Level 1 Study Guide

When starting out, you will probably need to memorize a few things, including nouns, adjectives, prepositional phrases, and other basic vocabulary. For that reason, the first two exercise sets, Nouns and Building Blocks, do not contain complete sentences.

The next exercise set, First Sentences, introduces a grammatical pattern called a copular construction. In this pattern, a form of the verb "is" links two elements:

• He is a doctor.
• She is tall.

These first three exercise sets will help you begin developing several important skills:

• basic vocabulary, including nouns, adjectives, and prepositions
• gender agreement
• number agreement

After these three sets, Verbs 1 through Verbs 7 provide extensive practice with verbs. Each set contains seven exercises, for a total of 49 verbs.

If you are a beginner, you should probably plan to spend at least three months on Level 1. There is a lot of material here, and completing it will give you a solid start on your path toward Spanish fluency.

Exercise SetNouns

These exercises contain two-word pairs: a noun followed by an adjective.

• niño bajo (short boy): niño = boy; bajo = short
• trabajador fuerte (strong worker): trabajador = worker; fuerte = strong

Most Spanish adjectives have masculine and feminine forms. Here are the masculine and feminine forms of the adjectives tall, small, new, and black:

If the noun is masculine, the adjective must also be masculine:

• hombre alto — tall man
• niño pequeño — small boy
• libro nuevo — new book
• perro negro — black dog

Conversely, if the noun is feminine, the adjective must also be feminine:

• mujer alta — tall woman
• niña pequeña — small girl
• revista nueva — new magazine
• gata negra — black cat

Some adjectives, however, use the same form for both masculine and feminine nouns. You do not need to change these adjectives to indicate gender:

• trabajador fuerte — strong worker
• edificio grande — big building
• estudiante joven — young student
• servicio excelente — excellent service
• plan simple — simple plan

This Exercise Set will familiarize you with 90 nouns and 90 adjectives.

Exercise SetBuilding Blocks

This section covers more phrases that are still not complete sentences.

to (the place)

This exercise introduces common prepositional phrases that begin with to, such as to the airport and to the store. You will also learn more nouns.

Of the 20 phrases, the first two rows contain masculine nouns, and the second two contain feminine nouns. The masculine Spanish word for the is el, and the feminine form is la. Before a masculine noun, however, Spanish contracts a + el to form al.

preposition + de + noun

This exercise introduces 15 prepositional phrases. Each phrase consists of a preposition followed by de and then a masculine or feminine noun phrase.

• masculine noun phrase: el lago — the lake
• feminine noun phrase: la reunión — the meeting

De is often loosely translated as of, but it has many other meanings and uses. As you will learn in later exercises, it is one of the more challenging Spanish words to master. For these expressions, try to understand each complete phrase instead of translating every word separately.

• cerca — near
• de la playa — of/from the beach
• cerca de la playa — near the beach

Of the 15 phrases, the first two rows contain masculine nouns, and the next three contain feminine nouns.

adverb: con + noun

Adverbs modify verbs. In English, many adverbs end in -ly:

• He worked carefully.
• She spoke calmly.

Spanish can express manner by using con (with) followed by an abstract noun that names a manner, quality, state, or frequency:

• con calma — calmly; with calmness
• con frecuencia — frequently; with frequency

These are called adverbial expressions. The exercises will help you become accustomed to expressing ideas this way in Spanish.

al + infinitive

Expressions using al + infinitive are called infinitival temporal constructions. They form phrases meaning something like when, upon, or on doing something. In this construction, al is the contraction of a + el.

en + adjective

This pattern forms an adverbial prepositional phrase that describes the manner or circumstances in which an action is performed.

• en serio — seriously
• en voz baja — softly; in a low voice

lo + adjective

Spanish commonly uses expressions such as the important thing, the best thing, and the worst thing. In this construction, lo is a neuter definite article that turns an adjective into an abstract noun phrase.

para constructions

Like de, para is a preposition with several uses that will require further practice in later exercises. In these examples, para is followed by several types of complements, including nouns, infinitives, pronouns, and adverbs.

These common expressions are introduced here to prepare you to use them later in complete sentences.

Exercise SetFirst Sentences

es + noun

son + noun

es + adjective

son + adjective

These first four exercises introduce complete sentences containing two basic forms of the verb ser (to be):

• singular: es — is
• plural: son — are

Practicing these forms will give you:

• more practice with singular and plural forms
• greater familiarity with new nouns and adjectives

personal a

Here we begin introducing more complex sentences with different verbs. This exercise will help you recognize the difference between a verb acting on a person and the same verb acting on an inanimate object. This distinction is governed by an important grammatical rule called the personal a.

In the first sentence, Veo a mi hermano (I see my brother), the direct object is a specific person, so Spanish requires a before mi hermano.

The second sentence shows the contrast: Veo el edificio (I see the building). Because the building is not a person, the personal a is not used.

The sentences in this exercise are presented in pairs. The first sentence in each pair contains the personal a, while the second does not.

past participles

If you learn only one grammatical term at this stage, past participle is an especially useful one to remember. Past participles appear in many sentences, and learning to recognize them will help you understand a wide variety of Spanish expressions.

A past participle is a particular form of a verb. Each Spanish verb has one past-participle form, although that form may change for gender and number when it functions like an adjective.

In English, regular past participles usually end in -ed, as in worked, closed, and finished. English also has many irregular past participles, including written, broken, eaten, and gone.

Past participles are often used with auxiliary verbs such as haber. They are also used with estar to describe a resulting state.

with estar

• La puerta está cerrada. — The door is closed.
• Las ventanas están abiertas. — The windows are open.
• El trabajo está terminado. — The work is finished.
• Los documentos están firmados. — The documents are signed.

with haber (present perfect)

• He terminado el trabajo. — I have finished the work.
• Ella ha preparado la mesa. — She has prepared the table.
• Hemos abierto las ventanas. — We have opened the windows.
• Ellos han firmado los documentos. — They have signed the documents.

Exercise SetsVerbs 1 Through Verbs 7

The remaining exercises in Level 1 introduce many common sentences, and each exercise focuses on one verb.

Except for the first exercise, which covers estar (with a 5x5 grid), all these exercises use the same phrase-grid pattern:

This pattern is used for most exercises that focus on verbs.

The grid below shows the six possible person-and-number categories: three grammatical persons in the singular and plural. Because Hear & Repeat Spanish is designed primarily for learners of Latin American Spanish, its exercises use the five categories commonly taught for those regions and omit vosotros.