COMMON ERROR FROM OUR SKYPE ENGLISH CLASSES: PROBLEMS TRANSLATING 'BAR'

Most of our Skype English students translate 'bar' with 'pub'. Most of the time this is wrong since a 'bar' in a non-English speaking country is rarely similar to a 'pub' in appearance and ambience. So you want to translate the word 'bar' with 'bar' unless the establishment in question is actually an 'Irish/Scottish/Australian/English... pub', in which case you can use the word 'pub' as a translation of 'bar'. To help understanding, the first image in this post is a 'pub', the second would be typical of a 'bar'.

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ERROR COMÚN DE LOS ESPAÑOLES CUANDO HABLAN INGLÉS: ‘FACTURA DE LUZ’ NO ES ‘LIGHT BILL’

En una clase de inglés vía skype con Raquel en Madrid, España, hemos visto que ‘la luz’ en tu casa es ‘power’ o ‘electricity’ en inglés cuando estás hablando de toda la electricidad que usas en una casa. Entonces, ‘una factura de luz’ sería ‘an electricity bill’.

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COMMON ERROR BY STUDENTS IN OUR SKYPE ENGLISH CLASSES: WHEN YOU WANT TO SAY 'PUEDE SER' DON'T SAY 'CAN/COULD BE'

Our Skype English students at Clasesinglesonline.com in Spain make this error a lot. If you just want to say 'puede ser' by itself in response to an affirmation, it is much better to say 'perhaps', 'maybe' or 'possibly'.

For example, if I say 'creo que la economia esta creciendo' and my partner says 'puede ser', it is much better to 'perhaps', 'maybe' or 'possibly' since we are expressing doubt. 'can/could be' are OK and while you will be understood, it is not very natural. Hope this helps!

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COMMON ERROR BY STUDENTS IN OUR SKYPE ENGLISH CLASSES: PLEASE SAY ‘WHITE COFFEE’ AND NOT ‘COFFEE WITH MILK’!

Translating ‘café con leche’ or ‘té con leche’ literally should be avoided. We would say ‘white coffee/tea’. These drinks without milk would be ‘black coffee/tea’.

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COMMON ERROR BY STUDENTS IN OUR SKYPE ENGLISH CLASSES: COMMON VERBS WITH A PREPOSITION IN SPANISH BUT NOT IN ENGLISH:

This group of verbs is very problematic for our students because you have a preposition after the verb in most, if not all cases, in Spanish. In English a preposition is not employed. So with the literal translation which students use at lower levels they nearly always get it wrong. So the phrase ‘he llamado a mi cuñada’ must not be translated by ‘I have called/phoned to my sister in law’. It should be ‘I have called/phoned my sister in law’. So there is no preposition after the verbs ‘phone/call’ neither after the verbs ‘access’, ‘attend’, ‘contact’, ‘trust’, ‘enter’, ‘influence’ ‘threaten’ or ‘ask’. However, be careful. Sometimes the verb can have a preposition switching the meaning of the verb. For example, when ‘attend’ means ‘asistir’ no preposition is used but when it means less commonly ’to deal with or help something or someone’ then we use the preposition ‘to’. For example, ‘the staff will attend to any problems you may have’.

Also, ‘to ask’ is a special case like ‘to attend’ as it can take a preposition in one context. This changes the meaning. For example, when you ‘ask for something or someone’ then the verb does in fact have a preposition and as you might have guessed, the preposition ‘for’ should be employed. An example would be when you ‘ask for a return ticket to Oslo’ or ‘she asked for 2 beers’. This can be roughly translated by ‘pedir algo’ in the sense of ‘to request something’. However, when you ‘preguntar a alguien’, ‘to enquire’ or ‘ask somebody’ then the preposition ‘for’ should be omitted. There should be no preposition directly after ‘to ask’ in this instance. For example, ‘I asked Jim to help’ or ‘she asked the police officer about the crime’. Another example is with the phrase ‘he preguntado a mi jefe’. It must not be translated by ‘I have asked to my boss’. It should be ‘I have asked my boss’.

A list of some of the most common verbs (along with their meanings in Spanish) that don´t take a preposition in English but can in Spanish, can be found below.

To discuss (discutir sobre)
To assist/help (asistir a)
To approach (acercar a)
To appreciate (apreciar a)
To stop (dejar de)
To invite (invitar a)
To remember (acordarse de)
To regret (arrepentirse de)
To cease (cesar de)
To leave (salir de, dejar de)
To pay (pagar a)
To affect (afectar a)
To visit (visitor a)
To contact (contactar con)
To convince (convencer a)
To impact (impactar a)
To control (controlar a)
To teach (enseñar a)


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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 ERROR FROM OUR SKYPE ENGLISH CLASSES: PREPOSITION OF TIME 'ON' USED WITH INDIVUDUAL DAYS SUCH AS HALLOWEEN

Many students in our Skype English classes say 'in Halloween' but we must use the preposition of time 'on' for single days such as Halloween, all saints day, Easter Monday, New Year's Eve or individual days such as the 13th of March or Friday. So for instance we could say 'many children knock on my door on Halloween' or 'on Friday I will go to a fireworks display'. Remember, 'on' is for single or individual days. Please do not use 'in' for individual days. As a time preposition 'in' is used with months (e.g. March), seasons (winter...) and years (1978...). Please feel free to ask about this if you have any doubts. Thanks!

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ARE YOU DOING YOUR BEST TO INCREASE YOUR ENGLISH LEVEL?

Learning a language such as English to your desired level doesn't have to be as hard as you may think. Like most significant goals discipline, patience and determination is required. What also assists enormously, what makes it a whole lot easier... is 'having fun'. If you are enjoying the learning experience then it becomes far easier to maintain the upward process. Have fun learning by going to language exchanges, watching your favourite films or documentaries in English, playing video games in English, reading articles of your interest in English, taking Skype classes etc. When I started studying Spanish whilst unemployed in the south of France, I bought the same 400 page book in Spanish that I had already read several times in French. I was fluent in French at the time. The subject of this book was one of my passions. So with my low level of Spanish at that time (A2), it didn't matter if it took me 20 minutes to read each page initially. I stayed motivated because I was having fun. So making progress was really quite easy despite my low level at that time.

Also, remember before it was much more difficult to learn a language compared to nowadays. You know, a generation ago people learning languages did not have all these technological resources at their fingertips like you do! I'm talking about resources online. There are so many options and free options to make learning English such an enjoyable past time online... So come on! Make learning English as fun as it possibly can be and the inevitable significant advance will happen!


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COMMON ERROR FROM OUR SKYPE ENGLISH CLASSES: 'UN POLITICO' IS NOT 'A POLITIC'

Many students in our Skype English classes translate 'un  politico' wrong. The correct word would be 'a politician'. For example, 'the politician was forced to resign due to the corruption scandal'.  Remember, 'politics' is the subject, a noun. The adjective is 'political'. Hope this helps.

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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: 'PROBABLY' CONFUSED WITH 'PROBABLE'

This is often confused with our Spanish EFL students. Many students wrongly say ‘it’s probably that they will score’ (‘es probable que van a marcar’) when it should be ‘it’s probable that they will score’. Remember, ‘probable’ in Spanish should be ‘probable’ in English, not ‘probably’ which is ‘probablemente’ or ‘seguramente’. It should be noted that in the UK ‘likely’ is more used than ‘probable’. Indeed, ‘likely’ is very rarely utilised among Spanish EFL students (students normally find it easier to use ‘probable’ rather than ‘likely’) but it is used a lot more in common conversation among native speakers.

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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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COMMON MISTAKE: TRANSLATING ‘OPERAR’ (TO OPERATE ON):

Unfortunately, in our Skype English classes online students have issues translating the verb ‘operar’. We don’t simply translate the word ‘operar’ just by the word ‘operate’ when we’re talking about getting some part of your body fixed. We have to add the preposition ‘on’. Thus the verb in English is ‘to operate on’. So we wouldn’t say ‘I will have my knee operated tomorrow’ but we would use the following phrase: ‘I will have my knee operated on tomorrow’.

In addition, and perhaps more simply, we have the option of not using the phrasal verb ‘to operate on’ and instead we can use ‘to have’. Thus: ‘I will have a knee operation tomorrow’.


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