Episode 112: Some Common English Mistakes

Listen to this Episode of "Coffee with Gringos" here or on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play and Stitcher.

Ian: Hey everyone, you are listening to “Coffee with Gringos.” I'm Ian Kennedy.

Paige: And I'm Paige Sutherland.

Ian: And today, we thought we would take a look at some of the most common mistakes that we hear as teachers when we're teaching our classes—especially with Spanish speakers—because something we notice in classes, there are a lot of translations that when you take them literally from Spanish to English, we have an idea of what we think it should be, but oftentimes we have to slightly change the translation or the wording to make sure that it makes sense in English. So, there are a lot of these common mistakes that we hear in our classes, so we thought it would be beneficial to discuss those with you guys today. So, remember, as always, if you get lost, go online and check out that audio guide and transcript. Okay, Paige, whenever we're teaching our English classes, it's pretty common to have a student, whether they are a lower level or even an advanced level, to have some mistakes that are commonly mistranslated. So, I can think of a handful of them to start but what are some examples that you can think of from your experience?

Paige: So, most of the students that we teach are pretty intermediate, upper level, and even though they are so advanced, there's always just these common little mistakes. Because, like you said, you're trying to translate from one language to the other, and sometimes that's just awkward. It doesn't work in English. And so, one that I would have from all my students and I would always have to explain is “funny” versus “fun”. So, a common question I always start with my classes is, “How was your weekend?” And they would be like, “Oh, it was really funny.” And I'm like, “So, something really funny happened? What's the joke? What is it?” And they would describe something where they went and saw a movie or did something that was “fun”. And so, I'd have to explain to them that “funny” and “fun” aren't the same. “Funny” is more ‘ha-ha’ comical. There's a joke, there's laughter, where “fun” is enjoying yourself and having a good time. That was something that a lot of my students would always trip up on.

Ian: That is a common one that I hear a lot too. And it's something that I always have to clarify, to say, “Oh, okay so something ‘funny’ happened. Tell me what it was?” Usually, by the end of the story, nothing funny actually happened—it was more something enjoyable. So, I would have to say, “I know this is hard but try to remember that funny is “gracioso”, “chistoso” and “fun” is more “divertido”. So, it's something more that you enjoy than something that's comical. But it can be confusing because a lot of the adjectives in English do end with that “y” sound—"happy”, “silly”—and so it can be really common to want to add that sound to the end and assume that it's the correct use of the word. So, like you mentioned, even with some of my advanced students, I have to say, “Okay, remember, we have a difference between ‘funny’ and ‘fun’.”

Paige: What about you? What's one that you hear a lot?

Ian: So, one that I hear quite a bit and I think mostly with my more Business English students, they use the word “investigations” instead of using the word “research”, which translates literally from Spanish, “investigaciónes” so it makes sense to literally translate it. But I have to explain that “research” is something more, I guess, more academic or more scientific or you're doing “research”—you're trying to discover new findings about something. And “investigations” is similar but “investigation” is more towards, I think, crime and law. So, a detective, or the police, they are doing investigations, they are investigating, but they aren't really doing “research”, necessarily. So, while the words are super similar, the context is really important.

Paige: I think, unless you're in law enforcement, the word you would most likely use is “research”. If you are a journalist, you’re doing research. It's Google searching, it's trying to find more information, which more of us common folk use. And, like you said, “investigations” is more criminal, police work. I would hear that one as well. Another one that I would hear all the time, and like you said, it's very common because you're translating directly from Spanish to English, is in Spanish, “breakfast”, “lunch” and “dinner” are verbs, but in English, they're not verbs. You always have to have a verb before it because “breakfast”, “lunch” and “dinner” are nouns and so you could say, “I have dinner” or in the past, “I had dinner”, or “I eat” present, or “I ate dinner.” So, you always need a verb, whether it's “eat” or “have” when you're talking about breakfast, lunch or dinner. And so, I would hear all the time from my students, they would talk about their weekend they would be like, “Oh, I ‘dinnered’ with my good friend in Santiago.” And it's like, “Oh, you ‘had’ dinner. You ate dinner.” So again, very minor but it's just something that's awkward and if you said it to a native English speaker, they would be like, “huh.” You don't lose understanding but it just sounds very awkward.

Ian: And that's a good point to make too with all these mistakes, I try to tell my students, for the most part, you'll be understood—what you're saying—but if you really want to sound more natural, more native, more fluent, it's really these little things—these little fine-tunings—that really take you to that next level. So, while it seems really minor to a native, it's a pretty big difference. Another one that I get a lot that I always have to help students with is using the verb, “make” instead of using the verb “take” when we talk about choices or plans or decisions. I'll have students tell me, “We need to take a decision for a project at work.” And, I have to tell them, really, we should be using the verb “make” when we are talking about choices, decisions.” So, we never say “take a choice” or “take a decision” or “take a plan.” We always want to replace that with “make”— “make a plan”, “make an arrangement”, “make a decision”, “make a choice.” And this is hard because this is another one of those direct translations from Spanish to English, “tomar decisions”, “to take decisions.” So, sometimes we have trouble, especially, with some Spanish verbs like “tomar” or “poner”. We see that these kinds of verbs can often get lost in translation and I think this is one of the most common ones that I discovered with students. And again, I have to note, usually they are students who are upper intermediate to nearly advanced. So, these kinds of mistakes aren't limited to just beginners.

Paige: And to piggyback off of that, a very common one that, like you said, I hear from my advanced students, is when they're talking about age. Because again, not direct translation in Spanish, when you say “tengo treinte años”, but in English, you use the verb “ser”. So, it would be like, “I am thirty years old.” You never use “tener”. You don't say “have.” I've had students that are so advanced, fluent, and they still say it. It's just one of those mistakes that they just they can't kick. And so, it always kills me when they're like, “Oh, you're saying ‘have’ again. You have to say, ‘I am or she is 20 years old.’” That was one that I heard from a lot of my advanced students is with age they always use “have” instead of the verb “to be.”

Ian: And what's funny with that one is that it actually affects me as an English speaker because the more that I've spoken Spanish, the more that I've taught English, sometimes I catch myself making this mistake when I'm talking in English. For example, I might say, “When I had fifteen years…” And then I say, “What are you doing? What are you saying? This isn't how we talk.” And I have to correct myself, so it even rubs off on other people when you hear it a lot. And I'm glad you mentioned this one, because it's a really big one. Of course, it's one of the first things you mention to someone when you meet them. In an introduction, you're going to say your name, where you're from, and how old you are. These are really important facts to give someone and, so if right off the bat, right at the beginning, you tell someone, “I have thirty years old.” It's going to be a red flag at the beginning for the conversation. Again, nothing too huge, but if you want to sound more fluent, more native, more natural, then it's necessary.  

Paige: So true. Like you said, you don't lose understanding. It's just the person listening would be like, “Okay, they’re learning English.”

Paige: CWG officially has over 100 episodes, and we are among the “Top Podcasts in Chile.” And that's thanks to you. But we are always working to grow our audience so, make sure to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, Tik Tok, and even LinkedIn. But most importantly—rate, review, and share us with all your friends, family, and coworkers. And if you want to take your English education to the next level, sign up for private or group classes at dynamicenglish.cl.

Paige: Another one that I heard quite a bit was around “birthday”. And so, a lot of people know the birthday song, I think it's something that you're just taught as a kid in the classroom when you're learning English. And so, I had a lot of students that thought when you're talking about birthdays that you always needed to put” happy.” I've had a few students ask me, “When is your ‘happy birthday’?” I'm like, it's kind of cute—I like it—but it's like, “Oh no. It's just ‘birthday.’” There's no “happy” unless you're wishing someone a “happy birthday.” I heard that quite a few times from students of like, “When is your ‘happy birthday’?” What about you? Did you hear anything around birthdays?

Ian: I do agree with you. I think that's pretty cute, kind of funny, I kind of like that. Maybe we should change it. We should change it to say, it's always the “happy birthday.” Yeah, I kind of like it. I haven't heard a lot exactly what you just mentioned, but a few times I've heard someone use “birthday” as a verb, which we can't do in English. So, for example, someone might say, “I will birthday next week.” Or use it in a verb form like this and so you have to say, “Yeah, I know you want to use it as a verb but we have to say, ‘I have a birthday next week’.” Or “I have my birthday next week”. The inclusion of that verb is really important. We can't use “birthday” as a verb. It has to be just a noun by itself. And so, the last one we're going to talk about in today's episode is something we hear a lot with referring to family members. In English, it's a little bit different than in Spanish because in Spanish, you can sort of collectively lump different family members together. So, in Spanish, you can say “padres” and that is inclusive of the father and the mother together. So, you can say “padres” and that can represent both of them. But in English, we can't say “fathers”, we have to say “father and mother”. We have to separate them so they're not collective. This is a big one that I get in classes. They say, “Oh, this weekend I want to go visit my ‘fathers’. In that case, we have to clarify that okay, you're talking about your parents. You're talking about your father and your mother. So, the word is slightly different. And we see this with other family members as well, right?

Paige: Exactly. Yeah, this was a very common mistake that I would pick up on like “hermanos” is “brothers”, but if you said that in English, that would mean it's only male. If you want to talk about “brothers and sisters” you would say “siblings”, because that would be feminine and masculine. And so, unlike in Spanish when you do plural, it's always masculine and it can include all genders. In English, no. If you said “brothers”, it would be all male, so you'd have to say “siblings” or “brothers and sisters.” And that's something I also get asked a lot where “cousins”, “primos” is, “Oh, what's the feminine version of cousin?” There is none—” cousin” is all genders. So, my cousin could be male or female. You would have to ask. There's no feminine or masculine version of it, and that always is something where my students would be like, “What?”

Ian: Right, exactly. And you mentioned like you have to go a step further in English in these kinds of situations because, in Spanish, you can say, “mi prima” and we understand that it's my female cousin.

Paige: Exactly.

Ian: But in English, you could say “my cousin” and then someone would have to say, “Your boy cousin or your girl cousin?” “My girl cousin.” We have to go a whole step further. So, I think, actually, in this way, Spanish has the upper hand because it's less work. In English, you have to do more work to get the context clear. But it's so important in that sense, to understand to someone who's learning English. And it's applicable as well to in Spanish, when you say “tios” you can say, “tio y tia”. So, “aunt” and “uncle”, you can say those together kind of like “padres”. You can say “tios”, and that's inclusive of both.  But in English, you can't say “my uncles” meaning all of them together. You have to say “my uncle and my aunt” or “my aunts and uncles”. So again, we go a step further with that one as well.

Paige: Yeah so, these are just a handful of common mistakes and, like me and Ian said, most of them you don't lose understanding. Whoever you're speaking to will get the general idea, it's just if you want to sound more native, more fluent, these are some mistakes that if you correct, you're going to really up your game and people will be impressed. Again, if you get lost, check out that audio guide and transcript online. Thanks for listening.

Ian: We'll see you next time.

Paige: “Coffee with Gringos” was brought to you by Dynamic English, where you can learn English simply by using it. If you’re interested in taking classes or just want to learn more, go to our website at dynamicenglish.cl. Thanks for listening.

Key Vocabulary, Phrases & Slang:

1.     awkward (adjective): uncomfortable; strange.

a.     She asked him a very awkward question.

2.     to trip up (phrasal verb): to make a mistake.

a.     I always trip up on grammar questions.

3.     common folk (noun): normal, average person without special responsibilities.

a.     The way that the common folk speak is different from politicians.

4.     fine-tunings (noun): small adjustments in order to improve the function of something.

a.     We just need to make some fine-tunings and you will sound more fluent.

5.     to piggyback (verb): to repeat or support something already said; to reiterate.

a.     To piggyback on the last comment, I think we should expand the project budget.

6.     to kick (verb): to stop doing something.

a.     Mixing up the verb tenses is a mistake that she can’t kick.  

7.     to rub off on (idiom): to affect or influence someone.

a.     My Italian roommate’s phrases began to rub off on me and I could understand some of the language.

8.     right off the bat (idiom): at the very beginning.

a.     Right off the bat, I knew he was British from his accent.

9.     red flag (noun): something concerning or noticeably different that is a warning.  

a.     Seeing lots of police in the street was a red flag that something was about to happen.

10.  to lump (verb): to put many things together whether they are similar or not.

a.     The two cities are usually lumped in together in travel books just because they are both located in Asia.

11.  to pick up on (phrasal verb): to notice.

a.     I picked up on her Southern accent as soon as she spoke to us.

12.  upper hand (noun): the advantage.

a.     He has the upper hand since he had more time to study for the exam.

13.  to up one’s game (idiom): to improve one’s skills or talents.

a.     Study these common mistakes in order to up your English game.