When an English-speaker first starts learning Spanish, there are a few things that are harder than the others. For me, some of these I still struggle with. Usually it is because there is no English equivalent, or the equivalent is not used very much.

This is a list of the common struggles an English Speaker faces when learning Spanish:

Por/Para =Both of these can generally mean “for” but there are lots of differences of when to use one and not the other and other things they can mean too (like by, in order to, and idiomatic expressions as well). And if you make a mistake and use the other one it can actually make a meaning change. For instance, if you said -“Compré las flores por Susana” instead of “Compré las flores para Susana”, you have completely changed the meaning. The first one with por means that you bought it for her because she couldn’t buy them herself -she was unable to buy them so you bought them FOR her. The second one, with para means that you bought them FOR her, like as a gift. As you can see, por and para are confusing to English speakers and will probably be a lifelong challenge when learning Spanish. This is one we can tackle more in-depth in a future post.

Imperfect Tense -In English we don’t really have an imperfect tense, but to describe it basically it is for things that are ongoing in the past. Like things you did on a regular basis, not just a one-time event. Like “Cuando era joven” means “When I was young” -it was not just a one time moment, but a continuous one. Or “Estudiaba casi todos los días” instead of “Estudié por una hora” – The first one means “I used to study almost every day” the second one means “I studied for one hour”. This is one that I can usually do correctly, but every now and then there is that grey area of whether that was considered which type of “time”.

Estar/Ser- This is another struggle for English Speakers learning Spanish because in English there is only one “To Be”. In English we ARE all sorts of things. We ARE our age, we ARE our feelings, we ARE our gender, we ARE in our location. In Spanish, there is this designation which descibes which type of thing we ARE or it IS. Estar is usually used to describe something that could easily change. It is something momentary. Ser on the other hand, is used to describe something that is more permanent. So while “Estoy en Puerto Rico” (I AM in Puerto Rico)  is temporary, “Soy de Colorado” (I AM from Colorado) is permanent. Like por and para if you make a mistake, it can mean a difference in understanding. For instance, if you said “Estoy listo(a)”  it means “I’m ready” If you said “Soy listo(a)” it means “I’m smart”. Or if you said someone “está enfermo” it means they are sick (temporarily). If you said someone “es enfermo” they would be “sickly” -or of a permanent disposition of being sick.

Subjunctive– If you hear English-speakers complaining about Spanish, it might just be because of the Subjunctive tense. Subjunctive is not really a tense, but a mood, or a feeling of uncertainty/desire. We used to have it a lot more in English when people used Old Shakespearean English, but for the most part it has been stripped from our normal speaking. Even in phrases where we still use it, we see a slow transition away from it. For instance, “I wish I were a millionaire”  (subjunctive) is often changed to “I wish I was a millionaire”  (indicative).  Other examples of English subjunctive could be “The lawyer recommends that he stay in the country” (stay instead of stays) or “The rules require that you be at least 50 inches to go on this ride” (be instead of are). In Spanish it is used much more in phrases like “Dudo que vengas“, ( I doubt that you [will] come) “Es importante que escriba a su madre” (It’s importante that he write [or writes] to his mother). In indicative, or certain tense, you would say “No dudo que vienes” (I have no doubt that you [will] come) or “El escribe a su madre porque es importante a él” (He writes to his mother because it is important to him).

Of course there are the tricky irregular verbs, gender changes, the rules of pedir vs preguntar, saber vs conocer and always new vocabulary, but those are easy compared to these struggles. This is just an overview without much explanation on how to learn these rules, but it’s good to be able to recognize some of the more tricky parts to learning Spanish, so you can spend some time focusing on these troublesome areas. In the following months, I will try and focus on some of these specifically.