Learn about some common mistakes made by native Spanish speakers
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Intro |
|---|
| Michael: What are some common mistakes made by native Spanish speakers? |
| Cesar: And why do they make them? |
| Michael: At SpanishPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Sofía Soto Flores is at school with her teacher, Sonia Hernández Acevedo. |
| During class, Sofía makes a language mistake that is common for many native speakers. She uses the number "two" when saying, |
| "I like both two." |
| Sofía Soto Flores: Me gustan ambos dos. |
| Dialogue |
| Sofía Soto Flores: Me gustan ambos dos. |
| Sonia Hernández Acevedo: Lo correcto es decir, me gustan ambos. |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Sofía Soto Flores: Me gustan ambos dos. |
| Michael: "I like both two." |
| Sonia Hernández Acevedo: Lo correcto es decir, me gustan ambos. |
| Michael: "The correct way is to say, I like both." |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: Part of life is making mistakes and that includes when speaking a language. Even native speakers make mistakes on a daily basis, often without realizing it. |
| Cesar: Today, we'll take a look at a few of the most common mistakes made by native speakers of Spanish. |
| Michael: One of said mistakes was highlighted in the dialogue: |
| Cesar: Me gustan ambos dos. |
| Michael: Literally, "I like both two." Here, the Spanish word |
| Cesar: ambos, |
| Michael: meaning "both," already conveys the meaning of "two," so it becomes redundant to add the word |
| Cesar: dos, |
| Michael: meaning the number "two." Sofia's mistake in the dialogue is followed by a correction from her teacher, Sonia: |
| Cesar: Lo correcto es decir, me gustan ambos. |
| Michael: meaning "The correct way is to say, I like both." Thus, as a rule of thumb, when speaking Spanish, it may be best to keep your message simple to avoid adding any unnecessary words. |
| Let's now look at a few other common mistakes. Consider the following sentence: |
| Cesar: Creo de que no puedo terminar el trabajo temprano. |
| Michael: "I think that I can't finish the job early." This Spanish sentence has a mistake called |
| Cesar: dequeísmo, |
| Michael: which is the use of |
| Cesar: de que |
| Michael: instead of |
| Cesar: que |
| Michael: for verbs that don't require the preposition |
| Cesar: de |
| Michael: in the sentence. Therefore, the correct Spanish sentence is actually |
| Cesar: Creo que no puedo terminar el trabajo temprano. |
| Michael: "I think that I can't finish the job early." |
| Note, however, that the opposite may also be true: the preposition |
| Cesar: de |
| Michael: for verbs that require it is sometimes omitted, leaving those sentences with only |
| Cesar: que |
| Michael: instead of |
| Cesar: de que. |
| Michael: This phenomenon is called |
| Cesar: queísmo. |
| Michael: Here's an example sentence with this mistake: |
| Cesar: Estoy segura que hice una buena presentación. |
| Michael: "I'm sure that I made a good presentation." |
| In this case, it's necessary to use the preposition "de" in the sentence. Therefore, the correct Spanish sentence would actually be |
| Cesar: Estoy segura de que hice una buena presentación. |
| Michael: "I'm sure that I made a good presentation." Let's continue. Another common mistake is the use of the Spanish verb |
| Cesar: haber |
| Michael: for "there is" or "there are," in the sense of "to exist." In these cases, we should always use the singular conjugated form of the verb for both singular and plural subjects, but it's common for even native speakers to wrongly use the verb in the plural form for plural subjects. |
| Let's see an example in the past tense. First, here's the incorrect form: |
| Cesar: Hubieron muchos problemas ayer. |
| Michael: "There were many problems yesterday." |
| In this case, the conjugated form of the verb |
| Cesar: haber |
| Michael: was incorrectly used in the third person plural form. Recall that when this verb is used to mean "there is" or "there are," we should always use its singular conjugated form: |
| Cesar: Hubo muchos problemas ayer. |
| Michael: "There were many problems yesterday." |
| Moving on, listen carefully for the mistakes in the following two examples regarding the past tense for the second person, |
| Cesar: tú: |
| Cesar: ¿Qué comprastes? |
| Michael: "What did you buy?" The mistake here involves the word |
| Cesar: comprastes. |
| Michael: Listen to another example. |
| Cesar: ¿A dónde fuistes? |
| Michael: "Where did you go?" In this example, |
| Cesar: fuistes |
| Michael: is incorrect. |
| The past tense of verbs for the second person, |
| Cesar: tú, |
| Michael: must end in a "-te" sound. Adding a final "s" is wrong, though even native speakers make this mistake. Correcting the mistakes in the examples, we therefore have |
| Cesar: ¿Qué compraste? |
| Michael: and |
| Cesar: ¿A dónde fuiste? |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, we've learned that it's not a problem to make mistakes during the language learning process, as even native speakers make mistakes that they often don't even notice. It's important, however, that after you become aware of a certain mistake, you use the opportunity to understand it, learn from it, and master a little bit more of the language you're studying. |
| Expansion/Contrast |
| Michael: Before we conclude, another mistake that is commonly made by native speakers of Spanish is the use of the feminine direct object pronouns |
| Cesar: la |
| Michael: for singular, and |
| Cesar: las |
| Michael: for plural, instead of the correct indirect object pronouns |
| Cesar: le |
| Michael: for singular, and |
| Cesar: les |
| Michael: for plural. This phenomenon is called |
| Cesar: laísmo, |
| Michael: which is understood as meaning "the use of 'la'." |
| Let's see a sentence with the incorrect singular pronoun first: |
| Cesar: La compré un regalo. |
| Michael: which, with the correct pronoun, would be |
| Cesar: Le compré un regalo a ella. |
| Michael: "I bought her a gift." |
| Now, Iet's see a sentence with the incorrect plural pronoun: |
| Cesar: Las compré regalos. |
| Michael: With the correct pronoun, this would be |
| Cesar: Les compré regalos a ellas. |
| Michael: "I bought them gifts." |
| Practice Section |
| Michael: Let's review the sample conversation: Respond to the prompts by speaking aloud, and then listen carefully as Cesar models the correct answer. Repeat after him, with the focus on your pronunciation. Are you ready? |
| How do you say, "I like both two." |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Cesar as Sofia Soto Flores: Me gustan ambos dos. |
| Michael: Did you get it right? Listen again and repeat. Remember to focus on your pronunciation. |
| Cesar as Sofia Soto Flores: Me gustan ambos dos. |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Cesar as Sofia Soto Flores: Me gustan ambos dos. |
| Michael: Let's move on to the second sentence. How do you say, "The correct way is to say, I like both." |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Cesar as Sonia Hernandez Acevedo: Lo correcto es decir, me gustan ambos. |
| Michael: Did you get it right this time? Listen again and repeat. |
| Cesar as Sonia Hernandez Acevedo: Lo correcto es decir, me gustan ambos. |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Cesar as Sonia Hernandez Acevedo: Lo correcto es decir, me gustan ambos. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Cesar: ¡Hasta la próxima! |
| Michael: Until next time! |
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