Discuss the Article : 5 Common English Errors Made By Portuguese Speakers
5 Common English Errors Made By Portuguese Speakers
If you're trying to learn English, you'll find these tips provided by teacher Conner extremely useful. In this article he highlights the do's and do nots which often catch out Brazillian or Portuguese English language learners.
I have spoken with a lot of Portuguese and Spanish native speakers and could add a few. One that immediately comes to mind is "pass" instead of "spend" time. For example:
"I passed the weekend in Rio." instead of the correct usage "I spent the weekend in Rio."
Another one that just jumped to mind is using "compromise" instead of "commitment". For example:
"I can't come tomorrow because I have a compromise at 1pm." instead of the correct usage "I can't come tomorrow because I have a commitment at 1pm."
Of course, I know the Spanish word for commitment is "compromiso" and the Portuguese almost exactly the same as Spanish so it's very easy to confuse these two words. Be careful!
It would not be incorrect, because you'd have added "have" - "I should HAVE finnished...". What he says in the article is the form that Portuguese speakers might use, being: "I should finish (...) yesterday"; this form would be incorrect.
