Common English Mistakes Spanish Speakers Make (And How to Fix Them)
Spanish and English share thousands of vocabulary words, similar alphabets, and even some grammatical structures. For Spanish speakers, English is genuinely one of the more accessible second languages. But that shared DNA also creates a very specific set of problems: Spanish grammar patterns that seem logical but produce incorrect English.
These aren't random errors. They're entirely predictable — and once you see the pattern, they're fixable. Here are the most common English mistakes made by Spanish speakers and exactly how to correct them.
1. Saying "I have" Instead of "I am" for Age, Hunger, and Feelings
In Spanish, many feelings and states use tener (to have): tengo hambre (I have hunger), tengo veinte años (I have twenty years), tengo miedo (I have fear).
In English, these states use "to be":
❌ "I have twenty years." ✅ "I am twenty years old."
❌ "I have hunger." ✅ "I am hungry."
❌ "I have fear of flying." ✅ "I am afraid of flying."
Exceptions where English does use "have": "I have a headache," "I have a cold." But for age, hunger, thirst, heat, cold, and fear — always "I am."
2. Direct Translation of Hacer in Weather
Hace frío, hace calor → literally "it makes cold, it makes heat."
❌ "It makes cold today." ✅ "It's cold today."
❌ "It makes a lot of heat in summer." ✅ "It's very hot in summer."
English weather almost always uses the verb "to be": It's sunny / cloudy / windy / freezing.
3. Missing or Wrong Articles
Spanish has gendered articles (el, la, un, una) that directly precede nouns. English articles ("a," "an," "the") follow different rules — and Spanish speakers often drop them or add them where they don't belong.
❌ "I went to hospital." (correct in British English; wrong to say "a hospital" for non-idiomatic uses) ❌ "I need information about the life." ✅ "I need information about life."
❌ "She is teacher." ✅ "She is a teacher."
The rule: Use "a/an" for non-specific singular nouns. Use "the" for specific or previously mentioned nouns. Use no article for abstract concepts (life, love, freedom) and plural generalisations (dogs are friendly).
4. The Present Progressive Overuse
Spanish uses the present simple for many situations where English uses it too, but Spanish speakers sometimes over-apply the present continuous.
❌ "I am working every day at 8am." ✅ "I work every day at 8am."
❌ "She is knowing the answer." (some verbs don't take progressive form) ✅ "She knows the answer."
Stative verbs (know, believe, understand, love, hate, prefer, want, need) almost never use the -ing form in English.
5. Subject Pronoun Omission
Spanish drops subject pronouns because the verb ending shows who is speaking: "Voy al mercado" = "I go to the market." English verb endings don't carry this information, so the subject pronoun is mandatory.
❌ "Is very cold today." ✅ "It is very cold today."
❌ "Went to the store yesterday." ✅ "I went to the store yesterday."
Every English sentence needs a subject — even if it's just "it" or "there."
6. "Make" vs "Do" Confusion
Spanish uses hacer for both "make" and "do." English splits these: "do" is for activities and tasks; "make" is for creating or producing something.
| Say "do" | Say "make" |
|---|---|
| do homework | make dinner |
| do exercise | make a decision |
| do a favour | make an effort |
| do business | make a mistake |
| do the dishes | make a noise |
❌ "I need to do a pause." ✅ "I need to take a break."
This one often requires memorisation — the logic isn't always perfectly consistent. Focus on the most common combinations.
7. Translating Por and Para as Simply "For"
Spanish distinguishes purpose (para) from cause (por), but both often get translated to "for." The result is awkward English.
❌ "I study English for to get a better job." ✅ "I study English to get a better job."
The infinitive of purpose in English uses "to," not "for to."
❌ "I did it for that reason." (can work, but often overused) ✅ "I did it because of that" / "I did it for that reason" — both valid, but for that reason can sound unnatural depending on context.
8. Question Formation Errors
In Spanish, you can form a question by adding ¿...no? to a statement, or by raising intonation. English question formation requires inverting the subject and auxiliary verb.
❌ "You are going to the party, no?" ✅ "Are you going to the party?" ✅ "You're going to the party, aren't you?" (tag question — more natural)
❌ "What means this word?" ✅ "What does this word mean?"
The auxiliary verb ("does," "did," "will") must come before the subject in English questions.
9. The "He/She" Confusion
Spanish pronouns are gendered (él/ella), but they're often dropped. When Spanish speakers first start using English pronouns, they sometimes mix up "he" and "she" because they're not used to verbalising gender in subject position.
❌ "My sister went to the market. He bought vegetables." ✅ "My sister went to the market. She bought vegetables."
This is usually a fluency issue — the speaker knows the difference — but consistent practice speaking out loud reinforces correct pronoun use automatically.
10. False Cognates (Falsos Amigos)
Spanish and English share thousands of cognates (words that look and sound similar), but some look similar while meaning something very different.
| Spanish word | What learners say | What they mean |
|---|---|---|
| sensible | "She is very sensible" (❌ means reasonable in Spanish) | "She is very sensitive" ✅ |
| embarazada | "She is embarrassed" (❌) | "She is pregnant" ✅ |
| actual | "The actual president" (may work) | "The current president" ✅ |
| realizar | "I realize I need to do this" | This one happens to work ✅ |
| librería | "I went to the library" (❌) | "I went to the bookshop/bookstore" ✅ |
The Pattern Behind the Mistakes
Notice that most of these errors come from applying Spanish grammar rules to English. The fix isn't to study more vocabulary — it's to retrain specific grammatical patterns through spoken practice.
Reading about these mistakes helps you notice them. But the only way to eliminate them is to speak enough English that the correct form becomes the automatic one.
Talk to Gemma lets you practise spoken English with an AI tutor that responds naturally — helping you build the muscle memory for correct forms through real conversation rather than textbook exercises.
A Self-Correction Checklist for Spanish Speakers
Before any important piece of English communication, run through these:
- Did I include the subject pronoun in every sentence?
- Did I use "I am" (not "I have") for age, hunger, and feelings?
- Did I use "to" (not "for to") for purpose?
- Did I use the correct auxiliary in question formation?
- Did I check any words that look like Spanish words for false cognate traps?
These five checks will catch a large proportion of the most common errors before they happen.
Spanish speakers have enormous natural advantages in learning English — use them. And for the specific interference patterns that Spanish creates, targeted spoken practice is the most direct path to correction.
Start practising with Talk to Gemma today — real English conversation that catches your patterns and builds fluency at the speed you need.