The way we say it By Daniel Soto

say: estuve regando con manguera las matas or estuve regando las matas con la manguera. Shame, shame, shame!

Often when English speakers are first learning Spanish they make a lot of attempts at literal translations. Frequently this simply doesn’t work, because the way we say it in Spanish is quite different. Still, trial and error is, to a large extent, the way one learns to speak a new language. But for native Spanish speakers to commit such egregious errors is often a bit hard to overlook.

Studying grammar is difficult and boring I know, but some knowledge of how a language functions is obligatory for students just learning to speak.
 
And there is probably nothing more boring than learning to conjugate verbs, but there is probably also nothing more important in language acquisition. I knew one student who pretended conjugations didn’t matter, that he could express everything using only the present tense. However, he soon discovered that it was hard to get his meaning across when he wanted to tell someone what happened yesterday or even five minutes ago, or if he wanted to make plans to meet his girlfriend next Saturday to go to the beach.

Of course, friends will often go the extra mile by piecing together your meaning even when you’re not really saying exactly what you mean. However your friends are not doing you any big favors by letting your bad Spanish slide by. Sadly to say, this world is not populated altogether with one’s friends.

Most certainly it is rude to be constantly interrupting someone to correct their Spanish when they are in the midst of a conversation, but there are ways of helping people correct their errors without being inconsiderate. I think if you are trying to learn to speak Spanish well, you should ask your Costa Rican friends to help by gently pointing out your mistakes in private, if you are among the somewhat thin of skin.