What's the difference between "grammatical mistake" and "grammatical error"?
Based on Cambridge dictionary:
Mistake: an action, decision, or judgment that produces an unwanted or unintentional result.
Error: a mistake.
Does it mean that I can use both (grammatical mistake and grammatical error) interchangeably and they are just synonyms or a matter of taste?
The context is for example when I see that there's no an article in a place where it should be (e.g. "He took table." instead "He took a table")
or when I see missing of s' in 3rd person singular verb in present simple tense (e.g. "He learn English" instead of "He learns English")
etc. and I want to say that it is a grammatical error / mistake.
Google Ngram viewer shows much more results for grammatical error, does it say that it is favorable in my context too?
Best Answer
Grammatical mistake and grammatical error have no semantic difference. They are used interchangeably. Between the two, grammatical error is much more common. Here's a Google Ngram chart that shows their popularity.
Note that grammar error and grammar mistake are also used, but are less common than their respective adjectival versions. See below: