This is where things get interesting. Verbs are the nucleus of every sentence in every language, but they vary so much cross-linguistically. Since there is so much to say about the difference between verbs in English and Spanish, we chose the concepts that are the most difficult to learn for ELLs. Take a look.
And, as always, practice makes perfect.
Tenses
Whether you're talking about the past, present, or future, you need tense. Luckily, English and Spanish are very similar in verb tenses, but there are some differences to look out for…Stuck in th...
Verbals
So, corn. We all use corn. In the U.S., we grow corn for corn on the cob, mainly, but sometimes we add the kernels to soup, make popcorn, or dehydrate the pretty, colorful ones to decorate our hous...
"Do" Insertion
Questions and "do"You're (probably) an ELL, and depending on how long you've been speaking English, you might say sentences like…"You drove here?" instead of "Did you drive here?""He wants to com...
Contractions
Contractions might seem easy, but it's something that ELLs tend to struggle with—not what contractions are, but when contractions are naturally used.You might already be familiar with what a cont...
The Subjunctive
The subjunctive mood isn't difficult for ELLs. It's way more difficult for native English speakers who are learning Spanish. Still, if you have no formal grammar training in Spanish, learning the s...
Negation
As you know, you can use more than one negative marker in Spanish without switching polarity (or positive/negative-ness). Spanish actually gets pretty crazy when it comes to negation. Here's a remi...
Phrasal Verbs
ELLs tend to have trouble learning phrasal verbs, but they're all over the place in English. Mixing up phrasal verbs is a good way of being outed as a non-native English speaker. (Not that that's i...