Mother Tongue Influence Real Life Examples List

Mother Tongue Influence Examples 

Effective language usage is one of the vital elements of life skills and Mother tongue influence (Indian) ,besides conversation fillers, is one of the common speech filler that should be avoided when you're delivering a persuasive presentation.

Mother Tongue Influence Definition

Any intervention of non native (other than British and American English) accent, rhythm, or phrases into English language is called mother tongue influence.

Examples of Mother Tongue Influence in English Language

Mother Tongue Influence can affect your speech in two ways:-

• Mother Tongue Rhythm
• Mother Tongue Words, Phrases and Statements

Mother Tongue Rhythm

There is a song behind every speech. We can borrow few words from music language to understand this rhythm(song).

Staccatto and Legato

Simply put, breaking or chopping your statements while you speak is called staccatto. And a smooth flow of your statements, like a river flowing down the stream, is legato. A non native English speaker may take inappropriate pauses, at conjunctions and words that are not important to the context. Ideally legato, combining two or more sentences at one stretch, without taking pauses could make your speech rhythm more pleasing to the ears and sounds native too.








Stress pattern

English language can divided into structure words and content words. Structure words adds grammatical meaning to the language. For example, prepositions, and conjunctions. Content words is the vocabulary of a particular topic. Unnecessary stress on structure words may lead to mother tongue influence because there is a difference between the stress words in your mother tongue and English




Tamil Statements




Literal Translation in to English Language (Mother Tongue

Influence Example




Tamil version Literal English translation

Adhallem enakku theriyadhu, Va na va - (That and all I don't, Come means come),

Avan yaru sollarthukuthu - (Who is he to say that),

Nee varayo illayo, naan popparaen - (Whether you are coming or not, I'm going)

Sariya illaya? - (Correct or no?),

Varaya illaya? - (Coming or not?),

Unakkae idhu kocham overa therilae - (Don’t you think this is little over to you?),

Enoda maila pathiya? ((Did you see my mail? - (instead, you can say, did you read my mail?)),

Chinna pasangalukku solramaadiri, allam solla vendrukku - (Like a kid, everything I have to tell you.)

Koncham koncham teriyum - (Little little i know)



Eliminate Mother Tongue Influence in English
1) Eliminate Mother Tongue Rhythm:




English has its own rhythm(song). Learn this rhythm by listening to English movies, News channels such as BBC, CNN English and imitate the rhythm.



2) Eliminate Mother Tongue Phrases and Statements




Record your own conversation to notice the literal translation of language and replace with appropriate English phrases.




Watch English movies with subtitles to know how english expressions are used and replace them with mother tongue phrases.



When do you Avoid these Mother Tongue Influence when you're:


Resolving intrapersonal conflicts
persuade someone
empathize or sympathize with someone
build rapport
narrate stories or anecdotes
As a persuasive statement
When you're introducing yourself
As transition statements in speech
As presentation attention getter
While giving compliments
During assertive communication
When you like to say, "NO" politely
Delivering persuasive presentation
When you are giving feedback


Though it may take some time to completely eliminate mother tongue influence, it is worth spending time because your interaction and language will sound standard and comprehensible.






List of other Verbal Communication Barriers: redundant words, generalized statements, making judgments