Grammar Mistakes That Sound Right But Are Totally Wrong

English has a funny way of rewarding what sounds natural over what is technically correct. Some grammar mistakes have become so common in everyday speech and writing that they no longer sound like errors. In some cases, the wrong version feels even more polished than the grammatically correct one. Many mistakes come from confusing verb forms, not knowing tricky exceptions, or overlooking grammar rules that seem counterintuitive. All of these slipups have one thing in common: They’re surprisingly understandable. Here’s how to spot and correct them.

Correction: “I lay on the couch.”

The verbs “lay” and “lie” have caused headaches for generations of English speakers. “Lie” is an intransitive verb meaning “to be or stay at rest,” as in, “I need to lie down.” Because it is intransitive, it does not require an object to be acted upon. Meanwhile, “lay” is a transitive verb meaning “to put something down,” as in, “Can I lay my bag on this table?” It requires an object — something being placed somewhere — which in this case is “my bag.”

Unfortunately, their past-tense forms overlap in a very unhelpful way, resulting in one of the most confusing verb duos in English. The past tense of “lie” is “lay,” and the past tense of “lay” is “laid.” This is why the sentence “Yesterday, I laid on the couch” is grammatically incorrect — it should be “Yesterday, I lay on the couch.”

However, “I laid the bag on the table” is correct because “laid” is the past tense of “lay.” Keep an eye out for an object in the sentence. If there is one, use the present “lay” or the past “laid.”

Correction: “Each of them has …”

In the above example, the plural pronoun “them” is closest to the verb, which makes “have” sound more natural. However, the subject is actually “each” — a singular pronoun. Subject-verb agreement says that the verb must also be singular: “has.” For that reason, “Each of them has a ticket” is correct, while “Each of them have a ticket” is not.

When this kind of phrase becomes confusing, it helps to simplify it. Remove the extra words and look at the core grammatical structure: “Each has a ticket.” The correct subject-verb combination becomes easier to hear.

Correction: “A large number of people showed up.”

While it doesn’t change the meaning of the sentence, using the word “amount” to refer to people is grammatically incorrect. This is because “people” is a countable noun, referring to items that can be counted one by one, just like cars or apples. Uncountable nouns (or mass nouns) refer to things that can’t be counted individually, such as water, air, or time.

Certain words are used alongside countable nouns, while others are reserved for uncountable nouns, and “amount” is traditionally paired with the latter. A correct usage of “amount” is: “We have a small amount of time.” On the other hand, “number” is used with countable nouns: “I borrowed a large number of books.”

That said, many native speakers are unaware of these rules and use “amount” informally with countable nouns, so the incorrect version often slips by unnoticed.

Correction: “Between you and me …”

“Between you and I, I hated the restaurant.” This mistake often happens because speakers try to sound more grammatically correct, but in fact, this overcorrection is wrong. It comes down to a very specific grammar rule: The word “between” is a preposition, and prepositions must be followed by object pronouns such as “me,” “him,” “her,” “us,” or “them.”

“I,” on the other hand, is a subject pronoun and should be used only when it’s the subject of the sentence. The correct version is, “Between you and me, I hated the restaurant,” because “I” is the subject and “between you and me” is a prepositional phrase.

The confusion stems from phrases like “You and I went to the store” and “Perhaps you and I have different opinions.” These are correct because “you and I” functions as the subject of the sentence. Over time, many speakers began assuming that “you and I” is proper in all situations.

The trick is to use “I” (subject pronoun) when the subject is doing the action and “me” (object pronoun) when the object receives the action or follows a preposition.