Buenos días queridos alumnos de CELA Spanish School.
In this section of our website, you will find answers to the most frequently asked questions about Spanish grammar.
Our motto is to make the difficult easy. Hacemos fácil lo difícil.
This means that, with very few exceptions, we strive to provide our students with clear and simple explanations.
In our courses, grammar is not a goal in itself. It is a valuable tool. Knowing a little grammar will help you understand the structure of the Spanish language and the cause of most of the mistakes that naturally occur when learning the Spanish language.
You will be able to correct yourself and develop good study strategies.
We will also clarify some explanations that are traditionally inaccurate in many books on learning Spanish.
At CELA, we have been teaching Spanish since 1997 to students of different mother tongues, and thanks to the questions and difficulties that our students have had, we have been able to refine our grammatical explanations.
It is very likely that in our website and in our courses, you will find explanations that are different from the traditional ones.
Many difficulties come from the translations you logically make from your native language or from another language you have learned. Each language has a different philosophy and completely different structures. For this reason, translation is often of little use except at the very beginning of the learning process.
If you have been studying Spanish for a long time, you will have noticed this.
Another difficulty is that in Spanish there are sometimes 2 words and concepts that have only one equivalent in most languages. For example, ser and estar or por and para.
Or there are differences that do not exist in other languages, such as the difference between the pretérito indefinido or pasado simple and the pretérito imperfecto in Spanish narration, or the difference in the use of the indicative and the subjunctive.
Many other tenses exist in other languages, but they are used differently. For example, the gerund in Spanish and the present progressive in English.
Don’t worry because here we will explain those topics in a clear and simple way with many examples and some exercises.
Here is the index of the articles we have written so far:
- Spanish basic grammar terms
- Differences between ser and estar
- Usage of por and para
- When do we use a and when do we use en?
- How to recognize if a word is masculine or feminine in Spanish?
- When do we use hay and when do we use estar in a description in Spanish?
- Past tenses in Spanish: indefinido or imperfecto?
- What is subjuntivo and when do we use it?
- Subjuntive mood or indicative mood?
About the author: Sabine Loffler has a degree in Literature from UCV in Venezuela, a PhD in Hispanic Philology from UNED in Spain, a Specialist in Distance and Adult Education from UNED, has been teaching Spanish since 1992, is the founder of CELA Spanish School and is a teacher trainer.
In our Youtube Channel you will find many video lessons about Spanish grammar: CELA on youtube
Would you like to work with a structured online Spanish course with teacher assistance? Click on this link to find information about our courses. Online Spanish courses
Contact: contact@cela-ve.com or cela@posteo.de
CELA Spanish School
Centro de Lingüística Aplicada
Online Spanish courses
Isla Margarita
Venezuela