Common mistakes English speakers make in Spanish (and quick fixes)
Ser versus estar, por versus para, "I have 30 years" and other classic errors English speakers make in Spanish, with simple ways to remember the right form.
· 3 min read
Every learner makes mistakes, and English speakers learning Spanish tend to make the same ones, mostly because English does things differently. The good news is that knowing them in advance makes them much easier to fix.
1. Mixing up ser and estar
Both mean "to be". Roughly: ser is for what something is (identity, origin, profession, characteristics), estar is for how or where something is right now (location, temporary states).
- Soy profesor. (I'm a teacher.) Estoy cansado. (I'm tired.)
- Madrid es grande. (Madrid is big.) Estoy en Madrid. (I'm in Madrid.)
Some adjectives change meaning: es aburrido means "he's boring", está aburrido means "he's bored". Location is always estar, even for permanent things: La catedral está en el centro. Events are the exception: La fiesta es en mi casa.
2. "Tengo 30 años", not "soy 30"
Age uses tener: you have years. The same goes for hunger, thirst, cold, heat and fear:
- Tengo hambre. (I'm hungry.)
- Tengo frío. (I'm cold.)
- Tengo miedo. (I'm afraid.)
But the weather uses hacer: Hace calor (it's hot), hace frío (it's cold).
3. Por versus para
A simplified guide: para points towards a goal or destination; por covers cause, exchange, duration and movement through.
- Este regalo es para ti. (for you, the recipient)
- Gracias por el regalo. (because of the present)
- Salgo para Madrid. (heading to Madrid)
- Paseo por el parque. (walking through the park)
- Lo compré por diez euros. (in exchange for ten euros)
It takes time to feel natural, so don't worry about getting it perfect early on. Reading lots of Spanish is what eventually makes the right one "sound right".
4. "Me gusta" works backwards
In English you like something. In Spanish, something pleases you: Me gusta el café is literally "coffee pleases me". So the verb agrees with the thing liked:
- Me gusta el libro. (one book)
- Me gustan los libros. (several books)
The same pattern applies to encantar, interesar and doler: Me duele la cabeza (my head hurts).
5. Forgetting that nouns have gender
Every noun is masculine or feminine, and articles and adjectives agree: el coche rojo, la casa roja. Most nouns ending in -o are masculine and most ending in -a are feminine, but there are exceptions (el día, la mano, el problema). The easiest fix is to learn every noun with its article, as in la casa rather than just casa.
6. Overusing subject pronouns
English needs "I", "you", "she" in every sentence. Spanish usually doesn't, because the verb ending already tells you who's acting. Hablo español is more natural than Yo hablo español, which sounds emphatic ("I speak Spanish, unlike you").
7. False friends
Estoy embarazada doesn't mean "I'm embarrassed"; it means "I'm pregnant". English and Spanish share a lot of vocabulary, which helps, but some lookalikes are traps. We collected the most common ones in Spanish false friends.
8. Being too formal, or not formal enough
Whether to say tú or usted depends on the country, the age of the person and the situation. When in doubt, start with usted and switch if the other person uses tú with you. There's more on this in formal and informal "you".
How to actually fix these
Knowing the rule helps; meeting it a hundred times helps more. Each of these patterns shows up constantly in ordinary Spanish, so reading short stories in Spanish is one of the most efficient ways to make the right form feel automatic.