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Errors 1
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“People”: gente, pueblo, personas
Gente refers to people in the abstract and is a singular noun. Pueblo (besides meaning “town” “village”) refers the group of people that makes up a country or geographical area. Personas (“persons”) or individuos [not individuales] can be used to a group of individual or specific persons.
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La gente hoy en día no sabe mucho de la geografía.
People nowadays don't know much about geography.
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Los romances son un tesoro del pueblo español.
Romances [ballads] are a treasure of the Spanish people.
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Hay varias personas aquí que hablan español.
There are several people here who speak Spanish.
Individuo vs. individual
Individuo is a noun meaning “(an) individual” or “(a) person”. Individual is the adjective form meaning “individual” in the sense of “single” (only one).
Es un individuo extraño.
He's a strange individual.
El señor Gómez nos dio una lección individual.
Mr. Gómez gave us an individual lesson.
Aparecer, parecer, and parecerse.
Aparecer means “to appear” in the sense of “to make an appearance”, such as a ghost. Parecer means “to appear” in the sense of “seem”. Parecerese a means “to resemble” or “to look like (someone)”.
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De repente una nube oscura apareció sobre nosotros.
Suddenly a dark cloud appeared over us.
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Eso parece ridículo.
That seems ridiculous.
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Elena se parece a su madre, ¿no?
Elena looks like her mother, right?
“And” and “or”
The conjunctions y/e and o/u. Y (and) changes to e before a word beginning with the sound “i” [which may also be spelled hi because in Spanish h is silent]. Likewise, o (or) becomes u before a word beginning with the the sound “u”.
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Su carta es larga e interesante.
Her letter is long and interesting.
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Vinieron e hicieron todo lo posible para ayudarme.
They came and did everything they could to help me.
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Hay siete u ocho chicos aquí.
There seven or eight kids here.
Capitalization in titles of articles, books
The usual rule in Spanish for capitalization of titles of articles, songs, books, movies, etc. is to capitalize only the first word and proper nouns:
Article: “El concepto del honor en las obras de Lope de Vega” (“The Concept of Honor in the Works of Lope de Vega”)
Song: “La blanca Navidad” (“White Christmas”)
Book: El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha (The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quijote de la Mancha)
Movie: Lo que el viento se llevó (Gone With the Wind)
Remember also that days of the week (lunes, martes, ...), months of the year (enero, febrero, ...), nationalites and languages (español, francés) are not capitalized unless they are the first word in a sentence or title.
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Errors 2
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Errors 3
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Errors 4
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