The present
What is happening now, what happens generally, and what Spanish uses the present for that English does not.
A1
- Ser: conjugation, the five things it is for, and examples
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: conjugation, and the four things it is for
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.
- Window words: the small words that carry a conversation
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.
- Regular verbs in the present — three endings and you are done
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.
- Tener: to have, to be, and to feel like it
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.
- Ir + a: the future tense you will actually use
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.
A2
- Estar + gerundio: the Spanish present progressive
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.
- Poder: can, can't, and the polite Peruvian request
Poder plus an infinitive covers ability, possibility and permission — and ¿puede...? is how you ask a Peruvian stranger for anything.
- Querer, preferir, necesitar: want, prefer, need
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.
- Gustar: the verb that works backwards
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.
- Spanish frequency adverbs: siempre to nunca
The scale from siempre to nunca, the cada and todos los patterns, and the double negative nunca forces on you.
- Reflexive verbs, and the whole daily routine
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.
- Saber vs conocer: two verbs for one English word
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.
B1
- The Spanish simple future: -ré, and what Peruvians use it for
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".
B2
- 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.