Spanish grammar A2: elementary

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

0 · Letters and sounds
A1 · Beginner
A2 · Elementary
B1 coming soon
B2 coming soon
C1 coming soon

Level A2 covers the grammar needed to tell what you did and what you used to do, to talk about your plans and obligations, to compare, to give an instruction and to say what other people like.

What A2 completes

the present: verbs whose stem changes under the stress (pienso, puedo, pido) and verbs with an irregular first person (salgo, conozco, sé);
gustar in every person (te gusta, les gustan), and the verbs built like it: encantar, doler;
ser and estar before an adjective or a participle, and ser without an adjective: es de madera, somos tres;
the gender of nouns and the use of the article: el problema, el agua, juego al tenis;
possessives and demonstratives used alone: es mío, el mío, ese no.

What it adds

three past tenses: the pretérito perfecto (he comido), the pretérito indefinido (comí) and the pretérito imperfecto (comía);
verb phrases: ir a, tener que, acabar de, estar + gerund;
the object pronouns lo, la, le, les and their position;
the affirmative imperative: habla, hable, hablad;
comparison (más… que, tan… como) and exclamation (¡Qué bonito!);
clauses introduced by cuando and si, adverbs in -mente, and the written accent that tells two words apart.

The difficulties for an English speaker

With gustar, the thing liked is the subject of the verb: Me gustan los plátanos, “I like bananas”; “me too” is a mí también.
An object pronoun is placed before the conjugated verb: Lo veo, “I see him”; a direct object that refers to a person is introduced by a: Veo a Ana.
One English past is two Spanish ones: “was” is fue or estuvo for a finished event, era or estaba for a description; and a past action of today is in the pretérito perfecto: Hoy he comido con mis padres, “I had lunch with my parents today”.
The negative imperative has forms of its own: habla, “speak”, but no hables, “don't speak”.
“To be” before an adjective or a participle is ser or estar: es aburrido, “he is boring”, está aburrido, “he is bored”.
“I have lived here for two years” is said with the present: Vivo aquí desde hace dos años.
Every noun has a gender, and a noun used in a general sense takes the article: Me gusta el chocolate, “I like chocolate”.

The present

At A1, the present covers regular verbs and a few very frequent verbs with forms of their own: ser, estar, ir, tener, querer, hacer.
Verb phrases

A verb phrase combines a conjugated verb with an infinitive or a gerund: only the first verb changes with the person and the tense, and the second is invariable.
The past

English tells a story in the past mainly with the simple past (“I spoke”), the present perfect (“I have spoken”) and the past continuous (“I was speaking”).
The imperative

The imperative is used to ask, advise, invite, give an instruction or show the way.
Ser and estar

At A1, ser says who a person is, where they come from and what characterises them, and estar says where a person is and how they are.
Object pronouns

At A1, a thing already mentioned is not taken up by a pronoun (¿Tienes coche? — Sí, tengo).
Gustar and verbs like it

At A1, gustar is used in the first person: me gusta, me gustan.
Nouns and articles

Level A2 completes the rules of gender and number with the nouns whose ending is misleading, refines the use of the definite and the indefinite article, and adds the words of quantity todo, otro and demasiado, and the negative with nada, nadie and nunca.
Possessives and demonstratives

At level A1, the possessive (mi, tu, su) and the demonstrative (este, ese, aquel) are placed before the noun.
Comparing

The comparison is formed with más… que (more), menos… que (less) and tan… como or tanto… como (as… as).
Linking sentences

At A1, sentences are joined with y, o, pero, porque, para and que.
Spelling

In Spanish, words of one syllable are normally written without an accent: fui, fue, vi, dio, ti, pie.

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