What would you like to learn?

A clear introduction

Say who you are, where you are from and what you do.

A story needs two past tenses

Choose preterite for completed events and imperfect for background, habits and ongoing action.

Acabar de + infinitive

Use acabar de + infinitive for something that has just happened: Acabo de llegar means I have just arrived. Conjugate acabar; keep the next verb in infinitive.

Advanced relative pronouns

Use el que/el cual for precise references, lo que for an abstract idea and cuyo for possession in formal connected writing.

Alphabet, spelling & accents

Spanish spelling is highly regular: vowels normally keep one sound. Written accents mark stress or distinguish words, and ñ is its own letter, not n with decoration.

C1 · Reference

Argument structure

Build a clear argument with a claim, evidence, limitation and response: en primer lugar, según los datos, sin embargo, por tanto, en conclusión.

Articles and plural nouns

Use el/la for a specific singular noun, los/las for plural, and un/una for one non-specific noun. Most nouns add -s after a vowel or -es after a consonant.

Articles, nouns and plurals

Use el, la, los, las, un and una with common nouns.

Ask more politely

Use the conditional to soften requests, express wishes and give measured advice.

Ask useful questions

Ask who, where, how and why questions with present-tense verbs.

ayer

yesterday

barrio

neighbourhood

C1 · Lesson

Build a careful argument

Organise a claim, evidence, limitation and conclusion in formal Spanish.

Build a Spanish sentence that says something real

Build affirmative and negative sentences with a clear verb and useful information.

cansado

tired

Cause, result and contrast connectors

Use porque/ya que for cause, por eso/así que for result and aunque/sin embargo/a pesar de que for contrast.

cena

dinner

Choose por or para

Use two high-frequency prepositions to explain purpose, cause, movement and deadlines.

Choose the right register

Adapt requests, greetings and closings to familiar, neutral or formal relationships.

Combined object pronouns

When both pronouns appear, indirect le/les changes to se before lo, la, los or las: Se lo doy. The indirect pronoun comes first.

Compare people and things

Use everyday comparison patterns to describe choices, places and experiences.

Comparisons and superlatives

Compare people and things with más/menos ... que, tan ... como and the common irregular forms mejor, peor, mayor and menor. Use el/la más ... to name the strongest example in a group.

Concede with precision

Choose indicative or subjunctive after aunque and use por mucho que to express strong concession.

Conditional for polite requests

Use the conditional for soft requests, wishes and advice: me gustaría, podrías, sería mejor. Regular endings attach to the infinitive; common irregular stems match the future.

Connect cause, result and contrast

Link ideas clearly with common connectors for reasons, consequences and opposing points.

Connect ideas with relative clauses

Add precise information about people, objects and places without repeating nouns.

Connect the past with now

Use haber + participle for recent actions, experiences and present results.

Conversation repair and clarification

Use clarification frames to keep a conversation moving: ¿Puedes repetir?, ¿Qué quieres decir?, Me refiero a..., o sea..., es decir... and lo que quiero decir es... .

Core irregular present verbs

Five frequent verbs need to be learned as useful forms: ser (soy, eres, es, somos, son), estar (estoy, estás, está, estamos, están), tener (tengo, tienes, tiene, tenemos, tienen), ir (voy, vas, va,…

Core Spanish sounds

Spanish vowels are stable: a /a/, e /e/, i /i/, o /o/, u /u/. Learn common letter patterns rather than importing English spelling: h is silent; c before e/i and z vary between /θ/ in much of Spain …

Describe a daily routine

Use reflexive pronouns with common routine verbs from waking up to going to bed.

Describe what is happening now

Use estar + gerundio for actions in progress around the present moment.

después

afterwards

C1 · External resource

Diccionario panhispánico de dudas

An authoritative Spanish usage reference. Useful when you want to investigate a grammar or spelling question in depth.

Direct object pronouns: lo, la, los, las

Use lo, la, los and las before a conjugated verb to replace a known direct object: Veo el libro → Lo veo. With an infinitive, attach it or put it before the first verb: Quiero verlo / Lo quiero ver.

ejercicio

exercise

Escuchar & free-time activities

Escuchar música has no preposition before música. Use jugar al with sports, hacer ejercicio for exercise, and hacer senderismo for hiking. Learn these phrases as useful combinations.

Estar + gerundio

Use estar + gerundio for an action happening around now: estoy estudiando, estás comiendo, están viviendo. Regular gerunds end in -ando or -iendo.

Estar: states & location

Use estar to locate people and objects and to describe states. Use ser for identity. This is more useful than a strict permanent-versus-temporary rule: Madrid está en España even though its locatio…

Everyday instructions

Use the affirmative tú imperative for familiar instructions: habla, come, vive. Common irregulars include haz, di, ve, ven, pon, sal, ten and sé.

Everyday needs

Talk about age, hunger, thirst and simple needs.

Express continuation and change

Use common verb combinations to describe continuing, stopping, repeating and recent actions.

Five present-tense verbs you use every day

Use ser, estar, tener, ir and hacer in short, useful present-tense sentences.

Focus on the action: passive and se

Choose passive se, impersonal se or ser passive to control information focus.

Formal and informal register

Choose tú for familiar relationships and usted for formal or respectful contexts; adapt greetings, requests and closings to the relationship.

C1 · Reference

Formal register and mediation

When summarising or relaying information for another person, distinguish source, fact, interpretation and recommendation. Use formal neutral phrases such as según el informe, se señala que, convend…

Gender and adjective agreement

Make nationalities and common adjectives match people and things.

Gender and adjective agreement

Many adjectives change ending to agree with noun gender and number: español/española, alto/alta, altos/altas. Adjectives ending in -e often do not change for gender.

Give everyday instructions

Use familiar commands for practical instructions, requests and routines.

Going places

Describe where you go and where you are.

Gustar + infinitive

To say you like an activity, use me gusta followed by an infinitive. Use te gusta for you and le gusta for him/her. With a plural noun, use gustan: me gustan los libros.

Gustar and similar verbs

Use an indirect pronoun plus a verb that agrees with the thing: me gusta el libro, me gustan los libros. Encantar, interesar, doler and importar follow the same pattern.

Hacer: hice, hizo, hicimos

Hacer has the irregular past stem hic-. Use hice for yo, hiciste for tú, hizo for él/ella/usted, hicimos for nosotros, hicisteis for vosotros, and hicieron for ellos/ustedes. The third-person singu…

High-frequency verb collocations

Learn frequent verb phrases as units: llevar + time + gerund for duration, tener ganas de for desire, darse cuenta de for noticing, echar de menos for missing someone and dar igual for indifference.

Hypothetical conditions with si

Use si + imperfect subjunctive to imagine an unreal or unlikely present/future condition, then conditional to state the result: Si tuviera tiempo, viajaría más. Do not put conditional directly afte…

Hypothetical past results

Use si + pluperfect subjunctive (hubiera/hubiese + participle) with conditional perfect (habría + participle) to imagine a different past result.

Imagine a different outcome

Use si + imperfect subjunctive and conditional to discuss unreal or unlikely situations.

Imagine a different past

Use pluperfect subjunctive and conditional perfect to discuss missed possibilities and past consequences.

Imperfect: background and habits

Use imperfecto for habitual past actions, descriptions and an action in progress. Regular endings include hablaba, comía and vivía.

Indirect object pronouns: me, te, le, nos, les

Use me, te, le, nos and les for the person who receives, benefits from or experiences an action: Le escribo a Ana; Nos interesa el curso. Clarify with a + person when needed.

A1 · External resource

Instituto Cervantes · Aveteca

Level-classified interactive activities. Use it for extra A1–C1 grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary and communication practice after a Paso lesson.

A1 · External resource

Instituto Cervantes · Deletreando

A1 alphabet, spelling and sound activity. Expect guided practice naming letters and spelling words; external teacher-oriented resource.

A1 · External resource

Instituto Cervantes · Rayuela

Browsable interactive games and activities by level and topic. Good for short retrieval practice across A1–C1.

Ir a and tener que

Use ir a + infinitive for a near plan and tener que + infinitive for obligation. The second verb stays in infinitive: voy a estudiar, tengo que trabajar.

Ir a, estar en & al

Use ir a for a destination and estar en for location. A + el contracts to al; a + la stays separate. Casa without an article is normal when it means home.

Ir in the past: fui

Ir is irregular in the pretérito: fui, fuiste, fue, fuimos, fuisteis, fueron. The same forms also belong to ser; context tells you which meaning is intended.

juntos

together

Just now and for how long: acabar de and llevar

Say that something has just happened and describe an action continuing over time.

Keep a conversation moving

Ask for clarification, reformulate a message and check that you understood someone correctly.

A2 · External resource

Lecturas paso a paso

Graded stories with reading activities from Instituto Cervantes. Try the initial level after practising a short narrative.

Likes and free time

Say what you enjoy and describe a simple free afternoon.

C1 · Lesson

Link ideas with precision

Use connectors and hedging to show contrast, consequence and careful stance.

Llevar + time + gerund

Use llevar + amount of time + gerund to say how long an activity has continued: Llevo dos meses aprendiendo español. The gerund normally ends in -ando for -ar and -iendo for -er/-ir.

luego

then

Make clear negative sentences

Use no, nunca, nadie, nada, tampoco and todavía no to express different kinds of negation.

C1 · Lesson

Mediate information with formal precision

Summarise a source, separate evidence from interpretation and make a measured recommendation.

música

music

nacionalidad

nationality

Negation and negative words

Use no before a verb and negative words such as nunca, nadie, nada, tampoco and todavía no to make precise negative statements.

C1 · Reference

Nuance, stance and discourse links

C1 speakers make relationships and certainty explicit with connectors and careful stance: sin embargo, por lo tanto, en cambio, al parecer, cabe señalar que. The choice signals contrast, consequenc…

A2 · Word family

One idea, several useful words

Nation · national · nationality. Learn the Spanish word that fits the job in the sentence.

paseo

walk

Passive and impersonal se

Spanish often uses se to focus on an action rather than the person who performs it: Se venden libros means books are sold. A true passive with ser is useful when the agent matters: El informe fue e…

Past perfect: what happened before

Use había, habías, había, habíamos, habíais or habían + participle for an action completed before another past reference point: Cuando llegué, Ana ya había salido.

People & subject pronouns

Yo means I, tú means you, él/ella means he/she, nosotros/nosotras means we. Usted uses third-person verb forms. Spanish often omits the subject when the verb or context makes it clear.

Plans and obligations: ir a, tener que

Say what you are going to do and what you have to do.

Por and para

Use para for purpose, destination and deadline; use por for cause, exchange, movement through a place and approximate duration.

Present perfect: experiences and recent results

Use haber + participle to connect a completed action with the present: he terminado, has visto, hemos hecho. Regular participles end in -ado or -ido; frequent irregular forms include hecho, dicho, …

Present subjunctive: wishes and importance

Use the present subjunctive after expressions of wish, need, recommendation or importance when one person reacts to another action: Quiero que vengas; Es importante que estudies. Keep the indicativ…

Preterite or imperfect?

Use pretérito indefinido for a completed event or change; use imperfecto for background, habit or ongoing action. They often work together in one story.

Put two object pronouns together

Combine recipient and object pronouns in short, natural sentences.

Questions in Spanish

Spanish usually keeps statement word order in a yes/no question and uses opening and closing question marks. Question words include qué, dónde, cuándo, cómo and por qué.

Reflexive verbs for daily routines

Use reflexive pronouns with actions the subject does to or for themselves: me levanto, te duchas, se despierta, nos acostamos. The pronoun changes with the subject.

Regular -ar verbs in real sentences

Use present-tense endings to say who works, studies, speaks and lives.

Regular -ar verbs: present tense

For regular -ar verbs, remove -ar and add -o, -as, -a, -amos, -áis, -an. Spanish often omits subject pronoun because ending identifies person.

Regular -er and -ir verbs in present tense

Use comer and vivir to express routine, needs and questions.

Regular -er and -ir verbs: present tense

For regular -er verbs use -o, -es, -e, -emos, -éis, -en. For regular -ir verbs use -o, -es, -e, -imos, -ís, -en. Only nosotros and vosotros endings differ.

Regular past tense

The pretérito indefinido describes completed events in a finished time period. For yo, -ar verbs end in -é and -er/-ir verbs in -í. For él/ella, use -ó or -ió. Accents distinguish forms such as hab…

Relative clauses

Use que to connect a noun with extra information, quien/quienes for people in many contexts, and donde for places: la persona que vive aquí, el barrio donde trabajo.

Replace a known thing naturally

Use lo, la, los and las to avoid repeating a direct object.

Report questions naturally

Turn direct questions into clear reported questions without changing their meaning.

Report what someone says

Use decir que to pass on present and past information clearly.

Reported questions

Report yes/no questions with preguntar si and information questions with preguntar + question word: Me preguntó si venía; preguntó dónde vivía.

Reported statements with decir que

Use decir que to report information. With a present reporting verb, present meaning normally stays present: Ana dice que vive en Madrid. With a past reporting verb, the choice depends on whether th…

Say who receives or benefits

Use me, te, le, nos and les for recipients, interests and everyday reactions.

senderismo

hiking

Ser and estar: identity, state, place

Choose ser for identity and classification, estar for location and state, with useful exceptions.

Ser: identity & nationality

Use ser for identity, origin and profession. Say soy + nationality or soy de + place. Professions usually take no indefinite article after ser. Adjectives agree with the person described.

Show certainty, doubt and evaluation

Choose indicative or subjunctive according to whether you present a clause as fact, doubt or evaluation.

Show what happened before

Use había + participle to place one past event before another.

Simple future

Add future endings to the infinitive: hablaré, comerás, viviremos. Common irregular stems include tendr-, podr-, har-, dir-, saldr- and vendr-.

Simple Spanish sentences

A basic Spanish sentence can use subject + verb + information, but subject pronoun is often omitted because verb ending already identifies it.

Sound natural with useful collocations

Use high-frequency Spanish phrases for duration, desire, noticing, missing someone and indifference.

Spanish sentence building and negation

A useful Spanish sentence often has verb + information, with the subject optional when the ending is clear: Trabajo en casa. Put no directly before the conjugated verb to make a negative: No trabaj…

Spanish sounds and first sentences

Read Spanish vowels, protect accents and build your first clear sentence.

Subjunctive in concessions

Use indicative after aunque when the fact is known and subjunctive when it is uncertain, hypothetical or irrelevant: aunque es difícil / aunque sea difícil. Use por mucho que + subjunctive for ‘no …

Subjunctive in time and purpose clauses

Use para que and antes de que with the subjunctive; use subjunctive after cuando when the action is still future: Te llamo para que vengas; cuando llegues, avisa.

Subjunctive with opinion and uncertainty

Use subjunctive after an opinion, doubt, denial or evaluation when the clause is not presented as an established fact: No creo que sea suficiente; Es posible que cambien el plan. Use indicative wit…

Talk about interests and reactions

Use gustar, encantar, interesar, doler and importar with the correct indirect pronoun and agreement.

Talk about the future

Use the simple future for predictions, promises and plans beyond the immediate moment.

Tener: age & needs

Spanish expresses age, hunger and thirst with tener. Use tengo for I, tienes for you and tiene for he/she. These expressions use a noun, not an adjective.

Time expressions: ayer & después

Anchor a story with ayer, el sábado or la semana pasada. Use por la mañana, por la tarde and por la noche for parts of the day. Luego and después connect events in sequence.

A2 · Reading

Un sábado sin prisas

A calm Saturday: a short A2 reading about exercise, friends and family.

Use the subjunctive for purpose and future time

Use para que, antes de que and future cuando clauses to connect actions precisely.

Useful verb periphrases

Combine a conjugated verb with an infinitive or gerund to express continuation, stopping, repetition or a recent action: seguir estudiando, dejar de fumar, volver a llamar, acabar de llegar.

Where things are

Say where people and everyday objects are.

Wishes, advice and the present subjunctive

Use the present subjunctive when a wish, recommendation or judgement affects another person's action.

Write precise relative clauses

Use lo que, el que, el cual and cuyo in formal connected writing.