IELTS Writing Mistakes Japanese Speakers Make: L1 Interference Patterns

How Japanese language structures affect your English writing—and proven strategies to overcome them

Japanese IELTS candidates often experience a frustrating disconnect: they understand English well, have studied grammar extensively, and can communicate effectively—yet their Writing scores remain stuck at Band 5-6.

This isn't about English knowledge. It's about Japanese language patterns that operate beneath conscious awareness, creating systematic errors that feel invisible because they align with your native linguistic intuitions.

Understanding these interference patterns transforms vague grammar struggles into specific, fixable issues.

Article Omission: The Core Challenge

Japanese has no article system. There's no equivalent to "the," "a," or "an." Japanese uses different strategies for indicating specificity—context, demonstratives (この kono, その sono, あの ano), or simply leaving it to the listener to understand.

This makes articles the single most common error type for Japanese speakers in English writing.

Common Patterns

Missing articles everywhere:

• "Education is important for development of society"
  → "Education is important for the development of society"
• "I bought computer yesterday"
  → "I bought a computer yesterday"
• "Government should invest in infrastructure"
  → "The government should invest in infrastructure"

The general vs. specific confusion:

• "The education is valuable" → "Education is valuable" (general concept)
• "The students need support" → "Students need support" (students in general)
• "I love the music" → "I love music" (music generally)

Article Decision Framework

For every noun, ask:

1. Is it countable or uncountable?
2. Is it singular or plural?
3. Is it specific (both reader and I know which one) or general?

Use "the": Specific, identified, unique
Use "a/an": Singular countable, not specific, first mention
Use nothing: General statements, uncountable/plural in general sense

Why This Is Hard

In Japanese, definiteness is often pragmatically inferred. 私は本を読んだ (Watashi wa hon wo yonda) could mean "I read the book" or "I read a book"—context determines it.

In English, you must make this choice explicitly every time.

Pronoun and Subject Omission

Japanese is a "pro-drop" language—subjects and pronouns are regularly omitted when understood from context. English requires explicit subjects in every clause.

Common Errors

Missing "it" as subject:

• "Is important to study hard" → "It is important to study hard"
• "Seems like rain today" → "It seems like rain today"
• "Is clear that education matters" → "It is clear that education matters"

Missing "it" as object:

• "I find difficult to understand" → "I find it difficult to understand"
• "I consider important" → "I consider it important"

Missing other subjects:

• "Went to school yesterday" → "I went to school yesterday"
• "Have been studying for hours" → "I have been studying for hours"

The Fix

English sentences (almost) always need an explicit subject. Check every sentence: does it have a subject? If there's no logical subject, use "it" or "there."

Word Order: SOV → SVO

Japanese uses Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) order:

• 私は 本を 読む (I + book + read) = "I read books"

English uses Subject-Verb-Object (SVO):

• "I read books"

Where Problems Appear

Simple sentences: Usually not a problem—Japanese speakers adjust easily.

Complex sentences: Relative clauses, embedded clauses, and multiple modifiers cause issues.

Japanese pattern: 昨日図書館で会った学生 = "Yesterday library-at met student"
English pattern: "The student whom I met at the library yesterday"

Note how the relative clause follows the noun in English but precedes it in Japanese.

Modifier stacking:

• Japanese: "Last year built beautiful tall building"
• English: "The beautiful tall building built last year"

The Fix

In complex sentences, identify what you're describing, then add description after it using relative clauses (who, which, that, where, when).

The L/R Confusion in Spelling

Japanese doesn't distinguish between /l/ and /r/ sounds—they're allophones of the same phoneme (ら行). While this primarily affects speaking, it can influence spelling.

Common Spelling Errors

• "realy" instead of "really"
• "probrem" instead of "problem"
• "clime" instead of "climb"
• "parrallel" instead of "parallel"

The Fix

Create a personal list of l/r words you commonly use in essays. Practice these specifically.

Other Pronunciation-Based Spelling Issues

Japanese phonology affects how you spell English words.

Missing Consonant Clusters

Japanese syllables typically follow consonant-vowel patterns. Consonant clusters (multiple consonants without vowels between them) feel unnatural.

Errors:

• "stlict" instead of "strict"
• "diferent" instead of "different"
• "enviroment" instead of "environment"

Added Vowels

Sometimes Japanese speakers insert vowels between consonants in pronunciation, which can affect spelling perception.

• "desuku" pattern from hearing "desk"
• Extra syllables in words like "walked" (wal-ked instead of walkt)

Verb Forms and Tenses

Japanese marks tense differently than English, with a simpler system that doesn't distinguish some aspects English requires.

Present Perfect vs. Simple Past

This distinction is challenging because Japanese often doesn't make it.

Incorrect: "I have visited Kyoto last year"
Correct: "I visited Kyoto last year" (specific time = simple past)

Incorrect: "I lived in Tokyo since 2018"
Correct: "I have lived in Tokyo since 2018" (continuing to now = present perfect)

Stative Verbs

Some English verbs don't take progressive form. Japanese doesn't have this category.

Incorrect: "I am knowing the answer"
Correct: "I know the answer"

Incorrect: "I am understanding your point"
Correct: "I understand your point"

Incorrect: "I am believing that..."
Correct: "I believe that..."

Stative verbs (believe, know, understand, want, need, like, love, hate, prefer, etc.) typically don't use -ing forms.

Plural Marking

Japanese nouns don't change form for plural—context or optional markers indicate plurality.

Common Errors

Missing plurals:

• "Many student agree with this" → "Many students agree with this"
• "There are several reason" → "There are several reasons"
• "All country should participate" → "All countries should participate"

With numbers:

• "Five year ago" → "Five years ago"
• "Three problem exist" → "Three problems exist"

The Fix

After any quantifier (many, several, few, all, some, most) or number, check that the noun is plural.

Countable vs. Uncountable Nouns

Japanese doesn't categorize nouns as countable or uncountable the way English does. This affects article and plural decisions.

Common Errors

Treating uncountable as countable:

• "informations" → "information" (uncountable)
• "advices" → "advice" (uncountable)
• "furnitures" → "furniture" (uncountable)
• "equipments" → "equipment" (uncountable)

Using articles with uncountable nouns:

• "a water" → "water" or "some water"
• "an information" → "information" or "some information"

Key Uncountable Nouns for IELTS

Memorize these: information, advice, research, knowledge, education (when general), traffic, homework, furniture, equipment, luggage, progress, evidence.

-ed and -ing Adjective Confusion

This is a systematic error for Japanese speakers.

The Pattern

-ed adjectives: Describe how someone/something feels
-ing adjectives: Describe what causes the feeling

Incorrect: "I am interesting in music"
Correct: "I am interested in music" (I feel interest)

Incorrect: "The movie was bored"
Correct: "The movie was boring" (it causes boredom)

Incorrect: "I am exciting about the trip"
Correct: "I am excited about the trip" (I feel excitement)

The Rule

• -ed: Used for people/things experiencing the feeling
• -ing: Used for things causing the feeling

Preposition Errors

Japanese uses postpositions (助詞 joshi) that don't translate directly to English prepositions.

Common Mistakes

The Fix

Learn preposition collocations as fixed phrases. There's often no logic—just memorization.

Building Your Correction System

Priority Checklist for Japanese Speakers

1. Articles — Does every singular countable noun have one?
2. Subjects — Does every sentence have an explicit subject?
3. Plurals — Are nouns after quantifiers/numbers plural?
4. Verb forms — Are stative verbs in simple (not progressive) form?
5. -ed/-ing — Are adjectives correctly formed?

Practice Strategy

Week 1-2: Focus only on articles. Check every noun in every sentence.
Week 3-4: Focus on plurals and subject-verb agreement.
Week 5-6: Focus on tense consistency and -ed/-ing adjectives.

The Mindset

Japanese is one of the most sophisticated languages in the world. The interference patterns above aren't signs of weakness—they're predictable results of having internalized a complex language system.

You're not learning English from scratch. You're recalibrating specific features that work differently in Japanese and English. This is entirely achievable with targeted practice.

Want to discover exactly which Japanese interference patterns affect your writing? Our AI analyzes your essays to identify specific error types and creates a personalized improvement plan.