12 ESL Patterns Native English Speakers Rarely Use (And What to Say Instead)

Mikhail Konkov · Founder, Limato

Non-native English speaker. Built Limato after years of catching myself using these exact phrases in client emails.

Some of these are grammar errors. Others pass every grammar checker and still mark you as foreign. Either way, native English speakers in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia almost never type them. Here are 12 of the worst offenders.

Each one is a phrase you've probably written this month. Replace them and your English jumps a level — without learning new vocabulary.

1. "Kindly" instead of "please"

"Kindly find attached the report." "Kindly confirm by Friday." Native speakers in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia rarely use "kindly" in modern business writing — it reads as dated and overly formal. The default polite word is "please", and even "please" gets dropped in casual contexts.

2. "Revert back to me"

In some regional business English, "revert" gets used to mean "reply." In modern US/UK English, "revert" means "go back to a previous state" — and "revert back" is redundant either way. Use "reply", "get back to me", or "let me know."

3. "Do the needful"

One of the most recognizable ESL phrases in modern business English. Native speakers will understand it, but they will also flag the writer as non-native within the first sentence. The fix: state what you actually want done.

Specific beats vague. "Do the needful" hides the request behind a polite shell — natives prefer the request itself, plainly stated.

4. "Discuss about"

"Discuss" is transitive in English. It takes a direct object with no preposition. "Discuss the proposal." Not "discuss about the proposal." This is one of the most persistent ESL errors because most other languages require a preposition here.

Same trap with these verbs:

• "Explain me X" → Explain X to me
• "Request for X" → Request X (the verb takes a direct object)
• "Cope up with" → Cope with
• "Reach to someone" → Reach someone (or "reach out to")

5. "Since five years" / "Since long time"

"Since" introduces a starting point. "For" introduces a duration. "Since 2020" is correct. "Since five years" is not — that's a duration, so it needs "for." Same logic for "since long time" → "for a long time."

6. "Informations", "feedbacks", "advices"

English treats these as uncountable. No plural form, ever. Same with "equipment", "software", "research", "luggage", and "news." If you need to indicate quantity, use a counter word: "two pieces of feedback", "a bit of advice", "some information."

7. "I am agree" / "I am agree with you"

"Agree" is a verb, not an adjective. It conjugates directly: "I agree." Not "I am agree." This mistake comes from languages where agreement is expressed with "to be" + adjective (Spanish "estoy de acuerdo", French "je suis d'accord").

8. "Good in" instead of "good at"

You're good at a skill. You're good in a subject only when "in" refers to a location or context ("good in a crisis"). For abilities, it's always "at."

• "Good in coding" → Good at coding
• "Bad in math" → Bad at math
• "Experienced in React" is fine — but "good in React" is not

9. "It depends of" / "It's depend"

"Depend" takes "on", not "of" or "from." And "depend" is a verb that needs a subject + conjugation: "it depends", not "it's depend" (which mashes "it is" with "depend"). Two errors that travel together.

10. "It's worth to mention" / "Worth to note"

"Worth" is followed by a gerund (-ing form), not an infinitive. "Worth mentioning", "worth noting", "worth doing." Not "worth to mention." This one slips past every grammar checker because both forms parse cleanly.

11. "More better" and other double comparatives

English uses one comparative marker, not two. "Better", not "more better." "Worse", not "more worse." Comes up most often when the writer is reaching for emphasis — but the result is grammatically childlike, not stronger.

• "More easier" → Easier (or "much easier")
• "More faster" → Faster
• "Most best" → Best

For emphasis, use intensifiers: "much better", "way faster", "significantly easier."

12. "Last but not least" and other tired clichés

"Last but not least." "At the end of the day." "It is what it is." "Think outside the box." Native speakers occasionally use these in speech, but in writing they read as filler — especially stacked together. ESL writers reach for them because they were taught as "professional" English. Modern native business writing avoids them.

Modern native business writing tends toward direct, concrete language. If you can replace a cliché with the actual point, do it.

The pattern behind the patterns

Most of these come from one of three sources:

1. Direct translation — your native language requires a preposition, an article, or an inflection that English doesn't (or vice versa).
2. Outdated textbooks — phrases like "kindly", "do the needful", "revert back" lingered in older business-English curricula long after natives moved on. New learners inherit them, natives don't.
3. Over-formalization — non-native writers reach for what feels "professional" and end up with stiff, dated English. Modern business English is closer to spoken English than to legal writing.

The fix isn't memorizing more rules. It's exposure to current native writing — Slack messages from American coworkers, LinkedIn posts from US/UK founders, casual emails from British colleagues — and the willingness to copy the rhythm.

The shortcut

Memorizing 12 patterns helps. Memorizing 200 is unrealistic. The faster path: rewrite drafts before you send them, using a tool that knows what natives actually write.

That's why we built Limato — a Chrome extension that rewrites your text in a native tone, inline, anywhere you type. Highlight a sentence in Gmail, LinkedIn, Notion, or Slack, pick "Native", and get a version that strips ESL patterns automatically. Not a translation. Not a grammar fix. A rewrite that reads like a fluent English speaker wrote it from scratch.

Quick reference: the 12 patterns

1. "Kindly" → please (or drop it)
2. "Revert back" → reply / get back to me
3. "Do the needful" → say what you want done
4. "Discuss about" → discuss (no preposition)
5. "Since five years" → for five years
6. "Informations / feedbacks / advices" → uncountable, no plural
7. "I am agree" → I agree
8. "Good in X" → good at X
9. "It depends of" → it depends on
10. "Worth to mention" → worth mentioning
11. "More better" → better (use "much" for emphasis)
12. "Last but not least" + cliché stacks → say the actual thing

Want more on this? See 8 writing tips for non-native English speakers for the higher-level patterns (formal openers, hedging, sentence rhythm). Or compare tools in best Wordtune alternatives for non-native speakers.