Pilar Vidueira

Everyone makes mistakes, and that’s part of the fun of learning a language too! But why fun? Well, given that the only way to improve in any language is by speaking as much as possible, you’re bound to get things wrong and sometimes these mistakes can give rise to some hilarious situations. Native Spanish speakers will always valorar (appreciate) your efforts to talk to them in their language, and will help you to get better. However, if we can evitar (avoid) some of these typical mistakes, then you’ll be able to make yourself understood much more quickly. 

This is a very common error and one that we need to sort out right away! In Spanish, estar embarazada means to be pregnant, so if you’re a woman and say this then you’ll probably get a response of “felicidades” or “enhorabuena” which mean “congratulations”. A man making this mistake will probably get some very confused looks! The right way to say “I’m embarrassed” in Spanish is “Me da vergüenza”. 

When you’re trying to learn Spanish, it’s important to remember that you can’t simply traducer (translate) everything word for word from English. This can get you into all sorts of problems, such as the one in our first common mistake! Let’s look at some examples with their correct translations and a literal version in English so you can see the differences.

There are plenty more of these so try to learn these as expressions so that you can get your message across more clearly.

“Gustar” means “to like” but in Spanish we need to say that something is likeable to you, not that you like it. Normally, an –ar verb in the present is conjugated as verb without ar + o (i.e Hablo – I speak). However, this verb is reflexive and works differently. Let me show you an example:

• Me gusta la nueva serie – I like the new series (The series is likeable to me) – Don’t say Gusto la nueva serie.
• Me gustan las manzanas – I like apples (Apples are likeable to me) – Don’t say Gusto las manzanas.

Another issue with this verb is when you’re talking about liking people. If you follow the rule above, you’d probably say Me gusta Pablo to mean I like Pablo. This, however, means you find Pablo romantically attractive! Now, that might be the case, but if you mean I like Pablo as he’s a nice person then we have to say Pablo me cae bien. It’s funny that a lot of these mistakes revolve around unintended romantic encounters, right?

Although we do have other blogposts about the topic of singular and plurals, it’s a good idea to remind you again about some common differences with plurals and countable/uncountable nouns from English to Spanish. Here are just a few examples:

See what we mean? When listening to and reading Spanish, try to apuntar (make a note) of examples like these so you can avoid them when speaking and writing.

This is a big area, and one which you’ll need time to get used to. In Spanish, it’s much more common to use the articles for the, and sometimes they don’t use a/an where you would in English. Again, it’s probably easier just to show you a few times when this is the case.

Hopefully, now you’re more consciente (aware) of these typical errors, you’ll be better able to correct yourself when speaking Spanish. Having said that, even if you do say something wrongly, it’s simply a chance to be corrected and learn the right way to say things. You should never tener miedo (be afraid) of mistakes!

If someone said to you “Chocolate is pleasing to me” you might be forgiven for thinking they’d just stepped off the set of a period drama! However, when speaking Spanish that’s exactly what you need to say when you want to express that you like chocolate. We would say me gusta el chocolate using the verb gustar which literally means to be pleasing to.

Firstly, let’s look at some basic patterns. When we are talking about singular nouns, we’d use me gusta for I like and with plural nouns we need to say me gustan to mean the same thing. This is because gustar has to agree with the sustantivo (noun) we are talking about. Look at the following table to see how this works in practice and with people other than “I”.

Can you spot the pattern? You simply add an “n” to gusta when we are talking about plural nouns, and the person changes using the indirect object pronouns in the table. The translations we’ve given in English are the meaning of the Spanish phrases, but not a literal translation.

However, if you’ve already started learning Spanish, or you’ve read some of our other grammar blogs, you might be wondering why the verb gustar doesn’t change its ending depending on the person who you’re talking about. That’s because, as mentioned before, the subject of the verb is the thing which is liked and not the person saying the phrase. 

So far, we’ve just seen how to use gustar to talk about liking objects or things like animals. But how can we say “I like you” for example? Here’s where we need to tener cuidado (be careful) as you could end up saying you fancy someone, rather than liking them as a friend! For, “I like you in a romantic way” you’d follow the normal verb patterns and say Me gustas (You are pleasing to me). To say “I like you in a platonic way” you need to use the verb caer bien and say Me caes bien (You sit well with me). This verb caer bien/mal also works in a similar way to gustar and you can follow the same rules as in the table above to use it to talk about liking people (or not!) as friends. Here are a couple of examples:

• A José le cae bien Roberto – José likes Roberto
• A mí me caen bien mis suegros – I like my mother- and father-in-law
• Nos cae mal el nuevo compañero de piso – We don’t like our new flatmate
• Les cae mal el jefe – They don’t like their boss

Easy! Now you’ve learnt how to use both gustar and caer bien/mal to be able to talk about liking people and things. This same structure is also used with a range of other verbs in Spanish. Let’s take a look at some.

In order to get better at using this sort of verb structure, you need to be speaking Spanish as much as possible so in the end you’ll naturally use these different types of verbs. By practising your Spanish with native speakers, you’ll get plenty of chances to be corrected and listen to more examples of accurate usage of this grammar point. As with everything when learning Spanish, you need to be exposed to as much of the language as possible.

Why not come and join one of our online or face-to-face Spanish courses so you can learn how to use the verb “gustar” more accurately and with greater confidence?

Once you start learning Spanish, you’ll soon come across both of these important verbs – tener and haber. Both of them, more or less, equate to the verb to have in English, but they aren’t interchangeable and have different uses. Let’s dive in and have a look at why and when we need to use these two words.

So, the answer to this question is fairly simple but you might need some examples to fully pillarlo (get it). In simple terms, tener is the verb to have when used as the main verb in a sentence and means possession or owning. On the other hand, haber is an auxiliary verb which we have to use when forming various verb tenses in Spanish. Have a look at these sentences to see if you can spot the difference.

In the table above you have an example of haber in the present perfect and the past perfect where it simply acts as the auxiliary for the main verb. The two examples of tener show you that the animals and the work are owned/possessed by someone.

Apart from the basics we’ve spoken about already, there are specific things which we need to use tener for in Spanish.

• To talk about someone’s age
  • Tengo 16 años – I am 16
• To express “have to + verb” as in obligation
  • Tenemos que estudiar para el examen – We have to study for the exam
  • Tiene que ser más comprensivo – He has to be more understanding
  • Tienen que limpiar la casa – They have to clean the house
• To talk about emotions, feelings and certain states
  • Tenemos demasiado frío – We are too cold
  • Tenías razón – You were right
  • ¿Tenéis sed? – Are you thirsty?
  • Tenía sueño – He was tired
• In some idiomatic expressions
  • Tener lugar – To take place
  • Tener ganas de – To want to do something
  • Tener cariño – To be fond of
  • Tener cuidado – To be careful

As you can see in the English translations, a lot of these phrases are expressed with the verb to be in English. This is often confusing for learners of Spanish so try to start learning expressions rather than translating everything word-for-word.

Just like with our other verb, haber has a particular set of uses which we’ll look at below.

• To translate the structure “there is/are”
  • Hay tres personas en la sala – There are three people in the room
  • Había unos soldados en la calle – There were some soldiers in the Street
  • No hay tiempo para ir al parque – There’s no time to go to the park
  • ¿Hay algún museo por aquí? – Is there a museum around here?
• To talk about things you need to do with “haber + que + verb”
  • Hay que comprar papel higiénico – It’s necessary to buy toilet paper/We need to buy toilet paper
  • Mañana hay que terminar el proyecto – It’s necessary to finish the project tomorrow/We need to finish the project tomorrow
• To talk about events which occurred in the past or future
  • Hubo un accidente en la autopista – There was an accident on the motorway
  • Va a haber un festival en el pueblo el fin de semana que viene – There’s going to be a festival in the town next weekend

Hopefully this quick guide to tener and haber will help you when speaking Spanish to be able to select the right verb to use. A good way to learn the differences is to read and listen to as much Spanish as possible so you see lots of ejemplos (examples).

When learning Spanish, you’ll need to be able to use all the different parts of speech to fully express yourself and develop your fluency. One big area you need to be confident with is the use of adjetivos (adjectives) which describe nouns and have a few particular rules in Spanish that make them different from how we use them in English.

Before we jump into all the rules and spelling changes, let’s have a quick look at some example sentences to see if you can spot some of the main differences.

• El gato negro está en la cocina – The black cat is in the kitchen
• Necesito una mesa nueva – I need a new table
• Los coches azules son los mejores – Blue cars are the best

Can you see anything a little unusual? Hopefully you can notice that in Spanish, the adjective comes after the noun and also that it must agree with the gender of the word it describes, as well as being singular or plural. We have some other blogs which deal with the topic of genders and all the rules regarding that, so in the rest of this post we will focus on the changes you need to make to adjectives in particular.

Once we’ve decided which adjective we want to use to describe our chosen noun, we then must look at the gender and number of the noun to ensure we use the correct adjective ending. In Spanish, adjectives often end in the letter “o” which indicates that this is the masculine singular form. Here’s a table showing you how such adjectives would change depending on whether we are using singular, plural, masculine or feminine nouns.

In the table above, you can see that for all adjectives ending in “o”, we add an “s” to make the plural and change the “o” to an “a” for the feminine form. Easy!

Apart from the “o” ending, there are also several other common adjective endings. The most important ones are adjectives which end in an “e” and those which have a final consonant. For instance,

• Verde – Green
• Marrón – Brown
• Leal – Loyal/Faithful

In these cases, there is no feminine form and the plural you simply add “s” if the adjective ends in “e”, and “es” if it ends in a consonant. This applies except when the adjective ends in “z” which then changes to “c” before you add the plural (e.g. capaz capable becomes capaces in the plural). Look at these examples,

¡Ojo! (Be careful!) as there are, as with everything when learning Spanish or any other language, there are some exceptions. For instance, the adjective hablador (talkative) does change to habladora in the feminine. Another odd one is the colour adjective naranja (orange) which doesn’t have a masculine “o” form and only changes to make the plural by adding “s”. Don’t worry too much about these yet, as you study Spanish you’ll see lots of adjectives in context which will help you understand the trickier ones.

Earlier, we just said that adjectives come after the noun in Spanish. In the vast majority of cases, that’s true but we need to look at ones which can come before the noun too. Some of these change their meaning depending on their position in the sentence, and some don’t.

• Adjectives which don’t change their meaning

Sometimes we can use an adjective both before and after noun with no change in meaning.

• • Un buen chico / Un chico bueno – A good boy
  • Una mala idea / Una idea mala – A bad idea

There are a number of these and you’ll need to read and listen to lots of Spanish to encounter all of them, but for now it’s most important to simply be aware that they exist. You may also have spotted that these types of adjectives often drop the final “o” when coming before a masculine noun.

• Adjectives which change their meaning

This is a very important group of adjectives, as using them incorrectly will completely change the idea of what you’ve just said! For instance, the adjective viejo (old) means old as in age when it comes after the noun, but old as in a long time when it comes before.

• • Una silla vieja – An old chair (it was made years ago)
  • Un viejo amigo – An old friend (we have been friends for many years)

See what we mean? You could end up calling someone old and offending them, or acknowledging that you’ve known them for a long time! Here are some other adjectives which work in a similar way.

These are but a few, and we won’t go into every single one here, but as you practise your Spanish, you’ll come across more which you can apuntar (note down) and learn.

So, there we have an introduction to how to use Spanish adjectives! Like we’ve said many times before in other blogs, the best way to learn Spanish is to practise speaking as much as possible, read and listen to whatever you can to pick up new words and structures, and to take a course with us at Hablamos to get that expert help which will ensure you become a fluent, confident speaker.

I went to the beach but it was raining by the time I arrived! Not only is that first sentence a terrible situation to end up in, but also it shows you two past tenses that we use in English – the past simple and the past continuous. In Spanish, there are also multiple past structures which we need to learn how to use correctly if we are going to speak fluently. Today we’re going to look at the pretérito (preterite – similar to past simple) and the imperfecto (imperfect – similar to the past continuous). If we wanted to talk about our beach predicament in Spanish, we’d say Fui a la playa pero estaba lloviendo cuando llegué. Let’s take a closer look at how these tenses work and when to use them.

Both of these tenses are used for past events, and we can generalise a bit by saying that the pretérito is more for a specific action which ended at a specific time and the imperfecto is for general actions without a definite time or ending. It’s also true that certain time phrases tend to be used with one of the two tenses. Before we get into all that, here’s the conjugaciones (conjugations) of verbos regulares (regular verbs) in the two tenses using the verb hablar (to speak) and comer (to eat).

Easy! Just learn those endings and you can conjugar (conjugate) all regular verbs in these two past tenses. As with everything in life, there are exceptions to these rules and many of the most common verbs are irregular. For instance, ser/estar (to be), ir (to go) and several others. But, ¡no te preocupes! (don’t worry!), if you come to do a course here at Hablamos, we will teach you all about the irregular verbs and more.

Now, let’s have a look at some of the main uses of the pretérito and the imperfecto. We think the best way to learn Spanish grammar is to see lots of examples so you can really understand how things work.

First, let’s start with the pretérito:

• Completed actions with a definite ending

Comí un plato de paella anoche – I ate a plate of paella last night
Compró un reloj la semana pasada – He/she bought a watch last week

• A sequence of individual actions in the past

Fuimos al museo, vimos unas esculturas luego volvimos a casa – We went to the museum, we saw some sculptures then we went back home
Puse la mesa y comimos todos juntos – I set the table and we all ate together

• When an action interrupts another action in the imperfect

Estaba viendo la tele cuando sonó el timbre – He/she was watching TV when the doorbell rang
Iba caminando por la calle cuando me caí al suelo – I was walking down the street when I fell over

And here are some of the main uses of the imperfecto:

• For continuous or repeated actions in the past without a clear start/end

Discutíamos constantemente por el dinero – We constantly argued about money
Carlos y sus hermanos jugaban al fútbol todos los días – Carlos and his brothers played football every single day

• For background details and information in a story/end

Hacía muy buen tiempo y estaban muy contentos – The weather was great and they were very happy
Había mucho viento y llovía todo el rato – It was very windy and it rained the whole time

• When two actions are happening at the same time/end

Mientras hablábamos en inglés, el professor escuchaba a nuestras conversaciones para ponernos una nota – While we were speaking in English, the teacher was listening to our conversations to give us a grade
Laura comía un helado mientras leía su libro favorito en la playa – Laura was eating an ice cream while she read her favourite book on the beach

• To talk about an action happening at that time when it is interrupted by another in the preterite

Estaba escuchando a mi música cuando mi madre me llamó – I was listening to my music when my mother called me
Los niños peleaban cuando su padre les gritó – The children were fighting when their father shouted at them

These are just the basics of these two important verb tenses, and you’ll have to speak and write in Spanish a lot to fully understand all the uses.

Certain time phrases are a clue as to which tense to use. Here are some examples. You can obviously change a lot of these to talk about different years, months or time periods.

And there you go – an introduction to the world of the pretérito and the imperfecto in Spanish! All it takes to be able to use these tenses correctly is practice, practice, practice. And where better place to get started speaking Spanish than by coming to join one of our face-to-face or online courses at Hablamos.