Spot the Mistake
Each sentence has one mistake. Tap the wrong word, then see the correct sentence. Built for the errors your own student keeps making.
3 free rounds · your own sentences on Starter
Error type
Save a set · free to start
Want your own questions on the spot the mistake? Type them once, save the set, play it any time on any device.
Maria tapped goPlaying this with a student?
Both of you tap the wrong word: in a Tuton lesson your student plays on their own screen, not by watching yours.
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Read the sentence aloud
Reading it out is not a formality — a lot of errors are audible before they are visible, especially missing articles and wrong verb endings. Have the student read first, then decide.
Tap the word that is wrong
One word per sentence is the culprit. Finding it is the harder half of error correction; students who can fix an error once it is pointed out often cannot see it unaided, which is exactly the gap this closes.
Read the correct version out loud
The corrected sentence appears. Do not let the round end on the screen — have the student say the correct sentence in full, twice. Saying it is what starts to displace the habit; seeing it does not.
Spot the Mistake as a teaching tool
Finding the error is the skill, and it is trainable
Most correction work in lessons happens the wrong way round: the teacher spots the error, points at it, and the student supplies the fix. The student then leaves able to correct errors that somebody else has already found — which is no use at all when they are writing an email alone. Reversing it, so the student hunts and the teacher stays quiet, is uncomfortable for about three sentences and then produces noticeably better self-editing. Sit on your hands and let the silence do the work; the pause before they find it is where the learning is.
One error per sentence, drawn from your own student
A sentence with several mistakes teaches almost nothing, because attention scatters and the student fixes the easiest one and stops. One error per sentence keeps the focus sharp. And the errors should be theirs: take them from their last piece of writing or from what you heard in the last lesson, change the names and details so it is not a public shaming, and build a ten-sentence set out of them. A student correcting their own habitual mistake, twice, in a game, is worth an hour of grammar explanation about the same rule.
Not every error is worth a set
Be selective, or the game turns into a list of everything that has ever gone wrong. Prioritise errors that are frequent, that obscure meaning, or that have fossilised — the ones the student has made for two years and no longer hears. Deprioritise one-off slips, and leave out anything that is really a register or style preference; marking those as mistakes teaches students to distrust their own reasonable English. Ten well-chosen sentences beat thirty scraped from a page of marking.
Groups, levels and the online lesson
With A2 learners, tell them which category the error is in — "something is wrong with the verb" — so the hunt is narrowed rather than random. With B2 and C1, add the second question that matters: what is the rule, and why is the correct version correct? A student who can state the rule will apply it in writing; one who only recognises the fix will not. In a group, make the correction round a discussion and let students disagree about which word is wrong — the argument surfaces the reasoning you cannot otherwise see. Online, share your screen, let the student point out the wrong word for you to tap, and always finish with them reading the corrected sentence aloud.
Frequently asked questions
What levels does Spot the Mistake work for?
A2 to C1. Below A2 there is usually not enough grammar in place for error-hunting to be productive. At the top end it stays useful because you can move from obvious grammar errors to collocation and register, where the sentence is grammatically perfect and still not what an English speaker would say.
Do I have to pay to use it?
Not to try it. You get three free rounds on this page, with no signup, so you can see how it works. Playing it with your own sentences (writing sets from your student's errors, saving them, and playing unlimited rounds) is part of a Tuton subscription, starting on the Starter plan. Story Bubbles, Would You Rather and Question Wheel are the games that stay free for good, with no signup to start.
Why is this one on Starter?
Because generic error-correction sentences are the weakest version of this activity. It is worth doing when the sentences are your student's own recurring mistakes, and that needs an account to write and save sets in. Most games on the hub work the same way: three free rounds to try, then Starter. Only Story Bubbles, Would You Rather and Question Wheel stay free and unlimited.
Isn't it risky to show students incorrect English?
This comes up a lot, and the evidence for it being harmful is thin: error-correction exercises are standard in exam preparation for good reason. The safeguards that matter are practical: one error per sentence, always finish on the correct version, and always have the student say the correct sentence aloud at the end so that the last thing produced in the lesson is right.
Where should I get the sentences from?
Your student's own writing and speaking. Collect errors as you mark or as you listen, change the names and specifics so nobody is identifiable, and build a set of ten. Errors that are frequent, that obscure meaning, or that have fossilised are worth including; one-off slips and matters of style are not.
How do I use it in a live lesson?
Start it from the games panel in the classroom. The student reads the sentence aloud and taps the word they think is wrong on their own screen; then they read the corrected sentence back twice. A set built from last week's homework makes it revision of their actual mistakes rather than a grammar quiz.
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Both of you tap the wrong word: live, on both screens
The sentence shows as tappable words on both screens. Either of you taps the word you think is wrong, with two tries, and then the corrected sentence appears on both screens. Your own sentences make the game; this one is on Starter.
No credit card · Your student never pays
Maria tapped goTheir screen, not yours
Your student joins the lesson on their own laptop, tablet or phone and plays from there. No screen share, no "can you see my tab?", no describing what just happened.
The game isn't the whole lesson
It sits in the same room as your video, your lesson notes, the Space whiteboard and 850+ ready-to-teach lessons, so a warm-up game is two clicks from the work it's warming up.
What came up gets kept
Add a word that comes up and it becomes a flashcard your student keeps practising between lessons, and the post-lesson AI report writes up what you covered.