Language/Spanish/Grammar/Common-Mistakes

COMMON MISTAKES IN SPANISH

ERRORES COMUNES EN ESPAÑOL.

Today we will explain the most frequent errors made by Spanish learners.

The verbs "SER" and "ESTAR"

Most Anglophone and Francophone students have difficulty learning these verbs, since in English and French there is only one verb to express both, "être" in French and "to be" in English. Thus we find errors like "Estoy SOY alemana" or "Soy ESTOY enferma" (I am German, I am ill).

In general, the verb "SER" is used to identify people where things to describe and express possession (Eg. "Es amigo de mi padre; El libro es de mi hermana": He is my father's friend; The book belongs to my sister) and the verb "estar" indicate a place, condition and a variable state (Eg. "Estoy muy contenta, El chocolate está en la alacena": I'm very happy, the chocolate is in the cupboard).

The subjunctive

It is a verbal mode very used in Spanish and one of the richest in forms but in other languages ​​it is not also used.

This is why students present confusion between the indicative mode and the subjunctive (Eg. No creo que es cierto que Elisa está enferma). English is helped by auxiliaries to express the subjunctive (Ex. It is important that he should come) and in French the use of the imperfect of the subjunctive is almost non-existent, being replaced by the imperfect of the indicative (Eg. Si je savais – Si yo supiera).

Similarly, in French we use the future of the indicative when in Spanish we use the present of the subjunctive (Eg. Cuando puedas ven a verme – Viens me voir quand tu arriveras).

In general, in Spanish uses the indicative to express real facts and the subjunctive one to express hypotheses or desires. (Eg. María me dijo que había comprado un ordenador, María va a comprar un ordenador cuando encuentre trabajo)

The simple past and the imperfect of the indicative

Anglophone students usually confuse the two verb tenses, since the imperfect does not exist in English. English uses the continuous past or the simple past plus temporal marks to express usual actions (Ex. She was always asking me for money, When I was a student I often went to the gym). In general, one uses the imperfect to speak of the usual and repeated actions in the past where to describe in the past (Ex. Cuando era pequeña iba al cine todos los domingos) and the simple past to speak of actions completed in the past (Eg. Ayer fui al cine).

Prepositions

Each preposition in Spanish has multiple uses and, although they have their equivalence in other languages, their uses are very different.

This is complicated for beginners. For example, the preposition "a" is similar in form to the French preposition "à" but, in French, it is used, for example, to express the complements of the name (Eg. machine à écrire) Uses the preposition "de" (Ex. Máquina de escribir).

Similarly, Spanish uses the preposition "en" to express the place (Eg. en el hospital), which can correspond to three prepositions in English, "in", "at" and "on" "In hospital" when we returned to the hospital and "at hospital" when we visited the hospital).