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 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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