In our experience, the most common mistakes made by native English speakers when learning Spanish represent more than 90% of the mistakes made overall. If you watch out for these mistakes, you will be close to perfecting your mastery of the language. Below is a list of seven of the most common mistakes made by native English speakers when learning Spanish.
- Conjugation: In English, verb conjugation is rather straightforward for the simple verb tenses. For example, in “I eat, you eat, they eat, we eat” the verb does not change. Whereas in Spanish, the verb does change (yo como, tu comes, ellos comen, nosotros comemos). In order to be able to tell the difference, it is important to become acquainted with all the different verb tenses in Spanish and to see examples where they are used. Some patterns exist between verb tenses, but it is important to be careful with exceptions to the rules.
- Ser vs. Estar: In English, the verb “to be” represents both words in Spanish “ser” and “estar”. For this reason, most English speakers confuse them. The best way to tell them apart is to remember that “estar” is used for things that are temporary, while “ser” is used for things that are permanent.
- Por vs. Para: In English, the word “for” represents both the Spanish words “por” and “para”. To tell the difference, “por” is typically used to specify the reason for something and “para” to evidence the properties of something.
- Subjunctive: In English, the subjunctive does not exist (except in very rare cases). In Spanish, the subjunctive is used to express desires, doubts, and emotions, among other things.
- Nouns and adjectives: In English, the adjective comes before the noun. In Spanish, the noun always comes before the adjective. For example, “black horse” in English is “caballo negro” in Spanish.
- Gender and nouns: In English, nouns do not have a gender, whereas in Spanish they do. Usually, although there are exceptions, words that end in “a” in Spanish are feminine and words that end in “o” are masculine.
- Gender and adjectives: Given that “white” in Spanish is “blanco”, native English speakers tend to think that when used with a noun, it never changes. However a “white table” in Spanish is “mesa blanca”, because “mesa” is feminine.
To reach the level of perfection of a native speaker in Spanish, several hours of study and practice are required. A person may learn to speak Spanish and practice it constantly with their peers, but the problems surface when feedback isn’t prescribed. Feedback is crucial to achieving impeccable language skills.
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