📖LearnModule 13 · Lesson 5 of 30Proficient User · CEFR C2, first halfUnit 1 · El énfasis
Insistir sin apoyar
Module 13 of the free Spanish course (CEFR C2, first half), lesson 5 of 30: Four small words carry emphasis without any construction at all. On this page: 9 words with their genders and respellings, the rule, a watch-out line, the conjugation table and the audio — the study notes behind the workbook's QR.
Respellings follow the course’s say-it key; the stressed syllable is in capitals. Print this lesson’s flashcards (PDF) — the words on the front, the English and respelling on the back.
La regla · The rule
Four small words carry emphasis without any construction at all. Hasta: hasta él lo entendió (even he). Precisamente: ese es precisamente el problema. Ya: ya lo decía yo (I told you so). Sí que: sí que voy (I AM going).
Y también · And also
Ya and sí que are the subtle ones. Ya lo decía yo means I told you so, and the ya is doing all of it; sí que contradicts a negative, which no single English word does.
Ojo · Watch out
sí que contradicts a negative — the one thing no single English word does: ¿no vas? Sí que voy. ya lo decía yo means I told you so, and the ya is doing all of it. hasta before a noun means even, not until.
insistir, presente — the table
yo insisto · tú insistes · él/ella/usted insiste · nosotros insistimos · ustedes insisten · ellos/ellas insisten
Do it now — on paper
Say all 9 words aloud twice from the respelling, then once from the Spanish spelling alone — begin with hasta él lo entendió.
Copy every word with its accents on paper; then cover the English column and write each meaning back from the Spanish.
Write out insistir, presente in full from memory, every person, and check each form against the table above.
This free course is the reading half. The writing half — write-in lessons, daily practice pages with built-in review, self-checks and a full answer key — is the companion workbook series, The Spanish Ladder: one workbook per module, fifteen in all, released band by band with the Basic band (Modules 1–5) first.
Keep these words
Turn this lesson’s words into flashcards, then space your reviews — the two habits the research behind our study guides backs hardest.