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Clases de inglés en Miraflores, Lima, Perú |
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Clases de inglés con él profesor Tom Nickalls
Para estudiantes
Actualizado 21-08-2007
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Regresa a indice de recursos para estudiantes
Seventeen basic grammar mistakes made by Spanish speakers
1) "I live with my fathers."
You have one father (masculine) and one mother (feminine). Both of them are your parents.
Similar confusions are: Have you got any brothers? (Correct: Have you got any brothers and sisters?) Do you have any sons? (Correct: Do you have any children?) Is Maria your nephew? (Correct: Is Maria your niece?)
By the way, only your mother and father are your parents (padres), while your uncles, cousins and grandparents etc. are your relatives (parientes).
Correct: "I live with my parents."
2) "He's my wife / She's my husband."
It always seems ironic to me that Spanish speakers often confuse "he" and "she", when it is in Spanish that everything has a gender. I think it's because Spanish speakers so seldom use "él" y "ella". For example, you say "tiene dos hermanos", rather than "él / ella tiene dos hermanos".
I'm not sure what the solution to this is. Maybe you need to form a mental image in your head of what a "he" (man/boy) and "she" (women/girl) looks like. I'll leave this to you.
Correct: She's the one who wears a skirt. He's the one who has to shave.
3) "Her wife is having a baby."
In fact, this is more common than the mistake above. The problem here is in Spanish you have only "su" for both "his" and "her". So, it's quite common for Spanish speakers of English to say things like, "his husband works in a bank". "Her wife is having a baby" is technically possible if two women are married, but a man must have been involved somewhere to have a baby.
Correct form: "His wife is having a baby."
4) "I enjoy to go to the cinema."
You enjoy doing something.
Also: You like listening to music You hate waiting for the bus You are keen on meeting new people. You love walking along the beach. You're crazy about playing football.
"Love", "like" and "hate" can also be followed by the infinitive form (to do something). But, "enjoy", "keen on", "crazy about", must always be followed by the "verb-ing" form.
Correct: "I enjoy going to the cinema."
5) "It's more cheaper."
To revise how to form comparatives you can look at any good grammar book. Suffice to say that if you have "-er" at the end of the adjective, you don't need "more".
Examples: for short adjectives: It's bigger He's nicer She's taller.
For longer adjectives... It's more expensive She's more elegant. I'm more comfortable now.
Correct: "It's cheaper."
6) "Is coming Juliana?"
Word order is very strict in English. In Spanish you can say, "Juliano viene?" or "viene Juliana?, or "rápido rueden las ruedas" or "las ruedas rueden rápido." But in English, the main verb ALWAYS comes after the subject. So you can say, " Is Juliana coming?", and " Eric called" but not "is coming Juliana?" or "called Eric."
Correct: "Is Juliana coming?"
7) "I go running all the days."
This is a translation from "todos los dias." Don't translate! English is more than just words. You need to learn phrases.
Correct: "I go running every day."
8) "I live in USA."
In general we don't use "the" for countries except for kingdoms, a group of states and when there is "Republic" in the name. So, for example we say, "I live in Peru", "I live in France", "I live in China."
But we do say:
"I live in the US", "I live in the Netherlands" (a group of states) "I live in the UK" (a kingdom) "I live in the Czech Republic" "I come from the Republic of China". ("Republic" in the name)
Correct: "I live in the USA."
9) "I born in Arequipa."
In English the verb "to be born" exists only in the passive form. This is difficult for Spanish speakers since the verb "nacer" is active in Spanish. It may help to consider the verb like "to be produced".
Correct: "I was born in Arequipa."
10) "He work in a bank." "Does he travels"
Again it's ironic that this mistake is made. In Spanish there is a different verb form for each person, while in English we only have a different form for the third person singular (he, she, it). But still students make the mistake saying "he work in a bank" (Correct, "he works in a bank"). Then, when this is mastered, Spanish speakers put the s even in questions and negative, saying the incorrect, "does he travels?" and "he doesn't travels".
It's important that the student auto-corrects so that they get out of the habit of making this mistake.
Correct: "He works in a bank," "Does he travel?"
11) "She dances very good"
It's common to confuse "good" and "well." This isn't a translation problem so much as more general confusion. This is wrong in the same way that it's wrong to say in Spanish "baila muy bueno".
"Good" is an adjective, so for example: "The beer's good." "It's good!" "She's a good dancer."
"well" is an adverb, so we say: "She speaks Spanish very well." "She has done really well" and...
Correct: "She dances very well."
12) "I didn't enjoyed the food."
For the past simple the "ed" ending is only included in the positive form, so you say:
(positive) I enjoyed (negative) I didn't enjoy NOT: I didn't enjoyed (question) did he enjoy? NOT: did he enjoyed?
Correct form: "I didn't enjoy the book."
13) "It's the bigger cinema in Lima."
For short adjectives, the comparative is with an "er" ending (safer), while the superlative is with the "est" ending. So,
"She is taller than Maria." (comparative) "She is the tallest in the class."
For longer adjectives, the comparative is with "more", while the superlative is with the "most". So,
She is more intelligent than David. She's the most intelligent in the class.
Correct: "It's the biggest cinema in Lima."
14) "He's not as younger as you."
Although you are comparing two people here, this structure uses a regular adjective and not a comparative adjective. For example you say:
It's as big as an elephant. NOT: It's as bigger as an elephant. It's not as cheap as the other one. NOT: It's not as cheaper as the other one.
Correct: "He's not as young as you."
15) "He runs very fastly"
Many adjectives can be made into adverbs by adding "ly". For example.
He's slow. I runs slowly. He's clever. He plays cleverly. She's beautiful. She dances beautifully.
But for the adjective "fast" the adverb is also "fast". So:
He's fast. He runs very fast.
Correct: "He runs very fast."
16) "There are any biscuits in the kitchen."
"Any" is used for negative sentences and questions, for example, "there aren't any biscuits", and "are there any biscuits?" For positive statements, we use "some", for example, "there are some biscuits in the kitchen."
Correct: "There are some biscuits in the kitchen."
17) "I no want to learn grammar"
I include this as it is an example of how you can speak if you don't learn any grammar!
I don't know how many people have come to me and said something like, "I no want to learn more grammar, only conversation". Once, someone even said, "I not want to learn more grammar. I know all grammar. Now I want only conversation"!
It is true that developing fluency is more than just learning grammar. If you are a child you can also learn grammar intuitively without learning any rules. But if you are an adult and want to improve your English you will unfortunately have to learn some grammar, otherwise your English will be unattractive and confusing, and nobody will want to have a conversation with you.
I'm probably being unfair. People don't like grammar because there is too much bad grammar teaching and not enough conversation in most English classes in Lima. But you need to see grammar as a friend that can help you with your conversation. A little bit learnt every week with lots of practice and some conversation means you will eventually auto-correct and speak much more clearly and elegantly.
Grammar is not so difficult. If you have a good teacher and a good attitude, it can be fun and interesting.
Correct: "I don't want to learn more grammar." (or "Yes, I'd like to learn more grammar, please!")
More common mistakes to be added next month. Come back to this site!
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