Patrick Jackson
In today’s blog post, I will talk about a common mistake that non-native Spanish speakers make with the Spanish words “por” and “porque.” I will also cover a common mistake that non-native Spanish speakers make with the Spanish words “muy” and “mucho.”
This is actually a mistake that a Gringo (American) friend in Medellín, Colombia made on the phone when speaking to me today. I want to tell you about this mistake so that you never make the same mistake.
Common Spanish Mistake With Por and Porque
Quiero llorar porque de mi x-novia.
I want to cry because of my x-girlfriend.
Do you see his mistake?
He was translating literally from English to Spanish. The expression “porque de”
is not how you say “because of” in Spanish. “Por” means “because of.” So he should have said to me:
Quiero llorar por mi x-novia.
I want to cry because of my x-girlfriend.
I started to correct his Spanish but I was afraid that he was going to burst out
into a “llanto” (flood of tears).
Then he said to me:
Ella es muy trabajadora y muy tierna.
She is very hard-working and very tender/affectionate.
At the risk of sounding shallow-minded, I couldn’t resist the tempation of asking
him the following:
¿Ella es linda?
Is she pretty?
Common Spanish Mistake With Muy and Mucho
saying:
Muy.
Very.
But in Spanish, you cannot use “muy” (very) by itself. I know we do in English by saying “very.” But you cannot in Spanish. You have to use “mucho” if you only want to use a single word.
So in response to my question:
¿Ella es linda?
Is she pretty?
He should have responded.
Mucho.
Very much.
Of course, he could have also responded “muy linda” by using more than one word in his response.
