8 Common mistakes Spanish learners have when speaking English
He has blue eyes or he has eyes blues?
1.Vowels/ Consonants are different in Spanish and English:
Spanish has 5 vowel sounds and English has 12. The other problem is that the length of the vowel sound is not an important feature In Spanish, which leads to classic misunderstandings such as: In Spain, there are many hot /betes/ instead of /bi:tIz/ 2. Consonants also cause problems for Spanish speakers. Some English phonemes have equivalents in Spanish but others are distinctive sounds. / / / / / / h have no real match in Spanish. 3. Consonant Clusters (a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel like: /spl/) are far more common in English than in Spanish. A simple word (for native English speakers) like breakfast is tough for Spaniards who will often pronounce it brefas and omit the f and the final t because they are attached to another consonant. This also happens with pronouncing names like Stephen inserting a vowel sound before the first cluster of s/t and will often say Estephen. 4. The relationship in English between pronunciation and orthography (sound and spelling) e.g.: laugh, throughout, consciousness, vegetable, comfortable, business, busy, etc. 5. English is generally categorised as a stress-timed language an Spanish is usually considered to be a syllable-timed language. e.g. : The Beatles were bigger than Elvis. A Spanish speaker might pronounce each syllable equally and this might sound robotic to English speaker ears and we might struggle to identify the key content: The / Beat / les / were / big / ger / than / El / vis. 6. The Spanish language doesnt really have contracted forms in the same way as English. This means they cant always hear them (Ill see you tomorrow: Yes, I see you tomorrow) or they misuse them (Are you Pedro? Yes, Im). 7. Subject personal pronouns (I, You, She, He, We, It, They) are often unnecessary in Spanish as the form of the main verb identifies the subject.This is why youll hear Spanish speakers say things like: Is Bob here? Yes, is here. Is it possible to pass the exam? Yes. is possible. 8. False Friends. e.g.: Sorry professor, I couldnt assist the class because of my strong constipation. In this picture, I can appreciate many things like ()