Spanish grammar, step by step

Spanish verb endings encode the subject. In most sentences you don't need a separate pronoun — the ending is enough. This is the single most important pattern in the language.

Spanish word order is Subject–Verb–Object, the same as English. The subject is often invisible (the verb ending tells you who it is), so sentences often start directly with the verb.

Every Spanish noun is either masculine or feminine. The article ("the") must match. Most nouns ending in -o are masculine (el libro), most ending in -a are feminine (la casa). Learn the article with every new noun.

Plurals ripple through the whole sentence — article, noun, and verb ending all shift together.

Tense, person, and number are all packed into the verb ending. Swap the ending and the time changes — no extra words needed.

Place "no" directly before the verb. That's all. Spanish also allows — and sometimes requires — double negatives: "no... nada" means "not... anything", and both words must appear.

Adjectives come after the noun and agree with it in gender and number.

Yes/no questions use the same word order as statements — just rising intonation (and ¿ in writing). Question words — qué (what), quién (who), dónde (where), cuándo (when), cómo (how), por qué (why) — come first and carry a written accent mark.

Direct object pronouns (lo / la / los / las) replace a noun and move to sit directly before the conjugated verb — even before "no". They follow the same gender and number pattern as the articles you learned in step 3.

Many Spanish verbs (querer, poder, necesitar, saber) take a second verb in its infinitive form directly after them — no extra word needed. "Voy a + infinitive" is the most common way to express the near future.

"Ser" is for permanent identity — what something fundamentally is. "Estar" is for states, locations, and conditions that can change. The same adjective can combine with either: "El café es bueno" (good in general) vs. "El café está bueno" (tastes good right now).

Reflexive pronouns (me / te / se / nos) show the action loops back to the subject. Many everyday actions in Spanish are reflexive — waking up (despertarse), getting dressed (vestirse), introducing yourself (llamarse).

Spanish has two simple past tenses: the preterite marks a completed event, and the imperfect marks an ongoing state or habit.

"Haber" (he/has/ha/hemos/han) is the auxiliary — like English "have". The second part is the past participle: replace -ar with -ado, -er/-ir with -ido. Only the auxiliary changes for person; the participle never changes.

The subjunctive is a second set of verb endings that appears after expressions of desire, emotion, doubt, or obligation. The vowel flips: -ar verbs use -e endings; -er/-ir verbs use -a endings. "Quiero que hables" — the speaker wants, so the listener's verb goes into subjunctive.

"Se" before a third-person verb creates an impersonal or passive construction — equivalent to "one does", "it is done", or the English passive. The verb agrees with the noun that follows it, not with a person.

Spanish grammar is a small number of regular patterns applied repeatedly. Once you can see those patterns at work in complex sentences, you can read, adapt, and build new sentences of your own.