FREQUENT WRITING AND SPEAKING MISTAKES (1)

[NOTE: In difficult or typically confused cases, the phonological trancription is given to help you with the pronunciation. In these cases, when American and British English differs, only the British version is always supplied, but sometimes you have both here.]

This paper especially centres upon common confusions of certain words, usually due to interference with Spanish, at all levels, but they are mainly “intermediate” issues. Thus, this first part especially deals with a selection of important vocabulary (some basic, usually confused words) rather than grammar, although grammatical related points are discussed when relevant. Some topics are more complicated than is explained here, but you are only  expected to eventually learn this.

1)          DIE   [daɪd]        /  DIED   [daɪd]       /  DEAD   [ded]           /  DEATH   [deq]

Typical mistakes:                 * Did you know that Smith has dead this morning?

* The woman was lying died on the floor.

Die is a regular verb (die-died-died). The -ing form is spelt dying. (Cf. tie-tying, lie-lying)

When we got to the hospital, he had already died.

Dead is an adjective. The commonest opposites are alive (predicative use: He was still alive) and living (attributive use: a living language).

When we got to the hospital, he was already dead.

Latin is a dead language: it is no longer used as a mother tongue.

As with many other adjectives, you need a following noun to say un muerto: a dead man/woman/person. El gato vivo y el muerto: the dead cat and the living one. As with other (not many) adjectives, you can use the dead, but only with a plural noun idea (dead people): Let’s not criticise the dead: No critiquemos a los muertos. (Cf. the poor, the rich, the disabled, the French.)

The confusion between died (past participle) and dead is mainly due to the fact that both are rendered as muerto in Spanish. Ha muerto: He’s/She’s (=has) died; Está muerto/a: He’s/She’s (=is) dead.

Death is the related noun.

Death is a taboo in many cultures.

Life and death are major themes in literature.

2)          TRUE  [tru:]          /  TRUTH   [tru:q]

Typical mistakes:        * He said he had a cold on the phone, but it wasn’t truth.

                                      * Liars are people who don’t tell the true.

True is an adjective, while truth is its derived abstract noun with the Germanic suffix -th. (Cf. dead>death, wide> width, deep>depth, broad>bredth and strong>strength, for example.)

The confusion basically arises from the fact that we usually say ser verdad meaning ser verdadero, whereas in English (and other languages) one says to be true, not *to be truth. Of course, you could also say things like That is the simple truth. In short, use true (not truth) whenever verdadero (=cierto) would also be possible in Spanish.

Oh, that’s true. You’re right.

Do you think that’s true love?

Just tell me the truth. Don’t lie to me again.

We’d better find out the truth about this.

3)          TRAVEL  /  JOURNEY  [‘dʒ ɜ:ʳni]  /  TRIP  /  VOYAGE  [‘vɔɪ•ɪdʒ]

Typical mistake:                            * I hope you had a good travel.

                                                   * We haven’t done a journey for ages.

Travel is almost always an uncountable noun (the plural travels has a very restricted use). It means ‘travelling in general’, and cannot be used with an indefinite article. If you want to refer to a particular ‘piece of travel’, use another word, like journey or trip. Compare:

My hobbies are music, travel and butterfly-collecting. (=travelling)

Travel is much cheaper than it used to be. (=Travelling)

I hope you had a good journey. Are you tired?

How was your trip to the States?

Journey and trip are often used differently. Journey usually refers to the movement to and/ro from a place that is visited; trip means the journey and the visit together. Besides, trip is preferred when the referent is a pleasure excursion and with the word business:

 a business / weekend / holiday trip; a honeymoon trip to Venice

The verb to travel can be used in all cases:

I love travelling. (in general)

Are you travelling by train or by air?

A voyage always implies a journey by water, especially a long one in a ship (or in space, in a spaceship):

        

a voyage from London to Australia

 4)          THOUGH [ðəʊ,  ðoʊ]  /  THROUGH [qru: ]  /  THROW [qrəʊ, qroʊ]  /

THREW [qru:]  / THROWN [qrəʊn,  qroʊn]  / THOUGHT [qɔ:t] / THOROUGH [‘qʌrə]

The spelling, pronunciation and meaning of all these basic words are usually confused.

Though is used in a very similar way to although and even though. Through is a preposition and adverb implying a certain type of real or imaginary movement or direction. Throw is an irregular verb with a great deal of quasi-synonyms. The past tense is threw (pronounced the same way as through), and the past participle is thrown (pronounced as throne, Spanish trono). Thought is, for example, the noun related to the infinitive think (think-thought-thought). Thorough is an adjective whose meaning is, among others, ‘complete’, although you cannot always use it with this meaning; the adverb thoroughly is still more common. Compare.

I’d quite like to go out, (al)though it is a bit late.

It was a quiet party. I had a good time, though. (=however)

I looked through the window and suddenly realized it was snowing.

I went through a very hard period after the accident. (=underwent)

Don’t throw the ball into this basket, will you?

He threw a lot of stones at the passing trains for Aranjuez. (at implies an aggressive    
action)

Why haven’t you thrown the ball to me? (to does not imply the action is aggressive)

I’m so sorry I’ve scared you. I really thought you’d left.

The very thought that she had betrayed him made him still more furious.

Typing all those letters was a thorough waste of time.

Then mix all the ingredients thoroughly with a wooden spoon and just put the

         mixture in the fridge for four hours.

5)          FALL / FEEL

You know these two are basic, different, irregular verbs. Do not confuse the different forms, especially those of the Simple Past:

         fall - fell - fallen

         feel - felt - felt

6)          ‘GANAR’: WIN / BEAT / DEFEAT / EARN...

Typical mistake:         *My boy-friend won me at poker.

You win (or lose) a game, an argument, a battle, a prize, money, etc; but you beat (or are beaten by) the person you are playing, arguing or fighting against.

I usually win when we play.           I beat John at chess yesterday.

My boy-friend beat me at poker.

In many cases (e.g. sports and war) defeat and overcome (derrotar) is the same, or even a better option:

My school defeated / beat yours at football.

Russia was defeated in that war.

They were defeated / overcome in their attempt to reach the top of the mountain.

Use earn when you mean ‘get in return for work, in payment for a loan, or as a reward for one’s qualities’ [in the latter case, win is also possible]:

He used to earn only $ 1,000 a year.

I earn my living / my livelihood / my daily bread honestly.

The money earned 7% interest.

His achievements won/earned him respect and admiration.

It was her career as an actress that made her win/earn fame and fortune.

7)          ‘PERDER’ AND ‘PERDERSE’: MISS / LOSE / GET LOST / WASTE

Typical mistakes:        * I lost the best opportunity.

                                * I’ve lost the last train to Valdemoro.

                                * The little child lost himself in the crowd.

These two Spanish verbs are confusing. These are the basic clues:

-   Use lose in most cases when the Spanish verb is perder, from losing your keys to losing weight.

-   When the Spanish verb is perder but it is used in connection with a means of transport, use miss: miss the train / a plane / bus number 12 ...

-   Remember that when perder means malgastar, derrochar, desperdiciar, the basic English ver is waste, but you can also use lose for time: waste a lot of money at the casino, waste/lose your time doing nothing but sitting on the couch ...

-   When the Spanish verb is perderse and you mean an occassion, an oportunity, an event, use miss: miss many lessons, miss a good chance to score a goal, miss the concert, miss yesterday’s meeting ...

-   When the Spanish verb is perderse and you mean ‘not to know where you are’, use get lost: ‘The little child got lost in the shopping centre. He was lost for over an hour. Poor thing’.

Note that miss is usually translated as echar de menos, too; and that get/be lost (perderse / estar perdido) is just one of innumerable examples of get/be + adjective or participle, denoting, respectively, change of situation or state, and state. For example:

get wet / be wet:                         mojarse / estar mojado

get dark / be dark:                       oscurecer, hacerse oscuro / estar oscuro

get fat / be fat:                           engordar, ponerse gordo / estar gordo

get nervous / be nervous:             ponerse nervioso / estar nervioso

get interesting / be interesting:    ponerse o volverse intersante / estar o ser   

               interesante

get interested / be interested:     interesarse / estar interesado

get bored / be bored:                            aburrirse / estar aburrido

get married / be married:            casarse / estar casado

8)          ‘ESPERAR’: WAIT / HOPE / EXPECT

Typical mistakes are too many to mention.

In European languages at large, there is at least one verb for esperar, aguardar (wait) and another for esperar, tener la esperanza (hope). Usually, another for esperar, tener la expectativa, (expect) too. The origin of the Spanish (con)fusion of all three most probably started because when one is waiting for something to happen, very usually one really hopes that it will happen; similarly, one may be fairly sure that it will happen and, therefore, expects it as well. Think of yourself waiting for a bus! You are in a hurry and hope it will come at last. They normally come eventually, so one really expects it to come in the end.

There are two sets of basic clues I can give you. The first has to do with the related noun:

-   If the noun is espera (waiting) , use wait;

-   if the noun is esperanza (hope) , use hope;

-   if the noun is expetativa, expectación... (expectation) , use expect.

Of course we do not even use the nouns in a systematic way: in Spanish, teachers say Estoy en expectativa de destino (¡a la espera!); Calcula la esperanza matemática (¡la expectativa!), etc.

The second has to do with the good usage of Spanish subordinate clauses, which of course is not observed:

Espero a que / Aguardo a que venga el autobús. -  I’m waiting for the bus to come.

Espero que venga el autobús. -  I hope the bus will come.

Me espero que venga el autobús. -  I expect the bus will come.

Actually, people, instead, say espero y deseo (i.e., hope), and normally neither make these differences nor use aguardar (i.e., wait) or esperarse (i.e., expect), for example.

Typically, you will hear El gobierno espera reducirlo en un 5% , and all three interpretations are potentially correct.

Compare:

I’m sorry I’m late. Have I kept you waiting for so long?

I hope to become an important scientist one day.

The future looks promising. Scientists are already expecting to find a cure very                                                                                                                                soon.

¿Estoy esperando a que acabes? Use wait. Is it like a wish for the future? Use hope. Can you say alguien se espera que...? Use expect.

Other basic, secondarily related English verbs include look forward to. Do you remember this?

9)          ‘DECIR’: SAY / TELL

Typical mistakes:                 * She told that she’d be late.

* She said me that she’d be late.

* I told to the others what I wanted to do.

* You’re saying lies.

* I said them to shut up.

* ‘That’s right,’ she told.

Tell normally has to be followed by a personal direct object - we make it clear who we tell. Say is usually used without a personal object.

She told me that she’d be late.

She said that she’d be late.

I told the others what I wanted to do.

I said what I wanted to do.

Both tell and say can be followed by different kinds of objects referring to what is communicated. These can be vague expressions like a lot, too much, something, nothing, etc.

He didn’t tell me anything that I didn’t know already.

Stop - you’ve said more than enough.

        

Tell (not say) is also used in a few special expressions where the personal object can be left out. The most common ones are:

to tell (sb) a lie;

to tell (sb) the truth; 

to tell (sb) a story;

to tell the time (=to know how to read the clock);

to tell the difference (=to know or be able to explain the difference, as in These twins are supposed not to look the same, but I just can’t tell the difference between them - i.e., distinguish one from the other)

Say can be used with objects like a word, a name, a sentence, a phrase; tell cannot.

Dad, Alice said a naughty word this morning.

In direct speech (not in reported speech - see the previous chapter) say can be used with questions; for example, She said, ‘What do you want?’

Tell + object + infinitive is used to talk about orders, commands, advice, etc. Say cannot be used like this.

I told them to shut up.

My mother used to tell me not to talk to strange men.

Tell Charles to stop worrying and have a drink.

10)      SAY / ASK

Typical mistake:                  * He’s saying if you intend to stay for a long time.

Colloquially, decir is used in Spanish when preguntar is the exact verb (Dice que si vas a quedarte mucho tiempo). Ask (or a similar verb, like inquire), not say,  must be used in English.

He’s asking whether you intend to stay for a long time.

11)      ‘ROBAR’: STEAL / ROB

Typical mistakes:        *He has stolen the bank opposite my house .

                                *She robbed all my money.

Rob is a regular verb (rob-robbed-robbed), whereas the three basic forms of steal are steal-stole-stolen. Students usually confuse these three forms.

The basic difference is that you steal something but rob someone or a place. To help yourself, remember steal is like ‘taking away illegally’, but rob is like Spanish desproveer, despojar (un sitio o a alguien). If you can use llevarse (sin pagar), the verb is steal; if you can use quitarle, the right verb is rob. So people are robbed and dogs are stolen. What about a car? Both. Your car is stolen if someone takes it away for their own use; and your car is robbed if objects - not the car itself - in it are taken away without your permission. I no longer drive, so when someone says Me han robado el coche, I think it has been stolen, but sometimes it has simply been robbed (for instance, a CD-player which was inside has been stolen).

‘What did El Dioni steal?’  ‘A lot of money he was carryng in a van.’

I think that woman over there has just stolen one of your gold watches.

They robbed this bank last night. In fact, it’s been robbed several times recently.

‘I’ve been robbed twice this month’.’ When was the last time they robbed you?’

But sometimes sentences with steal contain a prepositional object with from, while sentences with rob can have one with of. Notice:

One of the paintings by Munch was stolen from this museum.

She has never stolen any money from me. I really trust this waitress.

This museum was robbed of one of Munch’s paintings.

You have robbed me of all my money and my whole life.

As you can see, a sentence with steal can always be transformed into one with rob, and vice versa (if the sentence is complex and does not only have the direct object, but also a prepositional object). Grammar changes are then necessary. In short, you can say either I know you once robbed that lady of an important sum of money or I know you once stole an important sum of money from that lady.

12)      KNOW / MEET

Typical mistakes:   * I immediately fell in love with him when we knew each other.

                                * I immediately fell in love with him when we met.

These verbs are never interchangeable. You may confuse them because of the possible, occasional Spanish translation conocerse. Look at these basic uses:

I’m meeting John at athe station at 10 p.m. tonight.

I immediately fell in love with him when we first met. It was definitely love at first sight.

I know my wife very well. We’ve known each other for forty years.

 I’m just getting to know London. I’ve only lived here for one year and keep on looking left before crossing a street, but I thing I know the city centre fairly well.

‘Do you know any famous people?’ ‘ Well, I’ve sometimes met some, but I don’t really know any, unless I can count Raquel Mosquera and Paco Porras’.

I’ve only met you twice, and you expect me to know you by now?

13)       ‘CONTAR’: TELL / COUNT

Typical mistake:                                     * Don’t count me again what happened.

In many European languages, the basic verb for narrating things (tell) is different from the one for adding things up or saying the numbers (count). Curiously enough (but by no means surprisingly), they are similar: for example, Italian contare/raccontare, German zählen/erzählen, in which the verb for narratives is derived from the mathematical verb, since when one tells a story, the picture in the human psyche is clear that they are in a way counting one event after the other (first, ...; second, ...).

In short, say Don’t tell me again what happened.

And I am not going to tell you anything else!

14)      ‘CERRAR’: CLOSE / CLOSE DOWN / SHUT / LOCK

These are the three basic verbs in this semantic field (of course, verbs such as close up, shut up and lock up also exist).

Use close or shut in most cases, like close / shut the door.

Use close down when referring to something (e.g. a shop) that is not going to open any more:

It’s a pity Sepu closed down some years ago. It was so cheap and convenient for

kitchenware and clothes.

Use lock when a key or a fastener are used. A closed door may not be locked. When people do not want to be robbed, they usually lock doors, windows, boxes, safes, etc.

15)      LAY / LIE

Typical mistakes:        *I found her laying on the floor asleep..

                                *I laid down and closed my eyes.

These two verbs are easily confused. Lay is a regular verb, except for its spelling. All its forms are: lay, lays, laying, laid, laid. It means ‘to put down carefully’, or ‘to put down flat’. It always has an object (i.e., is always used as a transitive verb).

I laid the papers out on the table.

Lay the tent down on the grass and I’ll try to see how to put it up.

[Have you realized this sentence only contains monosyllabic words - 17, to be precise? Not surprisingly, they are all but one native words, not borrowings from Latin, French, Greek, etc. You can even write a novel with words like these!]

Note the special expressions to lay a table (=to put plates, knives, etc on the table) and to lay an egg (a bird’s way of ‘having a baby’).

There are two verbs lie in English. The first one is etymologically related to lay, but is irregular and never has an object (it is intransitive). Its forms are lie, lies, lying. lay, lain. It basically means ‘to be down, to be flat’.

Don’t lie in bed all day. Get up and do some work.

I threw myself flat and lay motionless for ten minutes. (lie in the Simple Past)

The difference between lie and lay is similar to that between rise and raise.

The other verb lie is regular and means, of course, ‘to tell lies/untruths, not to tell the truth’.

You lied to me when you said you love me.

    In short: 

lay	laid	laid	poner estar, estar tumbado, yacer, estar situado mentir
lie	lay	lain
lie	lied	lied

                               

The pronunciations, respectively, are:

leɪ	leɪd	leɪd
laɪ	leɪ	leɪn
laɪ	laɪd	laɪd

 All of them are, therefore, regular.

16)      HEAR / LISTEN

Typical mistakes:        *Suddenly I listened a strange sound.

                                *I was hearing some music at 10 last night.

As you can see from these mistakes, we do not always clearly differentiate between oír and escuchar in Spanish.

Hear is irregular (hear-heard-heard). Herd (a homophone of heard) is a very different word in English.

When we just want to say that sounds come to our ears, we use the verb hear. (Note that if listen is followed by an object, the preposition to must be used.) Compare:

Suddenly I heard a strange noise.

I heard some people passing in the street.

Hello? Hello? Can you hear me?

Listen carefully, please.

I heard them talking in the next room, but I didn’t really listened to what they were saying.

We use hear when we talk about experiencing musical performances, radio broadcasts, talks, lectures, etc.

Did you hear Jack’s talk on Tuesday?

I heard Oistrakh play the Mendelssohn concerto last night.

But: I spent the night listening to CDs. (no public performance)

Hear is not normally used in progressive tenses. Instead of saying *I am / was hearing we use can or could with the infinitive.

I can hear somebody coming.

The difference between hear and listen (to) is similar to the difference between see and look (at) (or watch).

17)      COSTUME [‘kɒstju:m]   /   CUSTOM  [‘kʌstəm]    /   CUSTOMS  [‘kʌstəmz]

Costume (a countable noun) means ‘clothes’, ‘dress’, especially clothes used for ceremonial occasions. A custom is a traditional activity or ceremony. Customs is aduana in Spanish.

The girls were wearing their national costume(s).

A lot of the old customs are dying out now.

The man that the customs officer suspected was smuggling hats.

        

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