5 Simple English Words that Are Difficult for Spanish Speakers

As teachers, we've all come across those English words that trip up our Spanish-speaking students time and time again. Whether it's tricky pronunciation, confusing spelling, or grammatical mix-ups, certain words seem to pop up in our classes more than others. We’ve put together a list of five problem words and some tips on how you can help your students master them.

#1

Series

Spanish speakers often think series is the same word in both languages, but in English, it’s used for both singular and plural. Its pronunciation is also a challenge—Spanish speakers tend to stretch the word into three syllables, saying "seh-ree-ehs" instead of the two-syllable "seer-eez." While it might seem like a small difference, hearing "I like watching seh-ree-ehs" can be borderline incomprehensible to English speakers who aren’t used to Spanish accents.

How to fix it: Drill the pronunciation and focus on syllable stress. Use hand movements to mark the syllables and write it out on the board: seer + eez. Keep it simple and remind them: two syllables only!

#2

Cupboard

“Teacher, how do you say armario in English...?". Witness your poor student’s dismay as you respond with a word that seems so simple, but is a genuine pronunciation minefield. The silent p, the oa, the tendency to stress the second syllable - it’s not easy! You may hear your students say something more like “koo-bo-ahd” instead of the correct “kuh-bəd”, or “kuh-bird” for rhotic speakers like Scots or Americans.

How to fix it: We highly recommend Forvo, an online pronunciation dictionary that lets you play short audio clips of native speakers from different English-speaking regions. Your students will enjoy hearing the variations in accents, as well as getting plenty of exposure to how the word is really pronounced. If they’re not aiming for a British accent, they might find the American pronunciation easier to master—but it’s fun for them to explore and experiment, and it’s a great resource for them to develop learner autonomy when you’re not around to help.

#3

Cousin

Like cupboard, cousin trips students up because of that tricky vowel spelling. They often expect it to sound like "coh-sin," or even “cow-sin," but in reality, it’s the uh sound: “kuh-zin.”
How to fix it: Practice makes perfect! Try our ‘The Party Was Very Fan’ lesson plan, dedicated to the uh sound, where students practice pronouncing common /uh/ words like cousin (and country, colour, and more!) first individually, then in more natural speaking tasks. Try it, and your students will be 1 step closer to eliminating this mistake for good.

#4

Clothes

This seemingly simple word packs a double punch for Spanish speakers. First, there's the pronunciation issue: they often make it two syllables instead of one - maybe they’re overapplying the ‘IZ’ rule for plurals, maybe it just looks like too many letters to be a one syllable word! But there's also a grammatical challenge—they’re unsure if clothes is singular or plural. You might hear them say "a clothes," when they should be saying "a piece / an item of clothing."

How to fix it: Try our free lesson plan, “I Go to Zara for Buy Clothes,” which features lots of talk about shopping to give you plenty of opportunities to work on both the pronunciation and grammar. The more they use it in context (with you to correct and guide them), the quicker they'll improve!

#5

Comfortable

And the ultimate! The one that you find yourself correcting on a weekly basis. Here’s another word that students often want to pronounce as it’s spelled: com-for-table. But in reality, it’s more like “comf-tuh-bul,” with reduced syllables and those tricky schwa sounds.

How to fix it: We’ve created an entire lesson plan called ‘Let’s Get Comfortable’, to help students with precisely this word (and its close relatives!). Breaking it down syllable by syllable and practicing through listening and speaking activities will help your students feel more, well, comfortable with this word! And if they are still struggling, well there’s always the cheat’s way out - tell them to swap it out for '“comfy”!

Do your students struggle with any other tricky English words that didn’t make this list? Let us know in the comments!