Aprende inglés: 10 common Spanish speaker mistakes

Hello! Hola! My name is Emma. Me llamo Emma. And in today's video, we are going to look

at ten common mistakes Spanish speakers make. Now, if you are not a Spanish speaker, don't

worry. You can still watch this video because some of these mistakes you might be making

as well, okay? So they are ten common mistakes especially for Spanish speakers.

Now, before I get started, some of our Spanish audience has asked questions. "Emma, can you

speak Spanish?" The answer is: Yo hablo un poco. A little. I think's it's that. I'm learning

Spanish, but my Spanish is not perfect. So if I mispronounce any words in this video,

any Spanish words, I'm sorry. I apologize now. So let's get started.

So we have ten in total, all right? Let's look at No. 1. A common mistake I see my Spanish

students make is they often forget the subject of the sentence. So they often forget "it"

at the beginning or "I" at the beginning. For example, in Spanish, I think you can say,

"Soy canadiense." "I'm Canadian." In English, you can't do this. You always need the subject.

So make sure you don't make this mistake. Remember, you need either "it", "I", "he",

"she", "we", "they", "you" -- you always need a subject.

Problem No. 2 I see is the pronunciation of E and the I sound, especially when it comes

to "this" and "these". When I hear my Spanish speakers -- or my Spanish students, sorry.

When I hear them use "this", sometimes it sounds like "these" to me. I hear "these,

these". They don't always pronounce the difference. So this is a common mistake. It's very important

to practice the I sound versus the E sound. How do we do this? With E, you smile. "These"

-- you see the big smile? "These". With the I, you don't really smile. "This" -- you have

a serious face. "This, this, and these", I want you to practice saying "this" and "these".

You see how different my mouth looks when I say "this" and "these"? Now, this is very

important, not just for "this" and "these", but many words in English. Students mistake

the E sound and the I sound. What are some other examples? Well, this is a bad example,

but "shit" and "sheet". Okay? "Shit" is "mierda". "Sheet" -- I don't know what it is. But it's

like a piece of paper or a bed sheet. So notice you have two E's. It's an E, "sheet". This

one -- "shit". Okay? So serious. "Shit". It's very important. Also, there are many bad words

in English, and they usually have the I sound. "Shit". Another bad words -- and I'm only

saying these words to teach you not to make this mistake. Another bad word: "bitch" versus

"beach". "Beach" -- You see? It's very important to be able to pronounce the difference between

E -- smile -- and I -- no smile. Okay?

No. 3: false friends. What's a false friend? When we talk about false friends, we're talking

about words in both Spanish and English that look the same when you read them. Maybe they

even sound the same. But they have totally different meanings, okay? This is a big problem.

Also for me learning Spanish -- this is a big problem for me, too. An example: "libreria"

-- and I know my R pronunciation, the "rrr" -- can't do it. "Libreria", no "libreria".

It does not mean "library", okay? They look the same. "Libreria" is a bookstore. "Library"

is a place you go to borrow books. So this is one example of a false friend. Another

example: "aprobar" -- a lot of people see the word "approve", and they think, "Oh, they

look the same. They mean the same thing." They don't. "Aprobar" in English means to

pass, like to pass an exam. There are many of these. When I first started learning Spanish,

I think the one I had the most difficulty with was "embarazada" and "embarrassed". "Embarrassed"

means you feel uncomfortable; you feel awkward. "Embarazada" means you're pregnant. So it's

a very, very common mistake English speakers make when they're learning Spanish. So keep

an eye out for false friends.

Okay, No. 4: This is a pronunciation problem when we're talking about numbers, okay? You

might hear "thirteen, thirty, fourteen, forty, fifteen, fifty". They sound very similar,

don't they? And maybe, when you say these numbers, people write down the wrong number.

So how do we correct this? If you want to say "thirteen", the best thing to do is say

"thir" quiet -- so the first part "thir" -- "teen". "Teen" should be loud, and it should be long.

So let's say it together, "Thir teen". Okay? Whereas if I'm saying "thirty, thirty", you

will notice "thir" is loud and long, and the last part "ty" or "dy" is quiet. So "thir

teen, thir tee", okay? You can use the same trick for fourteen and forty, fifteen and

fifty, sixteen and sixty, okay? Very important trick.

No. 5: I think this is one of the ones a lot of students have trouble with. In Spanish,

you have this verb "hacer", I think. In English, it has two meanings. It can be "to make" something

or "to do" something. All right? So what often happens is Spanish students use "make" when

they should use "do", or they use "do" when they should use "make". The best thing is

when you learn a new word with "make" or "do", you should memorize it. If you visit our website

at www.engvid.com, we have a great resource for looking at "make" and "do". So come visit

us. You can see the difference. You know, there's a really good list. Practice that

list. Okay, so now, let's look at five more common mistakes Spanish speakers make.

No. 6: "su", okay? In Spanish, you use "su"; in English, we use "him" or "her". The problem

is because in English we've two -- "him" for boys; "her" for girls -- in Spanish you have

one. Many times Spanish speakers mix up "him" and "her". When they're talking about girls,

sometimes they'll say "him". When they're talking about "boys", sometimes they'll say

"her". So it's very important to know "him" is for boys and "her" is for girls. Because

for example, maybe you like someone, and if you say, "I like him" when you mean, "I like

her", that might be confusing. Or you might like someone else and say, "I like her" but

you want to say, "I like him". Okay? So be careful with this one.

No. 7: adjectives. So to remind you, an adjective is a word that describes another word. Okay?

The problem Spanish speakers often have when they're learning English is the order. For

example, in English, here is the noun "house". The adjective comes before the noun. "I like

the big house." In Spanish, it's the opposite. "Big" comes -- oh, sorry. This is the adjective.

The noun comes first, and then the adjective, okay? I hope the sentence is correct. "Me

gusta la casa grande." Let me know if I made a mistake here. But again, many Spanish speakers

make a mistake with the order. They might want to say "I have" -- or, "My blue eyes

are beautiful." Maybe they say, "My eyes blue are beautiful." Another common problem with

adjectives -- not just for Spanish speakers, but many students make this -- is in English,

we have a very special order where if you have two or three adjectives before a noun,

they have to go in a special order. In Spanish, I don't know if you have this. I don't think

so. So what you can do is to learn about this, again, check out our website. We have some

great videos about the order of adjectives. And there are tests on it, too, on our website.

So you can practice that.

No. 8: "my, his, her" when we're talking about body parts. I've heard many Spanish speakers

say, "I brush the hair. I wash the face. I break the arm." In English, you need to use

-- if you're talking about your hair, "I brush my hair. He brushes his hair. She brushes

her hair." Okay? You can't just use "the". Same with -- you know, "I broke -- what should

this be? My arm. She broke her arm. He broke his arm." So when you're talking about body

parts, you can't use "the" in English. For these examples, when you're doing something

to yourself, you need to use "my, his, her".

No. 9: Sometimes my students say, "I am agree." I think it's because it's the exact sentence

in Spanish, "I am agree." In English, we don't need the "am". You can just say, "I agree."

No. 10: contractions. "I'll" versus "I will". "I don't", "I don", I'm", "I". Many times,

Spanish speakers have difficulties saying contractions such as "I'll". I often hear

my students say, "I will, I will, I will." But oftentimes, in English, we say "I'll".

Okay? So you need to practice saying "I'll". "I'll go to the market today. I'll go shopping

today." Practice that. You don't always have to say "I will". Same with "I don't". "I don't

like coffee." Sometimes, I hear Spanish students not pronounce the T." They say, "I don like

coffee." Okay? They don't pronounce the T. You need to pronounce the T. "I don't." So

let's do that. Sorry. T-t-t. Can you say that? T-t-t. "I don't." Good.

Another mistake I commonly see, when students want to say, like, "I'm angry. I'm hungry.

I'm tired." They don't pronounce the M. They say, "I hungry. I tired. I scared". But you

really to pronounce the M. So let's practice. "I'm-m. I'm-m. I'm hungry. I'm tired. I'm

scared." Okay?

So we've just looked at ten common mistakes Spanish speakers and other speakers make.

What I would like to do now is invite you to take our quiz to double check that you

understood everything in this video and to practice so you don't make these mistakes

in your conversations or writing. So come visit us at www.engvid.com. There, you can

take our quiz. And you can check out some other resources, especially on adjective order.

We have a great video on that. So until next time, take care.