1. "The people is"

In Spanish, the Spaniards make concordance between the noun and the verb. The noun "people" is used in singular in Spanish so this is why they use the verb in singular.
In general, this kind of mistakes can be caused by the influence of the first language´s structure. They also try to apply a rule of English "noun + verb" which is not correct because the verb is not making English concordance.

To correct this problem, this exercise can be suggested in order to practise "people + verb in plural" or "person + verb in singular". After having done this exercise, the student will be able to acquire the rule.

Exercise: filling the gaps using the correct form of the verb
There is a house in the country where people _____________ (to be) very happy.
One person  _________ (to be) sitting on the floor.
Three people _________ (to eat) tomatoes in my house.
I go to a club where people _________ (to play) tennis.
People in Slovakia  _________ (to speak) Slovak.

2. "The car red"

The Spaniards always put the adjective after the noun. This is why they make this mistake in English where this rule doesn´t apply. We can say that this mistake is caused by the mother tongue interference. But sometimes the student hasn´t acquired the rule and s/he uses this structure because it´s the best chance of getting his/her message across. Several exercises can be used in order to correct this problem. We can also use tapes as a good resource to help the students to place the adjective in a correct way.

Exercise: Make sentences using these words
- car/father/has/my/a/red
- I/wonderful/live/a/house/in
- wears/blue/my brother/T-shirt/a
- men/black/use/umbrellas
- music/I/modern/listen to

¿You went to England?

The Spaniards always use two question marks when asking (one at the beginning and the other one at the end) and they don´t use auxiliaries when asking. This is why they make these mistakes - because of the mother tongue interference. At the same time the Spaniards don´t use auxiliaries when answering because they don´t have them in Spanish and they usually answer using the same verb as the one used in the question. E.g. "do you go to London? Yes, I go."

To correct these problems, the following exercises should be done:

a)      Join these sentences with an appropriate answer.

Do you like vegetables?                               Yes, I do.

Does your father smoke?                              No, I don´t.

Do you practice sports?                                Yes, he/ she does.

Do your friends like chocolate?                    No, he/she doesn´t.

Does your mother work?

b)      Complete the sentences with the correct auxiliary according to the answer.

_________you need help? No, I don´t.

_________ your sister go to the cinema? No, she doesn´t.

_________ they need some fruits? Yes, they do.

__________ he like swimming? Yes, he does.

__________ you smoke cigarettes? No, I don´t.

c)      Put short answers in the blanks.

Do you like tennis? No, ____________.

Does your mother play the guitar? Yes, ____________.

Do your family sing in Christmas? Yes, ____________.

Do you go shopping on Sunday? No, ______________.

Does your friend eat vegetables? No, ______________.

2.      "I am constipated" instead of "I have a cold"

In this case they use "constipated" meaning "having a cold" because the word in Spanish referring to "have a cold" is similar: constipado.

To solve this problem students just have to memorize the meaning of the word.