El Patio Spanish

Elementary 3 and 4 are the last two levels of the Elementary levels.

Together, the Elementary levels form the A1 level of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). Click here for more information about the CEFR.

And click here for an overview and detailed explanation of all our levels.

Verbs are the basic building blocks of Spanish – and the present tense is the foundation for everything that follows.

Take some time and learn how verbs in Spanish work. Try and learn by heart the regular endings for the 3 types of verb: –AR / –ER / –IR

In Elementary 2, we learnt how to describe cities and countries.

We used the verb SER to talk about the characteristics of a place (es grande, es bonito),

We used ESTAR to talk about where things are (Buenos Aires está en Argentina),

And we used HAY to say 'there is / there are' (hay muchos árboles, hay un lago grande). 

Having a handle on these three gems of Spanish will help you as you progress.

The verb GUSTAR is inside out – more 'to please' than 'to like.'  

Now is a great time to learn all its forms (me gusta / me gustan ...). Pay attention to the different parts that make it up, particularly what are called the indirect object pronouns (me / te / le /nos / os / les). You'll learn about these in more detail later on.

If you can get a handle on GUSTAR that's a big achievement – and it will help you in Elementary 3 when learning other verbs that also work this way.  

For every regular verb there is an irregular one.  Some follow no pattern and are a law unto themselves, like IR. Others follow patterns and are only irregular in ‘the stem’ like PENSAR, PODER and PEDIR. 

Thankfully, irregular verbs mostly have patterns in their irregularities.

Look up, write out and try to get comfortable with the following irregular verbs: SER, ESTAR, TENER, PONER, IR, VENIR, SEGUIR, CERRAR, DAR, QUERER, PODER, HACER. 

Using TENER + QUE  with an INFINITIVE is a neat little way to express obligation or to talk about the things you need to do:

Tengo que trabajar, tengo que hablar con ella, tengo que ir al supermercado.

TENER is an irregular stem-changing verb (e > ie) that is also irregular in the first person. Tricky tricky! Another verb like this is the verb VENIR.

See the section on irregular verbs above for extra help.