ESL Habits by L1
All articles on esl habits by l1 — practical guides for ESL professionals writing in English.
French to English: False Friends at Work You Didn't Realise You Were Using
French-English false friends create professional misunderstandings that neither party notices immediately. Here are the twenty that appear most often in workplace writing.
8 min read · 2026-03-12German to English: Compound-Noun Carryover and How to Break It
German builds meaning by stacking nouns into single long words. English doesn't work that way, but German speakers routinely import the habit. Here's what it looks like and how to fix it.
7 min read · 2026-03-05Japanese to English: Verb-Final Habits That Confuse English Readers
Japanese grammar places verbs at the end of sentences, and this transfers into English writing in specific ways. Here are the six most common patterns that affect how your writing reads.
8 min read · 2026-02-05Korean to English: The 'I Think' Problem and How to Fix It
Korean speakers writing professional English have a specific set of recurring patterns that affect how confident and clear their writing sounds. 'I think' is the most visible one, but there are six others.
8 min read · 2026-01-22L1 Transfer Patterns Every Mandarin Speaker Should Know When Writing English
Mandarin grammar shapes English writing in specific, recurring ways. This article maps the ten most common patterns so you can recognise and correct them in your own work.
9 min read · 2025-12-05