Prepositions, Reflexive Verbs, and Literal Translations

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A model called ICRA is changing that. Employers set a fixed contribution. Employees pick the health plan that works for them. Their doctors, their budget. Predictable for the business, personal for the people. That's a better kind of coverage. Get coverage you control. Find out if an ICRA is right for you at ambetterhealth.com to Coffee Break Spanish. Yo soy Anabel y tengo muchas ganas de traerte 5 de los errors most common in Spanish ? I'm very excited to help you take your Spanish to the next level by bringing you five of the most common mistakes in Spanish. And just as a disclaimer, I am not going to be talking about ser an estar , por and para, or even the subjunctive. The five mistakes I am bringing you are core basic ¿Quieres saber si cometes estos errores? Venga, no nos entretengamos más y vamos a ver el primer error. Me duele mi cabeza ? Dame tu mano, or hago mis deberes . These are some of the most common mistakes learners make and it can be a bit tricky to correct because grammar wise the sentences are kind of correct, but they sound strange . Why is that? Because in Spanish we don't use possessive adjectives mi tu nuestro vuestro and su with body parts. This means we must say me duele la cabeza or dame la mano . Why is that the case? Because we understand that body parts are part of ourselves. So it sounds redundant, repetitive to use the possessive adjective in Spanish. If I am saying that something hurts to me, it must be my head or my hand or my leg. That's why we don't need the possessive adjective. What is interesting is that this situation where the possessive adjective sounds redundant happens in other contexts where it is understood that the thing named is yours. Note preoccupes, vemos esto con un example. I do my homework. In Spanish is ago los deveres. Saying ago mis deberes sounds strange because of course I understand that if you are doing any homework, you'll be doing your own homework, right? That's why it sounds repetitive. The possessive adjective is not adding new information so it is not required. Another situation could be coge las llaves for take your keys. I understand that if you're going to take anything , it'll be any of your things. So I don't use the possessive adjective. Now, what is interesting is that if I want you to take my keys, then I'll be using the possessive adjective. Coge mis llaves. Take my keys. This is the case because now you are taking one of my things. The possessive adjective is adding information. It is useful. So here I need to use it. Empezado fuerte, ¿no crees? Vamos por el siguiente error. Que es decir cosas como : buenos días en el No che o el clase de español. ¡Ja! We all know that gender and agreement are tricky in Spanish, but it is also understood that day-to-day words should be mastered in intermediate or advanced levels. Probably you have learned that in Spanish, nouns ending in O are masculine and nouns ending in A are feminine. The thing is that soon enough you realize that there are exceptions. But not only that, you also realize that there are nouns ending in a consonant like television or ending in other vowels like noche, which ends in an e . What happens then ? Although there are certain tricks to know the gender of some words, sometimes the only way to know is by exposure. And that's why certain words that you learned early in your language learning are supposed to be mastered later on. This means you must know it is el día for day , la mano for hand , la noche for night, or la television for the television or TV. Of course, basic vocabulary depends on each individual. So basically, we could say that the more you use a word in your daily conversations, the more confident you should be using it. Estupendo, pues cambiamos de tema y ahora toca hablar de algo muy común, especialmente en angloparlantes. I'm talking about mistakes like trabajo a la university or esto y a la entrada. This type of mistake is very common especially in English native speakers. And it is to use the preposition a in Spanish as if it were at en English when we use it for location . Con un ejemplo lo vemos mejor . In English , we can say I work at the univers ity using at . Then some learners think, oh, we can use a in Spanish as well. Trabajo a la universidad . However, that is not the case. In this type of cases where in English we use at , in, or on, as a location that is not moving, so location that is not moving, we simply use en in Spanish. So I work at the university is trabajo en la univers idad. The main thing happening here is that en is for a location where the thing or person is not moving in any direction . While a means that the thing or person is moving towards . Estoy en la estación. This means I am at the estación or I am in the station. I know they are different in English, but we don't have that distinction in Spanish. So we always use N . Now, if we want to use A, then we need something or someone to move forward. Por ejemplo, voy a la estación. I'm going to the station. I'm going towards the station. Estupendo. Pues pasamos al siguiente error . ¿Te recuerdas? ¿Sabes qué está ocurriendo aquí? Do you know why this is a mistake? As you may know, we have two ways of saying to remember in Spanish . Recordar algo and acord arse de algo . In general, they are interchangeable. So the tricky part is to remember the grammar involved in them. Recordar algo , but acordarse de algo . Acordarse is a reflexive verb and it requires the preposition de when saying the thing you remembered . But recordar is not reflexive and does not need a preposition. This means that if I want to ask you do you remember? My two ways of asking this is recuerdas or te acuerdas . The funny thing is that if using the verb recordar with a reflexive pronoun as te recuerdas, then you are saying or you are asking if you remember yourself. So it is not wrong, but I don't think that's what you actually want to ask, so just be careful. Now the best way to avoid this mistake is by repetition. For example, get the sentence do you remember and repeat it again and again and again in Spanish. Recuerdas recuerdas recuerdas or te acuerdas te acuerdas de acuerdas. This way you'll be familiarized with them and next time you need to say it, or to say do you remember? Then it will come up naturally and you will say it correctly. Pues llegamos al último error de este vídeo, que puede no sorprenderte. The next mistake is saying : Mi primo es 12 años. Or even things like: ¿Eres frío? What is happening here is that we are literally translating from English. Mi primo is 12 años is the literal and wrong translation of my cousin is 12 years old. And maybe you remember that in Spanish we use tener when talking about age, back in the time when you were doing A1 level classes. But in my experience, what learners tend to forget is that there are other situations where we use tener in Spanish