An Overview of Anglicisms to Avoid:

It is perfectly natural for learners of a language to rely sometimes on their first language when mastering the new grammatical system. As a student progresses, however, Spanish rules and forms should be used. To help you avoid depending too much on English, some of the most common anglicisms are presented below.

Verbs

Some expressions that use the verb "be" in English require the verb "have" (tener) in Spanish. For example, English uses expressions like:

• I am hungry, I am thirsty and I am afraid (all with the verb be)

In Spanish you must use the verb tener in these same contexts, e.g.:

• Tengo hambre, tiene sed, tenemos miedo, NOT Estoy/soy hambre, está/es sed, estamos/somos miedo.

We find this same pattern when indicating a person's age. For example, in English you would write:

• I am 14 years old.

However, in Spanish this would be expressed as:

• Yo tengo 14 años and NOT yo estoy/soy 14 años.

Another important verbal difference concerns passive sentences that use the verb "be"/ser and where the agent of the action is not explicit or is demoted to a phrase with the preposition "by"/por, e.g.:

• I was given a book (by my professor).

Generally, Spanish does not use the passive as much as English. The previous example shows that the indirect object (the recipient in a ditransitive sentence) can be passived in English. The indirect object cannot be passivized in Spanish, e.g.:

• Yo fui dado un libro por mi profesor. 

Instead, only the direct object can be passivized, e.g.:

• El libro fue dado a mí (por mi profesor).

Spanish also uses a different structure than English with the impersonal se where no agent can be expressed, e.g.: 

• El libro se dió a mí.

The impersonal se construction is often used where English would use a passive.

 

Pronouns

One important difference between pronouns in English and Spanish is that object pronouns precede the verb in Spanish, but follow it in English, e.g.:

• Él me dio un libro.

• He gave me the book.

Be careful not to use the English order in Spanish, i.e.: do not write:

• Él dio me un libro.

In addition, Spanish does not use subject pronouns as often as English. This is because they are redundant as the subject is also expressed by the verb form itself (the conjugation), e.g.:

• I want to learn Spanish.
• Quiero aprender el español. vs. Yo quiero aprender el español.

It is not grammatically wrong to include the subject pronoun, particularly if there is ambiguity or you want to stress who the subject is. However, constant inclusion of the subject pronoun when speaking or writing Spanish is considered non-native like.

 

Adjectives

English places all adjectives before nouns, e.g.:

• I bought some blue shoes.

However, the vast majority of Spanish adjectives must follow the noun, e.g.:

• Compré unos zapatos azules (and NOT Compré unos azules zapatos).

 

Prepositions

The Spanish preposition sobre is used primarily with the literal meaning "on" or "on top of". As such, it cannot be used everywhere English used "on". For example,

• on TV = en la televisión (NOT sobre la televisión, unless you mean "on top of the TV")

• on Mondays = los lunes (NOT sobre/en los lunes, as no preposition is used to say "on" a day in Spanish)

Both en and a can mean "at" in Spanish, generally the difference is that en implies static position while a implies motion. To mean "in" or "at" a location, Spanish uses the word en. Do NOT use a to mean "at" when no motion is involved, e.g.:

• Estuve en la fiesta. NOT Estuve a la fiesta. "I was at the party."
• Lo vi en la tienda. "I saw him in/at the store."

To mean "to", especially in expressions that imply motion, use the word a, e.g.:

• Voy a Chicago. "I'm going to Chicago."

The preposition de is also used to indicate possession in Spanish as there is no equivalent to English 's in Spanish, e.g.:

• El libro es de Juan. "The book is John's."

 There are also many instances where a verb is followed by a preposition in English, but not in Spanish, e.g.:

• to look for a book = buscar un libro (NOT buscar por un libro)

• to look at the photo = mirar la foto (NOT mirar a la foto)

 

False Friends

False friends are words that look the same in English and Spanish, but have different meanings. When writing, be sure to choose the correct Spanish equivalent for the meaning you wish to express. In the following tables, we've indicated the most common problems:

False Friends with Verbs

Spanish	English mistake	Spanish	Correct translation
asistir	to assist	to attend	ayudar
molestar	to molest	to annoy	abusar (sexualmente)
atender	to attend	to attend to	asistir
chocar	to choke	to crash	estrangular
decepcionar	to deceive	to disappoint	engañar
discutir	to discuss	to debate/argue	hablar
excitar	to excite	to excite sexually	entusiasmar
grabar	to grab	to record	agarrar
introducir	to introduce (a person)	to introduce (a topic)	presentar
quitar	to quit	to remove	dejar
realizar	to realize	to fulfill, make real	darse cuenta, reconocer

 

False Friends with Nouns

Spanish	English mistake	Spanish meaning	Correct translation
carpeta	carpet	folder	alfombra
decepción	deception	disappointment	engaño
éxito	exit	success	salida
idioma	idiom	language	modismo
nudo	nude	knot	desnudo/a
tabla	table	board	mesa
arena	arena	sand	anfiteatro, plaza
fábrica	fabric	factory	tela
falta	fault	lack/need/shortage	defecto, culpa
firma	firm	signature	sólido/a, duro/a
lectura	lecture	reading	clase, conferencia
letra	letter (to someone)	letter (of the alphabet)	carta
librería	library	bookstore	biblioteca
nombre	number	name, noun	número
grado	grade	rank, degree	nota
noticias	notice	news	anuncio
parientes	parents	relatives	padres
receta	receipt	recipe, prescription	recibo
tuna	tuna	prickly pear	atún
oficio	office	occupation	oficina

 

False Friends with Adverbs and Adjectives

Spanish	English mistake	Spanish meaning	Correct translation
embarazado/a	embarrassed	pregnant	avergonzado/a
actualmente	actually	currently	en realidad
sensible	sensible	sensitive	lógico/a, razonable
educado/a	educated	well-mannered	estudiado/a
gracioso/a	gracious	funny	cortés, refinado/a
mayor	mayor	larger/older	alcalde
raro/a	rare	strange	excepcional
sano/a	sane	healthy	sensato/a