Writing in English as a second language

Most advice for second-language writers is either grammar drills or the unhelpful instruction to read more. This guide is narrower: the specific structural patterns that make otherwise fluent English read as translated, and how to check for the ones that apply to you.

First, something worth saying plainly. Writing in a second language is a considerable accomplishment, and most of what gets called "non-native English" is not error. It is a different set of conventions. What follows is about being read as you intend, not about correctness as a moral matter.

Patterns by first language

These are tendencies, not rules, and they arise because the first language does something reasonable that English does differently.

Speakers of languages without articles (Russian, Polish, Yoruba, Hindi, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean): articles are the most persistent difficulty, and they are genuinely hard because the system is partly arbitrary. The working rule: `a/an` introduces something new, `the` refers to something already known or unique, and no article is used for general plurals and uncountable nouns. I bought a book. The book was expensive. Books are expensive.

Speakers of Romance languages (French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian): a pull towards longer sentences, more subordinate clauses, and a more elevated register than English professional writing wants. Latinate vocabulary that is neutral in your language often reads as formal in English — utilise, commence, obtain. Also false friends: actually is not actuellement, eventually is not eventualmente, sensible is not sensible.

Speakers of German and Dutch: noun compounding, and a tendency to place the main verb late. English prefers the actor and the verb early. Also, English capitalises far fewer nouns.

Speakers of Chinese, Japanese and Korean: topic-first structures that English reads as fragments; less explicit marking of plural and tense; and a rhetorical convention of building context before the main point, where English professional writing puts the point first.

Speakers of South Asian and West African Englishes: these are established varieties with their own norms, not learner English. Kindly do the needful, revert back, prepone, the same is attached are correct in their own varieties. They are simply marked when writing for a US or UK reader, who may read them as templated. This is a register choice, not an error.

The checks that catch most of it

Read it aloud. Slowly. Rhythm problems and missing articles are much easier to hear than to see.

Check every noun for its article. One pass, doing nothing else. Ask of each: is this specific and known to the reader (the), one of many being introduced (a/an), or general and plural or uncountable (nothing)?

Shorten your sentences. English professional prose runs shorter than most European written norms. If your average is over 25 words, split. BRYME's sentence-length checker gives you the number.

Put the subject and verb early. Move the main clause to the front and the qualifications after it.

Check preposition collocations. These are memorised, not derived: depend on, interested in, responsible for, consist of, arrive at, discuss (no preposition), married to. A dictionary that shows collocations is more useful here than any grammar rule.

Check tense sequence, especially the present perfect, which many languages do not have: I have lived here for five years (still here) versus I lived here for five years (no longer).

Translating your own writing

Do not translate sentence by sentence. Translated sentence structure is the single clearest marker of translated text, more than vocabulary.

Read the paragraph in your first language, look away, and write what it means in English. Then compare for anything you dropped. This produces English prose rather than English words in another language's order.

Be careful with idioms. They rarely survive translation and a near-miss is more noticeable than a plain statement.

Common mistakes

Over-formality — reaching for the longest word to sound educated, which reads as stiff to a native ear. Apologising for your English in a cover letter or pitch; it draws attention to something the reader may not have noticed and undercuts you. Relying on a grammar checker alone, which is good at articles and poor at register. Assuming your variety of English is wrong when it is simply different.

Practical tips

• Keep a personal error log. Your mistakes repeat, and five recurring patterns usually account for most of them.
• Read three pieces from the publication or company you are writing to, and match register.
• Set your spellchecker to the destination's variety.
• Find one native-speaker reader who will mark register, not just grammar. Register is the harder half and no tool checks it.
• Your first language is an asset. The perspective it gives you is often exactly why an editor wants the piece.