Spanish Grammar Cheatsheet

The essentials of Spanish grammar in scannable form. Cross-references the Spanish for adult learners pillar, the accent guide, and the core 100 wordlist. British English explanations; Spanish examples mark stress accents and the inverted question/exclamation marks as standard.

Pronouns

Latin America uses ustedes as the only plural "you" - formal and informal. Spain keeps the vosotros / ustedes distinction. Argentina and Uruguay use vos in place of tu in the singular, with its own conjugations.

Three conjugation classes

Spanish verbs end in -ar, -er, or -ir. The endings tell you which class.

Present tense, regular endings

The six core tenses, what they do

The preterite / imperfect split is the most common source of past-tense errors for English speakers. Roughly: preterite for a closed action, imperfect for the running context.

Ser vs Estar

Both mean "to be." Native speakers use them so naturally they often cannot explain the rule. A working summary:

Test that catches roughly 80% of cases: if the property is inherent or definitional, ser. If it is a state, location or condition that could change in the next hour, estar.

Por vs Para

The other classic adult-learner trap. A working summary:

The rough English mapping: por = "because of / through / in exchange for"; para = "in order to / for the benefit of / by (deadline)."

The personal "a"

Spanish marks animate direct objects with "a" before the noun.

• Veo la casa. (I see the house.)
• Veo a Maria. (I see Maria.)
• Llamo al medico. (I call the doctor.)

You do not use the personal "a" for inanimate objects, and you usually drop it after tener: Tengo dos hermanos (not Tengo a dos hermanos).

Direct and indirect object pronouns

Order when both appear: indirect before direct.

• Me lo dio. (He gave it to me.)
• Te las mandare. (I will send them to you.)

When both are 3rd person, the indirect "le / les" becomes se:

• Le doy el libro a Juan. -> Se lo doy.

Gender and number

Every noun is masculine or feminine. Adjectives agree.

• el chico alto / la chica alta
• los chicos altos / las chicas altas

Defaults that are usually right:

• Nouns ending in -o are usually masculine; -a usually feminine.
• Nouns ending in -cion, -sion, -dad, -tad, -tud are usually feminine.
• Nouns ending in -ma of Greek origin (problema, tema, sistema) are masculine despite the -a.
• The day is el dia (masculine despite the -a).

The subjunctive, in one paragraph

Spanish uses the subjunctive far more than English does. The trigger is usually a main clause that expresses doubt, desire, emotion, denial, command, or hypothetical + the conjunction "que" + the dependent clause.

Triggers to learn first: quiero que, espero que, dudo que, no creo que, ojala que, antes de que, para que, aunque, cuando (when referring to the future), si fuera (hypothetical "if I were").

• Quiero que vengas. (I want you to come.) - want + que = subjunctive.
• Espero que tengas razon. (I hope you are right.) - hope + que = subjunctive.
• Cuando llegues, llamame. (When you arrive, call me.) - future "when" = subjunctive.

Present subjunctive endings (regular):

The pattern: swap the vowel. -ar verbs use -e endings; -er and -ir verbs use -a endings. The irregularities mostly carry over from the present indicative yo form.

Negation

A double negative is grammatical and expected in Spanish.

• No tengo nada. (I do not have anything. Literally: I do not have nothing.)
• No vi a nadie. (I did not see anyone.)
• Nunca voy alli. (I never go there.) - subject + negative, no extra no needed.
• No voy nunca alli. (I never go there.) - object + negative needs the no before the verb.

Question formation

Spanish does not invert subject and verb the way English does. Three options:

1. Statement intonation rising at the end: Tienes hambre? (You are hungry?) - voice rising at the end.
2. Subject inversion (formal): Tienes tu hambre? (Are you hungry?) - subject after verb.
3. Question word: Por que tienes hambre? (Why are you hungry?)

The inverted opening "?" tells readers a question is coming so they know how to read the intonation. It is mandatory in writing.

Time expressions

What to drill first

If you are starting, focus your first hundred hours on:

1. Present tense of the top 20 verbs (the Spanish core 100 wordlist gives you the list).
2. Ser vs estar until it is automatic, not effortful.
3. The preterite vs imperfect distinction for past narration.
4. Direct and indirect object pronouns including the se-lo / se-la rule.
5. The subjunctive in the most common triggers (quiero que, espero que, antes de que, cuando + future).

Everything else (pluperfect, future perfect, conditional perfect, the imperfect subjunctive, formal commands) layers on top once these five are stable. Trying to learn all the tenses before any of them are conversational is the most common adult-learner mistake.