10 mistakes Indian learners make in Spanish (and how to fix them)

¡Hola!Hello!The friendliest Spanish greeting. Use it any time of day. Let me start with something important: mistakes are not a sign that you're bad at Spanish. They're a sign that you're actually using it. Every learner makes them, and I made plenty of my own when I started at Instituto Cervantes in New Delhi.

But here's what I've noticed from teaching and tutoring batch after batch of students: Indian learners tend to make the same mistakes. Not random ones. They come from the way Hindi and Indian English shape our ears and our thinking. And that's good news, because a predictable mistake is an easy one to fix.

So here are the ten most common Spanish mistakes I see Indian learners make, why each one happens, and exactly how to fix it. There's a short quiz at the end to check yourself. ¡Vamos!Let's go!Used to cheer someone on or get moving.

1. Reading Spanish like English

This is mistake number one for almost everyone. You see a Spanish word, and your brain reads it with English rules, because English is the language you've read the most in the Latin alphabet.

The good news: Spanish is spelled almost exactly the way it sounds. Once you know a handful of rules, you can read any word out loud correctly, even one you've never seen before. The rules that trip people up most:

• The h is always silent. holahelloThe h is silent, so it sounds like "O-la". is "O-la", and hotelhotelSame word, silent h. is "o-TEL".
• The j is a throaty sound, like the ख़ in ख़ुश or ख़बर. jamónhamThe j sounds like ख़. is "kha-MON", not "ja-mon".
• The ll usually sounds like a y. llamarto callThe ll sounds like a y in most places. is "ya-MAR", and paellapaellaA rice dish from Valencia. is "pa-E-ya", not "pa-EL-la".
• The qu is just k. quesocheeseThe qu sounds like k, the u is silent. is "KE-so".
• The b and v sound the same. vinowineThe v sounds like a soft b. and bienwellThe b and v sound alike in Spanish. start with the same soft sound.

In most of Spain, the z, and the c before e or i, sound like the "th" in think: graciasthank youIn Spain, "GRA-thyas". In Latin America, "GRA-syas".. In Latin America and parts of southern Spain they sound like an s. Both are correct, so pick one and stay consistent.

The fix: spend one week reading everything out loud slowly, even signs and labels. Your eyes will learn the new rules faster than you expect.

2. Using the hard Indian English t and d

This one is very Indian, and almost nobody points it out. In Indian English, we say t and d with the tongue curled back, like ट and ड. So "table" comes out as "टेबल".

Spanish doesn't use that sound at all. The Spanish t and d are soft, with the tip of your tongue touching the back of your top teeth, exactly like त and द in Hindi.

• tomatetomatoThe t is soft, like त. sounds like "तोमाते", not "टोमाटे".
• todoeverythingThe t sounds like त, the d is soft too. sounds like "तोदो".

The fix: never let English decide how you say Spanish sounds. Let Hindi decide. For t, d, the vowels and the rolled r, Hindi is the better guide.

3. Saying "I am 25" instead of "I have 25 years"

In English and in Hindi, you are a certain age: "I am 25", "मैं पच्चीस साल का हूँ". So Indian learners naturally say Soy 25 añosI am 25 years (wrong)Age needs tener, not ser. or Estoy 25 añosI am 25 years (wrong)Age needs tener, not estar..

In Spanish, you have your years:

• Tengo veinticinco años.I'm twenty-five.Literally: I have twenty-five years.
• ¿Cuántos años tienes?How old are you?Literally: how many years do you have?

And it's not just age. Spanish uses tenerto haveThe verb for having, and for many feelings. for a whole set of physical feelings that English and Hindi express with "to be":

• Tengo hambre.I'm hungry.Literally: I have hunger.
• Tengo sed.I'm thirsty.Literally: I have thirst.
• Tengo frío.I'm cold.Literally: I have cold.
• Tengo calor.I'm hot.Literally: I have heat.
• Tengo prisa.I'm in a hurry.Literally: I have hurry.

The fix: learn these as a little family of tengoI haveFrom tener. phrases. Say them out loud whenever they're true. Hungry before lunch? Tengo hambre.I'm hungry.Literally: I have hunger. You'll never forget it.

4. Mixing up serTo be (permanent)For what something is: identity, origin, profession. and estarTo be (right now)For how or where something is: feelings, states, location.

Both verbs mean "to be", and this is where many learners lose their confidence. The classic Indian learner slips are using serTo be (permanent)For what something is: identity, origin, profession. for location, like Soy en DelhiI am in Delhi (wrong)Location needs estar., or estarTo be (right now)For how or where something is: feelings, states, location. for jobs, like Estoy ingenieroI am an engineer (wrong)Jobs need ser..

The short version:

• SerTo be (permanent)For what something is: identity, origin, profession. is what something is: identity, job, origin, personality, time. Soy ingeniera.I'm an engineer.A job, so ser.
• EstarTo be (right now)For how or where something is: feelings, states, location. is how or where something is right now: feelings, conditions, location. Estoy en Delhi.I'm in Delhi.A location, so estar.

This one deserves a whole post, and it has one. Read my full guide to these two verbs for the memory tricks and the words that change meaning.

The fix: before you say "I am", ask one question: am I saying who I am, or how or where I am right now?

5. Guessing the gender of nouns (and skipping the article)

Here's the funny thing. Indian learners understand gender instantly, because Hindi has it too: अच्छा लड़का, अच्छी लड़की. So that's not the mistake. The mistake is assuming the gender, sometimes from English (which has none) and sometimes from Hindi (which often disagrees with Spanish).

In Hindi, किताब is feminine. In Spanish, el librothe bookA masculine noun. is masculine. In Hindi, पानी is masculine. In Spanish, el aguathe waterFeminine, but takes el before a stressed a sound. is actually feminine, it just takes eltheThe masculine article. for sound reasons. You can't borrow genders from Hindi.

Most of the time, words ending in -o are masculine and words ending in -a are feminine. But a few very common words break the pattern:

• el díathe dayMasculine, even though it ends in -a.
• el problemathe problemMasculine, even though it ends in -a.
• el idiomathe languageMasculine, even though it ends in -a.
• la manothe handFeminine, even though it ends in -o.
• la fotothe photoFeminine, short for la fotografía.

The fix: never learn a noun on its own. Always learn it with eltheThe masculine article. or latheThe feminine article. attached, as one unit. Not mesatableA noun learned without its article. on its own, but la mesathe tableA feminine noun.. It takes zero extra effort on day one and saves you a lot of pain later.

6. Forgetting that adjectives must match (and usually come after)

In English, an adjective never changes: a red car, red cars, a red house. In Spanish, the adjective changes to match the noun's gender and number, and it usually goes after the noun:

• un coche rojoa red carMasculine singular.
• una casa rojaa red houseFeminine singular.
• dos coches rojostwo red carsMasculine plural.
• dos casas rojastwo red housesFeminine plural.

Indian learners usually get the gender part (thank you, Hindi), but forget the plural, or put the adjective first because that's how English and Hindi both do it: "red car", "लाल गाड़ी".

The fix: think of the noun as the boss. It goes first, and everything after it copies its ending. If the noun ends in -as, the adjective probably does too.

7. Saying "Yo gusto" instead of "Me gusta"

This is my favourite mistake, because Hindi has the answer built in.

In English, you do the liking: "I like coffee". So learners translate it directly: Yo gusto el caféI like coffee (wrong)Gustar doesn't work like the English "like".. That's wrong in Spanish.

Spanish says it the other way round: coffee is pleasing to me. Me gusta el café.I like coffee.Literally: coffee is pleasing to me.

Now look at Hindi: "मुझे कॉफ़ी पसंद है". Not "मैं कॉफ़ी पसंद हूँ". The thing you like is the subject, and you are मुझे, "to me". That's exactly the Spanish structure!

Notice the second line. Because "books" is plural, the verb changes to gustanare pleasingThe plural form of gusta., just as है becomes हैं in Hindi.

8. Saying "yo" in every sentence

Listen to a beginner and you'll hear this: Yo soy Priya. Yo soy de Pune. Yo trabajo en un banco.I am Priya. I am from Pune. I work in a bank.Correct, but the repeated yo sounds unnatural. Nothing here is wrong, but it sounds heavy and robotic.

In Spanish, the verb ending already tells you who's doing the action. TrabajoI workThe -o ending already means "I". can only mean "I work". Trabajasyou workThe -as ending means "you". can only mean "you work". So the pronoun is usually dropped:

Soy Priya, soy de Pune y trabajo en un banco.I'm Priya, I'm from Pune and I work in a bank.Natural Spanish, no repeated yo.

Native speakers use yoIThe subject pronoun for I. mostly for emphasis or contrast: Yo prefiero el té.I prefer tea.Yo adds emphasis: as for me. as in "I prefer tea (but you might not)".

Funnily enough, Hindi does this too in casual speech. We often say "कल आ रहा हूँ" without मैं, because हूँ already tells you it's me.

The fix: in your writing practice, cross out every yoIThe subject pronoun for I. that isn't adding emphasis. Your Spanish will instantly sound more natural.

9. Trusting words that look like English

Spanish and English share thousands of words, and that's a huge help: importanteimportantSame root as the English word., familiafamilySame root as the English word., informacióninformationSame root as the English word.. But a few words look like English and mean something completely different. These are called false friends, and some can be very embarrassing:

Imagine telling your new Spanish colleague Estoy muy embarazadaI'm very pregnantWhat you said when you meant "embarrassed". when you meant you felt a bit embarrassed! The word you wanted was Me da vergüenzaI'm embarrassedLiterally: it gives me shame..

The fix: when a word looks too easy, double-check it once. Most lookalikes are honest, but the false friends are worth learning as a list. I've collected the trickiest ones in Spanish false friends.

10. Ignoring accents and the upside-down marks

Indian learners who type on phones and laptops often skip accents completely, because English doesn't need them. But in Spanish, an accent can change the whole word:

• siifNo accent: "if". and síyesWith an accent: "yes".
• tuyourNo accent: "your". and túyouWith an accent: "you".
• eltheNo accent: "the". and élheWith an accent: "he".
• teyou (object)No accent: the pronoun "you", as in te quiero. and téteaWith an accent: "tea".

Accents also tell you where the stress goes. inglésEnglishStress on the last syllable: in-GLÉS. is "in-GLES", not "IN-gles".

And then there are the upside-down marks. Spanish opens questions with ¿ and exclamations with ¡, so you know the tone from the very start of the sentence: ¿Qué tal?How are you?A casual greeting. and ¡Qué guay!How cool!Everyday Spain slang for something awesome.

The fix: add a Spanish keyboard on your phone today. It takes thirty seconds. Long-press a vowel to get the accent, and long-press ? and ! for the upside-down versions. If you want the full set of rules, read my guide to Spanish accent marks.

Bonus: waiting until you feel "ready" to speak

I can't leave this one out. Many Indian learners are brilliant at written exercises and grammar tables (school trained us well!) but go completely quiet when it's time to speak. They wait until their Spanish feels "good enough".

That day never comes on its own. Speaking is a skill you build by speaking, mistakes included. Every one of the ten mistakes above gets fixed faster when someone hears you make it and corrects you. That's exactly why my batches have up to 5 students: everyone talks in every class, and I can catch these mistakes the moment they happen.

Test yourself

Five quick questions on the mistakes above. No scrolling up!

Keep going

Here's the thing to remember: every learner on this list was making these mistakes because they were trying. That's the part that matters. Fix one at a time, starting with the ones you recognised in yourself while reading. Poco a pocoLittle by littleProgress comes step by step..

If you're just starting out, have a look at how to learn Spanish in India for the full roadmap. And if you'd like someone to catch these mistakes as you speak, join a live A1 batch on Google Meet. Small groups, lots of speaking, and gentle corrections every class. ¡Venga!Come on!A friendly push to get going.