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Spanish grammar A1: beginner

The complete guide from A1 to C1: the rules, examples to listen to, the usual mistakes.

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Level A1 covers the grammar of first exchanges in Spanish: introducing yourself, naming and describing people and things, saying where they are, talking about your day and about what you like, all in the present.

What an English speaker already knows

  • the plural is usually marked by an -s: libro, libros;
  • the subject comes before the verb in a statement: Ana trabaja en un hotel;
  • a relative clause is introduced by que, much as by “that” or “who”: la chica que lleva gafas;
  • an opinion is built as in English: creo que…, “I think that…”.

What changes from the start

  • every noun is masculine or feminine, and the article and the adjective agree with it in gender and number: el piso pequeño, la casa pequeña;
  • the verb has a different ending for each of its six persons, so the subject pronoun is usually left out: hablo means “I speak”;
  • English “to be” is two verbs, ser and estar, and “there is”, “there are” is one invariable word, hay;
  • age is said with tener (“to have”): Tengo veinte años, “I am twenty”;
  • the adjective is usually placed after the noun: una casa blanca;
  • “I like” is me gusta: the thing liked is the subject of the verb;
  • the negative is formed with one word, no, placed before the verb, and questions and negatives need no auxiliary like English do;
  • “you” has several forms: tú to a friend, usted to a person addressed politely, vosotros and ustedes to several people;
  • a question opens with ¿ and an exclamation with ¡, and a written accent tells apart words of the same form: tú and tu, él and el, sí and si, qué and que.

  1. Introducing yourself

    Introducing yourself in Spanish takes a few set phrases and two points of grammar: the subject pronoun, which is usually left out, and the choice between the familiar and the polite “you”.

  2. The present

    Spanish has one present tense where English has several forms: trabajo means “I work” and “I am working”, ¿trabajas? “do you work?”, and no trabajo “I don't work”.

  3. Ser and estar

    English “to be” is two verbs in Spanish: ser, to say what a person or thing is, and estar, to say where it is and how it is. “There is”, “there are” is hay, which introduces something not mentioned before.

  4. Nouns and articles

    Every Spanish noun is masculine or feminine, things as well as people, and the article agrees with it in gender and number.

  5. Adjectives

    An adjective agrees in gender and number with the noun it describes, and it is usually placed after that noun.

  6. Possessives and demonstratives

    The possessive determiner and the demonstrative determiner come before the noun and agree with it; they are used with no article.

  7. Numbers and the time

    Spanish numbers are written as one word up to thirty, then joined with y; uno and the hundreds agree with the noun.

  8. Questions and negation

    A Spanish question is written between ¿ and ? and needs no auxiliary like English “do”: the words of the statement are kept, and the voice rises.

  9. Gustar

    To say what you like, Spanish uses the verb gustar, which is built like English “to please”: the thing liked is the subject of the verb, and the person who likes it is its object.

  10. Linking sentences

    A sentence is made longer with a second verb in the infinitive (quiero comer), with a clause introduced by que (creo que…), with a cause or a purpose (porque, para), with a conjunction (y, o, ni, pero) or with a relative pronoun (la chica que…).

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