Common English Errors by Spanish Speakers
CEFR B1-C1 • Spanish → English • The 30 most common L1 interference errors at work
Why your Spanish keeps showing up in your English
Spanish and English share Latin roots, similar punctuation, and so much overlapping vocabulary that translating word for word almost works. Almost. The problem is that the small differences in the two languages — verb tense logic, article use, prepositions after specific verbs — show up at exactly the moments when you're trying to sound professional.
This page collects the thirty errors that I hear most often from native Spanish speakers working at international companies. Each entry shows the wrong English version (the one your brain produces from Spanish), the right English version, and a short explanation of why the languages diverge at that specific point. The goal is not to make you ashamed of mistakes; it is to give you a checklist you can run through before sending an important email.
Group 1: Verb tense and aspect
Spanish uses the present tense for situations where English requires the present continuous, and vice versa. The two systems are not parallel.
"I work on the migration this week." → "I'm working on the migration this week."
ES Spanish uses trabajo en la migración esta semana. The present simple is fine in Spanish for an action happening right now and finishing soon. English requires the present continuous for the same meaning.
"Yesterday I have sent the report." → "Yesterday I sent the report."
ES Spanish (especially in Spain) freely uses he enviado with specific past time markers. English does not. If you say yesterday, last week, at three o'clock, or any specific past moment, you must use simple past. Present perfect requires an unspecified or continuing time frame.
"I work here since three years." → "I have worked here for three years." or "I have been working here for three years."
ES Spanish desde hace tres años packages "since" and "for" into one phrase, while Spanish present tense covers the duration. English splits the two: since for a starting point (since 2022), for for a duration (for three years), and present perfect for the verb.
"Tomorrow I will meet with the client at ten." → "Tomorrow I'm meeting with the client at ten."
ES Spanish freely uses the future tense (me reuniré) for any future action. English reserves "will" for predictions and decisions made at the moment of speaking. For a meeting already on your calendar, English prefers present continuous.
Group 2: Articles (a, an, the)
Spanish uses definite articles in many places where English drops them, and English requires articles where Spanish drops them. The mismatch is one of the loudest signals of a Spanish-speaking writer.
"The information is power." → "Information is power."
ES Spanish requires the article: La información es poder. English drops "the" when speaking about a concept in general (love, freedom, technology, information).
"The Microsoft is hiring." → "Microsoft is hiring."
"The doctor Garcia called." → "Doctor Garcia called."
ES Spanish often pairs the article with proper nouns and titles. English uses no article before brand names, company names, or titles followed by a name.
"She is engineer at Google." → "She is an engineer at Google."
ES Spanish drops the indefinite article before professions: Ella es ingeniera. English requires "a" or "an" before any singular profession or role.
"On the Monday we have the meeting." → "On Monday we have the meeting."
"After the lunch I'll review it." → "After lunch I'll review it."
ES Spanish uses el lunes and la comida. English drops "the" before days of the week and meal names in general references.
Group 3: Prepositions after specific verbs
The verb-preposition pairs in English rarely match Spanish word-for-word.
| Spanish-influenced (wrong) | English (right) | Why |
|---|---|---|
| depends of | depends on | Spanish depende de; English uses on. |
| married with | married to | Spanish casado con; English uses to. |
| consist in | consist of | Spanish consistir en; English uses of. |
| arrived to the office | arrived at the office | Spanish llegar a; English uses at for arrival at a place. |
| listen the music | listen to the music | Spanish escuchar la música; English requires to. |
| wait you | wait for you | Spanish esperarte; English requires for. |
| enter to the room | enter the room | Spanish entrar a; English uses no preposition with enter. |
| in the morning of Monday | on Monday morning | Spanish stacks prepositions; English uses one preposition. |
Hear the rhythm
Group 4: False friends — the trap of obvious cognates
The Latin roots make English vocabulary look transparent to a Spanish speaker. Sometimes it is. Often it isn't. These are the false friends that show up most often in business writing.
"Actually, I am working from Madrid." (intended: right now)
"Currently, I am working from Madrid." or "At the moment, I'm working from Madrid."
ES Spanish actualmente means "currently." English actually means "in fact, contrary to expectation." Mixing them up sounds slightly off.
"I assisted the conference last week." (intended: attended)
"I attended the conference last week."
ES Spanish asistir a means "to attend." English assist means "to help." If you assisted the conference in English, you helped run it; you didn't sit in the audience.
"This is a sensible topic — we should discuss it privately."
"This is a sensitive topic — we should discuss it privately."
ES Spanish sensible means "sensitive, easily affected." English sensible means "practical, reasonable." Calling a topic "sensible" in English makes it sound like a wise topic, not a delicate one.
"Save the file in the marketing carpet."
"Save the file in the marketing folder."
ES Spanish carpeta means "folder." English carpet is the rug on the floor. Slipping this into an email is one of the most embarrassingly visible false friends.
"I bought the book at the library."
"I bought the book at the bookstore."
ES Spanish librería = bookstore (where you buy). English library = where you borrow for free.
Spanish embarazada means "pregnant." English "embarrassed" means "ashamed or awkward." Saying "I am embarrassed about the meeting" in English does not announce a pregnancy — but the reverse mistake (using "embarrassed" when you mean "pregnant") has caused some legendary HR incidents. Use "pregnant" for pregnant. Use "embarrassed" for awkward.
"We discussed about the proposal for an hour."
"We discussed the proposal for an hour."
ES Spanish discutir sobre includes the preposition. English "discuss" takes a direct object — no "about" needed.
Group 5: Word order and double negatives
"Send me the report final." → "Send me the final report."
ES Spanish puts most adjectives after the noun (el informe final). English puts almost all adjectives before the noun.
"I don't have nothing to add." → "I don't have anything to add." or "I have nothing to add."
ES Spanish requires the double negative (no tengo nada). Standard English allows only one negation per clause. Pick "don't have anything" or "have nothing" — never both.
"Is working on the deck right now." → "She is working on the deck right now." or "He's working on the deck right now."
ES Spanish drops subject pronouns when the verb form makes the subject clear (está trabajando). English requires the explicit subject in almost every sentence.
"I very much like the new design." (sounds stiff in spoken English) → "I really like the new design." or "I like the new design a lot."
The literal translation of me gusta mucho is grammatically correct but sounds formal-stilted. In casual business writing, "really" or "a lot" lands more naturally.
Group 6: Pluralization and uncountable nouns
"I have many informations." → "I have a lot of information."
"He gave me good advices." → "He gave me good advice."
ES Spanish freely pluralizes informaciones, consejos, conocimientos. English treats information, advice, knowledge, news, and feedback as uncountable. They have no plural form. Use "a piece of information" or "some advice" if you need to count.
"Three persons attended the meeting." → "Three people attended the meeting."
"Persons" is correct in legal writing only ("authorized persons only"). In normal business writing, the plural of person is people.
Group 7: Specific words and phrases that go wrong
Spanish has one verb (hacer) for both. English splits them, and the rules are not transparent.
"I will do a presentation tomorrow." → "I will give a presentation tomorrow."
"Let's do a meeting." → "Let's have a meeting." or "Let's hold a meeting."
See our collocations guide for the full verb+noun patterns.
"Do you want to take a coffee?" → "Do you want to grab a coffee?" or "Do you want to get coffee?"
ES Spanish tomar un café uses "take" for drinking. English uses "have" or "grab" or "get" for the meeting-over-coffee context, and "drink" for the action of consuming.
"We realized the audit last quarter." (intended: carried out)
"We carried out the audit last quarter." or "We performed the audit last quarter."
ES Spanish realizar means "to carry out." English "realize" means "to become aware of." Mixing them up turns "We carried out the audit" into "We became aware of the audit" — a confusing meaning shift.
"Please remember me to send the contract." → "Please remind me to send the contract."
ES Spanish recordar covers both meanings. English splits them: remember = recall (something you do yourself), remind = prompt someone else to remember.
"Can you explain me the process?" → "Can you explain the process to me?"
ES Spanish explícame attaches the indirect object to the verb. English requires "to me" after explain. Same rule for "describe to me," "suggest to me," "mention to me."
"I have hunger — let's break for lunch." → "I'm hungry — let's break for lunch."
"I have cold." (in a meeting room) → "I'm cold."
ES Spanish uses tener + noun for many physical and emotional states (tengo hambre, tengo frío, tengo miedo, tengo razón). English uses be + adjective: I'm hungry, I'm cold, I'm scared, I'm right.
"Let's meet on monday in march. We can use spanish."
"Let's meet on Monday in March. We can use Spanish."
ES Spanish writes days, months, and language/nationality words in lowercase. English capitalizes all of them.
"The contract is for $2.500.000." (Spanish punctuation)
"The contract is for $2,500,000." (English uses comma for thousands, period for decimal)
ES Spanish (most regions) uses period for thousands and comma for decimals. English reverses both. Get this wrong on a finance email and you'll create a $2.50 contract instead of a $2.5M contract.
"The store is open until 9 AM." (intended: from 9 AM onward)
"The store opens at 9 AM." or "The store is open from 9 AM."
ES Spanish hasta las 9 can mean "starting at 9" in some contexts. English "until 9" always means "up to 9 and not after." This catches Spanish speakers in scheduling emails constantly.
A practice routine that fixes most of these in six weeks
Here is what works for the engineers and managers I've coached. It does not require a tutor or a paid app.
- Week 1-2: Pick the three errors from this page that you remember making most recently. Write them on a sticky note next to your monitor.
- Week 3-4: Before sending any email longer than three lines, read it once with those three errors specifically in mind. Fix anything you catch.
- Week 5-6: Add the next three errors to your sticky note. The first three should be habit by now.
- Ongoing: When a colleague corrects you (which is gold — thank them sincerely), look up the rule on this page that night. Read the explanation. Make sure you understand the Spanish-vs-English logic, not just the surface fix.
Practice: Test yourself
Tap each question to reveal the answer.
Where to go next
Use this page as your error checklist, then layer in business-context vocabulary and tense work:
- Present Perfect vs Past Simple in Business Emails — fixes Errors 2 and 3 above with deeper examples.
- How to Write a Professional Email in English — practice these fixes in real templates.
- Top 100 Business English Collocations — fixes the "make/do/have" patterns covered in Error 22.
- Phrasal Verbs for Software Development — the verb+particle combinations that have no Spanish equivalent.
- Back to L1 Errors Hub
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the most common English mistakes Spanish speakers make?
Research based on learner corpora (including the Cambridge Learner Corpus) identifies five high-frequency error categories: (1) article omission — Spanish has no equivalent for the English zero article, so learners omit 'the' or 'a' where required; (2) verb tense choice — Spanish uses the present perfect differently, leading to overuse or underuse in English; (3) preposition selection — English prepositions do not map directly to Spanish ones; (4) false friends — words like embarrassed (not embarazada) and actually (not actualmente); and (5) subject omission — Spanish is a pro-drop language, so learners sometimes omit the subject pronoun.
Why do Spanish speakers struggle with English articles (a, an, the)?
Spanish uses definite articles differently from English and has no direct equivalent for the English zero article (e.g., I love music — no article). Because Spanish allows La música es importante with an article where English drops it, Spanish speakers either over-use or under-use the. The CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference) lists article accuracy as a B2-level benchmark, meaning consistent correct use requires deliberate study beyond the intermediate stage.
What are common false friends for Spanish speakers in business English?
High-stakes business false friends include: embarrassed (means ashamed — not embarazada, which means pregnant), actually (means in fact — not actualmente, which means currently), eventually (means at some point in the future — not eventualmente, which means possibly), sensible (means reasonable — not the Spanish sensible, which means sensitive), and assist (means to help — not asistir, which means to attend). Using these incorrectly in emails or meetings creates serious misunderstandings.
How do Spanish speakers typically misuse English verb tenses?
The two most documented tense errors are: (1) present perfect vs. simple past — English requires the simple past with specific time markers (I finished it yesterday, not I have finished it yesterday); and (2) present continuous for habitual actions — Spanish uses the simple present for habits, causing confusion with the English continuous. These patterns are described in the Cambridge Grammar of English and align with CEFR B1–B2 grammar targets.
How long does it take a Spanish speaker to reach business English fluency?
The U.S. Foreign Service Institute (FSI) classifies Spanish as a Category I language — approximately 600–750 class hours to professional working proficiency. Reaching CEFR B2 — the level at which most business communication is comfortable — typically requires 500–600 hours of guided study plus regular real-world practice, according to the Council of Europe's proficiency research.
What is the best way to fix L1 interference errors in English?
L1 interference occurs when a learner's first language influences their second language production. The most effective remediation strategy, supported by second language acquisition research (Selinker, 1972; Ellis, 2008), involves three steps: (1) awareness — explicitly identify your personal high-frequency errors using recordings or written feedback; (2) focused practice — drill the target form in isolation before using it in open production; and (3) noticing in input — read authentic texts and actively notice how native speakers handle the structure you find difficult. Error logs accelerate this process significantly.