TodayWeeksReviewPracticePhrases

Castilian Spanish

Spelled exactly as it sounds. You will be speaking in week one.

Ninety days, fifteen minutes each. Read one week at a time, say everything out loud, and come back each day for a short review of the words you have met. Spanish spells what it says — the letters never lie to you — so you can read aloud from the first week and be understood. The work is in two verbs for to be, and in a handful of verbs that run backwards.

The weeks

Seven days each, one after another. Each day opens when the one before it is done; each week when its seventh day is. If you would rather jump, any week can be skipped to from its page.

week1
Greetings, courtesy, numbers 1–20

Almost everything this week is a fixed chunk. Greetings are learned whole, not taken apart.

Noun · newVerb · newPronoun · newFixed chunk · new
week3
Common nouns: the home and food

Thirty-odd everyday objects, each learned together with its gender — which Spanish usually tells you honestly.

NounVerbPronounArticlePrepositionAdjectiveQuestion word · newFixed chunk
week4
First sentence frames: I have, I want, I would like

You stop collecting words this week and start combining them. Almost no new vocabulary — reuse Weeks 1 to 3 inside these frames.

NounVerbPronounArticlePrepositionAdjectiveAdverb · newConjunction · newQuestion wordFixed chunk

By the end of week 4 you should be able to

  • —Greet, thank, apologise, and count to twenty.
  • —Introduce yourself — name, age, town, family, retirement — in four or five sentences.
  • —Name thirty-plus everyday home and food objects, with their gender.
  • —Order a drink or a meal politely with quisiera, and ask for the bill.
week6
Questions: directions, prices, times

Magenta week. Seven question words, and enough fixed phrases to find a station, ask a price and understand the answer.

NounVerbAdjectiveAdverbArticlePronounPrepositionConjunctionQuestion wordFixed chunk
week7
The past: recounting yesterday

Spanish has two past tenses in daily use, and which one you need depends on when it happened. That split is the whole lesson.

NounVerbAdjectiveAdverbArticlePronounPrepositionConjunctionQuestion wordFixed chunk
week8
The near future, and joining sentences together

Ir a plus a verb gets you the future for almost no effort. Connectors then turn a list of sentences into a story.

NounVerbAdjectiveAdverbArticlePronounPrepositionConjunctionQuestion wordFixed chunk

By the end of week 8 you should be able to

  • —Conjugate high-frequency verbs in the present for yo, usted, él/ella and nosotros.
  • —Choose correctly between ser and estar in ordinary sentences.
  • —Ask for directions, prices and times using the question words.
  • —Recount today with the perfect and yesterday with the simple past.
  • —Talk about near-future plans using ir a plus an infinitive, and join clauses with y, pero, porque and así que.
week9
Your own life: hobbies, health and opinions

Phase 3 stops teaching structures and starts using them. This week also brings the one Spanish verb that works backwards.

NounVerbAdjectiveAdverbArticlePronounPrepositionConjunctionQuestion wordFixed chunk
week10
Listening: following the gist

Mostly technique rather than vocabulary. The goal is the gist of a clip, not every word — and being comfortable with that is the actual skill.

NounVerbAdjectiveAdverbArticlePronounPrepositionConjunctionQuestion wordFixed chunk
week11
Speaking: five minutes a day, out loud

Fluency over accuracy. The aim is to keep talking, not to be right.

NounVerbAdjectiveAdverbArticlePronounPrepositionConjunctionQuestion wordFixed chunk
week12
A real task, and everything reviewed

No new grammar. One real thing done in Spanish, and a look back over ninety days.

NounVerbAdjectiveAdverbArticlePronounPrepositionConjunctionQuestion wordFixed chunk

By the end of week 12 you should be able to

  • —Talk about your hobbies, your health and your opinions using gustar, encantar and the opinion frames.
  • —Follow the gist of a two-minute Spanish clip using the three-step method.
  • —Deliver a five-minute monologue on the five-part scaffold, with discourse markers, without correcting yourself mid-sentence.
  • —Complete a real task in Spanish — read a menu, write a message, or book a table.

The ninety days

Days 1–30

Foundations

Greet, introduce yourself, name everyday things, and order politely.

Days 31–60

Everyday exchanges

Hold a short two-way conversation without notes.

Days 61–90

Going it alone

Handle a real trip — travel, shops, small talk, the unexpected.

Starting later

What Spanish will ask of you

Spanish is the gentlest of the four to begin later, and it is worth being specific about why — most of the usual early frustrations simply are not there.

The spelling never lies to you

Every letter is said, and always the same way. You can read a word aloud correctly the first time you meet it, which means speaking can start in week one instead of waiting for your ear to catch up. Almost nothing has to be unlearned later.

The word usually tells you its gender

An -o ending is nearly always masculine and an -a nearly always feminine, so the ending gives a fourth cue on top of the article, the style and the colour. The exceptions — el día, la mano, el problema — are few enough to mark hard and learn as a short list.

The real load is in two places, so that is where the drilling goes

Ser against estar, and verbs like gustar that run backwards. Both are structural rather than vocabulary, so the course teaches them as whole frames you rotate objects through, rather than as rules to apply under pressure mid-sentence.

The design behind this — expanding review gaps, chunking, and saying each thing more than one way — is covered on the front page, with the research it comes from. Vocabulary and knowledge hold up well with age; speed and working memory are what give way, so the course spends the first and protects the second.

Where Spanish hides things

Gustar runs backwards

Me gusta el deporte is sport is pleasing to me. The thing you like is the subject, so the verb agrees with it and not with you: me gusta el cine, me gustan los libros. The same applies to encantar and to me duele. Once you accept the structure it becomes automatic, but not before.

Two verbs for to be

Ser is what something is; estar is how or where it is right now. Soy inglés but estoy cansado. Estoy en casa, never soy en casa. When you are unsure, ask whether the fact could change by tomorrow — if it could, use estar.

Endings that lie

Most nouns wear their gender honestly — -o masculine, -a feminine — which makes Spanish far kinder than French. The exceptions are worth marking hard, because the ending is actively misleading: el día, el problema, el mapa are masculine; la mano and la foto are feminine.

El agua, la agua

A feminine noun starting with a stressed a- takes el for ease of pronunciation, but stays feminine: el agua fría, el aula pequeña. Only in the singular — las aguas. The article changes; the gender does not.

The voice

Every word on the site is clickable. It speaks through a voice installed on this computer, so it costs nothing and works with the wifi off — but it does need a Spanish voice to be installed. Without one the audio stays silent rather than read Spanish aloud in an English accent.

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