COMMON ERROR FROM OUR SKYPE ENGLISH CLASSES: 'BEFORE', 'AFTER' AND 'WITHOUT' MUST BE FOLLOWED BY THE GERUND:

If you want to use a verb after 'before', 'after' or 'without' it must be in the gerund form (ing) and not in infinitive. Thus, to say 'antes de ir al evento necesito comer' would be 'before going to the event, I need to eat'. Definately don't say 'before to go...'. Similarly, we'd say 'without/after going to the event...'. Hope that helps. Have a great day.

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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 MISTAKE FROM OUR SKYPE ENGLISH CLASSES: DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 'TO HEAR OF' AND 'TO HEAR ABOUT'.

Generally,  in English, when you 'hear about' something you find out the details or the situation (what is/was/will be happening). When you hear of something or someone you learn that it or the person exists.

Examples:

'Have you heard about Sarah and Ben?'
'I knew they got together into a relationship. However, tell me all about it.'

But:

'Have you heard of the film 'Titanic'?'
'No, I've never heard of it.'

'Have you heard of Vladimir Putin?'
'Yes, he is the Russian leader'.

Jim: 'I come from a small city called Oxford. It's

located in England. Have you ever heard of it?'

Pete: 'Yep. I have heard of it ( = recognise the name). And I have heard about it too as it has a famous university there. I have heard that many students around the world aspire to study in Oxford!'

Hoping that helps. Remember we do personalised English classes on Skype. Just follow the link for more details!

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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 MISTAKE: MISUSING THE WORD ‘ACHE’

In English we use the word ache (meaning un dolor/doler in Spanish) as a noun with only the following parts of body: ‘tooth’, ‘back’, ‘head’ and ‘stomach/tummy’ and possibly ‘ear’. So we can say ‘I have toothache’ (for some reason ‘toothache’ doesn’t have the indefinite article ‘a’) or ‘she has a stomach ache’. For other parts of the body, you cannot employ the noun ‘ache’. Rather, ‘ache’ is used as a verb. Indeed, you can use ‘ache’ for pretty much all parts of your body. For example: ‘my wrist aches’ or ‘my backside aches’ or ‘my tummy aches’. Remember, ‘an ache’ is a light feeling. ‘A pain’ or employing the verb ‘to hurt’ (which also mean dolor/doler) means can be light or severe. This grammar point is strange. To master it you just need to learn it. Have a great day.

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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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DAYS OF EASTER:

In our Skype English classes online, students often don't know some terms related to Easter. So of course 'Easter' is the name we give for 'Semana Santa' or 'Pâques'. 'Viernes Santo' is called 'good Friday'. 2 days after is the culmination of lent (cuaresma/carême) called 'Easter Sunday' and then 'Easter Monday'. A popular tradition in the UK at Easter is chocolate egg hunting. Happy Easter!



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COMMON ERROR: WRONG POSITION OF 'ALL THE TIME':

A big mistake in our online English classes. 'All the time' phrase should go at the end of a sentence, not after the verb or participle. So it is wrong to say 'we have been all the time sleeping' or 'we are all the time watching TV'. We would need to say 'we have been sleeping all the time' or 'we are watching TV all the time'. Remember: put 'all the time' at the end.

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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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COMMON VOCABULARY - 'TO TURN AN AGE':

In English when we have birthdays we use the verb 'to turn + age’. For example, one can say 'I will turn 39 next week' or 'she turned 16 a fortnight ago' when one becomes older. Hoping that helps. Have a great day.

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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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SOME VERBS REQUIRE AN OBJECT IN ENGLISH:

Some verbs must have an object in English. These are called transitive verbs. The object is the person or thing affected by the action described by the verb. For example, many people translate the sentence ‘me gusta’ with ‘I like’. This is really bad. What you must employ is an object as ‘like’ is a transitive verb. For example, you could say ‘I like it/her/the film/the sunny day’ etc. So please avoid just saying ‘I like’ or ‘I like a lot’ or ‘I don’t like’. Similarly, we must not say ‘the film, I like’. The word order is wrong so we must say ‘I like the spray’ (subject, verb, object).

Common transitive verbs that students have issues with include:

To like
To miss (extrañar)
To enjoy
To bring
To give
To send
To leave
To make
To owe
To tell
To show
To use

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DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TO 'TAKE/HAVE A BATH' AND 'TO BATHE' (BAÑARSE):

There is often confusion in our skype English classes concerning the verb 'to bath'. Well, although it exists in British English we don't usually use it. According to wordreference.com 'bañarse' can mean 'to take/have a bath/shower'. When you 'take or have a bath' it is what you do when you want to relax or wash yourself usually at home or in a hotel. When you do this you lay down horizontally in the water in a bathtub (bañera). In British English the verb 'to bathe' (meterse al agua) is usually employed when you want to go in the sea, in a lake, river or in a swimming pool. The primary objective is enjoyment and not to wash yourself although some people may bathe to wash themselves especially in less developed countries. 'Bathing' is usually done outside whilst 'to have a bath' is usually done indoors. I hope that helps. http://www.clasesinglesonline.com

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 'FUN' AND 'FUNNY':

In our skype English classes students often have issues with 'fun' and 'funny' The difference of the use of these two words is very subtle. When a mistake is made, nearly always students say ‘funny’ (‘e.g. ‘we had a funny time at the shopping centre’) when they should be saying ‘fun’ and not the other way round. This is because using ‘fun’ is a lot more common than ‘funny’. Thus if you have a doubt about which one to use after reading the following, always go for ‘fun’. More than likely you will be correct. Now on to the grammar:
‘Fun’ is both an adjective and a noun whilst ‘funny’ is an adjective only.
‘Fun’ refers to when you have a good time or when you enjoy yourself (cuando 'lo pasas bien' o 'cuando te disfrutes'). For example, we could say ‘visiting my friend was fun’ or ‘it was fun to go skiing’ or ‘the party will be lots of fun’. Using ‘fun’ as a noun (remember, it is uncountable) we could say ‘we had fun at the event’ or ‘we will have fun on holiday’.
‘Funny’ is employed when a situation or person makes you laugh. For example, ‘the comedy is funny’ or ‘the clown is funny’.
In British English slang ‘funny’ can also mean ‘strange’, ‘odd’ or ‘bizarre’. For example, ‘the man painted his nails and that is a funny thing to do’.
Many times the translation of ‘fun’ as an adjective is ‘divertido’ in Spanish, whilst ‘funny’ could be ‘comico’.
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IS 'STOP' FOLLOWED BY THE INFINITIVE OR BY THE GERUND?

 In English 'Stop' is normally followed by a gerund. When we stop doing something it means the verb in the gerund is the thing that we ceased to do. It can mean 'stop forever' or 'stop at that moment':
- My mum came home so I stopped playing on my PS4.
- I stopped smoking for health reasons.
- I had had plenty so I stopped drinking.

'Stop', more rarely, can be followed by an infinitive. In this case, we stop an activity in order to do what is indicated in the verb in the infinitive.
- I stopped to rest for a few minutes.
- He was shopping and she stopped to get a bite to eat.
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