What Common Mistakes Have You Made In Spanish?

[glasgowjohn]

All students of Spanish should read at some point "La tesis de Nancy" by Spanish author Ramon J Sender

Its the story of a young lady from the USA who spends a year in a small town near Sevilla.

 

[sheawj]

When we first started with the Mercado Libre sales at work a few years ago, I had a funny error...A man had tried to buy a watch, but sale was not going through. Without looking at the computer, I asked my coworker why we weren't preparing the watch, etc. and she said that the card was Rachel Asado. I thought, 'Oh, it must be a fake card under this Rachel girl's name because the client was a guy...'
I thought this for a few days, and in telling the story as to why the watch wasn't purchased, I was gently corrected that the card wasn't from Rachel Asado. It was rejected because it was rechazado! We all died laughing!

 

[Crema Americana]

Getting past using coger all the time has been a challenge. I just naturally stopped using it -- but in the beginning I would always get snickers and laughs, and some strange looks from my husband when I'd say "recogeme" at some hour. I also had a hard time not confusing remera with ramera.

My brother made the embarazado mistake... he was chatting with me and my cousin and made some silly error in Spanish, so we started giggling.. turning red, he then he said "estoy embarazado" and we practically fell out of our chairs. Poor guy was scarred..

 

[AdrianB1983]

Getting past using coger all the time has been a challenge. I just naturally stopped using it -- but in the beginning I would always get snickers and laughs, and some strange looks from my husband when I'd say "recogeme" at some hour. I also had a hard time not confusing remera with ramera.

Well, maybe in that case recoger seemed a little funny, but in argentine spanish recoger can indeed mean pick someone/something up.

 

[Crema Americana]

Yes, they know what it means and some use it themselves, but still they laugh!

 

[WindyCityJames]

I was so happy to find pillows that were soft yet supportive. At the check out counter at Jumbo I told the woman that…Estoy recontento con mis nuevas almorranas. She couldn't stop laughing. When she did finally catch her breath she told me the word was almohadas and then explained almorranas to me. Needless to say I have never made that mistake again.

 

[estebandepraga]

It is very difficut to tudy Poruguese unless you are truly fluent in Spanish because it's so similar in many ways
The same as studying Czech and Polish simultaniously or Swedish and Danish
I go once a week to Casa do Brasil to a Friday conversation class and I love it but I'm fluent in Spanish as are all the others and even sometimes one makes the "portunol"mistake!
and for Windy City James, you need soft and supportive almohadas if you have almorranas! BTW I lived 13 years in Chicago; where did you live?
Esteban

 

[WindyCityJames]

Addison and LSD…down the street from Wrigley.

 

[ARbound]

Well I've pronounced perra as for a few times, refuse to use the word annoyed or pronounce New York the way Argies do, and I giggled when
this girl at a Spanish class asked the teacher what shell was.

 

[Montauk_Project]

my problem is that I invent words all the time
to say "lets complete the steak with a salad" I say "complementamos el bife con una ensalada" which is not a word, I should say "el bife podemos acompañar con una ensalada"
mistake "reportaje" for "reporte"
reportaje=interview
reporte=report (can also use "informe" in Spanish)
and of course, femenine/masculine problems

Bonus: when I got here I dated a guy who tried to convince me that "tema" is feminine, I knew it was masculine, but he really tried to convince me to laugh at me. HDP.