Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Avoid making these errors in the Spanish language


It is important to learn how to write the Spanish language as much as it is to speak it.  A common challenge native English speakers have is with accent marks.  
Here are some very common mistakes that we often see in written and verbal communication:
Use of written accent marks in monosyllable words:
  • fui (correct) or fuí (incorrect) / vio (correct) or vió (incorrect)
  • más (adverb of quantity) / mas (adversative conjunction having the meaning of pero)
  • el (article)/ él (pronoun)
  • de (preposition) vs  (verb)

Deber / Deber de
  • Deber + infinitive: it conveys obligation.  
  • Deber de + infinitive: It conveys probability, conjecture.

Dijistes / Vinistes
The tú form of verbs end with an s in the present tense, not in the past tense.  These examples are considered vulgarisms as they are not the correct form of the conjugated verbs: Tú dijiste / Tú viniste.

No comments:

Budget Travel Blog

Cuba Central - The Blog