Hi everyone! We often hear from students who are totally fluent in speaking but get frustrated when they see “red ink” on their practice papers.

The most common reason? Writing exactly how you speak.

In the Edexcel GCSE Persian exam, the examiners are testing your ability to use the Formal Register (Ketabi). Using “broken verbs” or “shortened nouns” (like mi-kha-m instead of mi-khah-am) is considered a spelling and grammatical error in a formal essay.

Check out the table below to see if you are making these common “Heritage Learner” mistakes!

Which other words do you know that trap you into ‘writing like you speak’? What are the words that feel totally normal when chatting with friends or family but would actually cost you marks in the exam? Post them in the comments below, and let’s build a master list together to help everyone avoid these common mistakes!