The Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) published a practical guide to help speakers distinguish words that sound the same but have different spellings and meanings. Among the highlighted examples are the pairs 'echo' and 'hecho', and 'errar' and 'herrar'.
'Echo' comes from the verb 'echar' (to throw, to dismiss), while 'hecho' is the participle of 'hacer' (to do). The confusion is frequent, but the RAE recommends associating each form with its source verb: 'echo' for actions like 'to cast a glance' or 'to fire someone'; 'hecho' for something that happened or a well-formed person.
'Errar' means to make a mistake, to be wrong; 'herrar' comes from 'hierro' (iron) and refers to shoeing horses. The RAE reminds that 'to err is human, but herrar is a very different word'.
Another point addressed is the so-called 'ethical dative', a valid grammatical resource in Spanish. In the sentence 'the baby doesn't eat for me', the pronoun 'me' does not indicate possession, but rather the mother's emotional involvement. The RAE explains that this construction is 100% correct and expresses concern or love, not a literal action.
The academy also clarified the use of the accent mark in 'sí' (affirmative) and 'si' (conditional), along with other spelling rules.