GCSE-readyKS3 Spanish: common mistakes
The wrong answers students pick most often in our Spanish questions, and why they are wrong. Read these before a test, then open the lesson for anything that surprises you.
All about me
- Greetings and introductions
- Not “Soy once años”. Spanish uses tener, not ser, for age.
- Not “Tengo once”. You need años at the end.
- Sounds and spelling: how Spanish sounds
- Not “gato”. G before a is a hard g.
- Not “tengo”. G before o is a hard g.
- Numbers, days, months and birthdays
- Not “el diez mayo”. Spanish needs de between the number and the month.
- Numbers to 100 and prices
- Not “ciento manzanas”. Ciento is only used for 101 to 199.
Family and friends
- Describing people: ser and adjectives
- Not “Tiene los ojos verde”. Verde must be plural to agree with ojos.
- Countries, nationalities and languages
- Not “Irlandesa”. Nationalities have no capital letter in Spanish.
School life
- School uniform: clothes and colours
- Not “una blanca camisa”. The colour goes after the noun.
- Not “una camisa blanco”. Blanco must agree with camisa (feminine).
Free time
- Free time: jugar, hacer and negatives
- Not “jugo”. Jugar changes its stem: juego, not jugo.
Home and town
- My town and directions
- Not “a el”. A + el always joins up to make al.
- Not “a bookshop”. A bookshop is una librería.
- Ir and the near future
- Not “Vamos bailar”. The a is missing.
Weather, being and opinions
- Right now: estar + gerund
- Not “hablado”. Hablado is the past participle, used in the perfect tense.
- Not “somos”. The present continuous uses estar, not ser.
- Comparing: más ... que and the best
- Not “peor”. Peor means worse.
- Not “mejor”. Mejor means better.
- Not “menor”. Menor means younger.
Media and health
- TV, films and music: gustar with other people
- Not “gustamos”. Gustar agrees with the things liked, not with nosotros.
- My body and health: me duele
- Not “mi”. Spanish uses el / la with body parts, not mi.
Holidays and the past
- The preterite: key irregular verbs
- Not “tení”. Tener is irregular: tuve.
- The imperfect: what things were like
- Not “jugué”. Jugué is the preterite.
- Not “iba”. Iba is for repeated or background actions, not one trip yesterday.
Daily life
- Object pronouns: lo, la, los, las
- Not “No la como.”. Pescado is masculine, so lo.
- Not “Voy a verlo.”. Película is feminine, so la.
Wider issues
- The environment: wider issues
- Not “la problema más grave”. Problema is masculine, even though it ends in -a.
Looking ahead to GCSE
- Jobs and future plans
- Not “Mi padre es un profesor”. Spanish leaves out un / una with jobs.
- Not “enferma”. Enferma means ill, not nurse.
- The future tense: iré, jugaré
- Not “jugué”. Jugué is the preterite (past).