¡Hola!

Today I bring to you a different type of grid or table to help us navigate the present tense.
This is what it is:

• A selection of irregular verbs to prioritise.
  A good point to start, a selection to recap and cover and use your efforts efficiently.

• A bird's view of the different types of content you need. Starting with the regular endings, a long table of irregulars in their root, the group ser, estar, ir, and spelling irregulars.

• A grid to minimise how many cheat sheets you need. Ideally, once you're more or less familiar with present tense you'd remember most of these and just need this grid as a reminder.

This is the "big picture table" that you can download:

And these are the other two grids you might need. You can have ser, estar and ir in a little note too if you need it.
And if you need a video reminder of how these work you can check out this post that includes a video

I'll be filming new videos on these irregulars soon.

This is a overview and deep dive of the functions of all verbal tenses in Spanish, except for subjunctive

¡Hasta pronto!

First of all, if you prefer this in video form the video on the personal a in Spanish is up now.

Direct object (person)

We use the personal a between the verb and the person, when the person is a direct object. And it doesn't translate in English.

Veo una película
Veo a mi madre

In both these cases we have:
Subject - ¿Who sees ...? - Me! I'm the subject
Direct Object - What do I see? Who do I see? - A movie! My mum! - Those are direct objects.

The personal a goes before a person that happens to be a direct object (but only if it's a person):

Entiendo el problema
No entiendo a Leonor

Recordamos el viaje
Recuerdas a tu primer novio

Pets?

This can also happen with some animals, specially pets that are close to us, that we're basically personifying them a bit in this case.

Veo los leones / Veo a los leones
With this, you can choose, and we hear both really, but... technically, it'd be the first.

Veo a mi perro or veo a Nobel (using the dog's name)
Here we definitely use it.

It's a bit subjective nowadays what animals are pets and which aren't sometimes, and some people have more of a tendency to personify animals (me!) so you can hear something like:

Llevaron a la tarántula al veterinario - They took the tarantula to the vet - Even though you don't need the "a" and most people don't consider it a pet.

He salvado a la rana - I've saved the frog (true story)
He salvado al pájaro - I've saved the bird ---see how a + el = al? Same as usual!

"People pronouns"

We also use it when it's a pronoun that refers to a person.
It makes sense, right? Nadie, alguien, todos (nobody, somebody, everybody) are also people.

No veo a nadie en la puerta - I see nobody at the door

¿Conoces a alguien de la empresa? - Do you know anybody in the company?

Sí, conozco a todos - Yes, I know all of them.

This aslso applies sometimes with alguno/a, algún, ninguno/a, but again, only when it refers to a person.

Sí, conozco a algunos - Yes, I know some (of them)
Sí, conozco a alguna persona/alguna gente - Yes, I know someone/some people

This also happens with the yo, tú, él... pronouns, but we don't often use those.
We do sometimes to emphasise or mark a contrast:

A mí me ascendieron y a él lo echaron - They promoted me and they fired him.

But most of the time they are subjects or they are used with a different preposition, and as we will see, we don't double up.

Nosotros vamos con él a votar - We go with him to vote.
Nosotros is a subject, as often these are, and before él we have another preposition (con, de, por, para, en, según...).

Questions

This is exactly the same so no new reason, but a structure to be aware of.
In questions, we have the persona a too, of course:

¿A quién visitaste en Amsterdam? - Who did you visit in Amsterdam?
Think of the answer: Visité a Pedro (I visited Pedro).

It would require a persona a because Pedro is the direct object.
Therefore, the question requires it too, and it goes at the beginning (because it goes before quien, the word representing the person)

Same here ¿A quién vas a llevar al aeropuerto? - Who did you take to the airport.

See how in both situations we translate it as "who" (direct object)

In the following sentence, we have the same and the reason it's different, it's an indirect object. But see how the translation is different too, it's to whom or you'll translate the preposition ("to").

Also, most times, you'll have an indirect object pronoun in third person (le/les) so it's even clearer.

¿A quién le diste el paraguas? - To whom did you give the umbrella? / Who did you give your umbrella to?

Reminder of the a with indirect objects

We just saw the a in a question where the person is an indirect object. Of course we recognise this a with indirect objects in statements, not only questions, and not only at the beginning.

Remember how at the beginning I said that the personal a doesn't get translated?
It's true, when the person it's a direct object. It also doesn't get translated in these examples with indirect objects ("me gusta" types being the most common case):

A nadie le gustan los insectos - Nobody likes insects
A alguien le apetece un trozo de tarta? - Someone fancies a piece of cake?
A mí no me saludaron - me, they didn't greet me (at the beginning for emphasis)

However, when the person is an indirect object, the a often gets translated.

No le dieron ningún premio a Jesús - They didn't give any award to Jesus.

Check out this blogpost on direct and indirect object if you need to refresh the basics or this one for lo/la/le specifically with people. They have practice with solutions too!

When not to use it

There are three situations where we don't use it (and doing it is wrong):

Tener/Haber/Ser

We don't use it with tener or haber (hay...) or ser:

Tengo dos hermanos - I have two brothers
Tengo amigos en Argentina - I have friends in Argentina

Hay veinte personas en clase - There are 20 people in class
Hay un hombre esperando - There's a man waiting

Somos cuatro en el taxi - We are four in the taxi
Es una buena persona - He/she is a good person

There are other prepositions

This one comes quite natural. If we have other prepositions after the verb, something that will either make sense in the translation or is required by the verb, then we don't double up. Only one preposition is allowed:

Necesito hablar con Ángela - I have to speak with Angela - I have the preposition con, so that's enough.

¿Estás pensando en Hugo otra vez? - Are you thinking of Hugo again?

Unidentifyable and unspecific

If the person is more a category than a specific person, if it's very generic and not refering to someone in particular, then we don't use it, like here:

Necesito un amigo - I need a friend. Not a particular one, just someone who could be a friend.
It's different from Necesito a mi amigo - I need my friend, and I have someone in mind.

Buscamos un cocinero - We're looking for a cook. The title, the job, not a particular one. Very common when a type of person is required somewhere, before they become "a real specific person".

Querríamos un médico/abogado... - we'd like a doctor/lawyer ...

Again, requiring of a specific "type of person", "function","job" ... so it's more the category than a person.
We don't require of Ana, for example, because she's Ana, we require of her because she can do a task.

Y ya está!!

¡Hasta pronto!

Do you want to see if you're closer to the intermediate level and past beginner? Do you want to see if you have a solid base to build on? This is a test that will tell you just that!
As with any test, remember we're not asking for perfection, we just want to gain some self-awareness and identify where we need to grow, and don't forget to celebrate your wins!

Remember, this is a marathon not a spring!¡Buena suerte!

Today I bring a video in Spanish with subtitles, explaining what it means to be fluent in Spanish and how to hold conversations with natives more easily.
Let me know in the comments (either on youtube or here) if you have any question or suggestiion.

¡Hasta pronto! :)

Today I bring a video in Spanish with subtitles, explaining these 20 informal phrases that we natives use all the time and how to use them.
Let me know in the comments (either on youtube or here) if you have any question or suggestiion.

Find out if you have this level with this test!
It's also great prectice and recap, with solutions and explanation for each exercise!

In this video we see the possible positions for the reflexive pronoun when we have two verbs: Conjugated verb (like present tense) and infinitive, or gerund, also past perfect, and near future.
We finish with a little practice with solutions!

In this video I teach you how to use llegar, volver, venir and ir in Spanish, with plenty of examples and context :)

¡Hola!

Let's start with que and cual, I wrote a blogpost about the differences between que and cual and how to use each of them. Also, this post on the different meanings of que and qué, both with and without the accent mark.

If you have read those or know about the subject, you know that there might be similarities, but actually most of the time it's clearly one or the other, except for now. Let's have a look:

A neutral fact

We can always use both lo que and lo cual when it's referring to a fact, and we use it with the neutral lo. It's translated as "which".

• No me llamó cuando estaba en el hospital, lo que no me gustó or no me llamó cuando estaba en el hospital, lo cual no me gustó - She/he didn't call me when I was in the hospital, which I didn't like.

The FACT that he/she didn't call me is what I didn't like.

Referring to a noun and there's a preposition

Another time we can use them interchancheably it's generally when it refers to a noun (thing, animal, person or concept) AND there's a preposition connecting both parts of the sentence like "in which", "with which", "to which",... It can be also translated as "whom" for a person.

In this case, the article lo changes to adapt to the number and gender of that noun: la cual, el cual, los cuales, las cuales or el que, la que, los que, las que.

The order would be: preposition + article + que/cual or cuales:

Esta es la película de la que te hablaba / Esta es la película de la cual te hablaba - This is the movie I was talking to you about / This is the movie of which I was talking to you.

The first English translation sounds more natural but we have to remember the second translation to see that preposition in between the two parts. Same in the next one:

¿Has conocido al chico con el que se casó María? / ¿Has conocido al chico con el cual se casó María? - Have you met the guy Maria got married to (or married)? / Have you met the guy with whom Maria got married?

Se publicó un nuevo documento en el que/en el cual se explican los cambios más recientes - A new document was published in which they explain the most recent changes.

It can be a "prepositional phrase" which is just more than one word that work as an unit, as a preposition. Don't worry because it ends with a preposition you'll recognise, like: A consecuencia de, gracias a, a pesar de...

Encontramos un curso gracias al que/ gracias al cual aprendimos mucho - We found a course thanks to which we learnt a lot.

Clarifying (with a comma) AND preposition

Sometimes there's a clarification, explanation, information after the noun introduced by a comma, with a preposition, and and it follows the same idea as the previous case (referring to a noun and having a preposition in the connecting part). This can be transalted as which or who, sometimes the preposition shows up in the translation, sometimes not!

Jose invitó a sus amigos, a los que/ a los cuales no conozco muy bien - Jose invited his friends, who/which I don't know very well.
As you can see on this blog about the preposition a we need it here before a person (this is sometimes called "personal a").

Fuimos a un bar muy pijo, en el que/en el cual nunca había estado antes - We went to a very posh bar, in which I had never been before.

The simple "that"

We can still have the option of clarifying (introducing it with a comma) or not.

The key here is that neither one of these two options for the simple "that" (que) will have a preposition.

Clarifying (with a comma) but NO preposition

Here is where we can use the simple que instead of using "el/la/lo/los/las que" or the equivalent with "cual".

Jose invitó a sus amigos, los que/los cuales no son muy simpáticos OR, the easier José invitó a sus amigos, que no son muy simpáticos.

My impression is that we tend to use the cual/es form with people or go directly to the easy que.

Podemos usar que en este caso, lo que/lo cual/que es más simple por supuesto - We can use que in this case, which/that is simpler, of course, a bit of a meta example for you!

No comma, no preposition, just "that".

If there's no preposition linking the first and second part of our sentence and we still refer to a noun, we just use que. The translation here is "that".

Esta es la película que vi - This is the movie that I saw.

• See how I rephrase two of the previous examples in a way that doesn't require a preposition, because the "that" will be referring to the subject of the second sentence, instead of more indirectly:

Conocí al chico que se casó con María - I met the guy that got married to María. (he married her, instead of "the guy Maria got married to).

Han publicado un documento que explica los últimos cambios - They have published a document that explains the last changes. (the document explains the changes, instead of "in which the changes are explained).

• Sometimes the que doesn't refer to a subject in the second clause, it just connects both sentences, so in this case you'll notice that we don't use it in English, it's optional, whereas in Spanish it's not:

Estas son las flores que compré - These are the flowers (that) I bought (I bought them, I'm the subject, in English I don't need the that but in Spanish I do).

Pienso que no es buena idea - I think (that) it's not a good idea. Same thing here.

What I suggest is you try to use that "that" in the English sentence in your mind and if it's right, although not necessary, then that's your sign to use it in Spanish.

• Finally, to highlight the difference between que and lo que/lo cual let's see this sentence:

No incluyeron la escena que yo dirigí, lo que me molestó un poco/ No incluyeron la escena que yo dirigí, lo cual me molestó un poco
They didn't include the scene (that) I directed, which bothered me a little.

The que is a simple "that", which sometimes can be taken out in English (when it's not the subject of the second clause) and the "lo que"/lo cual" is a "which", and in this case neutral for a fact, and if we change that lo then it can adapt to refer to a specific thing or person, introduced with or without a preposition and with or without a comma.

We need cual when...

It's called "complemento partitivo" and it's basically when we talk about an amount and then we divide it in parts in the second part of the sentence. Therefore, it's always going to be plural "los cuales" or "las cuales" and it will look like this:

Ellos tienen cuatro coches, dos de los cuales tienen en el garaje - They have four cars, two of which they have in the garage.

Tienen tres casas, una de las cuales fue heredada de su padre - They have three houses, one of which was passed down from their father.

Long lesson today, I hope it has been of help! We'll be definitely polishing this in class and practicing!

¡Hasta pronto! :)

If you want to see the theory in written version check out the blogpost on this and that, which includes practice with solutions.

Hope it helped! ¡Hasta la próxima! :)

¡Hola!

You've probably heard hace buen tiempo or es un mal momento o vivo en el tercer piso... All of those have shortened words, so today I want to put them together so you can finally predict them, and see the pattern:

Good and bad

These two words often go before the noun, opposite to the rule. This is because saying something is good or bad is a subjective opinion and not a very reliable description most of the time.
If you want to understand more about the reason some adjectives go before and not after the noun, you can read this blogpost on it.

When they are masculine and singular, agreeing with a masculine singular noun, they lose the -o, becoming shorter. This doesn't happen with feminine or plural versions, or if it's alone (not before a noun):

Hace buen tiempo - it's good weather
Es un buen hombre - he's a good man
Es un mal libro - it's a bad book
Es malo / es bueno - It's bad / it's good (no noun after)

tiempo, hombre and libro are masculine and singular nouns. However, with the feminine or plural nouns:

Es una buena persona - he/she's a good person
Es una buena novela- it's a good novel
Son malos jefes - they are bad bosses
Son buenos empleados - They are bad employees
...

Great/grand

If you read the blogpost linked in the previous section, you know that grande, before the noun gets shorter (gran) and it means "great" or "grand" (at least that's the theory and what people mean most of the time) and after "grande" stays the same, and it means "big".

Again, the adjective before the noun is more subjective, like good and bad, and the adjective after is more reliable (size).

In this case, gran is shorter both with masculine and feminine nouns, as long as they are singular.

Es un gran profesor - it's a great teacher
Es una gran idea -it's a great idea
Es un gran monumento - it's a grand monument

Son grandes profesores - they are great teachers
Son grandes ideas - they are great ideas
Son grandes edificios- they are grand buildings

First and third

We go back to the pattern where only the singular and masculine forms are shortened. This is the pattern generally, except for "gran/grande".

Es un primer piso - It's a first floor.
Vivimos en el tercer piso - We live on the third floor.
Vivo en el segundo piso / cuarto piso/ quinto piso... - In second, fourth, fifth, etc., the numbers don't get shorter.

If "first" and "third" are in feminine or plural form, again, it doesn't change. Also if they don't go before a noun.

¿Cuál prefieres, el primero o el segundo? - Which do you prefer, the first or the second?

Tengo todos los discos, excepto el tercero - I have all the albums, except the third (one).

Any/some/none

Here we have three words words.
Let's start with two that are also getting shorter when they are in singular, masculine form, and only before a noun (not by themselves):

Alguno becomes algún, and it means any or some, it's a very general word that works in both negative and affirmative sentences. It's kind of like a "un" but more generic, perfect for questions like the following:

¿Tienes algún problema? - Do you have any problem? (instead of saying "do you have a problem?", fine but slightly less open).

The word ninguno, changes into ningún and it's the negative option, meaning "none", sometimes "any".

No, no tengo ningún problema - No, I don't have any problem.

If you use the feminine or plural options (alguna, algunos, algunas, ninguna) they don't change.
If they are alone, not before a noun, they don't change either.

¿Tienes algún problema?- Do you have any problem?
No, ninguno - No, none.
Sí, alguno -Yes, some.

I'll add another one here, cualquiera which is also translated as "any at all" or "anything at all". This one is shorter before a noun (cualquier) and that forms works for feminine and masculine:

No tengo preferencia, cualquier cosa está bien para comer - I don't have preference, anything at all is good to eat.

Hopefully, it's a bit easier now to see the pattern and predict them a bit more,

¡Hasta la próxima! :)

¡Hola!

If you've seen my post on comparisons in Spanish, you are familiar with más que or menos que to express "more than" or "less than".
If you do, you must have wondered why do we sometimes use más de or menos de.

Let's explain when we use de instead of que, but I also recommend you go back to this other post where I explain how to compare things that are equivalent using tan and tanto and variations, to say things are as much as something else.

Let's jump into the post then:

Más que / menos que

This is the one we use as default,as explained in the first post I linked. When we use these we could find three categories:

Comparing actions (verbs)

Él limpia más que tú - he cleans more than you
Él se preocupa más que tú - He worries more than you (remember verbs don't have to sound very "active" to be verbs)

Comparing amounts of something (a noun)

Nosotros servimos más comida que ellos -We serve more food than them.

Comparing qualities or states (adjectives)

Ella es más detallista que yo - She's more detail-oriented than me.

Let's see when this default changes now.

Más de / menos de

We use de instead of que when have an unit of measurement of any kind, a number, an amount...

Ellos tienen más de cien pájaros - They have more than a hundred birds.

Corremos más de 10 kilómetros cada mañana - We run more than 10km each morning.

Intento dormir más de 7 horas al día - I try to sleep more than 7 hours a day.

Necesitas tener menos de 200 de nivel de colesterol - You need to have less than 200 in the colesterol levels.

Tenemos menos de una hora para salir - We have less than an hour to leave/ before we leave.

Another important combo we have is the following:

... than usual

We can say "more than usual" or "less than usual" using más de lo normal or menos de lo normal.

We use de because "lo normal", or "lo habitual" (both mean "the usual") refers to "the usual amount", which is still that, an amount.

Hoy estamos más elegantes de lo normal - Today we are/look more elegant than usual.

Estás menos habladora de lo habitual - You're less talkative than usual.

than expected, than necessary...

Instead of "the usual" it could be "the expected" (lo esperado), "the essential" (lo esencial) or others. Let's see some common ones:

Al final tuvimos más tiempo de lo esperado - In the end we had more time than the expected / what we expected.

No llevo más de lo esencial a este viaje - I don't bring more than the essential to this trip.

Ella trabaja menos de lo mínimo - She works less than the minimum.

No deberías preocuparte más de lo necesario - You shouldn't worry more than the necessary.

Más de lo que / menos de lo que ...

We still use the de if we have a lo que + sentence afterwards (the lo que would translate as "what").

We can create very similar sentences than the previous (what was expected/necessary...) but in this case we have a conjugated verb.

Esperamos más de lo que esperábamos - We waited for longer than we expected. (Yes, esperar means to wait and expect, and hope!)

And of course, the options now are a lot more because with that conjugated verb we can have different tenses and a second subject.

Julia sabe mucho menos de lo que piensas - Julia knows a lot less than what you think.

Vosotros trabajáis más de lo que vuestros jefes piden - You guys work more than what your bosses ask for.

Vendimos menos de lo que ella quería - We sold less than what she wanted.

Viajan más de lo que nosotros nunca viajaremos - They travel more than we ever will.

I hope with these three post you can get an idea of how we compare things in spanish, and like with everything else, take your time!

¡Hasta pronto!

También is too or also, tampoco is either or neither. When we answer if we agree or do the same, we'll use these two:

Yo también - me too - Affirmative sentences ("I do something")
Yo tampoco - me neither - Negative sentences ("I don't do something")

Yo sí, yo no

If we don't do the same, we don't match with the statement, we use the following:

Yo sí - I do - literally "I yes", we don't have the auxiliar "do". Yo no - I don't - literally "I no".

We use these regardless of if the sentence we answer to is affirmative or negative, as it's focused on us.

Short answer

Let's see these in action:

First, examples answering about the action from the person speaking:

A veces hago yoga- Sometimes I do yoga (affirmative sentence)

Answer 1: yo no - I don't
Answer 2: yo también - Me too

Yo nunca plancho la ropa - I never iron clothes (negative sentence)

Answer 1: yo sí - I do
Answer 2: yo tampoco - me neither.

We can even answer to another "person" doing something.

Normalmente comemos en casa - We normally eat at home

Answer 1: yo también - me too
Answer 2: yo no - I don't

or answer with us, for example:

Nosotros también - us too Nosotros no - we don't

We can compare anyone really. I can answer with someone else matching what's being said:

Horneo pasteles cuando puedo - I bake pastries when I can
Mi madre también - my mom too

This is very nice to do around new people, finding things in common , mantaning light conversation and building rapport with them.

Me gusta

Obviously in many cases we'll have me gusta and similar verbs: me fascina, me interesa, me encanta, me importa, me apetece...
Check this post to see more of these verbs and how they work

In this case, we're tweaking things a bit:

a mí también / a mí tampoco / a mí sí / a mí no

We're using a mí because we want to say "to me too", "to me neither",...

For example:

Me importa el ecologismo - Ecologism matters to me

a mí también - to me too (it matters to me too) a mí no - not to me (it doesn't matter to me)

It's easier to see with some of these verbs, but actually quite hard to see with me gusta, but just know that all of these will be the same and will need that tweak.

A mí me gustan los perros

A mí también - me too a mí no - not me / I don't

No me gustan los deportes de riesgo

A mí tampoco - me neither A mí sí - I do

Remember that we keep using the "t" words (también,tampoco) when it matches, I always think that it makes sense because "t" is for "too" (me too), and we use the yes/no options when it doesn't.

Mix

Let's see a mix of examples, with both normal verbs and opinion verbs with pronoun, like "me gusta".
Choose in your mind the answer that works for you.

1. Tengo un perro - I have a dog

   Yo también / yo no

2. Me gusta caminar en la naturaleza - I like to walk in nature

   A mí también / a mí no

3. No me interesa el fútbol - I'm not interested in football

   A mí tampoco / a mí sí

4. Mi madre bebe una copa de vino cada día - My mom drinks a glass of wine each day.

   Yo también / yo no / mi madre también / mi madre no

5. A nosotros nos gusta ver documentales - We like to watch documentaries.

   A nosotros también / a nosotros no / a mí también / a mí no

These are some more that you can translate and answer to:

Intento aprender cosas nuevas
A mí no me gustan las playas turísticas
Nunca duermo la siesta
A mi madre no le gustan los gatos
Nunca como comida tailandesa
Me encanta meditar

¡Esto es todo! ¡Hasta la próxima!

Let's see all of the different situations we must use the preposition a in Spanish:

Destination

When we have a movement action and there's a destination and we use a.
These wil happen with all verbs of movement: ir, llegar, volver, venir, conducir, caminar, viajar,...

Examples:

Voy a la oficina por la mañana - I go to the office in the morning.

Llegaste al médico tarde - You arrived late to the doctors.

Volvemos a Italia pronto - We go back to Italy soon.

¿Viajas a Europa mucho? - Do you travel to Europe a lot?

Purpose

You might already know we use para for purposes. Well, you can use a as well but only after ir or venir.

Vengo a recoger los papeles / Vengo para recoger los papeles - I come to pick up the papers.

Voy al pueblo a hacer recados / Voy al pueblo para hacer recados - I go to town to do errands.

Other verbs don't suit this combination so much. Besides, llegar and volver with an infinitive have a different meaning (see section about verbs with preposition below), we wouldn't see this case with these two, as it would be confusing.

Vuelvo para ducharme - rarely we see vuelvo a ducharme because I can translated as "I shower again", not "I come back to shower".

Same with llego a + infinitive, can be translated as "to become" or "get to be".

Time

A la una, a las dos, a las cuatro.... this is the only time we translate a as "at".

¿Te recojo a las cuatro de la tarde? - Do I pick you up at 4 in the afternoon?

Nadie come a la una - Nobody eats at 1.

Also, we can use both por or a in the following cases:

Voy a yoga tres días a la semana /Voy a yoga tres días por semana - I go to yoga three days a week/per week.

Finally, when we say "from...to" we use "de...a".

Trabajo de lunes a viernes - I work from Monday to Friday.

Voy a/iba a ...

The periphrasis with ir, which is, for example near future with ir, like "Voy a bailar" (I'm going to dance) need that a between the two verbs.

Examples:

¿Vas a ir al cumpleaños? - Are you going to go to the birthday?
Van a mudarse de casa - They're going to move house
Voy a descansar mañana - Tomorrow I'm going to rest.

This also happens in its past version (iba a bailar - I was going to dance).

Iba a salir pero no me siento bien - I was going to go out but I don't feel well.

¿Ibas a llamar? - Were you going to call?

Íbamos a casarnos pero apareció el coronavirus - We were going to get married but coronavirus showed up.

Vamos a

When we use vamos a it can also be translated as "let's do something", for example:

¡Vamos a cantar! - Let's sing!

or "shall we...?" to suggest an activity:

¿Vamos a la playa hoy? - Shall we go to the beach?

Voy a / voy para ...

Personal a

We put an a between the verb and a person right after in the sentence.

This happens both when a person is a direct object (when the a is not translated) and indirect (in which case we see the a translated to "to")

I see my mom - Veo a mi madre
It's a direct object, no translation of the a.

I tell stories to the kids - Cuento historias a los niños
The a is translated to "to".

Verbs with preposition

Some verbs need a preposition, like a right after.
check out this table and post where you have a lot of verbs of movement, some that need the a before a person (both those cases are explained here) plus some other ones that need the "a" just because.

A few common ones are the following, when they have another action after: Verb + a + infinitive:

empezar a (to start to), aprender a (to learn to), tender a (to tend to..), volver a (to do again/go back to doing), llegar a (to get to do).

Also, jugar a (to play) + sport

• Examples:

¿Dónde aprendiste a tocar la guitarra? - Where did you learn to play the guitar?

Jugamos al fútbol - We play football.

Empiezan a trabajar a las 3 - They start to work at 3.

Tiendo a pensar demasiado - I tend to think too much.

¿Vuelves a comer carne? - Are you going back to eating meat? / do you eat meat again?

Llegó a ser el alcalde de su pueblo - He go to be/became the mayor of his town.

When we don't use a

A common mistake is using a instead of en.
When we talk about "being in a space/place" we use en. Except for saying the time, there's no "at" in Spanish, just "in" or "on".

I work at the museum - we say "I work in the museum"
Trabajo en el museo

I've never been to Cuba - we say "I've never been in Cuba"
Nunca he estado en Cuba

Someone is at the door - we say "someone is in the door"
Alguien está en la puerta

Practice

Notice where we use the a in these situations and try to see why. Sometimes there's more than one a!!

• Voy a llegar un poco tarde, de 6 a 7 - I'm going to be a bit late, from 6 to 7.
• El teatro termina a las once - The theater finishes at 11.
• Empezamos a salir hace tres años - We started to go out/date three years ago.
• Doy un regalo a mi mejor amiga cada año - I give a present to my best friend every year.
• Quedamos todos a las diez - We all meet at ten.
• Conducen a Francia cada año - They drive to France every year.
• Ayudan a sus vecinos a menudo - They help their neighbours often.
• Iban a venir pero no encontraron niñera - They were going to come but they didn't find a nanny.
• ¿Ves a tu familia mucho? - Do you see your family a lot?
• Sí, veo a mi hermana y a mis padres dos veces a la semana - Yes, I see my sister and parents twice a week.
• ¿Vienes a casa a cenar? - Do you come home for dinner? /are you coming home for dinner?
• Voy a la ciudad a ver a mi madre - I go to the city to see my mom.

and finally, why not here?
Nunca hemos estado en Australia - We've never been to Australia.

¡Perfecto! Hope that was helpful,
¡Hasta la próxima!¡Chao! :)

Let's start with both of these words separetely:

Hace

Hace means ago, and we put it before the "time" (instead of after, like in English):

• Hace dos meses - two months ago.
• El teléfono sonó hace cinco minutos - The phone rang 5 min ago.
• Llegué hace un rato - I arrived a while ago.
• Nos mudamos hace 20 años - We moved 20 years ago.

Desde

Desde also means "since" or "from", which can be about time or about space.

Vamos a pintar desde el armario hasta la puerta - We're going to paint from the wardrobe to the door.

Expressing time, we use it for an specific point like like a month, a year, a time or a day.

Está enferma desde abril - She's ill since April.

See how we're using the present tense here "she is ill", because she's still ill and we're just saying since when.

Vivimos aquí desde 1992 - We live here since 1992.

We can also have it with future or past:

Venderemos lotería desde el 1 de noviembre - We'll sell lotery from the 1st of November.

Estuvimos aquí desde las 10 de la noche hasta la 1 de la mañana - We were here from 10 at night until one in the morning.

Now let's put these two words together.

Desde hace

This one has a more interesting and tricky translation. Literally, it'd be something like "since ... ago", but let's see it:

No voy al cine desde hace 2 años - Literally: "I don't go to the cinema since 2 years ago".
But we'd probably translate it more naturally as: "I haven't gone to the cinema in 2 years"

As you can see the sentence is in present tense when we write it but translates very well into past. Very common with negative causes like "I haven't done ... in a certain time".

For example, No voy al cine desde 2020 - I haven't gone to the cinema since 2020.

You can also have a sentence in affirmative:

Estudio italiano desde hace un año - Literally, "I study italian since a year ago", or a better translation: "I have studied italian for a year".

Optional:

I'll mention one that you don't need to use but you'll see, and I'm not going to go too much into it because it might be too much, and cause unnecessary confussion:

I'm talking about "hace ...que no". It only works for negative acctions: I haven't done something for a while:

Hace 2 años que no voy al cine - I haven't gone to the cinema in 2 years, or literally, "2 years ago that I don't go to the cinema".

Another example: Hace tiempo que no cenamos con ellos - we haven't had dinner with them for a while.

Difference between desde and desde hace.

Let's see these sentences and the difference between them.

No estudia desde 1991 - She doesn't study since 1991. We use desde for an specific point in time.

No estudia desde hace 30 años - She hasn't studied for 30 years. It's not a specific day/year/month but an amount of time.

We use desde hace to specify the point we started to count from, in this case, 30 years ago, and it focuses on the amount of time that has passed.

Let's see another pair:

Es vegetariana desde junio - She's vegeterian since June (specific starting point).

Es vegetariana desde hace 7 meses - She's vegeterian since 7 months ago - She's been vegeterian for 7 months (the amount of time she's been a vegeterian for).

Others similar to "desde hace"

In a sentence using desde hace, we could say the same using the perfect tense:

Viven en esta casa desde hace 10 años - They have lived here for 10 year

Han vivido en esta casa 10 años - They have lived in this house for 10 years.

Also, we'd get the same result using llevar:

Llevar can translate as "have been" so we get more or less the same results:

Llevan viviendo en esta casa 10 años - They have been living in this house for 10 years.

You can check this use of llevar to talk about passing time, and you can also read this to see all of the meanings of llevar.

Basically, all of those work to say that "something is been a certain way/ has been happening for a time".

Let's see another example:

Julio no estudia desde hace 30 años - Julio hasn't studied for 30 years.

We're using the verb in present tense + desde hace

Julio no ha estudiado en los últimos 30 años - Julio hasn't studied in the last 30 years.

Here we use perfect tense, ha estudiado.

Lleva sin estudiar 30 años - Has been without studying for 30 years.

And here we use llevar in present tense.

Last example

Estudia desde 1991 - He studies since 1991.

Estudia desde hace 30 años - He has studied for 30 years.

Ha estudiado 30 años - He has studied 30 years.

Lleva estudiando 30 años - He has been studying for 30 years.

Conclusion

Hace - ago (goes before the time that has passed)

Nos casamos hace tres años - We married 3 years ago.
Visité España hace tres años - I visited Spain 3 years ago.

Desde - since (position just like in English, specific point in time in the past)

Estamos casados desde 2020 - We're married since 2020.
No visitamos España desde 2019 - We don't visit Spain since 2019.

Desde hace - Something has been a certain way or have been happening since... (not specific point in time but the duration of time).
Present in Spanish but translates into past in English (have been/have done).

Estamos casados desde hace dos años - We've been married for 2 years. Visitamos España desde hace tres años- We've been visiting Spain for 3 years.

And the optional hace...que no, for "I (or someone else) haven't done something for ... a certain amount of time", like "hace dos días que no te veo", I haven't seen you for two days.

Hopefully you understand this a little bit better now, check the post on llevar to learn about that too. Pay attention to examples you find and, like always, give it practice and time.

¡Hasta pronto! :)