LearnModule 5 · Lesson 15 of 30Basic User · CEFR A2 mastery + the B1 bridgeUnit 3 · The two pasts, mastered

Three tenses, one life

Module 5 of the free Spanish course (CEFR A2 mastery + the B1 bridge), lesson 15 of 30: The switching page: the same sentence travels through time. On this page: 7 words with their genders and respellings, the rule, a watch-out line and the audio — the study notes behind the workbook's QR.

The words

Spanish	English	Say it
ayer	yesterday	ah-YEHR
hoy	today	oy
mañana	tomorrow	mah-NYAH-nah
yo jugué	I played	yoh hoo-GEH
yo juego	I play	yoh HWEH-goh
yo voy a jugar	I am going to play	yoh boy ah hoo-GAR
el tiempo verbal	the tense	ehl TYEHM-poh behr-BAHL

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

The switching page: the same sentence travels through time. Ayer jugué en el parque. Hoy juego en el parque. Mañana voy a jugar en el parque.

Y también · And also

Run your own verbs through the machine — eat, read, watch, get up — until the switching costs nothing. That switching IS the Basic band, mastered. El tiempo verbal is the grammar word for a tense.

Ojo · Watch out

el tiempo is the weather and the time; el tiempo verbal is a tense. Spanish uses one word for all three, and the context decides.

Do it now — on paper

Say all 7 words aloud twice from the respelling, then once from the Spanish spelling alone — begin with ayer.
Copy every word with its accents on paper; then cover the English column and write each meaning back from the Spanish.
Write two sentences of your own that get the watch-out line right, then the two practice pages of workbook lesson 15 in Module 5 are the written half of this page.

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.

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