Accidental Reflexive

Spanish accidental reflexiveThe reflexive construction, used mainly with pronominal verbs, can also be used passively to describe accidental and unplanned occurrences. This is called la voz media in Spanish.

   

Adjective Position

Spanish adjective positionSpanish adjectives may be found before or after the nouns they modify, depending on various factors. Generally speaking, descriptive adjectives follow nouns, while limiting adjectives precede nouns.

   

Ahora

Ahora

You probably learned that the Spanish equivalent for “now” is ahora. While this is a very important word, it’s not necessarily the right one when you want something to be done right now.

   

Avoiding Transference Errors

Spanish transference errorsA transference error is a certain type of mistake, common to foreign language learners, which can be particularly difficult to stop making. The hardest part is becoming aware of the error; once you’ve done that, it’s just a matter of figuring out the correction and practicing your way to perfection.

Capitalization

Spanish capitalizationThe use of capital letters (las mayúsculas) is far less common in Spanish than in English. Take a look at this summary of words that are capitalized in English but not in Spanish.

   

   

Double Pronoun Order

Spanish double pronoun word orderSometimes one pronoun just isn’t enough. A Spanish sentence might need both a direct and indirect object, or a reflexive pronoun plus an object. These "double pronouns" cannot be separated, but the word order is very simple.

   

   

Falsos amigos

Spanish falsos amigos

One of the great things about learning Spanish is that many words have the same roots in the Romance languages and English. However, there are also a great many falsos amigos, or false friends, which look similar but are in fact very different.