El Patio Spanish

Lower Intermediate 5 is the last of 5 Lower Intermediate levels.

Together, the Lower Intermediate levels form the A2 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.

By now, you should be feeling fairly confident with the present tense. 

If not, take a detour and spend some extra time on it, the basics are always good to get right.

Worth a little extra revision is the useful structure ESTAR + gerundio. 

We saw this in Lower Intermediate 2, when we learnt it in the present tense. At that time, we used it to talk about activities happening 'right now':

– ¿Qué estás haciendo?
– Estoy cenando con Raúl ¿y tú?
– Estoy viendo la tele – ¿me llamas después?
– Vale

In Lower Intermediate 5 you'll get to use this with the pretérito imperfecto to talk about interrupted actions in the past.

Take a moment now to revise the forms of the gerundio (–ando, –iendo) particularly the irregular ones like durmiendo and leyendo. 

It's very normal for students at this stage to feel a bit confused. What's confusing is which tense to use when. Picking the right tense is the challenge.

Some time soon, you'll be able to 'flip' between tenses for any one verb. If he estado isn't right you can quickly try estuve. And, by the end of Lower Intermediate 5, you'll be able to flip to estaba.

This kind of dexterity takes a lot of hard work, especially if you're not learning in a country where the language is spoken and don't often get to observe native speakers making these subtle choices in their own speech.

So be kind to yourself (it can be tough-going), and also put in the time to do the hard work.

Musicians practise scales and rock climbers do finger-strengthening exercises. If you're learning a language, nothing will help you more than learning your verbs!

Learning to distinguish the direct object pronouns (me / te / lo / la / nos / os / los / las) from the indirect object pronouns (me / te / le /nos / os / les) and the reflexive pronouns (me / te / se / nos / os / se) is a long-term project.

Another approach to this is to think about which verbs use the different sets of pronouns. 

For example, what is it about the verb DECIR that means it can take both a direct and indirect object?

And what is it about the verb GUSTAR that means it never uses the direct object pronouns?

Set yourself some riddles! If you can identify why certain verbs 'fit better' with the different pronouns, that will help distinguish them.

And it's good to keep in mind that native speakers of Spanish get these little words confused too.