Almost every mistake below is transfer from Spanish. The student is speaking correct Spanish with English words. Naming the cause out loud, “this is tener años leaking in,” fixes it faster than just marking it wrong.
Grammar and Prepositions
1. Dropping the dummy subject “it” or “there”
Wrong: Is raining. Is very important. Are many people.
Right: It’s raining. It’s important. There are many people.
Why: Spanish is pro-drop (Llueve, Hay mucha gente), so an empty subject feels redundant.
2. “Have” for age and states
Wrong: I have 30 years. I have cold.
Right: I’m 30. I’m cold.
Why: A direct calque of tener 30 años and tener frío. English uses “be” for age, hunger, cold, and fear.
3. Wrong or extra prepositions after verbs
Wrong: depend of, think in, married with, consist on, enter to the room, call to my friend
Right: depend on, think about, married to, consist of, enter the room, call my friend
Why: Two directions of error: missing or wrong (depender de), and adding a preposition that shouldn’t exist (entrar a, llamar a). Also worth drilling: arrive in/at, wait for, look for, listen to.
4. “No” instead of “not” or “don’t”
Wrong: I no like it. She no can come.
Right: I don’t like it. She can’t come.
Why: Spanish negates with a single pre-verbal “no.”
5. “Explain me” or “say me” (missing “to”; say vs tell)
Wrong: Explain me the rule. He said me that…
Right: Explain it to me. He told me that…
Why: Spanish attaches the object directly (explícame). English needs “explain to me,” and “tell,” not “say,” before a person.
6. Overusing “the” with generic nouns
Wrong: The life is hard. I like the music. The dogs are loyal.
Right: Life is hard. I like music. Dogs are loyal.
Why: Spanish uses the definite article for general statements (La vida…).
7. Uncountable nouns made plural, and “people is”
Wrong: informations, advices, a good news, The people is friendly.
Right: information, advice, good news, People are friendly.
Why: Gente is singular, while several English uncountables (information, advice, furniture, news) are countable in Spanish.
8. Adjectives: no plural, wrong position
Wrong: importants problems, a car red, a girl beautiful
Right: important problems, a red car, a beautiful girl
Why: Spanish inflects adjectives and often places them after the noun.
9. “Do” vs “make” (both are hacer)
Wrong: do a party, make homework
Right: have or throw a party, do homework, make a mistake
Why: One Spanish verb splits into two English ones. This is pure collocation, worth drilling in sets.
10. Question formation without an auxiliary
Wrong: Where you live? What means this? You like coffee?
Right: Where do you live? What does this mean? Do you like coffee?
Why: Spanish questions rely on intonation and inversion, not do-support.
11. Infinitive after a preposition
Wrong: interested in to learn, before to go, I came for to study
Right: interested in learning, before going, I came to study
Why: After a preposition, English needs the “-ing” form. Spanish uses the infinitive (antes de ir).
False Friends
English words that don’t mean what their Spanish look-alike suggests:
- actually does not mean actualmente (currently)
- assist does not mean asistir (to attend)
- realize does not mean realizar (to carry out)
- embarrassed does not mean embarazada (pregnant)
- library does not mean librería (bookshop)
- sensible does not mean sensible (sensitive)
- carpet does not mean carpeta (folder)
- exit does not mean éxito (success)
- fabric does not mean fábrica (factory)
- constipated does not mean constipado (having a cold)
- support does not mean soportar (to tolerate)
- discuss does not mean discutir (to argue)
- career does not mean carrera (university degree)
- college does not mean colegio (school)
- large does not mean largo (long)
- rope does not mean ropa (clothes)
- pretend does not mean pretender (to intend)
- record (verb) does not mean recordar (to remember)
- introduce does not mean introducir (to insert)
- eventually does not mean eventualmente (possibly)
- deception does not mean decepción (disappointment)
- lecture does not mean lectura (reading)
- parents does not mean parientes (relatives)
- notice does not mean noticia (news item)
- soap does not mean sopa (soup)
- molest does not mean molestar (to bother)
Tip: “embarrassed,” “constipated,” and “molest” cause the most embarrassment when confused. Teach those three first.
Pronunciation
13. Adding a vowel before s-clusters
Wrong: espeak, estudent, Espain, eschool, esport
Right: speak, student, Spain, school, sport
Why: Spanish has no word-initial “s” followed directly by a consonant, so a vowel gets inserted. Drill the naked “s” sound.
14. Short “i” vs long “ee”
Wrong: ship sounds like sheep, live sounds like leave, bit sounds like beat
Right: a clearly distinct short vowel vs long vowel
Why: Spanish has one high front vowel, so both collapse into “ee.” Use minimal pairs to practise the difference.
15. “B” vs “V”
Wrong: very sounds like berry, vote sounds like boat, vest sounds like best
Right: for “v,” top teeth touch the bottom lip
Why: In Spanish, “b” and “v” are the same sound.
16. The “th” sounds
Wrong: think becomes sink or tink, three becomes tree, the becomes “de,” mother becomes “moder”
Right: tongue between the teeth for both “th” sounds
Why: This dental fricative doesn’t exist in Latin American Spanish.
17. Silent letters and tricky consonants
Wrong: dropping the silent “h” or adding one where it doesn’t belong, reading “j” as a Spanish “j” (jam becomes “ham”), over-pronouncing “-ed” (walked becomes “walk-ed”), cutting consonant clusters (next becomes “nes”)
Right: silent “h,” the proper “j” sound, a single-sound “-ed,” and full consonant clusters
Why: Spelling-to-sound rules differ between the languages, and English clusters and endings are heavier than Spanish ones.
18. Full-value vowels instead of a schwa
Wrong: com-for-TA-ble, cho-co-LA-te, with every vowel given full value
Right: “COMF-ter-bul,” reducing unstressed vowels to a schwa sound
Why: Spanish gives every vowel its full sound. English swallows the unstressed ones.
Word Stress and Rhythm
19. Cognate stress shift
Wrong: hos-pi-TAL, a-ni-MAL, ve-ge-TA-ble
Right: HOS-pi-tal, AN-i-mal, VEG-e-ta-ble
Why: Look-alike words are often stressed differently in each language. A great demo is PHO-to-graph, pho-TOG-ra-phy, pho-to-GRAPH-ic: notice how the stress moves each time.
20. Sentence rhythm
Wrong: equal weight given to every word, including “to,” “the,” “of,” and “and,” producing a flat, machine-gun delivery
Right: stress the content words and let the function words fall away
Why: Spanish is syllable-timed, while English is stress-timed. This is the single biggest thing that keeps advanced speakers sounding non-native, and it’s the hardest thing to drill.
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