The day, the time, the plan
🎯 Talk about when — the hour, the day, and what you are going to do.
🗣️ Say these out loud
- ¿Qué hora es? 🔊 keh OH-ra es What time is it? Answer: son las tres (it is three). Only one o'clock is different: es la una.
- Voy a estudiar. 🔊 voy a es-too-DYAR I am going to study. ir a + verb is the whole future tense you need for months.
- Hoy, mañana, ayer 🔊 oy, ma-NYA-na, a-YAIR today, tomorrow, yesterday Mañana means both 'tomorrow' and 'morning' — por la mañana is 'in the morning'.
- Todos los días 🔊 TO-dos los DEE-as every day The phrase every language learner must live by.
- Tengo que ir. 🔊 TEN-go keh eer I have to go. tener que + verb = to have to. Tengo que estudiar. Tengo que dormir.
- ¿A qué hora empieza? 🔊 a keh OH-ra em-PYEH-sa What time does it start? Empezar = to begin; terminar = to finish.
Read every line aloud twice before moving on. The mouth learns a language, not the eye.
🔍 Three verb families, and that is all
Every Spanish verb ends in -ar, -er or -ir, and each family changes in the same way. Learn one verb from each family and you can predict hundreds.
- hablar → hablo, hablas, habla, hablamos, hablan
- comer → como, comes, come, comemos, comen
- vivir → vivo, vives, vive, vivimos, viven
- Notice how close -er and -ir are. Half the work is already done.
🌍 Among the people
The Spanish day runs late: lunch at two, dinner at nine or ten. A Spaniard inviting you at eight for dinner means eight at night, and expects you at eight fifteen.
🔁 Practise today
- Say the time in Spanish every hour tomorrow.
- Write five plans with voy a + verb.
- Conjugate hablar, comer and vivir aloud until the endings feel like a rhythm.
