The learning path
All 140 grammar topics in the order in which they support one another — numbered from 1 to 140.
Your progress at a glance
Your progress at a glanceEach petal is a category: easy topics on the inside, hard ones on the outside. Tap a petal to see only its topics.
Where are you right now?
- A1Introducing yourself, asking questions, saying everyday things.
- The alphabetTwenty-seven letters, and one of them is new.
- The vowelsFive vowels, and each one always sounds the same.
- Consonants: j, ll, ñ, r, zA few letters sound different from what an English eye expects.
- Spelling: c, g, qu, guThe vowel that follows decides how c and g sound.
- Stress and the written accentTwo rules for stress — and a mark where they do not apply.
- Present tense: regular verbsThree sets of endings for three groups of verbs.
- ser — what something isName, origin, job, quality — what stays put.
- Yes-no questionsThe same sentence, two question marks, the voice goes up.
- Masculine or feminineThe ending gives it away most of the time — and three times it does not.
- Agreement: gender and numberFour forms, and the noun's ending says which.
- Subject pronouns: yo, túyo, tú, él … appear only when they do a job.
- a, en, de — the three commonesta is where to, en is where, de is where from and whose.
- Stem-changing verbsThe vowel changes — everywhere except with we and you plural.
- estar — where and how something isPlace and condition — what could be different tomorrow.
- The irregular verbsTen verbs you need on the first day — and that follow no rule.
- Going to: ir a + infinitiveThe future people actually speak.
- poder and querer: can, wantTwo stem-changing verbs, with the infinitive behind.
- Question words and their accentEvery question word carries an accent — the accent is the question.
- hay — there is, there areOne form for everything, and never an article after it.
- Reflexive verbsThe pronoun goes in front — and more verbs need one than in English.
- The pluralAn -s or an -es, and sometimes an accent moves.
- Demonstratives: este, ese, aquelBy me, by you, by neither of us.
- Possessives: mi, tu, el míoShort before the noun, long with an article on its own.
- Contractions: al and dela plus el becomes al, de plus el becomes del — and nothing else.
- Negation and double negativesno before the verb, and nada, nunca, nadie need it anyway.
- Expressions with tenerHunger, thirst, fear and your age — in Spanish you have them all.
- gustar and similar verbsNot «I like the book» — «the book pleases me».
- A2Talking about what happened and saying what comes next.
- Object pronouns: lo, la, leWhat is done is lo/la — to whom is le.
- Preterite (indefinido)What happened, once, and was then over.
- Where the adjective goesAfter the noun it distinguishes, in front it judges.
- por and parapor looks back at the reason, para forward at the goal.
- Present progressive: estar + -andoFor what is going on at this very instant.
- Using the articleSpanish uses the article more often than English — and in one place not at all.
- ser or estar?What something is, against how it stands right now.
- The imperative for tú and vosotrosThe third person of the present — and eight outliers.
- Must: tener que, hay que, deberMy obligation, everybody's obligation, the moral one.
- Tag questions and short answersYour tag changes with the verb; here there are two words and neither of them moves.
- Where the pronouns goBefore the conjugated verb — or attached, but never in between.
- Imperfect (imperfecto)How things were, what always was, what was going on.
- Short forms: buen, granbueno becomes buen, grande becomes gran — but only in front.
- The personal aBefore a person as an object there is an a — English has nothing like it.
- saber or conocer?You know a fact; you are acquainted with a person.
- Simple future (futuro)Endings on the whole infinitive — and twelve verbs shorten it.
- First conditional: si + presentsi plus present, and the main clause takes present, future or imperative.
- Quantities and measuresA quantity takes de — and mucho almost never does.
- Reflexive verbs and seme, te, se — and the same se does three other jobs.
- Relative clausesque for almost everything — and it can never be left out.
- Present perfect (perfecto)What happened inside a stretch of time that is still running.
- Comparing and gradingmás … que, and the superlative needs the article.
- Prepositions of place and timeWhere something is takes en — where it is going takes a.
- Indefinites: alguien, nadieOne pair for people and one for things, and all four build the sentence differently depending on where they stand.
- hay or está?What there is takes hay; where something known is takes estar.
- Irregular commands: ven, hazEight short words you hear on the first day.
- Asking politelyThe conditional turns a demand into a request.
- Questions with a preposition« Who with? » — the preposition never lands at the end here.
- Irregular yo forms: hago, pongoOne form steps out of line, five are regular.
- Gender of people and jobsFour patterns — and a group that only changes the article.
- Habits: imperfecto, soler, indefinidoWhat always used to happen — and when a repetition still belongs in the indefinido.
- Comparisons: más que, tan comoThree patterns — and before a number it is de, not que.
- Positions: encima, debajoThey all take de — and without a noun the de drops.
- Pronouns after a prepositionAfter para, de and con there are other forms — and two of them merge.
- B1Explaining how things connect, giving reasons, reporting.
- Preterite or imperfect?Frame or event — and whoever is in the frame is not counted.
- Passive with seThe everyday form — and the verb agrees with the thing.
- The negative imperativeno plus subjunctive — the affirmative form does not exist here.
- Conditional (condicional)The stems of the futuro, the endings of the imperfecto.
- Present subjunctive: the formsThe endings change sides; the stem comes from the yo form.
- Noun + de + nounSpanish does not compound, it joins with de.
- Indirect questionsNo question mark, but the accent stays — and «whether» is si.
- Time clausesYour -ing form after «before» and «after» is an infinitive here.
- Adjectives with ser or estarser listo is clever, estar listo is ready.
- soler, volver a: used to, againTurns of phrase where English needs an adverb.
- Second conditional: si tuvierasi plus imperfect subjunctive, main clause in the conditional.
- The superlative and -ísimoThe best of all — and the ending that needs no comparison.
- Two object pronouns: se loPerson first, thing second — and le becomes se.
- Past perfect (pluscuamperfecto)What was already over when something else happened.
- Passive with serThe newspaper form — and the participle agrees.
- Formal commands and «let's»One form for affirmative and negative — and vamos a for «let us».
- Other uses of the presentWith a time expression it talks about tomorrow; in a story, about back then.
- Irregular preterites: tuve, hiceTheir own stem, their own set of endings — and no stress on the last syllable.
- The future as a guessSerán las tres is not «it will be three» but «it is probably three».
- When the subjunctive is usedWhen the main clause wishes, doubts, judges or denies.
- Third person plural as passiveMe han robado el coche — with no «they» in front of it.
- Tricky genders: el mapaEnding in -a and masculine anyway — and two words where the gender changes the meaning.
- Verbs with a fixed prepositionWhich preposition a verb wants is rarely the English one.
- Negative words: nunca, tampoco« Me neither » and « nor do I » are one word here.
- Cause, result and concession«So» is two different things, and Spanish has two words for them.
- Written accents: the tricky casesWhen words grow, vowels collide and short words have a twin.
- Pronouns with commandsAttached when affirmative, in front when negative — and the accent moves with them.
- Telling a story in the pastThe imperfecto sets the stage, the indefinido moves the action.
- The impersonal se: «one»English has three words for it and dislikes all three.
- «become»: ponerse, quedarse, volverse, hacerseEnglish spreads «become» over get, go, turn and become — Spanish has five verbs of its own, chosen by the kind of change.
- May, can, shouldpoder covers can and may, deber gives the advice.
- No present subjunctive after siThe one place in the language where it is forbidden.
- Adverbs in -menteFeminine form plus -mente, but only one per run.
- Relative pronouns: que, quienque covers almost everything — the others come after a preposition.
- Which future form to useIn everyday speech nearly always ir a; the future sounds written.
- Subjunctive after wishes, feelingsWhoever wants something or judges it sends the clause into the subjunctive.
- Diminutives and augmentatives-ito rarely means «small» and almost always says something about tone.
- pero, sino and sino queEnglish uses «but» for two different jobs — Spanish gives each job its own word.
- Reported speechThe backshift is yours already — the infinitive is not.
- Requests without an imperativeIn everyday speech a question is the commonest request.
- Present perfect or preterite?If the stretch of time reaches today, the perfecto is used.
- Past participle: hecho, dichoInvariable after haber, agreeing after ser and estar.
- B2Getting exact: stance, degree, subordinate clause.
- Word order: subject after verbThe subject may follow the verb — and that says something.
- The imperfect subjunctiveFrom the third person plural of the preterite — and there are two sets of endings to choose from.
- Filler words: pues, bueno, valepues, bueno, vale, ya — your «well», «right», «OK», «look».
- Third conditional: si hubierasi hubiera plus participle, main clause with habría.
- Relative clauses with the subjunctiveBusco un piso que tenga terraza — it may not exist at all.
- Subjunctive after doubtDeny the believing and the clause changes mood.
- Punctuation and spellingAlmost nothing takes a capital letter.
- More verb phrases: ir, andar, tener, llevarA gerund or participle after a helper verb — for gradually, constantly and already done.
- Meaning shifts in the preteriteA state in the indefinido becomes its beginning.
- Future perfect: habré hechohabré plus participle — for everything that will be finished before a point in the future.
- Modal verbs in the pastWhether it came off is told by the tense.
- Time clauses: the past and special casescuando llegara, mientras with the subjunctive, al plus infinitive — what comes after the basic rule.
- estar + participle: the resultEnglish says «was closed» for both; Spanish makes you choose.
- Adjective position and meaningAn old friend is not an aged friend.
- Choosing lo, la or leWhom or what takes lo and la, to whom takes le.
- Adjectives + fixed prepositionNot only verbs want a preposition — adjectives and nouns do too.
- The neuter article loEnglish needs a dummy noun here; Spanish needs none.
- Spain vs Latin AmericaEnglish lost its own «ye» — so one of the two systems will feel familiar.
- The perfect subjunctive: haya hechoFor what has already happened and is being judged all the same.
- Wishes with ojalá and como siSpanish has no verb for «to wish» — it has a word that opens one.
- Purpose, result and contrast«Although» and «even if» are one word here, told apart by the mood.
- Infinitive or gerund?«Smoking is bad» is Fumar es malo, with an infinitive.
- Indicative or subjunctive?One question settles it: is the clause being asserted?
- Linking words in a textSix groups — and two that look like English words and are not.
- C1The fine grain: tone, register, rare forms.
- Emphasis: Fue Ana quien lo dijoWhat English can stress with the voice, Spanish prefers to stress with the build of the sentence.
- Sequence of tenses in the subjunctiveThe main clause decides which subjunctive follows — with exceptions that carry meaning.
- Mixed conditionalsThe condition is in the past, the consequence is now.
- Concessions: aunque, por más que, si bienaunque with the indicative is «although», with the subjunctive «even if» — and there are finer ways still.
- The more … the more: cuanto más, cada vez másThe more, the better — and cada vez más for «more and more».
- Perfect infinitive, perfect gerund, absolute participlede haberlo sabido, habiendo terminado, terminada la reunión — whole clauses in three words.
- Subjunctive: where the mood changes the meaningQue llueva no me importa, el hecho de que, and decir and sentir with two meanings.
- Conditions without sia menos que, con tal de que, siempre que, en caso de que — and every one of them with the subjunctive.
- Relative clauses: el cual, quien, cuantoAfter prepositions, with no antecedent and referring to a whole sentence — the relative words beyond que.
- Questions of usage: dequeísmo, laísmo, habíanWhat you often hear and the norm does not accept — recognise it without copying it.
- C2The rest — the part native speakers look up too.
- Pretérito anterior and the ra-form as a pluperfecthubo terminado and la casa donde naciera — two written forms worth being able to read.
- Future subjunctive: hablare, fuereA form that lives almost only in laws and set phrases — recognising it is enough.
- Register: newspaper forms and the nominal styleForms you read in newspapers, reports and official texts — and do not need in conversation.
The finish: the whole grammar
140 topics, from the first sentences to the finishing touches.
How to read the path. Every dot is a grammar topic; a click opens it. The colour of a dot is its category, the colour of the path is the difficulty — green and easy at the top, berry red and hard at the bottom. Within a level the categories follow one another, but you need not take them in order: you can work on a tense and on a topic from another category side by side.
On every topic page you can note how well it has sunk in — understood or not sure yet. The path shows it here and highlights the next open topic.
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