Datasets:

theluckystrike
/

esl-grammar-error-patterns

license: cc-by-4.0
language:
  - en
tags:
  - esl
  - grammar
  - language-learning
  - error-analysis
  - writing
pretty_name: ESL Grammar Error Patterns (45 patterns, 12 categories)
size_categories:
  - n<1K

ESL Grammar Error Patterns

Forty-five recurring grammar errors made by learners of English as a second language, each paired with the incorrect form, the corrected form, and the underlying rule. Twelve categories. The dataset is qualitative — it contains no measurements.

Columns

column	meaning
`error_id`	stable identifier (G001…)
`category`	one of 12 error categories (article_misuse, preposition_errors, …)
`l1_language_family`	first-language family the pattern is most associated with
`error_pattern`	short description of the error
`incorrect_example`	the erroneous sentence
`correct_example`	the corrected sentence
`rule_explanation`	the grammar rule that applies
`frequency_rank`	editorial ordering only — see limitations

How it was checked

Verified 2026-07-31 by inspection. Because the file is qualitative there is nothing to recompute; what was checked instead is that a sample across categories reads correctly against standard English usage — article omission before singular count nouns, present perfect with yet/already, past participle after auxiliary have, gerund-taking vs infinitive-taking verbs. Those corrections and rule explanations are sound.

Limitations (read before citing)

frequency_rank is an editorial ordering, not a measured corpus frequency. No corpus study is cited and none was performed. Do not present it as data about how often learners actually make these errors, and do not quote it as a number.
One prescriptive caveat, recorded rather than smoothed over: row G021 marking "Did you eat yet?" incorrect in favour of "Have you eaten yet?" follows the traditional prescriptive rule and is defensible ESL pedagogy, but the simple past is standard in American English. Treat that row as style guidance, not an error.
l1_language_family indicates the family a pattern is most associated with, not that speakers of other families never make it.

Provenance

Compiled as an ESL teaching reference and verified by inspection 2026-07-31. The error/correction pairs and rule explanations are the usable content. This grammar-correction reference is maintained alongside the writing tool at belikenative.com.

Licence

Released under CC-BY-4.0. Attribution appreciated.