Syntax Surgeon
Spot and repair the English-shaped slips in your Spanish — live, in conversation, out loud.
Most advanced slips are calques — English patterns translated word-for-word. Spanish requires the double negative: no vi a nadie, never vi a nadie. 'It makes sense' is tener sentido (lo que dices tiene sentido), and 'excited' is emocionado — excitado is a false friend. Clitic pronouns attach to affirmative commands but precede negative ones (dímelo / no me lo digas), and an opening gerund must share the main clause's subject: mientras caminaba por la calle, se me rompió el tacón — not the dangling caminando por la calle, se me rompió el tacón.
Below: the repairs phrase by phrase, the agreement traps in long sentences, and a way to catch these slips in your own live speech — no worksheets, no fill-in-the-blanks.
The warm-up pack
Eleven real slips English-shaped Spanish makes — dangling clauses, misplaced modifiers, missing negatives — each one fixed, out loud.
01 · The dangling opener, fixed
Mientras caminaba por la calle, se me rompió el tacón.
While I was walking down the street, my heel broke.
Caminando por la calle on its own would make it sound like the heel was walking — Spanish needs a real subject up front, so mientras plus a conjugated verb does the job English's '-ing' opener can't.
02 · Fixing the floating childhood
Cuando yo era niño, mi madre me leía cuentos.
When I was a child, my mother read me stories.
Siendo niño, mi madre... would technically mean your mother was the child. A full cuando-clause keeps the subject where it belongs.
03 · Keeping the modifier next to its noun
Compré un libro con tapa dura para mi hija.
I bought a hardcover book for my daughter.
Con tapa dura has to sit right after libro, not dangling at the end — otherwise it reads like your daughter has a hard cover.
04 · The 'almost' that changes everything
Ganó casi todos los premios.
She won almost all the prizes.
Casi ganó would mean she almost won and actually lost. Move casi after the verb and she actually wins nearly everything.
05 · The singular that outranks the crowd next to it
Una serie de errores provocó el fallo.
A series of errors caused the failure.
Errores is plural but it's not the subject — serie is, and serie is singular. The verb has to agree with serie, however far away it sits.
06 · The false friend that means something else entirely
Estoy emocionado por el viaje.
I'm thrilled about the trip.
Estoy excitado exists, but it's not 'excited' — it's a different kind of excited entirely. Emocionado is the safe, correct word for enthusiasm.
07 · What actually 'makes sense'
Lo que dices tiene mucho sentido.
What you're saying makes a lot of sense.
Hacer sentido is a straight calque from English — Spanish sentences have sentido, they don't make it.
08 · The negative that isn't optional
No he ido nunca a ese restaurante.
I've never been to that restaurant.
No and nunca both stay in — dropping either one to sound more 'English' actually breaks the sentence. Spanish wants the double negative.
09 · Nobody told anybody anything, ever
Nunca nadie me dijo nada.
Nobody ever told me anything.
Three negatives in a row and it's still completely correct — the more negative words Spanish stacks up, the more emphatic it sounds, not the more wrong.
10 · Handing something over, as a command
Dámelo.
Give it to me.
Affirmative commands pull the pronouns onto the end of the verb — dá-me-lo fuses into one word. This is a shape you'll use dozens of times a day.
11 · Telling someone not to
No me lo digas.
Don't tell me.
Flip the command negative and the pronouns jump back in front of the verb — the exact opposite placement from dámelo, and just as automatic once it's in your ear.
FLUENT
Finally, someone to talk to in Spanish.
Ten-minute spoken lessons. A teacher who answers back — and gently fixes what you got wrong.
First 10 lessons freeandbefluent.com/spanish/syntax-surgeonRegional Spanish
Textbooks teach one word. Locals use several — pick your region's and stay consistent.
Watch out
The part no drill site can do
Carla
Your grammar teacher for this pack
In the Syntax Surgeon lessons your errors are data, not crimes — you talk, and Carla names the symptom, shows the repair, and moves on. She takes three of your own English-flavored sentences and has you rebuild each dangling gerund as a full clause, out loud. Then a clitic workout on one verb — dímelo, no me lo digas, decírmelo — until placement stops being a decision. Then she builds a long sentence around a singular head noun (una serie de errores) and watches you lock onto the singular verb: provocó, not provocaron.
Blank mid-sentence and nothing bad happens — she waits. That's the practice, without unnecessary judgement.
Finish the 6 lessons and Syntax Surgeon is yours — earned, not given.
First 10 lessons free · 10-minute spoken lessons · your AI coaching team remembers you
Quick answers
Yes — it's required, not an error: no vi a nadie, no tengo nada que decir, no he ido nunca a ese restaurante. Even a triple negative is perfectly correct: nunca nadie me dijo nada.
Affirmative commands attach the pronouns: dámelo. Negative commands separate them and put them first: no me lo digas. With infinitives both orders work: voy a decírtelo or te lo voy a decir — speech prefers the second.
Tener sentido: lo que dices tiene sentido. Hacer sentido is a direct calque of the English and marks the sentence as translated.
Not for 'excited' — excitado is a false friend with a sexual meaning. Say estoy emocionado por el viaje.
Provocó — the verb agrees with the grammatical subject serie, which is singular, not with the plural noun next to it: una serie de errores provocó el fallo. Same logic: el equipo de investigadores publicó un artículo.
