7 grammatical mistakes that can cost you points unfairly on the TOEIC exam.

Have you ever walked out of the TOEIC exam room feeling extremely confident, only to receive a lower score than expected? The most frustrating feeling isn't failing the difficult questions, but making mistakes on those seemingly easy ones.

TOEIC Parts 5 and 6 are considered "gold mines" for scoring points, but they are also full of subtle grammar traps. Just a moment of carelessness can cost you 50–100 valuable points.

Below are 7 common grammatical errors that many test-takers make. Check to see if you're making any of them!

1. Confusing the positions of adjectives and adverbs.

This is the most classic mistake. Many students habitually use an adverb (V + Adv) whenever they see a verb. However, with linking verbs like become, seem, look, feel, remain, etc. , we must use an adjective (Adj) .

Incorrect: He looks happy.
Correct: He looks happy.

2. Conjugation becomes "confused" due to overly long subjects.

In TOEIC, the subject is often not just a single word (He/She/It) but a long noun phrase. The trick is that the main verb must be conjugated according to the head noun , not the noun closest to it.

For example:
The list of new items that need to be arranged is (not are ) on the desk.
→ The main subject is "The list" (singular).

3. Falling into a trap in the passive voice.

Sometimes you see an object as the subject, so you automatically choose the passive voice. But there are cases where the subject is an object, but the sentence has an active meaning (or the intransitive verb doesn't have a passive form).

Note: Quickly translate the meaning of the sentence and check for an object to decide whether to use V-ing or V-ed/V3 .

4. Mixing up conjunctions and prepositions: "Putting the beard of one man on the chin of another."

This is the most common trap in Part 5. Pairs of words like Because / Because of or Although / Despite have the same meaning but completely different grammatical structures.

• Conjunctions (Although, Because, While…): accompany a clause (S + V) .
• Prepositions (Despite, Because of, During…): accompany noun phrases or V-ing .

For example:
Despite the rain, we went out.
Although it rained, we went out.

5. Forget the hypothetical form.

This is a common mistake in request or suggestion sentences. After verbs like recommend, suggest, require, ask... + that + S , the verb is always in its base form without "to" , regardless of whether the subject is singular or plural.

For example:
The manager recommends that he finish (not finishes ) the report soon.

6. Mistakes with the word pair "twins"

TOEIC often includes questions with words that look similar but have completely different meanings:

• Hard vs. Hardly
• Late vs. Lately

If you don't have a solid vocabulary, it's easy to choose answers based on intuition and lose points unnecessarily.

7. Falling into the trap of shortening relative clauses.

A sentence should only contain one main verb (in its conjugated form). If another verb appears, it is highly likely to be a reduced form of a relative clause .

• Active voice: use V-ing. (The man standing there is my boss.)
• Passive voice: use V-ed/V3. (The report written by him is excellent.)

Be careful to distinguish between the main verb of the sentence and the contraction to avoid choosing the wrong tense.

Conclude

TOEIC grammar doesn't require you to write complex sentences, but rather demands accuracy and attention to detail. Identifying these 7 common mistakes will help you develop the reflexes to avoid these traps when taking the test.

How to completely fix problems with Lingoland for TOEIC Test

Reading the theory is easy, but to remember it for a long time and avoid repeating mistakes in the exam, you need a "guide" who can point out your errors immediately.

• ✅ Detailed answer explanation: Not only does it indicate True/False, but it also clearly explains why that answer was chosen.
• ✅ AI error analysis: Automatically detects the grammatical errors you frequently make and suggests appropriate practice exercises.
• ✅ In-depth practice exercises: Thousands of Part 5 & 6 questions closely aligned with real exam traps.

👉 Download Lingoland for TOEIC Test now to practice every day and say "goodbye" to unfairly losing points!