What are some expressions non-native speakers often use (not necessarily grammatically incorrect) that native speakers typically don’t?

"How is it like?"

I work with a lot of latinos and one thing I see sometimes from native Spanish speakers is that they'll address people as "Mr. [First name]." In English, those types of honorifics are almost exclusively used with surnames, and even then mostly in a formal context or by children addressing an adult.

The phrase I see the most in the UK is "for the longest time", which would be very rare in British English native speech. However I understand it is more common in the English spoken in South and South East Asia, sometimes natively.

I teach a lot of German speakers. They often say “I live in the near of [place]” instead of “I live near…” or “I live in the [place] area”. I believe they’re plugging in English words into a German structure when they say this. Also, saying “I hope we will meet / see us again” instead of “I hope we’ll see / meet each other again”, and “driving with the bus” instead of “going / travelling by bus”. Saying “handy” instead of “mobile” or “cellphone” is another very common mistake they make. Just remembered I met a German lady once who’d lived in Boston who wasn’t aware that calling a corner shop a “packie shop” wouldn’t go down well here in the UK.

In IT "do the needful" (do what is necessary) and upgradation (upgrade as a noun for the action of upgrading) are often seen from Indian non-native speakers and not from natives. Japanese non-native speakers have some words that they'll use in English because they use them in Japanese and think they're English loan-words but they're actually not. The phenomenon is called "waseieigo" in Japanese. "Winker" (car turn signal), "kitchen car" (food truck) "mansion" (condominium) and "consent" (power outlet) are all examples.

'Touristic' it is a correct english word but I have never heard a native speaker use it over 'touristy'

"Make a photo" instead of "take a photo"

A real tell for Indian English users is “sir”, which they use much more frequently than non-Indian speakers.

People whose native language is Slavic, often use 'how' instead of 'what' like in this example: "How is your name" or something like that.

Using "doubt" like it's a synonym for "question," as in: "I have a doubt about English grammar, can someone help me?"

I've heard from Germans  "This is making it" or "it is getting" When we would say "this makes it" or "it gets"

I like it when spanish speakers (prob any language I just live in Colombia) use “happy birthday” to mean birthday because they think it’s the whole phrase. This is people who don’t speak English but use the English words in this case. Happens a lot. They say in Spanish “mañana es mi happy birthday” tomorrow is my happy birthday. Or last week I went to her happy birthday party.

“In the meanwhile”. Should be “in the meantime” or just meanwhile.

“How do you call it?” Instead of “what do you call it?” Also the phrase “do the needful” immediately marks you as someone who learned English (and corporate culture) in India…. I highly recommend not using it with Americans in corporate settings

People from Asia often describe themselves as “having an Asian face” and not “having a Western face”, using “face” to mean “perceived race.” Natives would usually say someone “is [race]” or “looks [race]”. A person “with an Asian face” would usually refer to a non-Asian with Asian-looking facial features.

"How do you call-" "How is it like-" , There's a bunch but essentially replacing "what" with "how" Presumably a direct translation issue

"How do you think?" instead of "What do you think?"; "I very like it" instead of "I really like it"; "I don't need nothing" instead of "I don't need anything" (although the first one is a valid negative expression in some English dialects, as far as I know); "I don't like it too" instead of "I don't like it either"

I used to work with people from southern India (not sure what their first language was, who would say "each and every thing" instead of just "everything." I wonder if there's a linguistic reasoning for this or if it has to do with the way English is taught in that area.

Native speakers rarely call anyone "dear" or "darling". They're very old-fashioned. I also see non-natives saying things like "a young 16 years old teen" when a native speaker would just say "a 16 year old". 1.All teens are young, so a "young teen" would be someone who is young *for* a teen, meaning 13-15 years old 2.you don't need the word "teen" after "16" because all 16 year olds are obviously teens and 3. It's "a 16 year old", not "a 16 years old".

How do you do?

I can often tell when a telemarketer is not from the U.S. because they use "May I know" rather than "Can you (please) tell me" or Can I have your." Perhaps it's a South Asian regionalism since they also speak English. But it always strikes my ear as odd. May I know your phone number? May I know your birthday?

A lot of my friends and colleagues leaned English is South Asia, and I always find it jarring when they end a sentence with a contraction of the verb “to be.” For example - “are you going to the concert?” - “yes, I’m”. And then I always say “you are what?” because this sort of grammatical construction just doesn’t work.

A tiny one I notice a lot is “give to me” where native speakers (in the US at least) often drop the “to”

Non-natives tend to use this "smth" abbreviation to mean "something" but I've never seen a native do that in my life.

Some of my Indian coworkers say "I have a doubt" instead of "I have a question"

Not a native speaker, but I often hear Germans say until when they mean before or by. Finish this until Friday. Dutch and French speakers sometimes use eventually to translate the Dutch word eventueel or the French word éventuellement but these words mean possibly

A very particular one that I recall from my uni days: “In my country, [we do X…]” — Something the international students always used to say. When I’m abroad, I’d naturally say “Back home, we…”, or “In the UK…” and actually name the country.

Using “revert” to mean “reply” seems to be common in India. Also, using “the same” to refer to something previously mentioned.

“I’m fine, thank you, and you?” grammatically correct, but people rarely say it with this exact wording or in the meter that non-native speakers are typically saying it in. and I know that it’s one of the first phrases people learn in English courses

Several of my Japanese friends say “the good point” or “the bad point” when talking about their opinions on something. I assume it’s a phrase they learn in school. “The good point about the movie is that it was fun.” I’m unsure if it’s considered grammatically incorrect, but it sounds off to me. Although I’m not a native speaker myself, so I can’t be 100% sure. Personally I would say “the good thing” instead of “point”

i will like to meet you in person.

Incorrectly pluralising uncountable nouns, resulting in words such as "slangs" and "softwares".

Nice try, Nigerian Prince! Nice try!

Asking questions in the same kind of way that regular English speakers will sometimes write headlines for articles. Like, "Why cats are so cute?" instead of "Why are cats so cute?" The former can be used as a headline to a text, without the question mark, and it's not asking a question but basically saying "in the text below, I will tell you why cats are so cute."

Please speak slowlier. It is not allowed to smoke in here. I recommend you to try this cake. How do you call a sleeping bear? Look at the sky, it will rain!

One that I don't think has been said yet is "and you". I don't think I've ever heard it used in natural conversation between two native speakers that hasn't been directly related to learning/translating another language. Then again, that might just be a Yob Country thing. I have heard that there are also quite a few unique words to Indian English (if you want to count them as non-native speakers) that generally involve applying prefixes or suffixes to words that don't normally take them - the typical example being 'prepone' (as contrasted against 'postpone').

Mixing up "fun" and "funny". I've heard this a lot with Danish people specifically, not sure if it happens with other similar languages, but they will refer to an activity as being funny when they mean fun 

Starting sentences with “Actually” in the wrong context. I notice Indian folks do this a lot in Canada.

“Thanks God” instead of “thank God.” >> “No one was hurt in the fire, thank God.” ** If there are native English speakers who use the expression “thanks God,” please chime in with where you live. I heard this primarily in Europe and some people insisted it was British English. If so, I’ve never heard it or read it written that way. Thanks!

In writing, the #1 thing I notice is a lack of contractions. The following example, despite being technically correct, feels so incredibly stilted that it almost has an uncanny valley effect: “I will not be able to call them tonight, I am busy. I do not think I could have done it earlier. I will do it tomorrow if you can not. It is not a problem. They are available tomorrow but have not told me when, even though they should have. Let us text them so we know when it is a good time to call.”

“How are you?” “Fine, thank you, aaaaaaand you?”

Using ‘kindly’ when they make requests. “Kindly shut the door when you finish in the kitchen” I’ve no doubt it’s meant to sound polite. But just sounds sarcastic and demanding to me. Maybe this is because they often don’t use potential’s like ‘could’ or ‘would’ with it. Just occurred to me it also sounds like spaghetti western talk. Just using ‘please’, will go a long way, ‘please may I….’, ‘can you…. please?” Which reminds me, I’ve heard people say “excuse me, please.” This also sounds rude. Saying ‘excuse me’, is already polite because it acknowledges you’re inconveniencing the listener. If you add ’please’, it negates this aspect, and sounds like a demand again.

A lot of my Korean friends would say, "I'm boring" instead of "I'm bored" which usually makes me giggle. A Japanese friend I have would also say, "He's upsetting" instead of "He's upset".

Here in Japan a lot of issues are caused by directly translating. Saying something like, “Please teach me how to get to the park.” because ‘teach’ and ‘tell’ are the same word in Japanese. Also using ‘Japanese English’ words like ‘sand’ for sandwich, ‘game centre’ for arcade etc.

I’m surrounded by non-native English speakers and they only made two mistakes that I picked up. They will write f.e. instead of e.g. They will uses splitted instead of split. That’s it.

I forgot my keys at home. (I forgot my keys, or I left my keys at home. Are you smoking?( do you smoke?) Answer...yes, I don't (no, I don't)

Just saying “am” instead of “I am” or “I’m”. This is common in African countries that a lot of scammers work out of, so be careful if somebody makes this mistake when they approach you with some kind of opportunity.

I often hear native Greek speakers say they are 'bored to do something', when they can mean they can't be bothered to do something or they find something boring. In English you can be bored OF something, but not 'to'.

Living near Quebec "dat's it dat's all" (that's it that's all). When they finish a job or task. Another fun one, which I guess is more just borrowing English is "c'est good!".

Opening emails with Dear *and not adding the address* Starting a letter with *Dear sir,* or *Dear name* is common enough in formal letters But I've only ever seen >*Dear,* > >*I am writing to you today etc etc* from non-native speakers. Apparently it crops up quite often for professors with international students, or when younger people join an international workforce

The main one is just excessive formality. This is a problem for lots of language learners. Education systems often prioritise teaching formal structures and phrases, in the belief that they are preparing students for using the language in professional or academic contexts. However, the reality in English is that formal language is only used in written contexts, and even then, mostly in formal communication between people who don't know each other in professional, service or administrative contexts. The result is non-native English speakers sounding absurdly formal when they write, but particulartly when they speak. They have been taught to prioritise 'big words' and academic-sounding vocabulary. As a result, they are less clear and concise. I myself get laughed at when I speak French in Belgium, as we only ever studied the formal forms at school in the UK. Having said that, this is not true for everyone. And there is a flipside to this: learners (generally under 30 years old) can overuse slang, particularly internet slang, often in an inappropriate or outdated way. You can spot a non-native speaker by how much they say 'bro' and words like 'cooked' (meaning: in trouble).

"Far out." I tend to use it because it is a common expression in Danish, but I have been told that unless I am an old hippie stuck in the past, I shouldn't use it.

Here in Denmark, it's 'Do you get my meaning?' More generally, for people who mainly learnt English informally rather than in the classroom, overuse of swear words or other offensive language when it's inappropriate. I haven't got anything against quite a liberal use of swear words, but often non-native speakers haven't also learnt the context when it's ok to use them. I was caught out by this myself with French, when I learnt from my French boyfriend and his friends that the way to say 'be quiet' or 'you're talking rubbish' was 'ta geule' (sorry if I've spelt that wrong), and we used it casually to each other all the time. So one day I said that to him in front of his mother and she was horrified. I'm not entirely certain that the Danish politician who told Trump to fuck off yesterday didn't just mean to tell him to go away (although I'd very much like to think he really did mean 'fuck off'.)

Using "since" like it's used in French, German etc. Usually in a construction like this: "I am learning English since 3 years" It should be: I have been learning English for 3 years. I have been doing it since 2022.

Depends on the native language. A remember a German I was staying with always telling me not do things. When I tried to wash up or take the bins out she would say "you must not do that". Thought I'd broken some sort of rule. Later learnt she was translating "du musst nicht", which isn't really "you must not", and is more like "you don't have to".