More Common Errors that Spanish Speakers Make in English

We're back again this week to talk about some typical errors that Spanish speakers make when using English. Remember that great old sitcom from the 90's with Joey, Monica, Rachel, Ross, Chandler, and Phoebe? Friends was a great show but do you know what is not great? False Friends in English!

Between English and Spanish there are many similar looking words that mean the same thing. We call these cognates or friends. Words like computadora and computer are easy for speakers of English or Spanish to recognize and understand. There are thousands of cognates between the two languages and that makes learning vocabulary much easier. However, there are many false cognates out there that can lead to some embarrassing situations. 

For example, the word "embarrased"  and the word "embarazada" look similar but have very different meanings. 

The world "embarazada" does not mean "embarrassed". It means "pregnant" so you can see what a confusion these two words could cause. Here are some other false friends to look out for!

Watch this video to have a clearer idea about this complicated issue when learning English.

Let's test your skills! Here you can play a fun matching game with false cognates. Enjoy.

False Cognates Matching Game

Well that's it for this week. See you here next week for another English Grammar blog post. Have a great weekend!

Common Errors that Spanish Speakers Make in English!

Hello everyone,

This week we will take a look at some common errors that Spanish speakers make when speaking in English. Have you ever heard some one say, "your house" instead of "his house" or "he" instead of "she"? Those pronouns can be tricky. Have you ever thought that a new word you saw in English meant the same thing as a similar looking word in Spanish only to be mistaken? Well, we're going to talk about that too!

Mixing the Genders

"I went to his house... I mean, her house."

In Spanish the word "su" is used to show possesion independently of the gender of the owner. When Spanish speakers make the change to English, it is hard for them to differentiate between "his" and "her".

In Spanish you can also use "su" when talking about animals. In English we also use gender specific forms to refer to our pets. We only use the pronoun "it" or the possesive "its" if we do not know the sex of the animal.

Dropping the Subject

In Spanish verbs have conjugations that indicate the subject. By just hearing the conjugated verb, a Spanish speaker knows who the subject is and it is common to drop the subject since it is not necessary. This is not the case in English. When Spanish speakers use English, they sometimes drop the subject and the listener cannot tell who the subject is. In English you ALWAYS need the subject even in cases where there is nobody or nothing doing the action like in the case of weather.

False Friends

Next week we're going to talk about the false friends!

See you then!

Post 1: Have you ever...?

Hello everyone, 

In our first post we will focus on a challenging but useful grammatical form, the present perfect! Below you will find a brief video explaining what it means and how it is used.

What it is and why we use it

Watch the video and think about the following questions. If you are inspired, you can leave your answers in the comment section!

• What are some different situations in which you can use the present perfect?
• Think about how you would express these same situations using Spanish. Would you use the present perfect in the same way as in English? Why or why not? In which cases is it different?
• What do you notice about the structure of the present perfect? How is it formed?

How we form it

The present perfect is a simple structure to form. It has two main elements.

• The auxiliary verb or helping verb "have"
• The main verb in the past participle form

Consider the chart below.

This chart shows how to form the affirmative, negative, and question forms of the present perfect. Notice that all of them contain the helping verb "have" and the past participle form of the main verb.

Some examples

Here are 10 example sentences. Which ones are affirmative? Which are negative? Which are interogative?

Help with past participles

The most challenging aspect of forming the present perfect is the past participle. The past form and past participle form of regular verbs are exactly the same. The problem is that there are MANY irregular verbs in English and they do not follow any particular logic. You just have to learn them. Click the link below to find a list of the most common irregular verbs in English!

https://www.gingersoftware.com/content/grammar-rules/verbs/list-of-irregular-verbs/

Practice

This fun game can help you practice the past participle forms to create present perfect sentences. If you win, you get to catapult your teacher!

Click Here to play.

Below you will find several practice exercises to help you with the different forms of the present perfect.

AFFIRMATIVE

NEGATIVE

INTERROGATIVE

ALL FORMS

Extra Resources

Education First has a great website with comprehensive grammar explanations. Click here to see plenty of explanations and examples of how to use the present perfect!

EDUCATION FIRST

Welcome to the Blog!

Hello English lovers! Welcome to our blog where you will find all the information and resources you need to improve your English grammar. We hope you have fun.

-Juan Jose and Mark