Spanish for French speakers: common difficulties

Simone, from Switzerland, is a beginner in Spanish. She shares the difficulties she finds as a French speaker: the past tenses, masculine and feminine gender, false friends and the prepositions a and en.

In the following videolesson our student Simone explains to us about the disadvantages of French-speaking students to learn Spanish. She comments on the different uses of past tenses, masculine and feminine gender, "falsos amigos" and the use of the prepositions "A" and "EN".

Key points

Past tenses: the Spanish pretérito perfecto and indefinido are not used like the French passé composé and passé simple.
Gender: some nouns change gender from French to Spanish: la mer and el mar, le lait and la leche.
False friends: words that look alike but mean something else.
Prepositions: Spanish uses a for movement (voy a Madrid) and en for location (estoy en Madrid).

Frequent doubts

Why do French speakers say estoy a Madrid?

Because French uses à both for movement and for location. In Spanish, a is for movement (Voy a Madrid) and en for location (Vivo en Madrid).

Which nouns change gender between French and Spanish?

Some common ones: el mar (la mer), la leche (le lait), el color (la couleur) and la sal (le sel).

Is there an easy rule for the past tenses?

In Spain, use the pretérito perfecto for periods that include the present (hoy, esta semana) and the indefinido for finished periods (ayer, el año pasado).

Part of Spanish Sessions, the YouTube channel of the teachers at Tilde Madrid — more than 3 million views.

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Key points

Frequent doubts

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