3 easy-to-fix mistakes
Mistake number 1. Confusion between “this” and “next”
Today is Monday.
Your colleague says: “Let’s meet up next Thursday for lunch. I will pick you up at 1.30.”
Depending on whether your colleague is Spanish or Anglo Saxon, you could each understand something completely different.
For an Anglo-Saxon, that means we will have lunch 10 days from today. A Spanish person is thinking of 3 days from now.
This mistake is very, very common. You can imagine the mix-ups that happen!
Here is an easy way to remember: “This week, this ____day. Next week, next ____day.”
Just to be sure and to avoid any mistakes, could say “Let’s meet up next Thursday, 25, for lunch. I will pick you up at 1.30."
Mistake number 2. The words what, where, when, how and who are not always the start of a question
Here are some typically erroneous statements:
- "Would you please tell me what track do I have to prepare?"
- “Send me an email to confirm where will we meet.”
- “I don’t remember what did he say.”
- “Can you tell me when would he like to arrive, morning or afternoon?”
These sentences contain a very common mistake for Spanish speakers. The question form is not necessary.
Yes, the second part of each sentence begins with a “question word” – what, where, when. This often provokes people to think that they should be constructing a question. They then add auxiliaries, invert auxiliaries and subjects and generally become confused.
There is no question in the second part of the sentence. So that second part should just be a simple affirmative.
Here are the correct versions:
- "Would you please tell me what track
do I have to prepare?"
- “Send me an email to confirm where we will meet.” (N.B. Not "[...] where will we meet.")
- “I don’t remember what he said.” (N.B. Not "[...] what he did say.")
- “Can you tell me when he would like to arrive, morning or afternoon?” (N.B. Not "[...] when would he like to [...]")
Mistake number 3. Saying “I used to do things very carefully.”
And not really understanding that this is not at all what you mean.
An English speaker will understand that now, today, you do NOT do things very carefully. You don’t take the time or the care with them that you used to.
What you really wanted to say is that today, yesterday and tomorrow you are a careful person; that you do things carefully as a regular habit, NOW.
So, what you should have said is: “I am used to doing things carefully.”
Which is very different from:
I used to do something = I did something in the past and NOW I don't do it.
Here are some examples:
- “I used to smoke.” = Now, I don’t smoke.
- “I used to use this computer program at a high level.” = Now, I don’t. I have forgotten it or I don’t have the new version.
- “I used to speak often with the clients.” = Now, I never speak to them.
Drop us an email with the correct versions and we will let you know if you are right.
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