Learn Spanish together

Writing the letters and the five vowels that never change.

1. A to F, and the five vowels
2. G to M: the letters that change
3. N to S: ñ and the rolled r
4. Checkpoint: A to S
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

The last letters, the letter pairs, and your first Spanish words.

1. T to Z: the last letters
2. The pairs: ch, ll, rr, qu, gu
3. Your first Spanish words
4. Checkpoint: the whole alphabet
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

The alphabet, the five pure vowels, the accent mark, and why Spanish is read exactly as it is written.

1. Letters and the five vowels
2. Stress and the accent mark
3. Sounds that trip beginners
4. Checkpoint: Sounds and Letters
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Hello and goodbye, your name, and the tú/usted line that runs through every Spanish conversation.

1. Hola, ¿qué tal? Greetings by time of day
2. Me llamo, soy, ¿y tú? Saying your name
3. Tú or usted: two ways to say you
4. Checkpoint: Greetings and Introductions
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

The verb ser, the two genders every Spanish noun has, and the article that announces them.

1. The verb ser: soy, eres, es
2. El and la: masculine and feminine
3. Adjectives agree with the noun
4. Checkpoint: Ser and Gender
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

The plural, the little words that count, and hay – the first way to say that something exists.

1. The plural: -s and -es
2. Hay: there is, there are
3. This, that and those: demonstratives
4. Checkpoint: One and Many
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Counting, telling the time, the days and months – the numbers a day is built on.

1. Numbers from 0 to 100
2. Telling the time: ¿qué hora es?
3. Days, months and dates
4. Checkpoint: Numbers and Time
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

The three conjugations and the endings that tell you who is acting without a pronoun.

1. -ar verbs: hablo, hablas, habla
2. -er and -ir verbs: como, vivo
3. The daily routine and reflexive verbs
4. Checkpoint: Verbs in the Present
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Where things and people are – estar, the prepositions of place and the city around you.

1. The verb estar: estoy, estás, está
2. Where is it? Prepositions of place
3. The city: hay and está together
4. Checkpoint: Estar and Places
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Gustar, the verb that turns the sentence round, and the people you talk about most.

1. Me gusta, me gustan: saying what you like
2. The family and possessives
3. Encantar, interesar and tastes in common
4. Checkpoint: Likes and Family
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Tener, ir, querer, poder, hacer – the verbs that break the pattern and run every conversation.

1. Tener and its idioms: tengo hambre, tengo que
2. Ir and the near future: voy a, voy en, voy a estudiar
3. Stem changes: quiero, puedo, prefiero
4. Checkpoint: Irregular Verbs You Cannot Avoid
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Ordering, buying and asking for what you need – with the words a menu and a market are made of.

1. In the café: quiero, quería, ¿me pone?
2. At the market: how much, how many
3. The menu: courses, dishes and how it tastes
4. Checkpoint: Food and Shopping
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Pretérito perfecto – the tense for today, this week, and ever.

1. He, has, ha + participle
2. Irregular participles
3. Ya, todavía no, alguna vez
4. Checkpoint: The Compound Past
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Pretérito indefinido – finished actions, one after another.

1. The regular indefinido
2. Irregular indefinido: fui, hice, tuve
3. Telling a story in order
4. Checkpoint: The Simple Past
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

How things used to be – descriptions, habits and background in the past.

1. The imperfect: -aba and -ía
2. Habits and descriptions
3. Imperfecto versus indefinido
4. Checkpoint: The Imperfect
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Going to, will, and the if-clause that ties a plan to a condition.

1. Ir a + infinitive and the near future
2. The simple future: hablaré, comerás, vivirá
3. Si + present: real conditions and the forecast
4. Checkpoint: Plans and the Future
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Lo, la, le, se – the little words that replace what everyone already knows.

1. Lo, la, los, las: direct objects
2. Le, les: indirect objects
3. Two pronouns: se lo doy
4. Checkpoint: Object Pronouns
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Telling people what to do – directions, recipes, advice and the polite command.

1. Affirmative tú: habla, come, ven
2. Usted and nosotros: hable, coma, hablemos
3. Negative commands: no hables, no vengas
4. Checkpoint: The Imperative
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

More, less, the most – and the city, the flat and the neighbourhood you compare.

1. Comparing: más que, menos que, tan como
2. El más, la más: superlatives
3. The flat and the neighbourhood
4. Checkpoint: Comparing and Where You Live
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

What is happening right now, the body, and what to say at the doctor's.

1. Estoy hablando: the progressive
2. The body and how you feel
3. At the doctor's and the pharmacy
4. Checkpoint: Estar + gerundio and Health
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

The office, the airport, the hotel – and the language that gets you through them.

1. Jobs and the workplace: trabajar de, dedicarse a
2. At the airport and the station: billete, andén, facturar
3. At the hotel: tengo una reserva, no funciona
4. Checkpoint: Work, Travel and Getting Around
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

The mood Spanish uses for what is wanted, needed or not yet real.

1. The forms of the present subjunctive: hable, coma, viva
2. Quiero que vengas: wanting and asking
3. Es importante que: impersonal frames
4. Checkpoint: The Present Subjunctive
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Me alegra que, no creo que – the subjunctive after emotion and disbelief.

1. Me alegra que, siento que: emotion and the subjunctive
2. No creo que: opinion and doubt
3. Quizás, tal vez, a lo mejor: probability
4. Checkpoint: Feelings and Doubts
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Would – for courtesy, advice, hypothesis and the future seen from the past.

1. Forms: hablaría, tendría
2. Yo que tú: advice and hypothesis
3. The future of the past and probability
4. Checkpoint: The Conditional and Polite Spanish
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Había hecho – what had already happened, and the first steps of reporting what people said.

1. The pluperfect: había + participle
2. The whole past on one line: four tenses in a story
3. Reported speech: dijo que and the tense shift
4. Checkpoint: Before the Past
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

The two verbs to be, once and for all – and the se that makes a sentence without a subject.

1. Ser vs estar: the full map
2. Estar + participle and the result
3. Se impersonal and pasiva refleja
4. Checkpoint: Ser, Estar and the Impersonal Sentence
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Que, quien, donde, cuyo – joining two sentences into one.

1. Que, quien, donde: joining two sentences
2. Lo que, cuyo and el cual
3. Relatives with the subjunctive
4. Checkpoint: Relative Clauses
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

The two prepositions that mean 'for' – and the verbs that will not move without theirs.

1. Por vs para: two ways to say for
2. A, de, en, con: the everyday prepositions
3. Verbs with a fixed preposition: pensar en, soñar con, depender de
4. Checkpoint: Por, Para and the Prepositions
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Linking ideas, arguing a point, and the words that hold a paragraph together.

1. Because, therefore, although: the core connectors
2. Giving your opinion and arguing a point
3. Time connectors and the subjunctive
4. Checkpoint: Connectors and Opinion
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Studies, work, technology and society – the vocabulary B1 conversations run on.

1. Studies and learning
2. Technology and the internet
3. Society, news and the environment
4. Checkpoint: The Words of the Wider World
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Si tuviera, si pudiera – the hypothetical present and the subjunctive that follows a past main verb.

1. Forms: hablara, tuviera, fuera
2. Si tuviera dinero, viajaría: the unreal condition
3. Agreement of tenses: quería que vinieras
4. Checkpoint: The Imperfect Subjunctive
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Haya hecho, hubiera hecho – the subjunctive with a past of its own, and what would have happened.

1. Haya hecho: the perfect subjunctive
2. Hubiera hecho: the pluperfect subjunctive
3. Si hubiera sabido, habría venido: the third conditional
4. Checkpoint: Compound Subjunctives and the Third Conditional
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Time, purpose, concession, condition – the clauses that set the scene for a main verb.

1. Para que and aunque: purpose and concession
2. Condition beyond si: con tal de que, a menos que
3. Manner and consequence: como, de modo que, tanto que
4. Checkpoint: Adverbial Clauses
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

What was said, asked and ordered – every tense shifted, every command reported.

1. Reporting statements across tenses
2. Reporting questions and commands
3. Verbs of communication and their nuance
4. Checkpoint: Reported Speech in Full
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Ser + participle, the impersonal voice, and the Spanish of official texts.

1. The passive with ser across the tenses
2. Impersonality in formal Spanish
3. Formal vocabulary and nominalisation
4. Checkpoint: The Passive and Formal Register
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Llevar, ir, venir, andar, acabar + gerund – how Spanish says how far along an action is.

1. Llevo dos años viviendo: saying how long
2. Ir, venir, andar and seguir with the gerund
3. Infinitive phrases: ponerse a, dejar de, volver a
4. Checkpoint: Verb Phrases and Aspect
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Accidental se, emphatic se, ethical dative – the pronoun that changes what the sentence blames.

1. Se me cayó: the accidental se
2. Comerse, irse, morirse: the emphatic pronoun
3. Pronominal verbs that change meaning
4. Checkpoint: The Many Faces of se
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Sounding natural – the word partners, set phrases and idioms educated speakers use without thinking.

1. Collocations: the verbs that go with the noun
2. Idioms with the body and animals
3. Media, culture and society vocabulary
4. Checkpoint: Collocations and Idioms
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Where the mood is a choice, not a rule – and what each choice says.

1. Double-mood verbs: sentir, temer, comprender
2. Relatives and concessives at C1
3. The subjunctive in the past and future: sequence in depth
4. Checkpoint: Shades of the Subjunctive
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

How a Spanish text hangs together – reference, connectors, and the rhythm of a paragraph.

1. Reference and substitution
2. Connectors of the written register
3. The paragraph and the argument
4. Checkpoint: Cohesion and Text Structure
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Spain and Latin America – the sounds, the words and the grammar that change on the map.

1. Pronunciation across the map
2. Vosotros, ustedes and voseo
3. Words that change country
4. Checkpoint: The Spanish of Twenty Countries
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Saying how sure you are – the futures and conditionals of guesswork and the adverbs that hedge.

1. Futures and conditionals of conjecture
2. Deber de, tener que, poder: modal verbs of probability
3. Hedging and asserting: the adverbs of stance
4. Checkpoint: Modality and Conjecture
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

The conversation as natives actually have it – fillers, intensifiers, swearing and irony.

1. Fillers, tags and the spoken sentence
2. Intensifiers and understatement
3. Swearing, softening and irony
4. Checkpoint: Colloquial Spanish
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Reports, presentations, abstracts – the Spanish of universities and boardrooms.

1. Nominalisation and the dense sentence
2. The vocabulary of research and argument
3. Presentations and meetings
4. Checkpoint: Academic and Professional Spanish
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Reading and writing a story – tenses of the tale, the pretérito anterior, and the voice of the narrator.

1. Tenses of the tale
2. Description and the literary adjective
3. Dialogue and the narrator voice
4. Checkpoint: Narrative and Literary Spanish
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Absolute clauses, non-finite forms and the long sentence – Spanish at full syntactic stretch.

1. Absolute constructions
2. The gerund: what it may and may not do
3. Long sentences and their punctuation
4. Checkpoint: Complex Syntax
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

The exact word – near-synonyms, false friends, learned vocabulary and the shades between.

1. Near-synonyms and their difference
2. False friends and learned words
3. Semantic fields and precision verbs
4. Checkpoint: Lexical Precision
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

What a sentence does rather than says – courtesy, indirectness, irony and face.

1. Indirect requests and mitigation
2. Irony, sarcasm and implicature
3. Face, compliments and disagreement
4. Checkpoint: Pragmatics and Politeness
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

How Latin became Spanish, how Spanish met other languages, and where it is going.

1. From Latin to Castilian
2. Contact languages in Spain and America
3. Spanglish, the internet and the future of Spanish
4. Checkpoint: History and Geography of the Language
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Law, science, economics and journalism – the Spanish of each profession and how to read it.

1. Legal and administrative Spanish
2. Science and medicine
3. Economics and journalism
4. Checkpoint: specialised Spanish
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

Figures of speech, the essay, the speech – persuading and delighting in Spanish.

1. The figures of speech
2. The essay and the column
3. Speaking in public
4. Checkpoint: figures, essay and speech
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions

The errors natives make, the doubts the RAE answers, and editing Spanish like a professional.

1. Pronouns and the que test
2. Spelling doubts natives share
3. Editing your own Spanish
4. Checkpoint: pronouns, spelling and editing
5. Reading, listening and 10 questions