Spanish to English examples

Yo quiero aprender inglés rápidamente.

→ I want to learn English quickly.

The subject pronoun 'Yo' is optional in Spanish but always required in English. Dropping it in English sounds incomplete.

Llevo tres años estudiando inglés.

→ I have been studying English for three years.

Spanish uses 'llevar + gerund' to express ongoing actions. English uses present perfect continuous — a tense that has no single equivalent in Spanish.

Si hubiera estudiado más, habría aprobado el examen.

→ If I had studied more, I would have passed the exam.

Spanish past subjunctive maps to the English third conditional. Both express unreal past situations but the verb construction is quite different.

Me gusta mucho la música inglesa.

→ I really like English music.

'Me gusta' literally means 'it pleases me' — the subject and object are reversed compared to English. This trips up Spanish speakers constantly.

¿Puedes hablar más despacio, por favor?

→ Can you speak more slowly, please?

Spanish questions use inverted question marks at the start. English relies entirely on word order and intonation to signal a question.