Spanish Grammar
Grammar rules explained with examples and tables. Pick a topic below and move on to practice.
Lo, la, los, las in Spanish: direct object pronouns
Lo, la, los, las are Spanish direct object pronouns. They replace the thing or person that directly receives the action: the book you read, the photo you saw, the people you invited. Choose the ...
Spanish adjective agreement: gender and plural endings
Spanish adjectives agree with the noun they describe in gender and number. If the noun is masculine singular, use the masculine singular adjective: coche rojo. If the noun is feminine singular, use ...
Mejor vs más bueno in Spanish: how to say better
For almost every normal “better” sentence, use mejor. It is the comparative of both bueno (good) and bien (well): un plan mejor, habla mejor, es mejor que antes. Más bueno exists, but it is narrow: it ...
Más vs más que in Spanish: more or more than?
Más means “more.” Use it by itself when you ask for more of something or make an adjective/adverb stronger: más café, más caro, más rápido. Use más … que when you compare two things: más caro que el ...
Neuter lo in Spanish: lo bueno, lo que and lo de
The neuter lo does not mean “the” before a normal noun. It turns an adjective, a clause, or a topic into an abstract idea: lo bueno (the good thing), lo importante (the important part), lo que quiero ...
Grande vs gran in Spanish: big or great?
Grande is the normal adjective meaning “big” or “large.” It usually comes after the noun: una casa grande. Gran is the shortened form used before a singular noun: un gran amigo, una gran idea. Before ...
Buen vs bueno in Spanish: when to shorten bueno
Buen is the shortened form of bueno. Use buen only before a masculine singular noun: un buen amigo, un buen día. Use bueno after a masculine singular noun or when the adjective stands alone: un amigo ...
Spanish subjunctive triggers: when to switch moods
The subjunctive in Spanish is not random and it is not a tense — it is a mood you switch into when the main clause expresses something non-factual: a wish, an emotion, a doubt, a need, or a situation ...
The Spanish present perfect: he hablado and when to use it
The Spanish present perfect is a two-word tense: the present of haber ( he, has, ha… ) plus a past participle ( hablado, comido, vivido ). So he hablado means “I have spoken”, and hemos comido means ...
Spanish noun gender rules: how to guess el or la
Every Spanish noun is either masculine or feminine, and that gender is what decides whether you say el or la. The fastest first guess comes from the ending: a noun ending in -o is usually masculine ...
Spanish -mente adverbs: turning adjectives into adverbs
To make an adverb of manner in Spanish, take the feminine singular form of an adjective and add -mente: rápido → rápida → rápidamente. It is the exact equivalent of English “-ly”, turning a describing ...
Spanish object pronoun placement: where the pronoun goes
The position of a Spanish object or reflexive pronoun ( me, te, lo, la, le, nos, os, los, las, se ) follows one simple rule. With a single conjugated verb the pronoun sits immediately before it: Lo ...
Spanish negation: no, nunca, nada and double negatives
To make a Spanish sentence negative, put no directly in front of the verb: No hablo francés (I don’t speak French). There is no helper like English “do/does” — just no + verb. When you add a negative ...
LL and y pronunciation in Spanish: yeísmo explained
In almost all of the Spanish-speaking world today, the letters ll and the consonant y are pronounced the same — roughly like the English y in yes (a palatal sound written /ʝ/). That is why llamar and ...
How to pronounce the Spanish j (and g before e/i)
The Spanish j is not the English “j” in jam. It is a raspy, throaty sound written /x/ — the same noise as the ch in Scottish loch or German Bach, or a very harsh English h. You make it at the back of ...
B vs v pronunciation in Spanish: they sound the same
In Spanish, the letters b and v are pronounced exactly the same. There is no difference at all between them in sound: tubo (tube) and tuvo (he had) are perfect homophones, even though one is written ...
Acabar de in Spanish: how to say you just did something
To say you just did something in Spanish, use acabar de + infinitive. It literally means “to have just (done something)”, and the second verb always stays in the infinitive: Acabo de comer = “I just ...
Pero vs sino in Spanish: two ways to say but
Both pero and sino translate as “but”, but they do different jobs. Use pero to add a contrast, where both halves of the sentence are true: Es caro, pero me gusta. Use sino to correct a negative ...
Tú vs usted commands in Spanish: which one to use
Use a tú command with anyone you address informally — friends, family, children, and peers your own age. Use an usted command when you want to be respectful or formal: with strangers, elders ...
The personal a in Spanish: when a person is the object
When the direct object of a verb is a specific person — or a pet you care about — Spanish puts a little a in front of it. This is the “personal a”, and it has no equivalent in English: Veo a María is ...
Hace que in Spanish: how long and how long ago
The structure hace + time + que does two different jobs, and the verb tense tells you which one. With the present, it measures how long something HAS BEEN going on and is still true now: Hace dos años ...
Preterite vs imperfect in Spanish: which past tense
Spanish has two everyday past tenses, and they describe the same moment in different ways. The preterite views an action as completed: a finished event with a clear start or end. The imperfect views ...
Porque, por qué, porqué, por que in Spanish: which is which
Spanish has four spellings that sound almost the same, and they trip up native writers too. Por qué (two words, accent) means “why” and lives in questions, including indirect ones. Porque (one word ...
Muy vs mucho in Spanish: very or a lot
Muy means “very” and goes right before an adjective or adverb. It never changes form: muy bueno, muy rápido, muy bien. Mucho means “a lot”, “much”, or “many”. Before a noun it agrees with that noun in ...