English Monstruo

Did you know that each year more than 200,000 Spanish people take one of the Cambridge exams? As with all exams, people get some answers correct while making mistakes with others. At Cambridge University Press, we analyse all this information in order to identify what the most frequent errors are and the specific difficulties Spanish speakers have. We do all this with the help of our linguistic analysis software Cambridge English Corpus, the largest software of this kind in the English speaking world having analysed more than 1.8 billion words.

Why should I be interested in this app? In English Monster, we’ll show you some of these common errors Spanish speakers make and areas they have difficulties with through a series of interactive exercises. You’ll be able to, for example, discover what the 45 most common spelling mistakes made by Spanish speakers are or the 15 most typical “false friends”.

Where does English Monster come from? We’ve always thought our Cambridge English Corpus logo looked like a monster with one eye. This inspired us to create the application. Throughout the entire app, you’ll find two monsters. One is good (and will help you at times) while the other is evil (this one has a Mohawk and will complicate your life now and then).

What level are we talking about? With regards to the level, we had to make a choice so, in the end, we went for the upper-intermediate level. Don’t worry if your level is lower. The good thing about this app is that the level isn’t what’s most important. The truly important thing is that the app highlights Spanish speakers’ most frequent mistakes. Learning about these is never a bad idea.

What do I do if I want to erase my progress and start the game again? It’s simple. Just go to the settings menu and push “erase progress”. And remember: in addition to your Smartphone and tablet, you can also play on Facebook.

What else can we tell you about Cambridge English Corpus? We’ve been analysing Spanish speakers’ English at Cambridge University Press since 1993. Over those twenty years, we’ve learnt a lot and realised that each country and each native language has its own difficulties and needs its own solutions. In addition to the English of Spanish speakers, we are constantly analysing the English of native speakers, both British and American. In order to do this, we delve into a variety of different sources: newspapers, magazines, websites, social networks, television programmes, conversations on the street or business meetings. All this information is then introduced into our software so we can understand how the English language evolves and how its different speakers use it. What’s the result of all this? It allows us to create methods adapted to the reality of the language.

To find out more about Cambridge English Corpus, visit: www.commonmistakes.es.