Every Spanish printable, chapter by chapter

10 words · A pronoun, a few verbs, the things they act on. Enough to build a real Spanish sentence by the end.

Subject, verb, object - and the moments Spanish bends the English order.

11 words · Subject pronouns for everyone else, plus the rest of the vocabulary you need for your first story.

Every word in this story comes from the lessons you've just finished. No lookups required.

6 words · The definite and indefinite articles in one place: el / la / los / las / un / una. The next lesson covers when to use which.

Definite vs indefinite, masculine vs feminine, singular vs plural - the agreement rules and the cases where Spanish uses an article and English doesn't (and vice versa).

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El or la: how Spanish decides, and the short exception list worth memorising.

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From la casa to las casas: the three rules that pluralise every noun you know.

You can read this story using only the words you've learned so far. Every content word sits at or above the rank-100 ceiling.

10 words · Memorise these 10 verb infinitives. The next lesson covers how to conjugate them.

Present-tense conjugation for the verbs you just learned, with a worksheet to drill the endings.

10 words · Memorise these 10 verb infinitives. The next lesson covers how to conjugate them.

Present-tense conjugation for the verbs you just learned, with a worksheet to drill the endings.

10 words · Memorise these 10 verb infinitives. The next lesson covers how to conjugate them.

Present-tense conjugation for the verbs you just learned, with a worksheet to drill the endings.

5 words · Memorise these 5 verb infinitives. The next lesson covers how to conjugate them.

Present-tense conjugation for the verbs you just learned, with a worksheet to drill the endings.

Every verb you just conjugated, in a short story about an ordinary day. The payoff for chapter 3.

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This, that, and that-over-there. Gender + number agreement with the noun being pointed at.

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mi, tu, su, nuestro, vuestro - and the difference between 'my' and 'mine'.

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How to negate a verb, and why Spanish allows (and expects) double negatives.

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Adjectives agree with the noun for gender and number. The endings, the position, the agreement patterns.

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Two verbs that both translate as 'to be'. The permanence vs state heuristic, plus the seven cases where the rule bends.

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de, a, en, con, por, para - plus the two mandatory contractions al and del.

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6 words · ranks 295-300

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me, te, lo, la, le - the words that replace 'him', 'her', 'it' and 'to him/her'. Position before the verb.

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9 words · ranks 391-400

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Verbs where the subject acts on itself: levantarse, llamarse, ducharse. The pronoun shift and what it means.

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más que, menos que, tan como. Plus the irregular comparatives mejor and peor.

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qué, quién, cuándo, por qué, cómo, cuál, cuánto, dónde - and the word order rule that comes with each.

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haber + past participle. The Spanish equivalent of 'I have done X'. Formation, when to use it, the irregular participles.

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Past for specified-time events: ayer, anoche, el lunes pasado. Regular and irregular conjugations.

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Past for habitual or ongoing action: 'used to', 'was -ing'. Only three irregulars in the whole tense.

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The single hardest grammar topic in Spanish for English speakers. Side-by-side examples, decision rules, and the cases that break the rules.

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Two ways: ir a + infinitive (going to) and the inflectional future tense (will). When to use each.

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Would: hablaría, comería, viviría. Regular formation, the same irregular stems as the future, and how to use it for politeness.

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Affirmative tú: habla, come, escribe. Eight irregulars: sé, ve, ten, ven, haz, di, pon, sal.

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How Spanish says 'there is', 'it's cold', 'one can'. The constructions that have no subject.

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How to glue clauses together. The defaults, the contrasts, and when each one is required.

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The little 'a' Spanish puts before a specific person (or pet) that is the direct object - and the cases where it disappears.

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Cause and route vs goal and destination. The use-buckets for each, and the minimal pairs where swapping one for the other changes the meaning.

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Building adverbs of manner from the feminine adjective (rapida -> rapidamente), the accent rule, and when Spanish reaches for con + noun instead.

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The long possessives - el mio, la tuya, lo nuestro - and how 'mine' and 'yours' differ from the short mi / tu / su.

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este, ese, aquel standing in for the noun - this one, that one, that one over there - plus the neuter esto / eso / aquello for unnamed things.

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The most and the least: el mas ... de, the irregulars mejor / peor / mayor / menor, and the absolute -isimo.

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The words for some, any, none and whichever - agreement, the apocopated forms, and the double-negative pattern they trigger.

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Two verbs for 'to know': saber for facts and how-to, conocer for being acquainted with people and places (and 'to meet' in the preterite).

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gustar, encantar, faltar, doler - where the thing you like is the subject and you are the indirect object. Why it is 'me gusta', not 'yo gusto'.

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Stacking two object pronouns: indirect before direct, the le -> se switch (se lo di), and where they sit around the verb.

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estar + gerundio for what is happening right now - how to build the gerund, and why Spanish does not use it for the future the way English does.

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hace dos anos que..., desde hace, desde, and hace + time for 'ago'. The patterns for duration and time-since, with the present-tense trap.

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How to build it - the yo-form stem, the opposite-vowel endings, and the six irregulars (sea, vaya, haya, sepa, de, este). A sister lesson covers when to use it.

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querer que, esperar que, ojala - the subjunctive of wanting and hoping, and the different-subjects rule that triggers it (quiero que vengas, not quiero venir).

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me alegro de que, me molesta que, es una pena que - reactions and feelings trigger the subjunctive, even when the fact is true.

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es importante que, es necesario que, es posible que - and the certainty exceptions (es verdad que, es evidente que) that keep the indicative.

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no creo que, dudo que, es imposible que, quizas - doubt and disbelief take the subjunctive, while creer que and es verdad que (confident) keep the indicative.

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no hables, no comas, no venga - every negative command uses the present-subjunctive form, and the pronouns move in front of the verb.

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The formal imperative is just the present subjunctive: pase, pasen, no pase. Affirmative and negative both, the carried-over irregulars, and where the pronouns attach.

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hablemos, comamos, vamos a comer - the 'let's' command, the vamos (not vayamos) exception for ir, and the everyday vamos a + infinitive alternative.

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Turning dice que into dijo que: when the reporting verb is past, the present slides to the imperfect, the preterite to the pluperfect, the future to the conditional - plus the pronoun and time shifts, and the obligatory que.

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me preguntó si..., me preguntó dónde..., and me dijo que viniera - reporting yes/no questions with si, open questions without the inversion, and commands as que plus the imperfect subjunctive.

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ser + past participle (+ por + agent): la novela fue escrita por Cervantes. The participle agrees with the subject, the tense lives on ser, and how it differs from estar + participle (action vs resulting state).

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se venden casas (the verb agrees with the patient) vs se dice que... and aquí se come bien (always third-person singular) - the two se-constructions Spanish reaches for instead of the ser-passive.

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