GCSE Spanish: Expressions That Do Not Translate

Some Spanish sentences cannot be built by translating the English one word at a time, and these are the ones that separate a careful answer from a rough one. English has a single verb to know; Spanish has two, and picking the wrong one is the commonest mistake of all. English says I am hungry, Spanish says I have hunger. English has a tense for I have been waiting, Spanish has no such tense and uses llevar with a gerund instead. This practice takes ten of these head-on: saber against conocer, the verb that actually goes with una pregunta, tener for physical states, muy against mucho, la gente with a singular verb where English hears a plural, hay for saying what exists, the personal a that has no English equivalent at all, acabar de for something that has just happened, and soler for what you usually do. Every question states the English meaning it wants, so you can see exactly where the direct translation would have taken you, and every explanation names the English sentence that causes the error. Zestly is an independent study tool. It is not affiliated with any exam board and it is not an exam centre.

• Choose between saber and conocer, and use a present-tense verb with desde hace where English uses have known
• Use hacer with una pregunta, and keep preguntar and pedir apart
• Use tener rather than ser or estar for hunger, thirst, cold and age
• Say how long something has been going on with llevar plus a length of time plus a gerund
• Put muy before an adjective and mucho with a noun or after a verb
• Treat la gente as singular, use hay for what exists, and put the personal a before a person who is the direct object
• Use acabar de for something that has just happened and soler for something you usually do

______ dos horas esperando el autobús. (Meaning: I have been waiting for two hours.) — Llevo. There is no Spanish tense that matches the English have been waiting, so llevar plus a length of time plus a gerund does the work instead, keeping its literal sense of carrying the two hours along with you.