Your Guide to Cultural Fluency

Spanish as a foreign language can be difficult to learn due to the great lexical richness it has, the variety of verb conjugations, or because of all the spelling and grammatical rules that exist.

Therefore, knowing the common mistakes students make when learning Spanish will help you focus more
on those topics that you find the hardest to learn.

First and foremost, to avoid repetition, it is very important to identify the error and the meaning of it in context (for example if it comes from a direct translation from your mother tongue). Later, try to correct it and not just repeat it. Mastering it is achieved with practice (written and oral)

1. SER O ESTAR:

As a general rule of thumb, the use of SER refers to being permanent, the essence of things, and has certain functions in Spanish (passive voice, impersonality, etc).

Instead, ESTAR is used to communicate temporary states and also has its own specific functions (present continuous, idiomatic expressions, etc.). Some common mistakes in Spanish are these:

2. PREPOSITIONS:

Another very common mistake with prepositions in Spanish is to use the preposition <en> with verbs of movement, because the correct thing is to use <a>

3. THE GENDER OF NOUNS:

In Spanish the gender of nouns is masculine or feminine. Another of the most common mistakes in Spanish is gender confusion. Mostly, it is frequent in masculine words that end in -a and feminine words that end in -o.

It’s normal, don’t worry. Errors are a very important step in your learning process.
Also, you should not be afraid of making mistakes.
 Remember: trial-error-solution

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