Lessons

Spanish has five vowel sounds and they never change. Here is each one, the English habit that ruins it, and why the O is the hardest for English speakers.

B and V sound identical in Spanish, H is always silent, and C and G each have two pronunciations. The four consonant rules that cause most beginner errors.

Two rules cover where a Spanish word is stressed, and the accent only appears when a word breaks them. Plus the vowel pairs that count as one syllable.

The trilled RR is one muscle movement, not a talent. What your tongue is actually doing, three ways in, and the words where a single R is enough.

Spanish vowels never reduce, never diphthongise and never nasalise. The three habits English and Portuguese speakers carry over, and how to hear them.

The phrases you need before any grammar — greeting, asking, apologising, and the two questions that keep a conversation alive when you are lost.

The phrases that get you food, water, help and a bathroom in Peru, plus the one frame Peruvians actually use to ask for things.

Every Spanish noun is masculine or feminine, and the ending usually tells you which. The reliable patterns, the exceptions, and how to form plurals.

Spanish has four definite articles and four indefinite ones, and the choice is forced by the noun. The full table, when to use each, and the el agua trap.

Possessives agree with the thing owned, not the owner, and su means four different things. Demonstratives come in three distances, not two.

Spanish adjectives change to match the noun and usually come after it. The four ending patterns, where the adjective sits, and the ones that move for effect.

One pattern for more-than, one for as-as, one for the most. Four irregular forms, and the -ísimo ending that does the work of "really".

The full set of Spanish subject pronouns, when to drop them, the tú and usted decision, and why vosotros is not used anywhere in Latin America.

Me levanto, me ducho, me visto. What the extra pronoun is doing, the verbs that change meaning with it, and the routine vocabulary in order.

Direct and indirect object pronouns, which is which, where they go, and the two orders that trip people up. With the Peruvian usage that differs.

When both object pronouns land in the same sentence, the person comes first and le turns into se. Why that happens, and where the pair goes.

Ser is one of two Spanish verbs meaning "to be". Its present-tense forms, the five jobs it does, and how to build affirmative, negative and question sentences.

Estar is the other Spanish verb meaning "to be". Its present-tense forms, the four things it covers, and the Peruvian expressions built on it.

Permanent versus temporary is the rule everyone is taught and it fails constantly. Here is the one that holds up, plus the adjectives that change meaning.

How to say what is happening right now in Spanish, how to build the gerund from each verb group, and why Spanish uses this tense far less than English does.

Almost every Spanish verb belongs to one of three groups, and each group has one set of endings. The tables, the stem-change pattern, and what to drill first.

Qué, cómo, cuándo, dónde, quién, cuál, cuánto, por qué and de quién — what each asks, why they all carry accents, and the qué versus cuál problem.

The little words tacked onto the end of a sentence to soften it or ask for agreement. What each one does in Lima, and which not to use yet.

Y, o, pero, también, antes, después, ahora. Not nouns, not verbs, and doing more work in real speech than either. Including why y sometimes becomes e.

O sea, igual, la verdad, nada que ver, en todo caso. The markers that make speech sound spoken, what each one signals, and which to use first.

Counting to a million, the two things that change with gender, how Spanish tells the time, and why the date order will catch you out.

Tener means "to have", and it also covers hunger, age, cold, fear and obligation — all the places English uses "to be". The forms and the expressions.

Spanish has a proper future tense and almost nobody uses it in speech. Voy a plus an infinitive does the job, and ir has five more uses worth knowing.

Me gusta does not mean "I like" — it means "it pleases me". Once the sentence is the right way round, the agreement and the other verbs like it follow.

Saber is facts and skills; conocer is people and places. The forms, the split, and what each one means in the past tense, where they change meaning.

Spanish builds possession backwards from English, with de. Here is how to flip it, plus when de and el contract into del.

Hay says something exists; estar says where a specific thing is. The difference, the prepositions of place, and the two ways to ask for directions.

Poder plus an infinitive covers ability, possibility and permission — and ¿puede...? is how you ask a Peruvian stranger for anything.

Three verbs that take a bare infinitive or a noun, two of them with a stem change — and why quiero is too blunt for ordering in Peru.

How to build an adverb from an adjective, why bien is not bueno, and the short forms Peruvians use instead of the long ones.

The scale from siempre to nunca, the cada and todos los patterns, and the double negative nunca forces on you.

English what and which do not map onto qué and cuál. The split is definition against selection, and it decides one very common question.

De quién asks who something belongs to. Cuyo joins two ideas and agrees with the thing owned — but almost nobody says cuyo out loud.

Which quantifiers agree with the noun and which never change, plus the article todo needs and the no that ningún drags along.

Muy goes with adjectives and adverbs, mucho with nouns and verbs. Here is the one-second test, plus tengo mucho frío and me gusta mucho.

English too is demasiado. Está muy caro and está demasiado caro are different sentences, and in a market they are different moves.

The somebody-nobody pairs, when alguno shortens to algún, and why Spanish makes you say no twice.

Both translate as "for", which is why the rule has to come from somewhere else. Para looks forward to a destination; por looks at the reason or the route.

A is the destination you arrive at, hacia the direction you face, de the origin or the link. Plus the two contractions al and del.

Spanish has two past tenses and English has one, so the rule has to come from somewhere other than translation. The question that decides it, every time.

He hablado, has comido, ha vivido. How to build it, the eight irregular participles, and why the pretérito does this job in Peru.

Four past forms for two verbs. Era describes and fue narrates; estaba is the state you were in and estuvo is a stretch that ended.

Estaba haciendo is how you say "was doing" — but Spanish reaches for it far less than English, because the imperfect already carries that meaning.

Iba already means "used to go". Solía ir adds emphasis, and estar acostumbrado a is a different thing entirely — here is which one you need.

Había llegado — the past before the past. How it is built, the time words that pull it in, and the había sido you will hear in Peru.

Spanish only really uses ordinals up to ten. Past that it switches to ordinary numbers — including the century you are living in.

One set of endings on the whole infinitive, twelve irregular stems shared with the future, and three jobs — hypotheticals, softened requests and speculation.

Usted is not archaic in Lima and not only for the elderly. Who gets which, how the switch happens, and the safe opening that works either way.

Affirmative and negative commands are built from different stems, tú has eight irregulars, and in Peru a bare command is usually the wrong register anyway.

Alguna vez asks whether you have ever done something; nunca and jamás answer no. Where each one goes, and when Spanish doubles the negative.

Ya is "already" or "right now", ya no is "not anymore", todavía is "still" and todavía no is "not yet". Four boxes, and what Peru does with ya.

The present perfect progressive is correct Spanish and mostly the wrong choice. Llevo tres años viviendo acá is what people actually say.

Two interchangeable endings, one formation rule that never fails, and the handful of sentence shapes that make it compulsory rather than optional.

Three kinds of if-sentence, one of which needs the subjunctive and two of which do not. The patterns, and the mistake even native speakers make.

Some connectors always take the subjunctive, some never do, and a third group changes meaning depending on which you use. The three lists, with the logic.

Haya plus a participle. It is the present perfect wearing subjunctive clothes, and it has exactly two jobs worth learning.

Hubiera hecho covers the past that never happened. In Peru it also quietly replaces habría, and stands alone to mean you should have.

Present, perfect, imperfect, pluperfect. Two questions pick the right one every time, and they are not four separate tenses to memorise.

Peruvians say voy a for real plans. The -ré future does most of its work guessing about the present — estará en casa means "he's probably home".

Estar in the future plus a gerund. Its second job — guessing about what is happening right now — is the one that comes up most in Peru.

If it rains, we don't go. Si takes the present indicative — never the present subjunctive — and the other half can be a present, a future or a command.

Si tengo, si tuviera, si hubiera tenido — three if-sentences making three different claims, and the one rule that stops the commonest error.

Estoy interesado is about you; es interesante is about the thing. The same split runs through preocupado, emocionado, agotado and a dozen more.

Que covers people and things and nearly every sentence. Quien, el que and el cual have narrow jobs, and cuyo barely exists in speech.

Fue construida is real Spanish and mostly newspaper Spanish. In speech you get se construyó, or a bare they-form: me robaron.

In Peru -ito is about warmth, softening and politeness far more than size. Ahorita, un cafecito, un momentito — what they mean and when they sting.

How -ón, -azo and -ote work in Peru: -azo is the productive one, it means a great one or a blow with one, and -ón often insults the person.

Same noun, two endings, two different sentences. How -ito and -azo, -ón, -ote split the work in Peru, and why the system is not symmetrical.

Turning what someone said into dijo que: which tense moves back, what happens to hoy and mañana, and when Peruvians leave the present alone.