Peter Mangiaracina.

This presentation looks at recurring English mistakes made by native Spanish speakers and how direct translation can cause them. It contrasts incorrect and corrected examples involving have, people, articles, question words, want, and modal auxiliaries.

It also covers verb and preposition combinations, say and tell, subject–verb order, and commonly confused words such as fun and funny and assist and attend. The final sections review superlatives and the names dot, point, and period. The central approach is to learn words in context and practise the corrected forms until they become familiar.

Important points

• Notice when a Spanish structure carries over into English.
• Use people with a plural verb, and omit the when speaking about people in general.
• Use want + person + to + verb, and a root verb after modals such as must.
• Learn verbs with their English patterns: agree with, depend on, call someone, and enjoy something.
• Distinguish say from tell and learn the word order shown in the examples.
• Learn the differences between fun and funny, assist and attend, and comparative and superlative forms.
• Learn words through English examples and reinforce correct forms with repeated practice.

Choose one answer for each question, then check your answers. Your results are private and disappear when you refresh the page.