Second language research calls it fossilisation. A learner produces a wrong form, is understood anyway, is never corrected, produces it again — and after a few hundred repetitions it stops being an error and becomes simply how that person speaks. That is why someone can live in Kerala for twenty years and still make beginner mistakes. The cure is not more study. It is noticing. Twenty specific errors, gathered so you can listen for them in yourself. Malayalam — Manglish — English: അല്ല vs ഇല്ല — alla vs illa — the single most common grammatical error. അല്ല negates identity, ഇല്ല negates existence. പണം ഇല്ല (panam illa), there is no money. ഇത് പണമല്ല (ithu panamalla), this is not money. എനിക്ക് — enikku — the dative. Knowledge, possession and age all take it. The most structurally important habit in the language, and English speakers fight it for years. മല vs മാല — mala vs maala — vowel length changes the word. So does കുടി vs കൂടി (kudi vs koodi). Speak with English timing and you are saying different words than you intend. മ ല യാ ളം — ma-la-yaa-lam — four even beats. Malayalam gives every syllable full value; English rhythm mumbles the unstressed ones. ഒന്ന് — onnu — leave it out and your requests become orders. ഒന്ന് പറയാമോ (onnu parayaamo), not പറയൂ (parayoo), when asking a stranger. ഉം, ശരി, അതെ — um, shari, athe — Malayalam requires the listener to make noise. Silence reads as incomprehension or disengagement. Also covered: overusing the written passive ചെയ്യപ്പെട്ടു (cheyyappettu) in speech, and reaching for the impressive Sanskritic word the dictionary offers that nobody actually says aloud. Slow and clear, for English speakers, heritage learners and the Malayali diaspora. No prior classes needed. Which of the twenty is yours? Comment below.