COMMON ERROR BY STUDENTS IN OUR SKYPE ENGLISH CLASSES: ‘UNA OFERTA’ IS NOT ALWAYS ‘AN OFFER’ IN ENGLISH:

One can translate ‘oferta’ in English using ‘offer’ if we are talking about a reduction in price. However, if you are using ‘oferta’ in the sense of how many products are available or talking about supply (in the sense of quantity or range), then one must not employ ‘offer’ as many of our English students  do. So you can’t say ‘there is a big/wide offer of cars’ but you can say ‘there is a big/wide range of cars’ or ‘a big quantity of cars’. Thanks for reading!

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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 'EN BREVE':

So we wouldn't say 'in brief' to translate 'en breve' when you are talking about doing something soon. We'd use the term 'shortly'. For example, 'I will contact you shortly to arrange our next class'. That's all for now. Have a great 2017!!

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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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