What is Spanglish?

Spanglish is the funny and unique way our Spanish-speaking brains learn English. It’s the mistakes and errors we all tend to make and which we hope to help you correct and manage!

Here in Spain (and anywhere, really), when Spanish people start learning English, they tend to all make some very common mistakes. These mistakes come from the connections they make between the Spanish that is their mother tongue to English, which they are learning.

These connections create Spanglish… the mix between Spanish and English.

Sometimes the Spanglish is understood in their communications with others, but sometimes

it’s not.

So, what is Spanglish?

As you many know, the English that we speak today is mix of the many invaders to England!

And if any of you study French, you know that there is a heavy influence of the French

language in the English we speak. This connection to French (both French and Spanish are

Latin-based languages) means that a good portion of English is exactly the same as Spanish.

That’s why most, if not all, Spanish words ending in -ción have an English equivalent:

Acción → action graduación → graduation

Nación → nation elección → election

Or other words that aren’t exactly alike, but close enough for us to guess they’re the same

word, especially if we have a context!

Planta → plant lenguaje → language montaña → mountain

Rosa → rose importante → important lenteja → lentils

This leads us to one of the biggest areas that can lead to Spanglish, which are known in EFL as False Friends. Words that look the same in English and Spanish, so we think that they must mean the same. In reality, they don’t mean the same at all!!

Imagine you’re a Spanish person travelling to New York for a conference. During the trip you

start to feel unwell. You’re sneezing and coughing. You have a sore throat and a stuffy nose.

You have caught a bad cold! You decide to see a doctor and the hotel sends one to your room. You practice your sentence so you know what to tell the doctor. When the doctor arrives you say the following – that you have translated directly from Spanish:

“Doctor, I’m not well. I am constipated.”

The doctor takes note, and after some small talk leaves after giving you a prescription. When

you go to the pharmacy you are given a laxative!!! What???!!!! Why???!!!

Well, while “constipado” in Spanish means to have a common cold, in English it means you

can’t go to the bathroom!!! Constipated in English is “estreñido” in Spanish! That’s why the

doctor prescribed a laxative and not a cough syrup!!!

Spanglish could be translating directly from Spanish to English:

“The ball is on your roof” (La pelota está en tu tejado) instead of the correct expression: The

ball is in your court.

“You have reason” (Tienes razón) instead of: You’re right.

Inventing words like “prioricize” instead of: prioritize.

Using the incorrect word stress like: caTEgory (stressing the 2nd syllable) instead of: CAtegory (stressing the 1 st syllable).

These are all just some examples of Spanglish, but they are often the most difficult to correct

and practice as they seem “instinctually” correct.

Hopefully, word by word and expression by expression, we can work together to make your

English sound a bit more native!