Common mistakes Brazilian English learners make...

We´ve been posting these short videos on our Facebook page about some common mistakes made by students starting the English learning process.
I´ve been teaching English now for 5 years Recife so I already have my list ready of these common errors, and here it goes.

Can you spot the mistake? (check after!)

1. I have 33 years old.
2. I went to the beach with your father (student telling me what he/she did)
3. I go to Gravata last weekend.
4. You are hungry.
5. I have small friends.

Did you spot the mistake?

Of course it´s hard for beginners not to make these mistakes, who doesn't make mistakes learning a new language!

The first one is a direct translation from Portuguese (eu tenho 33 anos) so it´s natural for our students to say "I have x years".  The correct way is to say "I am 33" or "I am 33 years old".

Another one is when my students say that they spent time with someone from my family. They´ll say that they went to the beach with "YOUR" father - obviously here they want to say "HER" father or "HIS" father, but the problem here is that in Portuguese you have "seu" and "sua", and this can both mean "your" or "his/her". The other day my student wanted to tell me that she went to her mom´s room but instead said she had gone to "my" room - good thing I cleaned before she looked in there!

Number 3 is a common mistake for beginners. Of course the student wants to say "went", using the past. Don´t really know why this mistakes happens so often since even in Portuguese you wouldn´t use the present to talk about the past. I guess nervousness just really kicks in sometimes and our mind goes blank. It used to happen to me all the time when I was first learning Portuguese.

Number 4 is a question turned affirmative. In Portuguese the affirmative and interrogative sentences are the same; "Você está com fome". (affirmative) and "Você está com fome"? (interrogative). This happens also with the verb "Can" as sometimes my teenagers would say "I can go to the bathroom" instead of "Can I go to the bathroom"?.

"I have small friends" always brings a smile to my face because I picture my student´s friends being really tiny, like elves even. The student, in this case, wants to say that he or she doesn´t have many friends. The correct way would be to say "I have few friends" or "I have a few friends".

I hope this blog was useful to you!

Have a wonderful weekend!