As a native speaker, how can you tell apart which essay/thesis/paragraph/piece of writing is written by an English native speaker & which one is written by a non-native speaker?

19 comments

1. I can tell the difference mostly by the small errors in word usage.

2. You can’t usually.

3. Here’s an article about common errors made by people who are not native English speakers:

   http://howtowriteanacademicpaper.com/10-common-mistakes.html

   The point is that small errors can add up.

   That said, native English speakers can also make a lot of small errors. I wouldn’t necessarily jump to the conclusion that such errors reveal a non-native speaker. They might just reveal a native speaker who does little formal writing.

4. Translated is easier to tell as opposed to non-native speaker.

   When you can tell, it’s usually a correct but strange word choice or order.

5. Yes, maybe if some word choice or phrasing is weird.

6. Small grammatical errors are the most common mistakes, along with messing up the [Order of Adjectives](https://www.grammarly.com/blog/adjective-order/). Also mixing up words that sound similar, such as threw and through, whole and hole, and a few others that are on the tip of my tongue.

7. I don’t think about such things to even look out for that. Common misspellings and how a sentence is structured would give that away I guess but I wouldn’t just think that any specific type of English speaker is writing it.

8. From your question it is “how can you tell apart which…”

   English speakers would not use the “apart” in that sentence.

   It is just little things like that which add up, especially if you see the same awkward wording multiple times.

   However, in papers the editing process usually corrects those errors because an English speaker or more than one does proofreading. In that case you wouldn’t be able to tell.

   The ones I see are superfluous words (“apart” in your sentence), adjective order, and dropping articles.

   You can definitely Google for common errors of non-English speakers.

   The really fun ones are mistaken idioms. We had a Russian speaker who used “top of creams” to describe her students. Americans would say “cream of the crop” and I suspect “top of creams” was just a transliteration of a Russian saying.

9. There’s a handful of common misspellings, just “off” word usage, and other indicators. Sometimes you can also see their autocorrect, too: for example a Spanish speaker might type especial instead of special, either because that is how they say special or because their phone autocorrected it. They also might say “how do you call it” instead of “how do you say it,” or mess up the order of adjectives (“the red and big house” instead of “the big red house”)

10. As an English teacher who specializes in working with non-native speakers, it’s not difficult. You see common grammar errors, people choosing words that are close to what they mean, but not correct due to nuances native speakers understand intuitively, and mixing US and British English are common signs.

11. Sometimes it’s phrases that give it away. “Going to university,” and “playing sport,” might be technically correct, but you’ll never hear anyone but the most introverted Americans using either of those phrases.

12. It’s very subtle grammatical oddities and writing patterns that give it away. Not always necessarily mistakes or typos (though this is often the case), but more so putting emphasis on a peculiar part of a sentence or ordering words in an unfamiliar way. If you have some knowledge of the specific language that the person speaks natively or how people from that country tend to speak English it’s even easier to spot.

13. Like everyone has already said, it’s typically placement of small words within a statement or word choices. For example, I would only use the term apart in a formal paper. In a Reddit post, probably not. I would’ve probably said “How can you tell the difference between a native and non-native English speaker/ writer?” Something to that effect.

14. Other English speaking countries have different spellings. I’ve been surprised by ‘globalisation’ before and thought “oh, I guess this person might be from Europe.”

15. Some interesting ones I’ve found:

    Using “no” at the end of a question is one that a lot of Europeans have trouble with, but one that makes sense from the standpoint of how their languages use the word no. For example, “Americans use no at the end of their questions, no?” is a big giveaway for me (I’d typically expect something like “right” or “correct.”

    Went to a high school with a large Chinese population and native Chinese speakers have a really, really hard time spelling the word “dining.” I do not know why this is (if I had to guess, it’s some oversight in the way their English textbooks teach gerunds) but it has been true in most situations.

16. Typically, it’s multiple small errors.

    A common one is atypical word order. English is a very forgiving language when it comes to word order. You can move words around and the sentence can still be technically correct, but native speakers use adjectives [in a certain order.](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/grammar/british-grammar/adjectives-order) For example, “The red, big ball” is technically correct, but it sounds weird. A native speaker would say, “The big, red ball,” In your question, “an English native speaker” sounds unnatural. We would say, “a native English speaker.”

    Another common giveaway is overly formal speech. For example, if it’s supposed to be a casual communication, but the writer uses zero contractions, that’s a sign. They may also have overly formal vocabulary. For example, “That is sufficient,” sounds formal and technical. “That is enough,” can sound forceful. In casual speech, a native English speaker would say, “That’s good.”

    (This is not to pick on you. Only because you asked) “How can you tell apart which” is perfectly understandable, but not totally correct. A native speaker would have written, “How can you tell which essay is written by…?” or “How can you tell X apart from X?” However, it would be most natural to write, “How can you tell when an essay is written by…?”

17. Americans use a lot of WOW adjectives and non-native speakers try to copy that with the wrong ones.

    Native: Excellent! That is absolutely the best I’ve seen.

    Non-native: Exceptional! That is conclusively the best I have viewed.

    Also just the wrong combinations. We might say Excellent but never “Most excellent.“ (That one is surprisingly common to see). Very cool, maybe super cool, but never “most cool.”

    It’s the enbiggenses that’ll getcha’ and we have a lot of them.

    ​

    *enbiggen isn’t even real but every native speaker knew that reference to a cartoon imaginary word.

18. if they over word it

19. I’ve noticed non-native English speakers use kindly in place of politely.