The ten most common mistakes

Hello folks!

I read a very interesting article about the ten most common mistakes made by Spanish speakers a few days ago and I found it so revealing that I thought it would be quite interesting to write about some of these mistakes in my blog and share them with you.

• One common mistake made by Spanish students takes place when the students avoid using modal verbs. Modal verbs are far more popular in English than in Spanish and ESL students tend to use other forms that sound a bit less natural to native speakers. Example: I will possibly (might)  go to the party. The use of "would" for narrating past habitual actions is also very common in English and generally avoided by students. Example: I used to study a lot and I used to go swimming every day. I used to (would) dedicate a few hours a day to practise some sport and have a break from so much studying. 
• Another typical mistake is the overuse of the form "will" for future expressions avoiding using other structures that also express future like present continuous, future of going to or even present simple. The choice of which structure to use usually depends on the speaker´s act of speaking: making a prediction, talking about a plans or a decision, reading a timetable, etc. The use of "will" for any future expressions sounds unnatural and it shows a clear lack of fluency. Ex: I will (am getting) get married next summer and I will have a great day. 
• The verbs know and meet are quite distinctive in English and spansih speakers tend to misuse the verb "know" and use this verb as a translation of "conocer" regardless of its meaning. Example: Tracy is very friendly. I knew (met) her in a party a few weeks ago.
• Prepositions are also tricky for ESL students since there are three prepositions that mean "en" in English: at, in, on. It is very important to learn the prepositions with the words they go. Sometimes, using the wrong preposition can also change the meaning of the sentence. Example: My mother shouted to me at lunch time. (to get my attention) - My mother shouted at me at lunch time (because she was angry) 
• Phrasal Verbs are very common verbs in English and ESL students tend to avoid using them when speaking or writing. Their use is key to show fluency and command of the language. Students tend to use forms from Latin instead of using phrasal verbs which are far more common in natural English. Examples: I am going to investigate (look into) the matter. I won't tolerate (put up with) your behaviour any longer! 
• The repetition of the main verb instead of using the auxiliary is another typical mistake often heard in spanish speakers English and which sounds unnatural. Example: - Did you enjoy the film? - Yes, I enjoyed it. (Yes, I did)
• Regarding pronunciation and spelling,  one of the most common mistakes by spanish speakers is the insertion of an extra "e" before words beginning with an s + consonant. Example: (e)strange, (e)special, (e)stressing... The "h" is another sound that often causes problems to spanish speakers. It is often pronounced as a "j" when the correct English pronunciation is much softer than in Spanish. 
• False friends are words which are often confused with Spanish terms  because they look or sound similar but they have a different meaning. Spanish students of English may be tempted to use these false friends instead of using the proper word. Have a look at the following example with the real meaning in brackets.   I actually (currently) have two children. Other popular false friends are: embarrased (ashamed), argument (oral disagreement), conductor (public transport employee in charge of collecting fares or tickets), large (big), carpet (fabric for covering floors), bomber (airplane equipped to carry and drop bombs) or sensible (with good sense). 

So, what do you think? Do you think you make any of these when speaking or writing in English? I´d love to know your opinions if you do! Have a lovely week!

Been or not been, that´s the question.

Good morning!

The present perfect tense is a tense that learners of English should use more. Its use is not so habitual in Spanish and this is maybe the reason why students do not use it as much as they should. As you all probably know, we use the present perfect when: 1) we talk or write about past experiences that have a result in the present situation. Example: I have learnt a lot of vocabulary (that means that now I know a lot of vocabulary). 2) We also use the present perfect for recent past actions when the specific time of the action is not mentioned or understood. For example: I have done the exercise. 3) Finally, we also use the present perfect with certain words like: "just", "since", "for",  "already" and "yet". Example: I have just called your friend and she won´t be coming today

However, we also have a variation of the present perfect in English that is called Present Perfect Continuous. So, when do we use this progressive form of the present perfect? We use the continuous form when:

• The action that started in the past still continues. Example: I have been learning French for two years (and I will continue doing it)
• We want to put an emphasis on the repetitive or temporary nature of an action. The focus is on the duration of the action. Examples: He has been knocking on the door for 5 minutes! (repetition). Sara has been living in a friend´s flat (temporarily) 

As a kind of conclusion about both verb forms we could state that: 

• Present Perfect simple is about the completion of an action, the result whereas the Present Perfect Continuous is about the duration of an action that may have finished or not. Compare: 
 A: I have run the marathon!  vs B: I have been running for 5 hours! 

• Present Perfect Continuous is normally used with action verbs and the Present Perfect Simple is normally used with both action and non action verbs. Some verbs can be both action and non action verbs depending on their meaning. Compare: I have been thinking about going to Italy next summer vs *I have been thinking that I don´t like war. (In the first example, "think" is used as an action verb whereas in the second example it is used as a non action verb)

Now, what have you been doing these days? Have you been busy? Have a nice weekend!

Collocations

What is a collocation?

Collocations are simply common word combinations. A collocation could also be defined as a word or phrase that is often used with another word or phrase, in a way that ​sounds correct to native people but might not be expected from the meaning. 
There are many types of collocations in English and they could be related to grammar or vocabulary, depending on their nature. According to the Online Oxford Dictionary, there are more than 150,000 collocations registered in English and these combinations could be made with different head words as nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and prepositions.
An example of a collocation made up by adjective + noun could be: "a bright idea".There are also many collocations made up by an adjective and a preposition. Have a look at the following collocations chart where you can find many of the most useful adjective+preposition collocations: 

• If something is crowded with... ,it is full or almost full. Example: The concert was a success. the pub was crowded with crazy fans. 

• Fed up with means to be bored of something/somebody or annoyed with somebody. Example: I am very fed up with my sister. She keeps stealing my things!

• If someone is keen on something, that person is very enthusiastic about or interested in that activity. Example: All my students are very keen on taking part in the class Christmas´play.

Christmas is coming!

Good morning!

Yes. It´s a fact. Christmas is around the corner. We may have been seeing some "turrones" on the supermarket shelves but there has not been strong evidence of Christmas mood just yet. However, two significant things have happened in the last few days. Two events that have made me realize that one more Christmas is coming very soon. First, it was the arrival of the Christmas tree at the Rockefeller Plaza in New York. As the Christmas lights lighting in London, the arrival of the huge Christmas tree at the famous Manhattan plaza is a milestone in the yearly race to Christmas.

Secondly, it was the release of the new John Lewis Christmas commercial. John Lewis is one of the most famous department stores (1) in London, the equivalent to our "El Corte Inglés". As everybody know Christmas commercials are very important parts of the Christmas atmosphere and they often cause great expectation. Everybody remembers our commercial from "Famosa" (Las muñecas de Famosa) or even the more recent commercial from our National Lottery from last year which caused a great stir (2) among viewers. This year, the John Lewis commercial has not let us down (3) sending a tender and slushy (4) two minute message to everyone who has someone to show his love to this Christmas. It is called: "man on the moon" and hashtagged #ManOnTheMoon. I personally think it is a beautiful moving commercial and it is thanks to works like these that I really find some excitement in the festive season coming. Let´s see what you think. Feel welcome to leave your comments letting me know what you think of the John Lewis commercial!

1. Department Store (n): a large retail store offering a variety of merchandise and services and organised in separate departments. 
2. To cause a stir (idm): to cause a lot of interest or excitement.
3. To let someone down (phr.v): to disappoint or betray someone
4. Slushy (adj): sentimental, weakly emotional

Life is just a bowl of cherries

Good morning!

Today, I am going to introduce some of my favourite English sayings... I love sayings and proverbs and I think that you will love these ones too.

• The first one is the title of a book I have. I bought it ages ago and it is one of my literary treasures. The book is called: "Life is just a bowl of cherries". It is a quite sweet saying, isn´t it? The meaning of this expression is that life is very pleasant. However, it is often used  to mean the opposite. For example, we could use this sentence in one of those days when everything seems to go wrong. Have a look at the following dialogue: 

 - Hey Anna, how are you?
 - Hi Peter. I´m a bit angry. My sister has just taken my car without permission and it was raining so I  had to go to work on public transport.
 - Oh well, life is just a bowl of cherries!

• Another of my favourite ones is about karma and how everything that you do in life pays you back. The saying is: "What goes around comes around". It means that the results of things that one has done will someday have an effect on the person who did those things. We can see the use of this expression in the following example: 

- Hi Jane. Do you remember the boss of our previous company? 
- Yes, Richard was his name. Wasn´t it? 
- Yes, him. Well, amazingly enough, he has been fired! He deserved it after all that he did to us. 
- Well... what goes around comes around. Don´t you think?   

• The third of the sayings I am introducing today is quite graphic and similar to the first one. We use it when we want to remind someone of the importance of having more than one plan for the future. The saying is: "Don´t put all your eggs in one basket". It means that one should always have a backup plan and shouldn´t risk all his money or time in following just one plan. In fact, this is one of the sayings that I follow most. You can see the saying being used in the following example: 

- I know what I want. I am going to study drama and become a famous actress. 
- Lena, are you sure of that? Study something else, just in case. Don´t put all your eggs in one basket!  

Which one do you like most? Smile and enjoy the weekend. At the end of the day... Life is a bowl of cherries!

The more the merrier

Good morning boys and girls!

Do you believe in what this saying means? 

"The more the merrier" is a popular saying made up by two comparative constructions, or at least a comparative and a half, that means that you are happy for more people to join a group or an activity you are taking part in.

 The structure is similar to the one formed by two comparative clauses. This construction is used to express that one thing depends on another. Have a look at the following example:

"The more money you have the more ambitious you are"

In this construction, the degree of ambition you may have depends on the amount of money you have. There exists a relation of dependency between both conditions.We can use "more" and "less" in this type of construction and we do not always have to use adjectives in the sentences. Other examples might be:

"The less work you do the lazier you become", "The more friendly you are the more friends you have" or "The more untidy you are the less responsible you become".

This construction is known as "Correlative Comparative" and it is also very popular in shorter forms where the subject and verb are omited like the one in the title of this post (where the subject "we" and the verb "be" are omited) or in some other situations like the following:

• When being asked how you take your coffe: 

- How do you like your coffee, sir?
- The stronger the better. (it is, is omited)

• When someone answers a question regarding when to start a task: 

- When should I start working?
- The earlier the better.  (you start is omited)

So, what do you think about this structure? Do you like it?

Leave me your comments if you please... the more the better! 

Screaming Jenny

Hi folks! 

Just a few days for Halloween and in order to get ready for the "scariest" day of the year, here I bring you a ghost story to read. Before that, some tips for reading that you may find useful when dealing with an English text. When reading in English,  you should remember that:  

• You do not need to understand every single word

What you should do instead is: 

• Guess the meaning of unknown words by the context. In order to do this, you should:  

1. Guess what kind of word the unknown term is: is it a verb, a noun, an adjective, an adverb...?
2. Think about the intention of the word in the text. Is it a word with positive or negative meaning? 
3. Try to substitute that word by a word that you may think that can mean the same and check if the sentence makes sense

• Understand the story as a whole and not try to understand every single word. 

Nevertheless, you will find a glossary of some terms of the story below.  
The story is an adaptation from a very popular ghost story from the American folklore called: "Screaming Jenny".  There you go, I hope you like it... 

Screaming Jenny

"The old storage sheds (1) along the tracks were abandoned shortly after the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad was built, and it wasn't long before the poor people of the area moved in. The sheds provided shelter (2) - of a sort - although the winter wind still pierced through every crevice (3), and the small fireplaces that the poor constructed did little to keep the cold at bay.
A gentle, kindly woman named Jenny lived alone in one of the smaller sheds. She had fallen on hard times, and with no family to protect her, she was forced to find work where she could and take whatever shelter was available to someone with little money. Jenny never had enough to eat and in winter her tiny fire barely kept her alive during the cold months. Still, she kept her spirits up (4) and tried to help other people when they took sick or needed food, sometimes going without herself so that another could eat.
One cold evening in late autumn, Jenny sat shivering over her fire, drinking broth (5) out of a wooden bowl, when a spark flew from the fire and lit her skirts on fire. Intent on filling her aching stomach, Jenny did not notice her flaming clothes until the fire had burnt through the heavy wool of her skirt and began to scorch (6) her skin. Leaping up in terror, Jenny threw her broth over the licking flames but the fluid did nothing to douse (7) the fire. In terror, Jenny fled from the shack (8) and ran along the tracks, screaming for help as the flames engulfed her body.
The station was not far away, and instinctively Jenny made for it, hoping to find someone to help her. Within moments, her body was a glowing inferno and Jenny was overwhelmed by pain. Her screams grew more horrible as her steps slowed. She staggered (9) blindly onto the tracks just west of the station, a ball of fire that barely looked human. In her agony, she did not see the glowing headlight of the train rounding the curve, or hear the screech of the breaks as the engineer spotted her fire-eaten figure and tried to stop. A moment later, her terrible screams broke off as the train mowed her down (10).
Alerted by the whistle, the crew from the station came running as the engineer stopped the train and ran back down the tracks toward poor dead Jenny, who was still burning. The men doused the fire and carried her body back to the station. She was given a pauper's funeral and buried in an unmarked grave in the local churchyard. Within a few days, another poverty-stricken family had moved into her shack, and Jenny was forgotten.
Forgotten that is, until a month later when a train rounding the bend west of the station was confronted by a screaming ball of fire. Too late to stop, the engineer plowed over(11) the glowing figure before he could bring the train to a screeching halt. Leaping from the engine, he ran back down the tracks to search for a mangled, burning body, but there was nothing there. Shaken, he brought his train into the station and reported the incident to the stationmaster. After hearing his tale, the stationmaster remembered poor, dead Jenny and realized that her ghost had returned to haunt (12) the tracks where she had died.
To this day, the phantom of Screaming Jenny still appears on the tracks on the anniversary of the day she died. Many an engineer has rounded the curve just west of the station and found himself face to face with the burning ghost of Screaming Jenny, as once more she makes her deadly run towards the Harpers Ferry station, seeking in vain for someone to save her"

Glossary: 

1. Shed (n): small house used for storage
2. Shelter (n,v): refuge(n), to protect (v)
3. Crevice (n): crack, fissure
4. To keep spirits up (v): keep happy
5. Broth (n): kind of soup made with boiled meat
6. Scorch (v): burn badly
7. Douse (v): get something wet, to put out a fire
8. Shack (v): crude building, home.
9. Stagger (v): walk unsteadily.
10. Mow down (v): to knock someone over, to hit someone and throw him/her to the floor
11. Plow over (v): hit
12. Haunt(v): appear (generally a ghost)

What do you think? Did you like it? let me know if you do... 

Finally, and since we are just a few days away from Halloween,  I am introducing you to some other vocabulary / expressions that you may find interesting: 

• Creepy (adj): scary. The house where she lives is a very creepy house. All of its windows are tinted.
• Spooky (adj): scary, sinister. The sight of a little girl standing on the middle of the road at night is a spooky vision for any driver. 
• To freak out (v): To get angry, scared. When he kneeled down, took out a ring from his pocket and proposed I freaked out. 
• Give (somebody) the creeps (v expr, slang): To frighten someone or to make someone anxious (creeps)   1. Everytime the neighbour comes to complain about something, she gives me the creeps! 
• Give (somebody) the shivers / the chill. To frighten someone or to make someone nervous. Your sister is always stressed. Everytime she comes into the room, she gives me the shivers. 

Any other similar expressions you may know? Share them with us by leaving a comment below! Many thanks and have a happy pre-Halloween week!