fluentu.com http://www.fluentu.

com/spanish/blog/common-spanish-mistakes/

7 Common Spanish Mistakes You Dont Want to Make

Its four in the afternoon as I sit in the Gmezs living room, up on the seventh floor of their apartment building in the
eastern outskirts of Madrid.

The year is 2011, and young Rodrigo is dancing around in his chair as I try to get him to focus on our English lesson.

Rodrigo, how old are you? I ask the energetic boy.

Im fine, and you? he answers quickly, almost robotically. I smile, not expecting his answer, and then repeat my
question with a new emphasis: How old are you?

Rodrigo lets out an Ahh, in a tone that matches the understanding that has flashed across his face. I have seven
years, he confidently responds this time.

My days and evenings that year were spent teaching English to native Spanish speakers, but doing so actually taught
me to avoid mistakes that Spanish learners often make.

By paying attention to the English blunders that my students frequently made, I was able to understand why they
made these mistakes, since I knew the Spanish grammar behind them. Unsurprisingly, the corresponding errors in
Spanish are ones made often by new Spanish learners.

These confusions will happen a few steps past learning basic Spanish greetings , but arent as common for learners
as advanced as the Spanish subjunctive.

Here are seven mistakes I often heard or saw in English, and how you can avoid making the same mistakes in
Spanish.

7 Spanish Mistakes You Dont Want to Make

1. I have 18 years.

In English we use the verb to be when talking about age: I am 25 years old. But in Spanish the verb tener (to
have) is used with age. To say that you are 25 years old, you would say Tengo 25 aos (I am 25). This translates
literally to I have 25 years, hence the common mistake by both English and Spanish speakers in their respective
second language.
There are a quite a few other Spanish phrases that use the verb to have (tener) while their English counterparts use
to be. Here are ten of these phrases with which you should tener cuidado (be careful) when using:

tener calor (to be hot)

tener cuidado (to be careful)
tener fro (to be cold)
tener hambre (to be hungry)
tener miedo de/a (to be afraid of)
tener prisa (to be in a hurry)
tener razn (to be right)
tener sed (to be thirsty)
 tener sueo (to be sleepy)
tener suerte (to be lucky)

2. I am boring.

I heard this one a lot when students actually wanted to express that they were bored. And while I admit, it was a bit
entertaining for me to hear these young adults call themselves boring, you could easily be making the same mistake
in Spanish! But not to worry, well keep it simple and leave out the verb aburrir(se), so this is all you need to know:

Soy aburrido. (I am boring.) Im a boring person in general.

Estoy aburrido. (Im bored.) Right now I feel bored.

The first uses ser, while the second uses estar. Both verbs mean to be in Spanish, which can cause continual head
scratching throughout your lovely relationship with the Spanish language. I learned a little rhyme in high school that
Ive never forgotten, and its helped me time and time again to distinguish between these two verbs.

How you feel and where you are, that is when you use estar.

So if youre feeling bored in the moment, use estar: estoy aburrido. And remember, ladies, we would say estoy
aburrida with the feminine a at the end of the adjective.

3. The people is very kind.

In English the word people is a collective noun that must always be used with verbs in the third person plural:
People are good-hearted.

In Spanish, however, the word for people (la gente) is singular. Yes, its a strange concept to get used to at first, but
once you get the hang of it the word shouldnt cause you any more trouble.

Here are two examples to get you more comfortable with the idea:

La gente tiene hambre. (The people are hungry.)

Sabes que la gente es muy lista? (Do you know that people are very clever?)

4. My mom is teacher.

When stating occupations in Spanish, do not use the indefinite article (un/una). Rather, just the verb to be (ser) plus
the occupation is all thats needed. Sentences describing peoples occupations will look like this:

Soy profesora. (I am a teacher.)

Eres artista. (You are an artist.)
l es ingeniero. (He is an engineer.)

Since you dont use the indefinite articles (un/una) in Spanish, many native Spanish speakers forget to add them in
when using English. Likewise, as native English speakers we love to throw in an unneeded un or una in these
types of sentences. But you have been warned, and as a reader of this FluentU Spanish blog, you are well prepared
to avoid this common trap.

5. I like the bag blue.

In English, our adjectives come before the noun: kind heart, blue shirt, dazzling smile. In Spanish, however,
adjectives often come after the noun: corazn amable, camiseta azul, sonrisa deslumbrante.

Be aware that there are certain instances where the adjective does come before the noun in Spanish, but here well
focus on the majority, when it comes after. Here are a few more examples to see the difference between Spanish
and English.

un hijo inteligente (a smart son)

la noche tranquila (the calm night)
el vaso vaco (the empty glass)

6. I didnt write nothing.

Double negatives in the English language often make us cringe because theyre simply poor grammar. But in
Spanish, double negatives thrive!

For example, take the phrase I didnt write anything.

In Spanish, you would say No escrib nada.

Translating it part by part (instead of as a whole phrase) we get:

No escrib = I didnt write
nada = nothing
So you can see why native Spanish speakers could easily say I didnt write nothing by mistake.

By this same logic, when saying negative phrases in Spanish, make sure to avoid translating word for word! Youll
end up with an incorrect No tengo algo (I dont have something) when it should be No tengo nada (I dont have
anything). No tengo algo is just as cringeworthy for a Spanish speaker to hear!

As a general rule, Spanish phrases dont mix positive and negative words. So if you have a no before your verb and
theres more to the sentence, youll only ever see a negative word (nadie nobody, nada nothing, ningn
or ninguna - no/none, nunca never, jams never, tampoco neither). With positive verbs youll use the positive
equivalencies (alguien somebody, algo something, algn or alguna - some/something, siempre always, tambin
also).

Take a closer look at these examples to get a better feel for the concept.

No la he visto nunca. (Ive never seen her.)

No hay nadie aqu. (There isnt anyone here.)
No cocinaron nada. (They didnt cook anything.)
Ella tampoco hizo los deberes. (She didnt do the homework either.)

7. On mondays I study english.

Capitalization rules are very different between Spanish and English, with significantly less capitalization on the
Spanish side.

Words that are capitalized in Spanish:

Names of people (Cristiano Ronaldo)

Names of places (Madrid, Espaa)
Names of newspapers and magazines (El Pas)
 The first word of titles (movies, books, articles, plays)

Words that are not capitalized in Spanish:

Days of the week (lunes, martes, mircoles - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday)

Months of the year (enero, febrero, marzo - January, February, March)
Words in titles, except the first (Cien aos de soledad 100 Years of Solitude)
Languages (Estudio espaol. I study Spanish.)
Religions (Mis padres son catlicos. My parents are Catholic.)
Nationality (Soy estadounidense. Im American.)

By learning to avoid these seven common mistakes, youll boost yourself up to a whole new level of Spanish. Youll
also understand when you hear these errors in English made by native Spanish speakers, as I did that afternoon with
Rodrigo.

The young boys second response doesnt throw me off guard since Ive heard the error time and time again. Oh,
you are seven years old, I say back, making sure he notes the mistake. Yes, I am seven. he says at last,
triumphantly.

1:36

If you liked this post, something tells me that youll love FluentU, the best way to learn Spanish with real-world
videos.

Learn more about FluentU Spanish!

2014 FluentFlix Limited. All Rights Reserved.