	technologically
education	educate	educational	educationally
globalisation	globalise	global	globally

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Error 7: Dangling and Misplaced Modifiers

A dangling modifier does not clearly connect to the noun it is supposed to modify:

❌ Having studied for weeks, the exam was easy. (Who studied? Not "the exam")

✅ Having studied for weeks, I found the exam easy.