Have you ever wondered what are the common mistakes you make in English as a Spanish speaker? Keep reading to find out and learn what you should say instead.
1) People is
This is an obvious one. Even my highest-level students would occasionally say this. The thing is that, like you know, we use ”is” for singular and ”are” for plural. In English, the noun people is considered to be plural.
What are people? People just are, because they’re so cool like that!
2) Is interesting/nice/etc.
Is what interesting?
In English sentences we need a subject (except for imperatives i.e. keep reading!) , and we usually put the subject first and then the verb.
In Spanish, ”es bueno” is definitely something people would say because ”es” acts as both the person and the verb. If you’re not sure what the subject is, more often than not, it’s ”it”. We LOVE using IT in English. In fact, we also call it a dummy subject in sentences about time, weather and dates. So, you would say: ”It’s raining.”, or ”It’s 7 o’clock.”
Why do we call it a dummy subject? Because it doesn’t refer to anything. But we still need it as it has a very important grammatical function and that is to act as a subject.
3) To can
To can or not to can?
Honestly, you better not! 😁
So, you know that ”can” is a modal verb, just like could, may, must, might, shall, would and will. WE DO NOT USE ”TO” either after or before them.
These modals have always been special, eh? If you’d like to know more, check out: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/modal-verbs-and-modality
4) My sons/My fathers
If you really have two male parents and all your children are boys, this doesn’t refer to you.
But more often than not, my students mean ”my parents” when they say my fathers (a mother and a father), and ”my children” when they say my sons.
5) I born
In English, you’re supposed to say I WAS BORN, because ”born” is actually an adjective that means ”existing as a result of birth”. I’m guessing that the mistake happens because in Spanish, nacer (to be born) is a verb.
The bottom line is – treat ”born” like any other adjective, grammatically speaking.
6) Putting adjectives in plural
In most cases, this WON’T work. Adjectives that are put before nouns are always singular, and that is how we tend to use them. For example:
Correct: These are my favorite pants.
Incorrect: These are my favorites pants.
So, even if the noun is in plural, the adjective STAYS in singular. HOWEVER, IN SOME CASES you can put the adjective in plural if you’ve mentioned the noun earlier. Examples:
These yellow flowers are my favorites.
Some employees were satisfied and others weren’t.
