Top 10 Mistakes Spanish Speakers
Make in English [ENG]
10. I’m Agree
Example: I’m not agree with my teacher.
Correction: I don’t agree with my teacher.
9. Misuse of the Present Perfect
Tense
- Connection between past an present
- Time is irrelevant
Example: I’ve heard this mistake in my last class.
Correction: I’ve heard this mistake in class. / I heard this mistake in
my last class
8. Since, ago and for
Example: I work in this company since 2 years ago.
Correction: I’ve worked in this company since 2018. / I’ve worked in
this company for 2 years. / I started working in this company 2 years
ago.
7. Sentence order
Example: He sent yesterday the report
Correction: He sent the report yesterday. / Yesterday, he sent the
report.
To be clear, ‘bla bla bla’ covers things like prepositional phrases and
times; ‘on the beach’, ‘last week’, and other such phrases. It doesn’t cover
adverbs.
So the simplest advice I can give you is this:
just put the ‘bla bla bla’ at the end of the sentence.
If you insist on complicating things, I’ll even let you do this:
put the time at the beginning sometimes (if you promise to use a comma).
But you have to promise me that you won’t put it between the verb and the
object.
6. The use of the simple present
Example: I leave my phone number… / I introduce myself
Correction: This is my phone number… / Let me introduce myself
5. Every Phrase Needs a Subject
Example: Is sad when a sentence lacks a subject.
Correction: It’s sad when a sentence lacks a subject.
English verbs don’t have many conjugations. May I suggest you try
translating the following phrases into Spanish and see how many verb
conjugations you use?
I went, you went, we went, they went, she went
Did you have fun? So, when you say ‘Fuimos al supermercado’ without
saying ‘nosotros’, it doesn’t matter because ‘fuimos’ can only refer
to ‘nosotros’. You don’t need to say it. It’s completely unnecessary.
If you say ‘Went to the supermarket’ in English, however, everyone is
going to give you a confused look and say, possibly in a slightly annoyed
tone, ‘Who?’
Now I’m sure you all knew that already so why do I keep hearing things
like ‘Is good’ or ‘Is raining a lot’ or ‘is important to begin a phrase with
a subject’?
What is good? What is raining? You’re not giving me the information I
need to understand the sentence.
It’s good.
It’s raining.
It’s important to begin a phrase with a subject
4. For To
Example: I’m only doing this for to help you.
Correction: I’m only doing this to help you.
‘Para’ in Spanish creates all kinds of problems in English. One of its
main functions is to express purpose. Look at the following example and
see how ‘para’ explains why you are visiting this blog, thus expressing
purpose.
Please, please, please, for the love of all that is good in the world, don’t
translate this phrase using ‘for’ in place of ‘para’. As a teacher, I hear
various versions of this mistake:
‘For improve’, ‘for to improve’, ‘for improving’…
Guess what… they’re all wrong. None of them makes any sense.
Just forget about ‘para’. Banish it from your mind.
In English, we usually use infinitives to explain purpose and infinitives
always begin with ‘to’. All you have to say is:
3. Depend Of
Example: This mistake probably depend of your native language.
Correction: This mistake probably depends on your native
language.
2. Used To
Used to + verb (base form) – Solía – past
habits
I used to sleep the whole afternoon when I
was a teenager.
To be (present) + used to + verb (gerund) –
Estar acostumbrado a / present habit
I’m used to cooking every day.
Example: I’m used to make horrible mistakes in English.
I’m used to making horrible mistakes in English.
I usually make horrible mistakes in English.
I’m used to go to the gym’ is just totally wrong. It’s like ‘soler’ and ‘estar
acostumbrado’ together in the same sentence. It doesn’t make any sense
in English and it’s grammatically impossible.
There are two possible (and correct) things you could be trying to say:
Remember, ‘used to’ can refer to past habits, but NEVER present ones.
You can express the idea of ‘solía, soliamos…’ but never ‘suelo,
solemos…’
1. The People Is
Example: Why is the people so insistent on making this mistake?
Correction: Why are people so insistent on making this mistake?
The first problem, of course, comes from ‘ la gente’, which is singular.
The English word, ‘people’, however, is plural.
If ‘the people is’ still sounds okay to you, please please please read the
previous sentence again and then repeat after me:
People is a plural noun. The verb has to be in the third person plural.
People GO, people EAT, people SLEEP
As you may have noticed from my previous examples, the second part of
our problem is the article. You see, in English, we don’t tend to use
articles when we generalise.
If you want to say something like ‘La gente no presta suficiente atención
a los articulos’, promise me that you won’t just translate each word and
say ‘The people doesn’t pay enough attention to the articles’.
It sounds horrible. It’s wrong! You’re talking about people in general and
people is a plural noun. You’ve just made two mistakes. The correct form
is:
People don’t pay enough attention to articles.
Attention to the false cognates
- Unique (exclusive / especial) x only (unico / unica)
- Principal (director de una escuela) x main (principal)
- Actually (de hecho, en realidad) x Currently / Nowadays
(actualmente)
- To notice (notar) x news (noticias)
- Story (narrative) x History (hechos historicos)
- Advertising (publicidad) x warning (advertencia)
- To assist (ayudar) x to watch (ver/mirar)
- Carpet (alfombra) x folder (carpeta)
- College (universidad) x School (escuela / colegio)
- To contest (cuestionar / contradecir) x to answer (contestar)
-
Exit (salida) x success (éxito)
Fabric (tela) x factory (fabrica)
Familiar (familiar / conocido / comun) x family member (familiar)
To introduce (presenter) x to insert (introducir algo en algun lugar)
Library (biblioteca) x Book store (librería)
Mayor (alcade / gobernador) x Bigger /older (mayor)
Parents (papá y mamá) x relative (parientes)
Siblings x brothers / sisters
To record (registrar / grabar) x to remember (recorder)
To advise (dar un consejo / dar una advertencia) x advice (consejo)
Spelling
- Project > proyect
- Which (cual / que) x witch (bruja)