Spanish Grammar Cheatsheet

The essentials of Spanish grammar in scannable form. Cross-references the Spanish for adult learners pillar, the accent guide, and the Critical 100 word list. British English explanations; Spanish examples mark stress accents and the inverted question/exclamation marks as standard.

Pronouns

Latin America uses ustedes as the only plural "you" - formal and informal. Spain keeps the vosotros / ustedes distinction. Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and much of Central America use vos in place of tú in the singular, with its own conjugations.

Three conjugation classes

Spanish verbs end in -ar, -er, or -ir. The endings tell you which class.

Present tense, regular endings

The six core tenses, what they do

The preterite / imperfect split is the most common source of past-tense errors for English speakers. Roughly: preterite for a closed action, imperfect for the running context.

Ser vs Estar

Both mean "to be." Native speakers use them so naturally they often cannot explain the rule. A working summary:

Test that catches roughly 80% of cases: if the property is inherent or definitional, ser. If it is a state, location or condition that could change in the next hour, estar.

Por vs Para

The other classic adult-learner trap. A working summary:

The rough English mapping: por = "because of / through / in exchange for"; para = "in order to / for the benefit of / by (deadline)." Por for duration (viví allí por dos años) is common in Latin America; in Spain most people say viví allí dos años or durante dos años. It is never para.

The personal "a"

Spanish puts "a" before a direct object that is a specific person (or a pet you think of as one).

• Veo la casa. (I see the house.)
• Veo a María. (I see Maria.)
• Llamo al médico. (I call the doctor.)

You do not use the personal "a" for things, and you usually drop it after tener: Tengo dos hermanos (not Tengo a dos hermanos).

Direct and indirect object pronouns

Order when both appear: indirect before direct.

• Me lo dio. (He gave it to me.)
• Te las mandaré. (I will send them to you.)

When both are 3rd person, the indirect "le / les" becomes se:

• Le doy el libro a Juan. -> Se lo doy.

Gender and number

Every noun is masculine or feminine. Adjectives agree.

• el chico alto / la chica alta
• los chicos altos / las chicas altas

Defaults that are usually right:

• Nouns ending in -o are usually masculine; -a usually feminine.
• Nouns ending in -ción, -sión, -dad, -tad, -tud are usually feminine.
• Nouns ending in -ma of Greek origin (problema, tema, sistema) are masculine despite the -a.
• The day is el día (masculine despite the -a).

The subjunctive, in one paragraph

Spanish uses the subjunctive far more than English does. The trigger is usually a main clause that expresses doubt, desire, emotion, denial, command, or hypothetical + the conjunction "que" + the dependent clause.

Triggers to learn first: quiero que, espero que, dudo que, no creo que, ojalá que, antes de que, para que, aunque, cuando (when referring to the future), si fuera (hypothetical "if I were").

• Quiero que vengas. (I want you to come.) - want + que = subjunctive.
• Espero que tengas razón. (I hope you are right.) - hope + que = subjunctive.
• Cuando llegues, llámame. (When you arrive, call me.) - future "when" = subjunctive.

Present subjunctive endings (regular):

The pattern: swap the vowel. -ar verbs use -e endings; -er and -ir verbs use -a endings. The irregularities mostly carry over from the present indicative yo form.

Negation

A double negative is grammatical and expected in Spanish.

• No tengo nada. (I do not have anything. Literally: I do not have nothing.)
• No vi a nadie. (I did not see anyone.)
• Nunca voy allí. (I never go there.) - negative word before the verb, no extra no needed.
• No voy nunca allí. (I never go there.) - negative word after the verb, so no goes before the verb.

Question formation

Spanish has no helper verb like English "do" for questions. Three options:

1. Statement word order, rising intonation: ¿Tienes hambre? (Are you hungry?) - the voice rises at the end.
2. Subject after the verb: ¿Tiene Juan hambre? (Is Juan hungry?) - common when the subject is named.
3. Question word: ¿Por qué tienes hambre? (Why are you hungry?)

The inverted opening "¿" tells readers a question is coming so they know how to read the intonation. It is mandatory in writing.

Time expressions

What to drill first

If you are starting, focus your first hundred hours on:

1. Present tense of the top 20 verbs (the Spanish Critical 100 gives you the list).
2. Ser vs estar until it is automatic, not effortful.
3. The preterite vs imperfect distinction for past narration.
4. Direct and indirect object pronouns including the se-lo / se-la rule.
5. The subjunctive in the most common triggers (quiero que, espero que, antes de que, cuando + future).

Everything else (pluperfect, future perfect, conditional perfect, the imperfect subjunctive, formal commands) layers on top once these five are stable. Trying to learn all the tenses before any of them are conversational is the most common adult-learner mistake.