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Which vocabulary pitfalls cause test mistakes for Ukrainians

Succeed in Ukrainian: Key Test Mistakes to Avoid: Which vocabulary pitfalls cause test mistakes for Ukrainians
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The vocabulary pitfalls causing test mistakes for Ukrainians learning English often include confusion due to false friends—words that appear similar to English words but have different meanings. Mispronunciations from substituting English vowel and consonant sounds with similar Ukrainian sounds can also cause meaning changes and misunderstandings (e.g., seat vs. sit, feel vs. fill). Additionally, typical errors arise from misuse or omission of articles (a, an, the), incorrect word order—since Ukrainian allows flexible word order unlike English—and difficulty with countable vs. non-countable nouns affecting words like “less” and “fewer.” Double negations and inappropriate use of relative pronouns (who vs. that) are also frequent error sources tied to Ukrainian linguistic transfer. These pitfalls contribute heavily to mistakes in language tests for Ukrainians. 1, 2, 3, 4

Pronunciation and Sound Confusions

Ukrainian learners often substitute English vowels /ɪ/, /iː/, /ɛ/, /æ/, and diphthongs with phonetically close Ukrainian sounds, leading to errors that change word meanings (e.g., “seat” and “sit,” “men” and “man,” “sad” and “said”). English consonants /t/ and /d/ are pronounced differently in Ukrainian, causing challenges with proper English articulation. 2

Grammar and Vocabulary Usage Errors

  • Omitting or confusing articles in English since Ukrainian lacks them (e.g., “I hungry” instead of “I am hungry”).
  • Incorrect word order due to Ukrainian’s flexible sentence structure (e.g., placing adverbs or complements differently).
  • Confusing “less” and “fewer” due to differences in countable noun usage between languages.
  • Tendency to use double negation in English, which is not grammatically correct but is common in Ukrainian.
  • Difficulty with relative pronouns such as “who” and “that” because of differences in their roles and use in Ukrainian. 3, 4

False Friends

Some words that look or sound alike in English and Ukrainian but have different meanings can mislead learners, causing errors in vocabulary use during tests. 1

These pitfalls combine to cause frequent vocabulary and language test mistakes for Ukrainians learning English.

References

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