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This is where the rule makes sense. In Exercises you practise until it comes out.
42 rules
edumaterial's parts within the level. The European framework does not subdivide them.
3 materials
Spanish nouns belong to a grammatical gender: masculine or feminine. Gender is part of the word's grammar, not a judgement about the object. A table can be feminine and a book masculine even though neither object has a biological sex. The safest learning unit is therefore not “mesa” but “la mesa”, and not “libro” but “el libro”. The article carries information that an English noun does not show.
A13 Your turnA regular verb combines a stable stem with an ending that marks person and number.
A13 Your turnEnglish “to be” covers several jobs. Spanish separates three of the most frequent A1 jobs: “ser” identifies or classifies, “estar” locates a known entity or reports its current state, and “hay” introduces the existence of something. The useful question is not simply “permanent or temporary?”. Location uses “estar” even when it is permanent, and an event uses “ser” to say where it takes place.
A13 Your turn5 materials
At A1, a few irregular forms carry essential messages: “voy” for movement, “tengo” for possession and age, “quiero” for wants, “puedo” for ability, and “hago” for activities. They are useful before a learner can control every irregularity in Spanish. The PCIC places the broad system of common vowel and consonant irregularities in A2. This page therefore assesses concrete A1 uses, while the complete tables are a reference that prevents partial or misleading paradigms.
A13 Your turnA yes/no question can keep the same words as a statement. Speech uses question intonation; writing frames the whole question with “¿” and “?”. Spanish does not insert an auxiliary equivalent to English do. An information question begins with a stressed question expression such as “qué”, “quién” or “dónde”. These forms carry a written accent when they ask or exclaim, including in indirect questions.
A13 Your turnSpanish builds “me gusta” around the thing that is pleasing. In “Me gusta la música”, “la música” is the grammatical subject and “me” identifies the experiencer. This is why a word-for-word “yo gusto la música” does not express the English meaning “I like music”. Choose gusta or gustan by looking after the verb: one thing or an activity normally takes gusta; several countable things take gustan.
A13 Your turnA demonstrative points from a speaker’s position. The owner of an object and the person describing it need not be the same. If a bag belongs to you but is beside me, its owner does not automatically select ese. First establish who is speaking and where the object is. Spanish offers three sets: este, ese and aquel, with gender and number forms. Distance is interpreted in context, not measured by a fixed number of metres. For the controlled scenes on this page, use este beside the speaker, ese beside the listener and aquel far from both; those conventions are stated so the target is clear.
A1También adds a person or fact to an affirmative statement. Tampoco adds one to a negative statement. In a short reply, the verb may be understood from the message being answered: “Yo también” or “Yo tampoco”. This economy works only when the intended message is clear. Agreement is about a whole proposition, not just a word nearby. “No vivo aquí” and “No trabajo aquí” share no and aquí, but they concern different facts. Matching the last negative word does not establish that you share the same fact.
A15 materials
The preterite presents an event as a complete whole. A two-minute call and a ten-year stay can both use it if the speaker places each one inside a finished period. Closed markers such as “ayer”, “el sábado”, “en 2024” and “la semana pasada” make this viewpoint especially clear. They locate the event; they do not merely say that it was long ago.
A23 Your turnUse the imperfect when the sentence tells what the setting was like, what normally happened, what time it was or what was already in progress. It gives the reader the view from inside the past situation. The tense does not say that an action was unfinished in real life. It simply leaves its boundaries outside the sentence.
A23 Your turnA direct object is the person or thing directly affected by the verb: “Leo la carta” becomes “La leo”. An indirect object is the recipient, destination or experiencer: “Doy el mapa a Leo” includes “le”. Gender chooses among “lo/la/los/las” only after the direct-object role is clear. “Le/les” does not agree with the thing given; it points to the recipient.
A23 Your turnA present statement reports what someone does: “Tú preparas la mesa”. An affirmative imperative addresses them with an instruction: “Prepara la mesa”. A form can resemble another person’s present, but the addressed listener and the purpose of the exchange determine its function. For regular tú commands, use the third-person singular present form: prepara, bebe, escribe. Frequent irregulars include di, haz, pon, sal, ven, ten, ve and sé. Learn these as command forms rather than dropping letters at random. This page practises affirmative instructions to one person explicitly addressed as tú.
A2In “Pago antes de salir”, payment precedes leaving. In “Salgo después de pagar”, the same order is expressed from the other action. Reading the leftmost verb as the earliest action can reverse the message; the connector carries the relationship. For the basic pattern studied here, antes de and después de take an infinitive and the person doing that action is the subject of the main clause. “Marta llama después de comer” describes Marta eating, then Marta calling. It does not by itself report that another person ate.
A25 materials
The present perfect combines present “haber” with a past participle: “he hablado”, “hemos comido”. It often places a finished event inside a period that the speaker treats as still open or relevant now. This connection is grammatical and regional, not a universal clock rule. Speakers choose the perfect and the preterite differently across the Spanish-speaking world.
A23 Your turnIn “me lavo”, the subject performs the action on the same person: the use is genuinely reflexive. In “me voy”, the pronoun does not mean that I go myself; “irse” is a pronominal verb meaning to leave. Learn the infinitive with “-se” when the pronoun belongs to the lexical entry: “acordarse”, “quedarse”, “dormirse”. Dropping it can remove the meaning or create a different verb.
A23 Your turnA future time reference does not automatically require the simple future. Spanish can use the present for a fixed timetable, ir a + infinitive for an intention or decision already in motion, and the simple future for a projection, promise or plan viewed from now. Regional, genre and speaker preferences affect the balance, so this is a choice of viewpoint rather than a mechanical translation of English will. The conditional shares its stem with the future but changes the endings. At this stage, its safest productive role is the conventional wish pattern me gustaría + infinitive. The full form table is useful as a reference, but open hypothetical systems such as si pudiera, iría belong to later progression in the PCIC grammar inventory.
A23 Your turnA phase construction tells us where an action sits in its development. Empezar a plus infinitive presents its beginning. Acabar de plus infinitive, with a present auxiliary in the recent-past meaning practised here, presents an event just completed. Volver a plus infinitive presents another occurrence of an action. The construction carries more than verb form. “Vuelve a llamar” commits the speaker to a previous call; “empieza a llamar” does not. Calling again need not mean that a fault caused the repetition. Add a cause only if the case gives one.
A2Tener que plus infinitive assigns an obligation to a grammatical subject: “Tenemos que reservar”. Hay que plus infinitive presents a requirement without naming that subject: “Hay que reservar”. A general requirement may apply to a stated group, but the expression itself does not identify a particular person to do it. Poder plus infinitive can express ability or permission. The context on this page labels a rule that permits an action, so “puedes entrar” reports permission. It does not establish that the listener wants to enter or has decided to do so. Querer plus infinitive reports a wish or intention: “quiero entrar”.
A23 materials
The present subjunctive can point to now or later. Present names its time orientation; subjunctive marks how the speaker frames the clause—as wanted, requested, evaluated, doubted or still pending rather than simply asserted. Learn the form and the choice separately. A correct trigger with a wrong ending still fails, and a perfect form in an asserted fact still uses the wrong mood.
B13 Your turnA connector is not a magic trigger. “Cuando” can introduce a habit already presented as real or an event that has not happened yet. A plain clause can assert a proposition, while a frame such as “es importante que” evaluates another subject's action. The reliable question is: does the speaker present the subordinate content as information, or place it inside a wish, reaction, evaluation, purpose or pending future?
B13 Your turnImperatives address tú, usted, nosotros, vosotros or ustedes. Spanish does not have a first-person singular command because a speaker cannot issue a command to yo as a separate addressee. Before conjugating, fix three variables: who receives the instruction, whether it is affirmative or negative, and which plural address system the context uses.
B13 Your turn3 materials
The imperfect subjunctive can be selected by a past main verb, but it can also create distance from reality in a present or future hypothetical frame. In “Quería que vinieras”, it follows a past wish; in “Si vinieras mañana, hablaríamos”, the arrival is future and hypothetical. Do not call every imperfect-subjunctive event past. First identify the clause relationship; then identify the time reference supplied by the context.
B13 Your turnA real conditional links a condition the speaker treats as possible with its consequence: “Si hay entradas, vamos al concierto.” It does not claim that tickets exist; it keeps that possibility open. At this level the si-clause uses the indicative. Hypothetical “si tuviera” and impossible-past “si hubiera tenido” patterns belong to the B2 inventory and are deliberately deferred.
B13 Your turnDirect speech preserves the original speaker's words. Reported speech rebuilds the message from a new speaker, place and time: dice que for a current report, dijo que for a past reporting frame. A change is justified only when the viewpoint changes. If the information, place or day is still current, Spanish can retain a present form or deictic word instead of shifting it mechanically.
B13 Your turn4 materials
Passive se has a grammatical subject that undergoes the action, so the verb agrees with it: “Se publicaron dos informes.” Impersonal se has no such subject and keeps third-person singular: “Se entrevistó a dos especialistas.” The number of things mentioned does not decide the construction. Agreement depends on grammatical structure: a direct human object marked by personal a is not the subject of an impersonal se clause.
B23 Your turnIn a verbal periphrasis, the two verb forms behave as one predicate. The first verb carries person, number, tense and mood; the infinitive, gerund or participle names the event and helps express obligation, phase, duration or result. Not every adjacent pair of verbs is a periphrasis. In “Salió corriendo”, the gerund can describe manner; in “Sigue corriendo”, seguir presents the event as continuing. Meaning and syntactic unity matter.
B23 Your turnA relative form links an antecedent to a clause and fills a missing role inside that clause. In “la habitación que tiene balcón”, que stands for la habitación and is the subject of tiene. Choose in this order: identify the antecedent, recover the missing role, preserve any required preposition, and only then select the relative form.
B24 Your turnIn “depender de”, de is not chosen because the following noun has a universal meaning. It is selected by this verbal sense and must travel with it into a question or relative clause: “¿De qué depende?” and “el factor del que depende”. Learn a usable entry: verb + preposition + meaning + one new noun. A bare translation often hides the required link.
B23 Your turn7 materials
Indicative normally presents the antecedent as identified or accepted in the discourse: “Uso la sala que tiene dos ventanas.” Subjunctive presents the matching referent as sought, required, non-specific or denied: “Busco una sala que tenga dos ventanas.” The sought room may exist in the real world, and an identified room can later turn out not to exist. The mood marks the speaker's discourse commitment, not an objective existence detector.
B23 Your turnBefore choosing a polished expression, write the logical relation in plain language: adds another reason, gives the cause, derives a consequence, concedes an obstacle, contrasts two subjects or reformulates an idea. Near-synonyms do not always share syntax or scope. “Porque” introduces a cause inside a sentence; “por lo tanto” normally presents a consequence as a separate discourse move.
B23 Your turnA neutral subject–verb order is possible in many contexts, but speakers reorganise constituents to connect with what is already active and to place new or contrastive information where it carries focus. Word order is therefore not free. A fronted object can require a clitic, and a postverbal subject answers a different discourse question from a preverbal topic.
B23 Your turnNo todos rejects a universal claim; ninguno excludes every member of the named set. If two members fail, no todos succeeds even when the rest are unknown. It does not itself guarantee that any member succeeds. Todos no followed by a verb can be read differently across contexts. When scope matters, use no todos or ninguno with an explicit set. Distinguish a negative result from an unexamined item. A claim about inspected items does not extend automatically to the whole collection. A counterexample can refute a universal; a sample with no counterexample cannot establish it for untested members.
B2Según followed by a named source places a claim within that source’s account. The reader can identify who supports the content, but the expression alone does not establish independent verification. A source frame must cover the intended proposition. If a second sentence gives the writer’s observation, name the change of evidence. Do not make an attributed claim stronger by removing its source when reports conflict. Two accounts that repeat one original message are not two independent checks. A missing record is a limit of evidence, not proof that an event did not occur. This lesson keeps ordinary tenses: the task is source scope, not reported-speech backshift.
B2P solo si Q makes Q necessary for P. It allows Q without P; it excludes P without Q. In a complete stated rule, si Q, P presents Q as sufficient for P. These directions are different. A condition can concern permission, actual performance or a prediction. Keep the result predicate: podrá entrar does not mean entrará. Other requirements must come from the case, not from a hidden assumption. Test scope with a permitted counterexample. For a necessary condition, find Q with P absent. Do not reject the condition merely because this allowed combination occurs.
B2Creo que no funciona asserts a negative belief. No creo que funcione rejects or withholds the positive belief in its ordinary non-assertive reading. It often suggests a negative stance, but can also leave the outcome undecided when context says so. The main negation and the subordinate negation have different scopes. Use indicative after an affirmative belief to assert its content, even when that content contains no. In the non-assertive frame no creo que, use subjunctive. Do not turn mood into a truth detector. A belief can be wrong, and subjunctive can frame a real event without asserting it here. State what the speaker commits to and what remains unverified.
B27 materials
Every compound tense combines a finite form of haber with one participle. The finite auxiliary locates the viewpoint; the participle presents the event as already completed relative to that viewpoint. Compare “ya habían cerrado cuando llegamos”, “ya habrán cerrado cuando lleguemos” and “ya habrían cerrado si nadie hubiera llamado”. At C1, form is only the beginning. The future and conditional can also reduce or redistribute the speaker's commitment. “Habrá olvidado la cita” is an inference about a completed event; “habría aceptado el cargo, según el comunicado” presents reported information as unconfirmed. Context—not the auxiliary alone—selects the reading.
C13 Your turn“La verja fue cerrada al anochecer” packages a closing event around the affected object. “La verja estaba cerrada al amanecer” describes the state visible later. Both situations can last briefly or indefinitely, so duration does not choose the verb. With a true passive, the participle agrees with the grammatical subject and an agent may be added when relevant. With a result state, the participle or adjective also agrees, but an agent phrase is normally absent because the sentence describes how the subject stands, not who performed the event.
C13 Your turnA form is not polite in isolation. Speakers weigh social distance, relative roles, the burden of the request, the channel, the setting and local convention. A short present-tense request may be cooperative in a routine service encounter, while the same shape can sound abrupt in a formal email about a substantial favour. Advanced control means choosing enough mitigation and then stopping. Repeating por favor, adding several apologies and combining every conditional formula can create distance, irony or pressure instead of warmth.
C13 Your turnNo es necesario que intervengas removes a requirement to intervene; it does not itself ban intervention. Es necesario que no intervengas requires non-intervention. The position of no changes the proposition within the necessity frame. The absence of one requirement does not establish general permission. A separate rule may prohibit the action. Conversely, a prohibition is not an optional recommendation merely because the complement has subjunctive mood. At C1, test the negative scope by describing an allowed or excluded situation, then check the whole policy. Here the difficulty is commitment and scope; subjunctive endings are a prerequisite.
C1Se me rompió el vaso presents the glass breaking as an event affecting me. Me is not the grammatical subject; el vaso controls singular agreement. Se me rompieron los vasos has plural agreement. This medium-event framing often backgrounds deliberate agency. It does not prove an external cause, innocence or absence of negligence. Rompí el vaso names the actor, but that transitive clause alone does not prove intention either. Use context to preserve what is known: possession, affected participant, witnessed action and intent are different claims. If the evidence identifies a deliberate actor, do not replace that fact with an event frame that hides it.
C1Ni siquiera si introduces a condition judged especially favourable to a result, then says that result still would not follow. In ni siquiera si duplicaran la oferta aceptaría, the doubled offer is imagined, not reported as an actual offer. An explicit domain limits the generalisation. Rejecting every price-only change does not imply rejecting a proposal with different hours or duties. Do not erase the condition that makes the conclusion stable. Imperfect subjunctive and conditional can frame a hypothetical extreme. Present a known extreme as known only when the case establishes it. This lesson evaluates the scalar argument and its limits, not a synonym for aunque.
C1No abriremos a menos que llegue el permiso says that without the permission there will be no opening. It identifies an exception to the negative result, but does not by itself promise opening when permission arrives. A menos que takes subjunctive in this future condition. If the exception itself contains no, keep that second negation: no seguiremos a menos que no llueva makes absence of rain necessary for continuing. Do not delete either negative mechanically. To infer a positive outcome, the case must supply a sufficient rule or a decision, not merely remove one barrier. Compare the full policy and its timing before translating an exception into si.
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