TOP 10 common mistakes that Spanish speakers make in English- Part II

6. Directly translating a prepostion.

Prepositions are tricky because they often change a lot between English and Spanish. Here are some specific examples of confusing prepositions. A Spanish speaker may say, “It depends of” instead of “It depends on”A Spanish student might say, “Call to someone” instead of “Call someone” (in English there is no preposition in such phrases). Spaniards often incorrectly say, “Marry with somebody” instead of “Marry somebody” (in English there is no preposition in such phrases).

7. Shortened Contractions.

Shortened contractions present another common pronunciation challenge. Native Spanish speakers will often forget to finish a contraction, resulting in “don” for “don’t” or “won” for “won’t.” What might at first sound like an accent difference will become more pronounced over time, so native Spanish speakers should be on the lookout for this one!

Of course, the biggest mistake to avoid is using “your” instead of “you’re” and vice versa. You’re is short for “you are” but a lot of time non native speakers of English use “your” instead

8.  Confusion between ‘to do’ and ‘to make’.

In Spanish “hacer” is the verb that represents both “to do” and “to make” in English. It is often difficult for native Spanish speakers to remember which verb to use when speaking English. Some common mistakes include:

• “I need to do my bed” instead of “I need to make my bed”.
• “Can I do a suggestion?” instead of “Can I make a suggestion?”
• “Could you make me a favor?” instead of “Could you do me a favor?”

9.  Order of Adjectives and Nouns.

In Spanish, the noun generally comes before the adjective, while in English it is usually the opposite. In English that sentence construction would look something like “He had a dog brown.” So don’t be surprised when native Spanish speakers add the adjective as an afterthought.

10. Spelling mistakes

In Spanish, words are spelled exactly how they sound. They don’t have any of this “silent letter”  found in English, nor do they have words that sound exactly the same but can be spelled three different ways. (We’re looking at you “buy/bye/by”).