10 English Mistakes That Cost Candidates in Job Interviews

Most candidates don't lose points in an English interview because of hard grammar. They lose them on a handful of small, everyday mistakes that repeat in almost every answer. An interviewer — or an AI evaluation — hears the same slip three or four times in two minutes, and it starts to define the level they give you.

The good news: these mistakes are predictable, and most of them come from translating directly from your first language. Here are ten of the most common ones, what to say instead, and a quick way to practice.

1. "I am working here since three years"

Say instead: "I have been working here for three years."

When something started in the past and is still going on, English uses the present perfect (have been working), not the present continuous. Use for with a length of time (for three years, for six months) and since with a starting point (since 2022, since January).

2. "I explained them the problem"

Say instead: "I explained the problem to them."

Explain, describe and suggest don't take a person directly after them. You explain something to someone. The same goes for "he suggested me to apply" — say "he suggested that I apply" or "he advised me to apply."

3. "I am agree"

Say instead: "I agree."

Agree is already a verb, so it doesn't need am. The same pattern shows up as "I am work in a bank" or "I am study business": pick one verb form — "I work in a bank," "I'm studying business."

4. "I have 25 years"

Say instead: "I'm 25" or "I'm 25 years old."

English uses be for age, not have. It's a tiny thing, but it often comes in the first sentence of a self-introduction — exactly where first impressions are made.

5. Missing "a" and "the"

Say instead: "I work as a customer service agent in a telecom company," not "I work as customer service agent in telecom company."

Articles are one of the hardest parts of English if your first language uses them differently. A simple rule that covers most interview answers: use a before a job title or a single thing you mention for the first time, and the when the listener already knows which one you mean ("the team I led," "the company I work for").

6. "Informations" and "advices"

Say instead: "information," "advice," "feedback," "equipment" — always singular.

These nouns can't be counted in English, so they never take an -s and never take a. If you need a number, say "a piece of advice" or "some useful information."

7. "The customers is angry"

Say instead: "The customers are angry" / "The customer is angry."

Subject–verb agreement slips under pressure, especially in long sentences where the subject is far from the verb. Slow down slightly on these sentences; most people know the rule and only miss it when they rush.

8. "More better" and "more easier"

Say instead: "better," "easier," "more efficient."

Short adjectives take -er (faster, easier) and long ones take more(more reliable, more organized) — never both together.

9. "We discussed about the targets"

Say instead: "We discussed the targets" or "we talked about the targets."

Discuss already means "talk about," so it takes no about. Two cousins of this mistake: "contact with us" (say "contact us") and "enter to the system" (say "enter the system" or "log into the system").

10. "I didn't went to university"

Say instead: "I didn't go to university."

After did / didn't, the verb goes back to its base form — the past is already in did. The same applies to questions: "Did you finish?", not "Did you finished?" It's one of the easiest mistakes to fix, because the rule never changes.

Why small mistakes matter so much

Language levels such as B1, B2 and C1 (see CEFR levels explained) aren't only about how many words you know. Grammatical accuracy is one of the core criteria, and the difference between B1 and B2 is often exactly this: whether basic structures are reliable or keep slipping. Fixing three or four repeated mistakes can move how your speaking comes across more than learning a hundred new words.

Find your own repeated mistakes

Everyone has a personal set of two or three slips that keep coming back, and they're almost impossible to notice while you're speaking. Hearing yourself back is what reveals them: answer one interview question out loud, play it back, and write down every sentence that sounds off. Fix those, then answer the same question again without notes.

On Talkume, once you sign in, you can run an AI estimate of your spoken level on your own link. Alongside a level from A1 to C2 it gives you a transcript of what you actually said and comments that quote the exact phrases worth fixing — useful for catching the mistakes you don't hear yourself. It's an estimate, not a certified test.