Collocational Errors (Wrong Word Combinations) | Spanish (Latin America) Grammar

You can conjugate every tense perfectly, nail every subjunctive trigger, and still sound unmistakably foreign — because you are combining the wrong words. Hacer una decisión is grammatically fine. Every word is real. But no native speaker says it. The correct combination is tomar una decisión. This page catalogues the collocational errors that English speakers make most often and explains why these mistakes are so persistent.

Why collocations are hard

Collocations are not governed by rules. They are governed by convention. There is no grammatical reason why Spanish "takes" a decision (tomar) while English "makes" one. There is no logic behind the fact that you "lend" attention in Spanish (prestar atención) instead of "paying" it. These pairings were established by centuries of usage, and the only way to learn them is to memorize them — or, better, to absorb them through massive exposure to authentic Spanish.

The danger for English speakers is that your brain fills in the gap with the verb that feels right based on English. And because the result is grammatically valid, no one corrects you — they just register that something sounds off.

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When you learn a new noun, always learn it with its most common verb partner. Don't just learn decisión — learn tomar una decisión. Don't just learn riesgo — learn correr un riesgo. The collocation is the unit, not the individual word.

Verb-noun collocations: the big table

This is the core of the problem. English speakers consistently pick the wrong verb for dozens of common nouns. Here are the most frequent mismatches:

Wrong (English transfer)	Correct Spanish	English equivalent
hacer una decisión	tomar una decisión	to make a decision
hacer sentido	tener sentido	to make sense
hacer una respuesta	dar una respuesta	to give an answer
pagar atención	prestar atención	to pay attention
tomar un riesgo	correr un riesgo	to take a risk
hacer un esfuerzo	hacer un esfuerzo ✓	to make an effort (this one works!)
hacer una foto	tomar / sacar una foto	to take a photo
tomar un paseo	dar un paseo	to take a walk
tomar una siesta	echarse / tomar una siesta	to take a nap
dar un discurso	dar / pronunciar un discurso	to give a speech
romper la ley	violar / infringir la ley	to break the law
romper una promesa	romper / incumplir una promesa	to break a promise
ganar dinero	ganar dinero ✓	to make money (this one works!)
hacer dinero	ganar dinero	to make money
tener un buen tiempo	pasarla bien / divertirse	to have a good time
tomar ventaja	aprovechar / sacar ventaja	to take advantage
poner atención	prestar atención	to pay attention
cometer un error	cometer un error ✓	to make a mistake (this one works!)
hacer una pregunta	hacer una pregunta ✓	to ask a question (this one works!)
abrir una cuenta	abrir una cuenta ✓	to open an account (this one works!)

Notice that some English-to-Spanish transfers do work — hacer una pregunta, cometer un error, abrir una cuenta. The problem is that you cannot predict which ones will and which ones won't.

The worst offenders in detail

Tomar una decisión (not hacer)

❌ Tenemos que hacer una decisión pronto.

Wrong: We have to make a decision soon.

✅ Tenemos que tomar una decisión pronto.

Correct: We have to make a decision soon.

English "makes" decisions. Spanish "takes" them. This is perhaps the single most common collocational error by English speakers.

Tener sentido (not hacer)

❌ Eso no hace sentido.

Wrong: That doesn't make sense.

✅ Eso no tiene sentido.

Correct: That doesn't make sense.

Spanish doesn't "make" sense — it "has" sense. You will hear hacer sentido in some regions (it has crept in through English influence), but it is widely considered incorrect and will mark you as a non-native speaker in careful contexts.

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The expression hacer sentido is becoming more common in some Latin American countries due to English influence, but tener sentido remains the standard form across the Spanish-speaking world. When in doubt, use tener sentido.

Prestar atención (not pagar)

❌ No estás pagando atención.

Wrong: You're not paying attention.

✅ No estás prestando atención.

Correct: You're not paying attention.

English "pays" attention. Spanish "lends" it (prestar = to lend). In some Latin American countries, you may also hear poner atención, which is accepted regionally but less standard than prestar atención.

Correr un riesgo (not tomar)

❌ No quiero tomar ese riesgo.

Wrong: I don't want to take that risk.

✅ No quiero correr ese riesgo.

Correct: I don't want to take that risk.

Spanish "runs" risks. English "takes" them. The verb correr pairs with riesgo and also with peligro: correr peligro (to be in danger).

Dar un paseo (not tomar)

❌ Vamos a tomar un paseo por el parque.

Wrong: Let's take a walk through the park.

✅ Vamos a dar un paseo por el parque.

Correct: Let's take a walk through the park.

Spanish "gives" walks. The verb dar is the standard partner for paseo, vuelta (a stroll), and paso (a step): dar una vuelta, dar un paso.

Adjective-noun mismatches

English speakers also misplace or misselect adjectives in fixed combinations. The problem is often word order or choosing the wrong adjective entirely.

❌ Tengo un fuerte dolor de cabeza.

Acceptable but slightly off: I have a strong headache.

✅ Tengo un dolor de cabeza fuerte / intenso.

More natural: I have a bad headache.

❌ Hizo un grande error.

Wrong (also a grammar error): He made a big mistake.

✅ Cometió un grave error.

Correct: He made a serious mistake.

❌ Es una situación fuerte.

Acceptable but vague: It's a strong situation.

✅ Es una situación complicada / difícil / grave.

More precise: It's a difficult/serious situation.

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Spanish tends to use grave (serious), intenso (intense), and amplio (wide/broad) in contexts where English defaults to big, strong, or large. Pay attention to which adjective native speakers pair with each noun.

Verb-adverb mismatches

These are less common but still notable. English speakers sometimes transfer adverb placement or choice directly.

❌ Lo quiero fuertemente.

Awkward: I want it strongly.

✅ Lo deseo mucho / con todas mis fuerzas.

Natural: I really want it / I want it with all my might.

❌ Estoy altamente interesado.

Calque from English: I am highly interested.

✅ Estoy muy interesado / sumamente interesado.

Natural: I'm very interested.

The adverb altamente exists in Spanish, but it sounds like a corporate translation. Native speakers reach for muy, sumamente, or enormemente in most contexts.

A strategy for learning collocations

Read extensively in Spanish. Collocations are absorbed through exposure, not memorized from lists. News articles, essays, and novels all reinforce the right pairings.
Keep a collocation notebook. When you encounter a combination that surprises you, write down the full phrase, not just the individual word.
Check with a collocations dictionary. The Diccionario combinatorio del español contemporáneo (REDES) is the gold standard. Online, you can use corpus tools like the Corpus del Español.
When in doubt, look up the noun. If you need to express "to make a decision," look up decisión and see which verbs pair with it — rather than looking up "to make" and hoping for the best.

Common mistakes

❌ No hace sentido que llegues tarde todos los días.

Wrong: It doesn't make sense that you arrive late every day.

✅ No tiene sentido que llegues tarde todos los días.

Correct: It doesn't make sense that you arrive late every day.

❌ Voy a tomar una foto del monumento.

Understandable but non-standard in many regions.

✅ Voy a sacar una foto del monumento.

Standard in most of Latin America.

❌ Necesitas pagar más atención en clase.

Wrong: You need to pay more attention in class.

✅ Necesitas prestar más atención en clase.

Correct: You need to pay more attention in class.

❌ Ella hizo un discurso muy largo.

Understandable but not standard.

✅ Ella dio / pronunció un discurso muy largo.

Correct: She gave a very long speech.

For more on expressions built around specific verbs, see Expressions with Hacer and Expressions with Dar. For the broader topic of English-to-Spanish translation errors, see Literal Translations and False Friends. For a positive approach to learning collocations, see Essential Advanced Collocations.