The 20 most common Spanish mistakes: beginner, intermediate and advanced learners

If you’re learning Spanish, chances are you’ve already made a few of the classic mistakes that trip up the majority of students. From multiple verb forms to unexpected word orders, learners are quick to discover that phrases in English often don't work the same way in Spanish!

Mistakes are par for the course when learning a new language, and even confident, advanced speakers slip up sometimes. All the same, prevention is better than cure when it comes to grammar and vocabulary issues, and it's better to avoid making errors in the first place where possible to prevent them from becoming ingrained.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through the 20 most common Spanish mistakes, listed by learning level so you can focus on the areas of challenge that are most relevant to you:

• Beginner mistakes

• Intermediate mistakes

• Advanced mistakes

You’ll also find easy-to-follow examples, clear English translations, quick-reference tables, mini grammar tips and - of course - a quick quiz at the end so you can test your knowledge and see how much you’ve learnt!

Ready? ¡Vamos!

Key takeaways

• Correcting mistakes before they become habit makes it easier to achieve fluency in Spanish.

• Many mistakes in Spanish stems from directly translating phrases from English.

• The most common Spanish error that English-speaking students make is confusing ser and estar, both of which translate to 'to be'.

• Even small errors can inhibit communication and understanding in both personal settings and professional situations.

• Each learning level presents unique challenges for language students 

• Practising with native Spanish speakers is one of the most effective ways of reducing mistakes

Errors when translating between two languages

Native English speakers often make mistakes based on rules that apply to their mother tongue, but not Spanish:

• Using ser and estar, as well as por and para, interchangeably in Spanish - these verbs and prepositions have different meanings depending on the situation.

• Incorrect prepositions when used with verbs can present difficulties, even for advanced students.

• Silent letters can trip up beginner learners: in English, the letter 'h' is vocalised, but it is not pronounced in Spanish.

• The adjective comes after most nouns in Spanish, not before, e.g. el coche rojo.

Do I need to worry about making mistakes in Spanish?

It's true that nobody's perfect!

While mistakes are a normal part of the language learning process, excessive errors can prevent you from reaching your potential in Spanish, limiting the benefits that come with being bilingual. Some areas that are impacted by frequent mistakes are:

Fluency: Stopping ever few words to correct errors that have become ingrained can affect your speech, meaning that conversations are interrupted by frequent pauses.

Communication: In some cases, mistakes can change the literal meaning of what you're trying to say. People may have to ask multiple questions in order to understand you - while this can be a mild annoyance in day-to-day conversations, it can have more serious consequences in emergency situations, when speed and clarity are key.

Professional purposes: Speaking well bring benefits at work, allowing you to express your thoughts and ideas with confidence. On the flip side, colleagues may find it difficult to follow your point if your presentation is littered with errors.

Connection: Ultimately, the goal of learning Spanish is to connect with other people. Language mistakes can make you feel self-conscious, causing you to hold back in social settings. Some errors, such as using the wrong noun gender, may even cause offence, leading to embarrassment and strained relationships.

Know we know why it's important to limit mistakes, let's look at how we can get things right!

Mistakes beginner learners make

These are the errors almost all beginners make when they first start speaking Spanish. Many of these mistakes stem from direct translations, incorrect assumptions about Spanish nouns and verbs, and difficulty with vowel sounds.

1. Confusing “ser” and “estar” (two verbs for “to be”)

This is the most common Spanish mistake for beginners. Both ser and estar translate to the verb 'to be' in English, but they have different uses depending on the context.

Look at the table below to see which verb is used to describe the different aspects of people, places, objects, and states:

Remember these mini rules to help you decide which verb to use:

• Ser = identity, traits, time

• Estar = mood, condition, location

2. Saying estoy frio instead of tengo frio

An extremely common error that beginners commit when they start out learning Spanish is to use estar when referring to physical sensations:

❌ Estoy frío
✔️ Tiene frío

Spanish uses the verb tener + noun for states such as body temperature, hunger and thirst.

3. Getting masculine and feminine nouns wrong

Many languages, including English, don't have gendered nouns, and so many students initially struggle with this concept in Spanish. In addition to learning masculine and feminine word endings, the article, together with any adjectives used to describe it, must also agree with a noun's gender.

Take a look at these examples of masculine and feminine nouns in Spanish:

A general rule is that nouns ending in -o are masculine, and nouns ending in -a are feminine, but there are exceptions, such as:

When learning new Spanish vocabulary, always check to see if nouns follow the typical rule!

4. Overusing subject pronouns

At first, many English-speaking learners can find it hard to drop subject pronouns. While words like 'I', 'you' and 'they' aren't optional in English, remember that Spanish verbs already contain the subject information:

❌ Yo hablo español. Yo estudio mucho.
✔️ Hablo español. Estudio mucho.

Note: Native Spanish speakers tend to use pronouns for emphasis, both in positive and negative situations.

5. Overusing “por favor”

English speakers often overuse 'please' when learning Spanish. While it's an essential word, in every day conversation you're more likely to hear it in its shortened form porfa:

❌ Por favor, pásame la sal, por favor.
✔️ Pásame la sal, porfa.

Spanish uses por favor more sparingly, typically reserving it for formal situations. Politeness can also be expressed through the use of the usted form.

6. Mispronouncing vowel sounds

Unlike some other languages, such as French and Korean, Spanish vowels never change their sound!
While they remain stable regardless of the word that they're used in, Spanish vowel sounds differ from those found in English. Take a look at the table below to see how Spanish vowels should sound:

English speakers often have the most trouble with 'e' and 'i' in Spanish. Some students find it helpful to remember that the Spanish word sí (which uses 'i') sounds like the English word 'see' (which has the long 'ee' sound).

7. “Puedo tener…”

In English, “Can I have…?” is a natural phrase for making requests. While people may understand the meaning, the direct translation puedo tener sounds a little awkward in Spanish.

We're not aiming for awkward. Instead, try these phases to sound more like a native Spanish speaker:

Note that the phrase is sometimes used in its conditional form ¿Podría tener…?, but that this is typically reserved for more formal scenarios.

Mistakes intermediate learners make

Intermediate students are usually comfortable speaking Spanish but they're still prone to grammatical mistakes, especially with Spanish plurals, prepositions, and past participles.

8. Mixing up por and para

These two Spanish prepositions are one of the biggest challenges for non-native speakers.

Both por and para can be translated to 'for' in English, but it's important to remember that in Spanish they are separate words with different uses:

For in-depth explanations and a self-test quiz, check out our comprehensive guide on using por and para in Spanish.

9. Using English word orders

Spanish word order is different from English.

❌ La grande casa blanca
✔️ La casa blanca grande

For the most part, adjectives come after the noun. Some exceptions to this rule are the words viejo (old) and nuevo (new), which can subtly change the meaning of sentences depending on their position:

✔️ El coche vieja → the old car
Here, noun + adjective can refer to the age of the car, or its outdated design

✔️ El viejo coche
In this case, adjective + noun can mean the car someone previously owned, even if it is only a year old.

✔️ Un trabajo nuevo → a new job

In this example, noun + adjective can be used to describe a new kind of position that may not have existed before

✔️ Un nuevo trabajo → a new job
In this phrase, adjective + noun may indicate a position that is new to you, but that other people have previously held.

10. Using the verb gustar

The incorrect conjugation of the Spanish verb gustar is common error for English learners. While most often translated as 'to like' in English, gustar actually functions more closely to the verb 'to please'

❌ Yo gusto el chocolate
✔️ Me gusta el chocolate

When conjugating this verb, focus on the fact that, the thing (in this case, chocolate) is pleasing to you (the person).

11. False friends

Spanish and English have a number of false friends - words that look similar to each other, but which can have very different meanings. Also known as false cognates, some common examples include:

Study tip: False friends can lead to frequent (and sometimes embarrasing!) mistakes. Practise writing sentences that use these words in their correct context to help you memorise their meanings.

12. Endings for plural nouns

Plural forms of words vary according to their endings in the singular form. In Spanish, there are three possible endings for nouns depending on their last letter, or letters:

Of these three endings, the 'z' to 'ces' transformation often poses the biggest challenge for English-speaking students. Reading in Spanish helps you to absorb these rules naturally without too much effort.

13. Mixing up the present tense with past participles

❌ He escribo
✔️ He escrito

Present tense conjugations of Spanish verbs can look similar to past participle forms. Memorise irregular participles separately from the present tense to avoid make these same errors.

14. Incorrect translations of everyday Spanish phrases

The following examples demonstrate mistakes that Spanish learners often make when moving between two languages:

❌ Yo también no puedo
✔️ Yo tampoco puedo

❌ Estoy emocionante
✔️ Estoy emocionado/a

These errors are the result of direct translations. While these may seem like insignificant mistakes, they can still impede understanding and communication when navigating social situations in Spanish-speaking counties.

15. Mispronouncing letters (and saying silent ones out loud)

Although English and Spanish both use the Latin alphabet, some individual letters sound completely different depending on the language being spoken:

• g + e/g + i → sound like English “h”, as in "hopeful"
  Spanish words that have this sound include: gente, girar, origen

• j + a/j + e/j + i/j + o/j + u → also sound like English "h" as with the above example.
  Spanish words include this sound include:

• ll and y →sound like English "y", as in "yellow"
  Spanish words that use this sound include: llegar, yendo, castillo

  Note: These two letters sound similar in many countries within the Spanish-speaking world. Some exceptions are Uruguay and Argentina, where ll sounds closer to the English sound 'sh' as in 'sheep'.

• h is silent in Spanish, and should not be vocalised at all when speaking
  Spanish words that feature the silent h include: hacer, helado, ahora

Culture tip: Accents in Spanish vary widely from location to location - listen to songs and watch films from as many Spanish-speaking countries as possible to expose yourself to a diverse range of pronunciations.

Mistakes advanced learners make

Even advanced Spanish learners can still face problems with regional differences in vocabulary, subtle grammar patterns, and verbs with prepositions.

16. Overly formal or unnatural phrasing

❌ Es un placer de conocerle
✔️ Es un placer conocerle
✔️ Encantado de conocerle

Some situations demand a more formal approach, but nobody wants to sound like a text book! Paying attention to the structures that native Spanish speakers use in different settings can help you tune in to the right phrases and tones.

17. Confusing vocabulary used in Spain vs Latin America

A single Spanish word may have different meanings depending on the region. Let's look at some examples of words that shapeshift depending on where they're used!

Words with multiple meanings are just one of the reasons why teaching Spanish requires cultural context. An online private Spanish tutor can help you to gain an in-depth understanding of a language as it is spoken in different countries around the world.

18. Imperative conjugations

Spanish imperatives follow different conjugation rules depending on whether a command is positive or negative:

'Say it to me'

❌ Decirme lo*

✔️Dímelo

'Don't say it to me'

❌ ¡No me lo dices! → Don't say it to me!

✔️¡No me lo digas! → Don't say it to me!

Learners often forget to transform the infinitive verb for positive imperatives, and to change to the present subjunctive for negative imperatives.

19. Subtle preposition mistakes with verbs

Advanced Spanish students may still occasionally struggle with matching different verbs with their correct prepositions:

❌ soñar de
✔️ soñar con

❌ a insistir
✔️ insistir en

❌ pensar de
✔️ pensar en

❌ depender sobre
✔️ depender de

Seemingly small details like prepositions are important to take into consideration, especially in professional settings that value accurate spoken and written communication.

20. Overusing English-style fillers

Fillers are 'thinking words' - short sounds, words and phrases that connect parts of a person's speech and allow it to flow more smoothly. They also permit the speaker to take a pause while they consider their response to a question, or to express their hesitation:

Some frequently-used English fillers include: Um, ah, well, right, I mean

Sometimes fillers can be translated directly, such as the English 'well', which becomes the equivalent word in Spanish, bueno. This is not the case with other phrases, however. Take the English filler phrase, 'I mean', for example:

❌ (Yo) significo (direct translation)
✔️ O sea (correct Spanish translation)

Other common Spanish fillers include: Pues, en cambio, sin embargo, en plan

This one can be a tough habit to break. Advanced learners often translate these speech connectors directly, especially when thinking on the spot. While most native speakers will have no problem understanding these literal translations, they can still make your Spanish sound less natural.

Speaking Spanish correctly and confidently

There are plenty of ways to skip the most common Spanish mistakes at every step of your language journey:

• Listen to native Spanish speakers on podcasts and in films

• Practise speaking Spanish regularly with friends and language exchange partners.

• Learn patterns for regular Spanish verbs, plural nouns, and Spanish prepositions.

• Study complete Spanish phrases in context in addition to grammar rules.

• Don’t fear mistakes - they’re essential to progress!

Sometimes, a helping hand is all you need. The perfect Spanish tutor can help spot your most frequent mistakes early on, and guide you towards more natural speaking patterns.

Learning Spanish can be a roller coaster, but with the right attitude and expert support, it will never be a mistake!

Now take the FindTutors Quick Quiz to see how many Spanish errors you can spot! You'll find the answer key at the end of the test.

FindTutors Quick Quiz - Spanish mistakes

1. Choose the correct option:

“Madrid ___ en España.”
a) es
b) está
c) hay

2. Choose the correct way to say “I'm thirsty”:

a) Estoy sed
b) Tengo sed
c) Soy sed

3. Which sentence correctly uses para?

a) Este regalo es para ti
b) Este regalo es por ti
c) Este regalo es por José

4. How do you say “I like dogs”in Spanish?

a) Me gustan los perros
b) Yo gusto los perros
c) A mí gusto perros

5. Which of these words is a false friend?

a) carpeta
b) casa
c) madre

6. Choose the correct plural form of this word:

luz →
a) luzes
b) luces
c) luzs

7. Choose the correct negative agreement:

a) Yo también no puedo
b) Yo tampoco puedo
c) Yo tampoco no puedo

8. In which country is torta a sandwich?

a) Spain
b) Mexico
c) Ecuador

9. Choose the correct verb + preposition:

“I dream about travelling.”
a) Sueño de viajar
b) Sueño con viajar
c) Sueño para viajar

10. Which is the most natural phrase to use when ordering in a café?

a) ¿Puedo tener un café?
b) ¿Me pones un café?
c) ¿Puedo tomar un café por favor? ¡Gracias!

11. Choose the correct translation for the phrase below:

“The water is cold.”
a) El agua es fría
b) El agua está fría
c) El agua soy fría

12. Choose the incorrect phrase:

a) Estoy emocionado
b) Soy emocionado
c) Estoy emocionada

13. Which sentence uses correct Spanish word order?

a) La blanca casa grande
b) La casa blanca grande
c) La grande blanca casa

14. Choose the correct form of the past participle:

a) He escribo
b) He escribido
c) He escrito

15. Which Spanish vowel pronunciation is correct?

a) I sounds like English 'ee' as in 'sheep'
b) A sounds like English 'ay' as in 'today'
c) U sounds like English 'uh' as in 'under'

16. Choose the correct translation:

"She had a lot of success as a singer."

a) Tuvo mucho éxito como cantante
b) Tuvo mucho suceso como cantante.
c) Tuvo muchos manzanas como cantante.

17. Which phrase uses por correctly?

a) Caminamos por el parque
b) La receta es por hacer una paella
c) El reportaje es por este viernes

18. Choose the correct translation of “I'm excited”:

a) Estoy emocionado/a
b) Estoy emocionante
c) Soy emocionado/a

19. Identify the unnecessary pronoun:

a) Yo hablo español.
b) ¿Hablas francés?
c) Estudiamos todos los días.

20. Choose the correct gender for this singular noun:

problema →
a) la problema
b) el problema
c) los problemas

✅ Answer key

1. “Madrid ___ en España.”

✅ b) está
(Estar is used for location.)

2. Correct way to say “I'm thirsty”

✅ b) Tengo sed

3. Correct use of “para”:

✅ a) Este regalo es para ti
(Para = recipient.)

4. “I like dogs.”

✅ a) Me gustan los perros
(Gustar requires the third-person form.)

5. False friend:

✅ a) carpeta
(carpeta means folder, not carpet!)

6. Correct plural of luz:

✅ b) luces
(z → ces)

7. Correct negative agreement:

✅ b) Yo tampoco puedo
(Tampoco = “neither/nor”.)

8. Country where torta means 'sandwich'

✅ b) Mexico

9. Correct verb + preposition:

✅ b) Sueño con viajar
(Soñar con = to dream about.)

10. Most natural café phrase:

✅ b) ¿Me pones un café?
(What Spanish speakers typically say when ordering.)

11. “The water is cold.”

✅ b) El agua está fría
(Temporary condition → estar.)

12. Incorrect phrase:

✅ b) Soy emocionado
(Emocionado describes a temporary feeling → estar.)

13. Correct Spanish word order:

✅ b) La casa blanca grande
(Noun → adjectives.)

14. Correct past participle:

✅ c) He escrito
(Irregular form.)

15. Correct vowel pronunciation:

✅ a) 'I' sounds like 'ee'
(Spanish vowels have one consistent sound.)

16. "She had a lot of success as a singer."

✅ a) Tuvo mucho éxito como cantante

(False friend: suceso means 'event', or 'incident' in Spanish)

17. Correct use of por:

✅ a) Caminamos por el parque
(Por = movement through.)

18. Correct translation of “I’m excited”:

✅ a) Estoy emocionado/a

19. Identify the unnecessary pronoun:

✅ a) Yo hablo español.
(Not wrong, but unnecessary - the verb conjugation already shows the subject.)

20. Correct gender for problema:

✅ b) el problema
(A masculine noun ending in -a - one of the exceptions!)