COMMON ERROR FROM OUR SKYPE ENGLISH CLASSES: TRANSLATING 'YO TAMPOCO':

If you want to say in English'yo tampoco!' by itself we use the expression 'me neither!' Followed by an affirmation such as 'yo tampoco quiero ir' or 'nosotros tampoco comemos gluten’, we cannot use 'neither'. We have to introduce the positive form 'either'. So for the aforementioned examples we'd say: 'I don't want to go either' and 'we don't eat gluten either'. We cannot use 'neither' when there is already a negation (not) in the sentence since 'neither' is a negation and we must not employ a double negative in a sentence in English. Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any doubts!

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COMMON MISTAKE FROM OUR SKYPE ENGLISH CLASSES: TRANSLATING 'HACER LA PRUEBA DE ALCOHOLEMIA':

For this we use a verb 'to breathalyse'. This is a transitive verb. So we can say 'the police breathalysed me' or 'at the police checkpoint, I was breathalysed'. I hope this helps.

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COMMON ERROR - DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SHADE AND SHADOW:

Shadow is used to describe specific areas of darkness that are produced when objects or people are blocking any source of light. If you lift your hand up towards the light you create a shadow. It can be indoors or outdoors. A shadow can be cast by any light source such as a candle, a flashlight, an overhead light, a spotlight or the sun.

Shade, commonly used in a more general sense, is the darkness created by only the sun. Unlike shadow, it is an uncountable noun. The darkness underneath a tree or a parasol on a sunny day would be the shade. Shade is what one typically seeks on a hot sunny day in order to avoid too much sun exposure.


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COMMON MISTAKE: TRANSLATING 'TENER GANAS'

'Tener ganas' is complicated to translate for our Spanish speaking students in our Skype English classes. The important thing is to use phrases or words that demonstrate enthusiasm. For example, 'I want to go on holiday' or 'I wish to see you' or 'he can't wait to finish these exams' or 'We feel like eating chocolate' or 'She is looking forward to the meal' or 'they fancy eating fish and chips'. In summary, the key is to use a phrase portraying enthusiasm. Hope that helps.

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COMMON ERROR: TRANSLATING 'IR/ESTAR A LA CALLE':

In our Skype English classes many Spanish students make a mistake translating the following sentence: ‘voy a la calle’. As you may realise, this phrase means that you will be outside of your house whether you will be in a park, in a bar, in a plaza, by the side of the road etc. Thus, to say ‘I’m going out to the street’ is incorrect unless you are only going to be actually ‘in the street’. What we would say in most cases to cover everything would be: ‘I’m going outside/out/outdoors’ which covers all situations that are not actually when you are in a building (indoors). Similarly, if we say ‘estoy en la calle’, it would be incorrect to say ‘I am in the street’ unless you are really specifically in a street. We would need to say ‘I am outside or outdoors’ or something similar.

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COMMON ERROR: 'TAN + ADJECTIVO + COMO' IN ENGLISH:

This structure is sometimes problematic for pupils in our English Skype classes. Students often say 'as + adjective + like'. For example, 'Oslo is as big like Helsinki'. This is inaccurate. 'Tan + adjective + como’ is 'as + adjective + as'. Therefore, to correct the inaccurate sentence above we'd say 'Oslo is as big as Helsinki'. This structure works no matter what adjective or nouns you employ. Hope that helps. Have a great day.



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TRANSLATING THE SPANISH VERB 'BAJAR':

Many students in our online English classes of lower levels translate 'bajar' with the adjective, noun or adverb 'low'. The verb is actually 'to lower'. So we'd say 'we lower prices in the sales' NOT 'we low prices in the sales'. We can also apply other verbs such as 'decrease', 'move down', 'drop' or 'reduce'.

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TRANSLATING 'AMANECER' AND 'ANOCHECER':

In our Skype English classes (online) Spanish students often forget the words to translate 'anochecer' and 'amanecer' into English. We can use 'dawn', 'daybreak' or 'sunrise' for 'amanecer' whilst 'dusk' or 'sundown' or 'sunset' or 'nightfall' are used for 'anochecer'. 'Twilight' is the soft glowing light when the sun is still below the horizon. Hope that helps.
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