B2 Spanish

14 lessons All levels

Everything at B2

• Tú or usted in Peru: the decision, and how to get out of it

  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.

  Unit: Register Small talkRegister and politenessPeruvian SpanishPronouns

• The past subjunctive, and the four places you actually need it

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

  Unit: Subjunctive SubjunctiveThe past

• Spanish unreal conditionals: if I had, I would have

  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.

  Unit: Subjunctive ConditionalsSubjunctive

• The connectors that force the subjunctive (and the ones that do not)

  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.

  Unit: Subjunctive Subjunctive

• The words Peruvians actually connect sentences with

  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.

  Unit: Joining ideas Joining ideasRegister and politenessPeruvian Spanish

• The Spanish past perfect: había + participle

  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.

  Unit: The past The pastPeruvian Spanish

• He estado + gerundio, and what Peruvians say instead

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

  Unit: The perfect The pastPeruvian Spanish

• Estaré haciendo: the Spanish future progressive

  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.

  Unit: The future The presentPeruvian Spanish

• The three Spanish conditionals, side by side

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

  Unit: Conditionals ConditionalsSubjunctive

• Se lo, se la, se los: two Spanish pronouns at once

  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.

  Unit: Pronouns PronounsPeruvian Spanish

• Spanish relative pronouns: que does most of the work

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

  Unit: Relatives PronounsJoining ideas

• The Spanish passive, and the two things said instead

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

  Unit: Voice Peruvian SpanishRegister and politeness

• Haya llegado: the Spanish perfect subjunctive

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

  Unit: Subjunctive SubjunctiveThe past

• Reported speech in Spanish: dijo que and the backshift

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

  Unit: Reported speech The pastPeruvian SpanishJoining ideas