This exam tips covers Two Classic SSC Dictation Errors within SSC practice sentences for GCSE Spanish. Revise SSC practice sentences in Phonics & Pronunciation (SSC) for GCSE Spanish with 11 exam-style questions and 10 flashcards. Use this page as part of a wider topic revision path rather than treating it as an isolated fact. It is section 4 of 4 in this topic. Treat this as a marking guide for what examiners are looking for, not just a fact list.
⚠️ Two Classic SSC Dictation Errors
These are the errors that recur most often in AQA Paper 1 dictation. Both cost marks that are fully avoidable.
❌ Error 1: Writing ola for the greeting
✅ Correcto: hola — the greeting always starts with a silent h.
Por qué importa: ola (without h) means "wave" — as in a wave of the sea. It is a real Spanish word, but it is not a greeting. The examiner cannot credit ola as the greeting. Because h is silent, students hear /ola/ and naturally write ola. Context fixes this: if someone is saying hello, the word is hola. Add the h even though you cannot hear it.
❌ Error 2: Writing jente instead of gente
✅ Correcto: gente — the guttural /x/ sound before e is spelled with g, not j.
Por qué importa: Both j and g (before e/i) make the same /x/ guttural sound, so students cannot tell them apart by ear. The rule to memorise is: j makes /x/ before any vowel; g makes /x/ only before e and i. When you hear /xente/, that e after the guttural sound tells you to write g — because g before e = /x/. Writing jente is not a Spanish word and scores zero.