Common errors in Spanish grammar

The following list has been drawn up on the basis of errors made in the holiday work: questions 1 20. It is by no means exhaustive.

1.Italianisms and Frenchisms. These will cause you to lose marks: take care to avoid such things as quando for cuando, espagol for espaol, apert for abr, for es and arriv for llegu.

2.Capital letters: Countries: Espaa, Italia, Alemania have them, languages and people dont: hablo espaol e italiano, un francs.

3.Gender: Watch out! General rule (there are exceptions: el da, la mano, la norma.)

Masculine

Feminine

-O

-A

-MA (majority)

-DAD / -TUD

-AJE

-CIN / -SIN

4.Subject pronouns: the subject pronouns are the following

Yo (I)

Nosotros (we)

T (you informal singular)

Vosotros (you informal plural)

l / Ella / Ud. (he / she / you formal singular)

Ellos / Ellas / Uds. (they / you formal plural)

Not needed in Spanish as much as in French: usually for emphasis, stress or contrast.

5.Questions: Dont forget the accent on the question words and the upside question mark. Remember you have to say adnde vas?

6.Accents in the preterite: Regular verbs must have accents without them the meaning is different. Irregular verbs (preterite grave) do not.comi una hamburguesa cuando fue a Burger King:(Note position of accent on comi)

7.Accents in the imperfect tense: in er and ir verbs the accent always comes on the i. In ar verbs the accent only comes on the a for nosotros forms:

Hablaba

Coma

Hablabas

Comas

Hablaba

Coma

Hablbamos

Comamos

Hablabais

Comais

Hablaban

Coman

8.Radical changing verbs in the present tense: They only change inside the boot check in a dictionary or on your grammar sheets to see if they do change.

9.Radical changing verbs in the imperfect tense: Verbs do not undergo radical change in imperfect.

10.Pedir vs. Preguntar: Pedir means to ask for; preguntar means to ask a question: pido una coca cola but pregunt cunto costaba.

11.Haber vs. Tener: Haber is only used as part of a compound tense (perfect/pluperfect). Use tener for to have: tengo un gato, lo has visto?

12.Hablar vs. Decir: Hablar means to speak/talk; decir means to say.

13.Basic agreement of adjective and noun: in both number and gender: ella es francesa, los pantalones negros

14.Ser vs. Estar

Ser

Estar

Descriptions

States

Occupations

Emotions

Characteristics

Location

Time/Date

Feelings

Occupations

Relationships

Soy estudiante (note no un)Cuando estaba en Espaa

Soy ingls

15.Jugar a + sport: Juego al hockey en el segundo trimestre.

16.Spelling changes in present tense and preterite: see pages 6 + 18 of work book: corrijo, saqu, jugu.

17.Usted / Ustedes: take the third person of the verb.

18.Oler: a very weird verb (huelo, hueles, huele, olemos, olis, huelen). In Spanish it does not have a negative connotation as in English. You have to say: huele mal or huele bien. Watch out: huele a gas.

19.Dictionary use: Be careful when you look words up that they mean what you want them to. Try looking up in the other side to check: vidrio is glass (material), vaso is what you drink from.

20.Carolina: The consonants are the only letters which can be double in Spanish. Even then, NN is quite rare.

21.Caber: means to fit in. No quepo aqu: I dont fit in here.

22.Negatives: Nadie vino but no vino nadie and No vi nada

23.Debajo de vs. Bajo: Debajo de means underneath physically, bajo means under figuratively: haba un gato debajo de la mesa, bajo Franco no haba mucha libertad en Espaa.

Proof-reading

Many basic errors can be eliminated by means of thorough proofreading. Try the following next time when you write in Spanish.

1.As you work, refer to the above list so that you avoid some of the traps.

2.If you are unsure, ask a teacher or look up the issue in a grammar book, a dictionary, or your revision pack.

3.Once your essay is complete, read through it looking for errors of a particular kind: i.e. agreements.

4.Then repeat for other error types.

5.Its a good idea to make a note of things you habitually get wrong: you can make a list to check your work against.

6.If you often proof read your work, it will become second nature and your marks will improve.