Preply study highlights UK grammar gap as more adults use AI writing tools
Preply’s latest UK study finds weak GCSE-level grammar scores among adults, alongside rising use of AI tools such as ChatGPT for writing support.
Preply has published UK research showing that adults scored an average of 23 percent across five GCSE-level grammar questions, as more people use AI tools such as ChatGPT to check their writing.
The language learning platform surveyed 1,500 adults across the UK and tested them on grammar rules covering apostrophes, pronouns, punctuation, and sentence structure. The results show a gap between confidence and accuracy, with many respondents saying they felt confident in areas where correct answers were low.
The study comes as schools, parents, tutoring providers, and language learning platforms continue to respond to concerns around English attainment and the role of AI-assisted writing in education.
Confidence outpaces grammar knowledge
Apostrophes produced the clearest gap in the study. Preply found that 58 percent of respondents said they felt confident using apostrophes, but only 10 percent correctly answered a question on possessive apostrophes.
Other grammar areas also produced low scores. Nineteen percent answered a pronoun agreement question correctly, 23 percent got an object pronoun question right, and 26 percent answered correctly on semicolons. Collective nouns produced the highest result among the tested areas, at 36 percent accuracy.
The results varied by age group. Adults aged 55 and over scored highest on average, at 25 percent, while those aged 45 to 54 scored lowest, at 19 percent. Students recorded an average score of 20 percent.
Parents scored 23 percent on average, matching the national figure. At the same time, 46 percent of respondents said they felt able to help a student with English homework.
Parents report concern over English GCSE outcomes
Preply’s research also points to parent concern around English exams. The study cites English Language GCSE pass rates falling from 64 percent in 2023 to 60 percent in 2025.
Forty-two percent of parents said they worry about their child’s success in English GCSE exams, while 35 percent said they feel under-equipped to help with homework.
The city-level data showed variation across the UK, although no location recorded a high average score. London ranked first, with an average accuracy score of 27 percent, followed by Manchester at 26 percent and Oxford at 25 percent. Liverpool, Leicester, and Norwich each scored 24 percent.
At the lower end of the ranking, Plymouth, Edinburgh, and Bristol scored between 16 percent and 18 percent.
AI writing checks are becoming more common
The study also tracks how adults are using AI to support writing. Preply found that 21 percent of UK adults use tools such as ChatGPT to check their writing, rising to 39 percent among adults aged 25 to 34.
Respondents were divided on the impact. Twenty-two percent said AI had improved their grammar, while 23 percent said it made them second-guess themselves more. Thirty percent said predictive text and AI had worsened their grammar.
Grammar mistakes also affect confidence beyond school or work. Nearly half of UK adults, 47 percent, said they feel embarrassed when they make grammatical mistakes, while 36 percent worry that others judge their intelligence based on their grammar. Among adults aged 25 to 34, embarrassment rose to 58 percent.
The findings place grammar support across three linked areas: English exam confidence, parent support at home, and AI-assisted writing. With more than one in five adults already using AI to check their writing, education providers face a growing question over how grammar tools can correct mistakes while still supporting long-term learning.
