Learning a new language is a difficult process; during this path, you will certainly make some mistakes or even run into some errors. But what is the difference between a mistake and an error? Do these two words mean exactly the same thing? Spoiler: not exactly. Moreover, understanding the differences between “mistake” and “error” could play a fundamental role in enhancing your learning process.

Mistake

The word mistake can be both a transitive verb or a countable noun. As a verb it indicates the state of someone who is not able to understand or recognise something or is taking one thing for another:

Every summer the family spent August in their grandparents' North Haven house, so large that it is often mistaken for a yacht club

Prestige or simple recognition is often mistaken for success. Nothing could be further from the truth

In addition, as a verb, it is often used when someone commit an unintentional error:

I mistook my own teenage isolation as romantic

At first, I mistook Chris's constant acquiescence for agreeability

As a countable noun, a mistake is a decision, an action or a judgment that has an unwanted result, and it is often used together with the verb “to make”. See the following example taken from Ludwig:

I'm human and I do make mistakes, and the mistakes are not malicious

In some instances, people represented under the NYIFUP escaped deportation because they were U.S. citizens who had been arrested by mistake

As you can see from the examples, a mistake is something that one usually does “by accident” and, indeed, the expressions “by mistake” and “by accident” are considered synonyms.

Error

The word error is a noun and it has a more formal meaning than mistake. See the following examples always taken from Ludwig:

There is an error in Figure 2 legend of this manuscript

There is an error in this article which, when reading the article in full, presents conflicting information

I made an error of judgment

The word error, therefore, is not only used in formal contexts but, under a certain point of view, it indicates something worse than a mistake since it is not done by accident and implies a lack of knowledge or something which goes against a given set of rules.

Error spelling VS mistake spelling

The differences between error and mistake are particularly clear when it comes to English spelling, which, as mentioned in another post, can be a huge obstacle for new learners.

When we speak about a spelling mistake, we mean that the one who is writing is aware of the grammar and spelling rules of the English language, but this person has written something in the wrong way by accident or by distraction. An error instead denotes a lack of competence and knowledge.

Given this starting point, the same misspelt word could be considered as a mistake or as an error on the basis of a wider context. Look at the following sentence:

Even though my friend is a weird person, he is a true friend

If someone had written the following:

Even though my frend is a weird person, he is a true friend

The misspelt word “frend” should be considered as a mistake, because the writing person write the same word as correct in the same sentence. Instead, if we read the following sentence:

Even though my frend is a weird person, he is a true frend

We could legitimately think that this person made an error because they are not aware of the right spelling of the word “friend”.

Difference between error and mistake while learning a new language

Both error and mistake are perfectly normal when you are learning a new language, moreover they can be especially useful in improving your language skills and figuring out what are the critical points where we can take action.

Always keep in mind that, if it is relatively easy to recognise your own mistakes, when it comes to an error —which is a symptom reflecting the actual competence of the learner— it can be more difficult. In this regard, an external help plays an essential role in detecting your errors, whether it is a human tutor or an amazing tool like Ludwig.