Spanish: 7 of the most common mistakes we commit when it comes to speaking and writing

But there are other grammatical errors that are also viral, only that they have sneaked in our day to day without being part of a meme.

We talk to Mónica Helguera, better known in networks such as “La Profe Mónica”, a graduate in Castilian language and who is dedicated to the creation of educational content today

With her we saw some of the most common mistakes we committed in Spanish, both when writing and speaking.

If we could make a ranking of beaten and vilified verbs by the Spanish speakers, the verb would have won the first prize.

It is one of the most used and, perhaps that is why, with which greater mistakes are made.

“This verb has a very complex situation. It can function as the main and as an auxiliary and, at the same time, it can even accompany two verbs at the same time.”

This, without a doubt, can generate a lot of confusion.

In the first place, having, as auxiliary verb, is used to form compound times. To do this, all the simple ways of having are combined with the participle finished in -or of the verb that is being combined: he has bought, we wanted, he had come.

Here comes one of the first errors, which is to use the form we have, archaic, to form the first person of the plural.

❌ We have seen your brother.

✅ We have seen your brother.

Its other use, as the main verb is, at the same time, impersonal. That is, it is a verb that is generally used in the third person of singular and, in this case, denotes the presence or existence of something, as in the phrase “there is bread.”

In this case, errors are trying to make a concordance between the verb and the subject that has no place. “It is complex to think that a verb cannot pluralize, being that accompanies a plural subject, but in this case, it is a mistake,” says Helguera.

❌ There were several girls.

✅ There were several girls.

Recently another meme became viral and, in some cases, the verb has appeared with this error:

❌ When I am a millionaire, I will say nothing, but there will be signs.

✅ When I am a millionaire, I will say nothing, but there will be signs.

With the impersonal use of the verb having in the present there are also errors in the way of writing it. They have seen “ay”, “hai” or “there” where “there are”. A classic phrase that is usually taught to differentiate how it sounds about how it is written is as follows:

There is a man who says Oh!

There – adverb of place.

There are – the impersonal form of the verb to have present.

Oh! – Interjection to express many and different spirits, from pain to joy.

The fourth of errors with this verb is perhaps the most curious and quite repeated and is born by confusion in pronunciation. Let’s see.

In this case, the auxiliary verb is confused in infinitive, having, with the sequence constituted by the preposition and the verbal infinitive see.

What are homophones? Well, they are pronounced the same, but they are written differently.

And here are great confusion that lead to errors, for example:

The confusion between AS/has/beam .. and yes, here we have an example that includes the verb having.

Have you looked for that AS of football? Look for it. Do what I tell you.

Has – form corresponding to the second person of the singular of the present of indicative of the verb to have.

AS – One of the cards of the deck or a person who stands out remarkably.

Do – imperative form corresponding to the pronoun you of the verb make.

“Especially in the difference between you and do, I always try to explain it in the simplest way for people to understand. And I usually do it by asking people to look at the participle. If there is a word that follows that ‘you have ‘or’ do ‘and it is observed that it ends in ado, gone, to, so and cho (as in erased, eaten, broken, printed and said), it will tell me that the previous word is (you have slept, you eaten , you have broken, you have printed, you said), “says Mónica Helguera.

Another way to distinguish between you and do is see that the latter indicates an order.

Other words that usually confuse because they sound the same are going, berry and fence.

Go to the fence to collect berries.

Go – third person of the imperative of the verb go.

Valla – Cercado or Wall.

Bayas – a type of fruit.

Another example of homophones are there, be there, find and aya.

Find this detail: there, next to the tree, which is a beech, there are children with their aya.

Find – Second person of the singular of the present of the verb find, which means finding.

There – demonstrative adverb that place.

Hay – a type of tree.

Aya – person in charge of caring for children.

Another problem with the homophones are those that go with V with B, both sounds that less and less Spanish -speaking people distinguish themselves by pronouncing them, but which are originally different: the first is labiodental and the second, bilabial.

“It is not customary to differentiate the B from the V by pronunciation. So, there are words that can be complex and mistakes are made when writing, for example between beautiful (beautiful) and hair (hair), grass (small plant) or boil ( of the verb boil);

“In Spain there is something particular and that is, the one who exists the pronunciation of the Z helps a lot,” says Helguera.

With the exception of the Canary Islands, some areas of Andalusia and Extremadura, in Spain a clear distinction between the Zy S sound is made.

This does not happen in Latin America. And, of course, this sometimes leads to confusion when we write and we can confuse two sounds (zys) with three different spells: z, Sy c.

“No, it’s not easy. I understand the complexity of this standard and the complicated to apply it. But, to write it correctly, touch that, look at the norm, ”he says.

If you are one of those who say: “Comistes Paella? “Or sing Gilda’s song like this:”You were my life, You were my passion; You were My dream, my best song; All that, You werebut You lost“, you know that you are getting a” s “of more.

And it is a very common mistake.

The second person of the singular (you) of the simple past past of the indicative (you were, made, ate, lost, fell, dresses, put, etc.) never ends in -s.

The problem is that it is usually confused because in almost all conjugations and verbal times, the second person of the singular does end in s, as in comes, you ate, you will eat, you would eat, you eat.

It is very common to confuse so many perhaps and end up writing together what is separated and vice versa.

“To be able to teach this to someone, their differences and how to write them correctly, it is important to know how each of them is used,” explains the teacher Monica.

Enter interrogative and exclamatory sentences, both direct and indirect:

¿Why did you ate my arepa?

I don’t understand why you ate my arepa.

I didn’t know why he stopped talking to me.

Why prettier streets we spend!

It can, on the one hand, be the preposition by + the relative pronoun that.

This is the reason why I called you.

And, on the other, the preposition by + the subordinate conjunction that.

In the end they chose that it did not appear.

They are anxious for us to start working on the project.

It can be used with two values ​​to introduce subordinate sentences that express cause. In this case, a trick to know if it is written like this, is that we can replace it with “since” or “since”.

I ate the arepa because I wanted.

It is also used as a heading of the answers to the questions introduced by the sequence why:

“Why did you eat my arepa?” “I wanted.”

It is a male noun that means ’cause, reason or reason’ and is written with tilde for being an acute word ending in vowel.

I do not understand why your attitude (= the reason for your attitude).

Everything has its why (= its cause or its motive).

Of more or less, the punctuation signs are other great vituperated in the Spanish language.

“I have seen signs that say ¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡ With lots of exclamation signs, as well as to be more expressive. And it is not necessary. The right thing is one that closes and another that opens, although sometimes three can be set. There is no way to express more with more than 3 signs of admiration. Nor with so many question signs, ”explains Mónica Helguera.

“I also observe in general a fear of the point and a love for the comma. It is not “good afternoon to all, how they are, I come to present my spelling book.” It would be good afternoon to all. How are they? I come to present my spelling book. ”

A trick to know when to put a comma or a point? The intonation. If it sounds like an idea that already ends, point. If we continue, a comma.

Of all the scoring spells, perhaps the most disappeared, almost absolutely forgotten, is the vocative coma.

“It is the most complex coma, I believe. It is called a vocative because it refers to a call to the subject,” explains the teacher Helguera.

How can we distinguish it and put it?

“If I’m going to say something about Mary, I don’t put a coma. Instead, if I tell Mary, there I put a coma. ”

María Barre – I say Maria is sweeping.

Maria, Barre – I tell Maria to sweep.

It is also used when we greet or go to someone:

Happy birthday, Ana María.

My condolences, Antonia.

And, like the joke that circulates on the Internet, it is a comma that can save lives, because it is not just saying

It’s time to eat children – the menu are children.

It’s time to eat, children – children are called to eat.

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