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!