A while back I was asked by one of my students for a list of common mistakes made by Spanish speakers in English. This is my somewhat belated response. Sorry, Viridiana, I’ll try and do better next time.
Know your mistakes
For me, it was a really intelligent request as one of my top exam tips for IELTs is to make a list of the type of mistakes you make, to understand why read this exam tip. These mistakes are likely to fall into 2 categories: the ones that are personal to you and, this should come as no surprise, the ones that are common to speakers of your language as typically most language groups have certain common mistakes.
Some common mistakes in Spanish – and most other latin languages
This quiz tests some common mistakes for Spanish speakers of English. You should note that many of these mistakes are common to speakers of other latin languages too. Do you speak another language? Try it anyway. There will be something for you to learnt there almost certainly.
<a href=”http://www.mystudiyo.com/act87307/mini/go/false_friends_in_spanish” mce_href=”http://www.mystudiyo.com/act87307/mini/go/false_friends_in_spanish”>false_friends_in_spanish</a>
Too hard?
The materials in this quiz were adapted from this site: English Life.
I also recommend Learn Spanish to see the problems the other way around.
Another possibility is the Language Project
Madrid Teacher also has some useful materials
Finally
I do requests. If there’s resources you need, let me know. I’ll see if I can help.
Here’s a free online grammar checker (that actually explains things!) to share with your students: http://www.spanishchecker.com Comments most welcome.