10 Grammatical Mistakes You Can Avoid When Speaking Spanish

10 Grammatical Mistakes You Can Avoid When Speaking Spanish Unless youre something other than human, theres no way to learn and use a foreign language without making your share of mistakes- and getting caught at it. With expectations that you would rather learn of your mistakes in the privacy of your home rather than being corrected, here are 10 fairly common Spanish grammatical errors, grouped in no particular order, that you should try to avoid. Key Takeaways Remember that Spanish and English, despite their similarities, dont always structure sentences in the same way.Short words- including prepositions- are more likely to trip you up than long ones.Mistakes are inevitable- just do your best, and native Spanish speakers are likely to appreciate your effort. Using Unnecessary Words Using buscar para instead of buscar to mean to look for. Buscar is best translated to seek, which like buscar is not followed by a preposition. Correct: Busco los dos libros. (I am looking for the two books.)Using un otro or una otra to mean another. The indefinite article isnt needed in Spanish. Neither is one needed before cierto, which can mean a certain. Correct: Quiero otro libro. (I want another book.) Quiero cierto libro. (I want a certain book.)Using un or una when stating someones occupation. The corresponding word, a or an, is required in English but not used in Spanish. Correct: No soy marinero, soy capitn. (I am not a mariner, I am a captain.)Wrongly using days of the week. Days of the week are usually used with the definite article (singular el or plural los), and it isnt necessary to say that an event happens on a certain day. Correct: Trabajo los lunes. (I work on Mondays.) Errors With Prepositions Ending a sentence in a preposition. Although some purists object, its quite common to end sentences in English with prepositions. But its a no-no in Spanish, so youll need to recast the sentence to make sure the prepositions object comes after the preposition. Correct:  ¿Con quià ©n puedo comer? (Whom can I eat with?)Using the wrong preposition. The prepositions of English and Spanish dont have one-to-one correspondence. Thus a simple preposition such as in in English might be translated not only as en but also as de (as in de la maà ±ana for in the morning), which typically is translated as of or from. Learning proper usage of prepositions can be one of the most challenging aspects of learning Spanish grammar. A lesson in prepositions is beyond the scope of this article, although you can study some of them here. Correct: Le compraron la casa a mi padre. (They bought the house from my father, or, depending on the context, they bought the house for my father) Es malo con su espos a. (He is mean to his wife.) Mi coche chocà ³ con su bicicleta. (My car ran into his bicycle.) Se vistià ³ de verde. (He dressed in green.) Other Grammatical Errors Wrongly using quien in relative clauses to mean who. In English, we say the car that runs but the boy who runs. In Spanish, we usually use que to mean both that and who. There are a few instances, beyond the scope of this lesson, in which quien can be used to mean who, but in many of them que can also be used, so que is usually the safer choice. Correct: Mi hija es alumna que estudia mucho. (My daughter is a student who studies a lot.)Forgetting to make the cientos portion of numbers feminine when required. We say cuatrocientos treinta y dos to say 432 to refer to a masculine noun but cuatrocientas treinta y dos when referring to a feminine noun. The distinction is easy to forget because of the distance between the number and the noun being referred to. Correct: Tengo quinientas diecisà ©is gallinas. (I have 516 hens.)Using possessive adjectives when referring to body parts and articles of clothing. In English, we usually refer to a persons body parts or clothing using possessive ad jectives. But in Spanish, the definite article (el or la) is used when the person to whom the body part or item belongs to is obvious. Correct:  ¡Abre los ojos! (Open your eyes!) El hombre se puso la camisa. (The man put on his shirt.) Avoiding those redundancies that are required in Spanish but would be incorrect in English. As noted in this lesson, a redundant indirect object is sometimes required, and as this lesson points out, double (or even triple!) negatives are sometimes needed. Correct: Juan le da una camisa a à ©l. (John is giving a shirt to him.) No dijo nada. (He said nothing.)