What are common mistakes Chinese learners make with English tenses

Common mistakes Chinese learners make with English tenses stem largely from differences between Chinese and English grammar systems. Key errors include:

• Misuse of tense and verb form is a frequent problem because Chinese does not have inflectional tense morphology like English. For example, learners struggle with the correct use of third person singular -s, past tense -ed, and auxiliary verbs ().
• Negative transfer from Chinese leads to errors in tense usage, such as confusing present, past, and continuous forms, since Chinese relies more on context than explicit tense marking ().
• Subject-verb agreement mistakes are common, along with confusion in using simple present versus present continuous tenses ().
• Errors often occur in writing where tense errors dominate, reflecting limited awareness of English tense-aspect distinctions ().
• Learners also tend to apply Chinese logic in directly translating tense-related constructions, leading to errors in complex tense and aspect forms (, ).
• Auxiliary verb misuse and inconsistent subject-verb agreement contribute to tense mistakes ().

To mitigate these mistakes, teaching strategies include focused training on tense rules, raising awareness of mother tongue interference, and providing targeted feedback for errors. Emphasizing usage examples and contrasts in tense forms helps learners internalize correct patterns. Overall, the differences between the non-inflectional Chinese tense system and English inflectional tense system explain why Chinese learners face difficulties mastering English tenses. ^{5, 6, 7, 11, 14}

References

• Transitive Phrasal Verbs in English–Chinese Learners’ Dictionaries: A Syntactic Perspective

• Classification, analysis and prevention of phonetic mistakes made by Chinese learners of English language

• The Recognition of English Tenses by Thai EFL Learners

• Common mistakes in pronouncing English consonant clusters: A case study of Vietnamese learners

• An FCE Corpus-Based Analysis of Writing Errors in Chinese English Learners: Common Types, Patterns, and Pedagogical Implications

• Common Errors Made in English Writing By Malaysian Chinese Primary Year 6 ESL Learners At A Tuition Centre In Puchong, Malaysia

• ANALYZING THE COMMON MISTAKES HIGH SCHOOLERS MAKE WHEN USING THE SIMPLE PRESENT AND PRESENT CONTINUOUS TENSES

• Common Mistakes in English Speaking Affected by Vietnamese of Master of Business Administration at Tay Do University, in Vietnam

• Research on the Transfer Effects of Chinese Politeness Conventions on English Politeness Expressions among Chinese Learners

• A TEXTBOOK ANALYSIS OF “ COMMON MISTAKES IN ENGLISH “

• Frequent Errors in Chinese EFL Learners’ Topic-Based Writings

• The Acquisition and Application of Prepositions by Chinese Middle School Students——Taking IN, ON, and AT as Examples

• CLEC-based Error Analysis of Collocations of Chinese English Learners

• The Use of Inflection Morphology of Tense and Agreement in English Among Chinese Second Language Learners in College

• A Corpus-based Study on Errors in Writing Committed by Chinese Students

• A Corpus-based Study of Errors in Chinese English Majors’ English Writing

• Error Correction in Oral Classroom English Teaching.

• Exploring language learning and corrective feedback in an eTandem project

• Chinese Grammatical Error Diagnosis System Based on Hybrid Model

• A Corpus-based Study of the Infinitive Errors Made by Chinese College Students