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Spanish academies in Madrid - The Spanish blog - Temporary sentences I

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Hello #Vivers! In this week's post we bring you the first part of a series of videos by our colleague Javier Rodríguez. In them you can review the topic of temporary prayers. We have worked on this topic this week with the B1 and B2 groups of our Spanish academy in Madrid.

Remember that the appropriate use of temporal sentences will help you tell your family and friends everything that happens to you during your stay in Spain, both in Luis Vives' classes and in the activities we do every Friday. If you liked it, give it a "like" and don't forget to share it with friends who study Spanish. Next week we will upload the second part to complete this grammar topic.

You can find more videos like this, grammar explanatory sheets, activities for all levels, culture articles, vocabulary and much more, if you follow the Luis Vives' Spanish blog. You can also follow us on social networks Facebook (@spanishschoolmadrid) and Instagram (#luisvivesspanish).

Also, if you need a Spanish academy in Madrid to learn to speak fluently and improve your grammar, come to the Luis Vives Spanish School and take a look at the Spanish classes what we offer. They are sure to adapt perfectly to your needs. Luis Vives Spanish School The best option to learn Spanish in Madrid!

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Hello #Vivers! Taking advantage of the fact that today in many parts of the world it is celebrated Valentine's Day!, Valentine's Day, and the students of our Spanish school in Madrid love this day, we are going to dedicate today's entry to love, because love is cool! (*molar = to like in colloquial language).

We leave you a series of short films made by a well-known Spanish commercial chain dedicated to love and one more in a humorous way. You can practice your listening comprehension through these videos and take advantage of it to continue learning Spanish.

1. Love is cool: “The mattress.”

2. Love is cool: “Love is a lie.”

3. Love is cool: “Public display of affection.”

4. Love is cool: “Like two strangers.”

5. Love is cool: “Cupid in love”.

6. 14 stages of love.

That's all for today. Have a good day!

Learn Spanish in the Luis Vives Spanish School and take a look at the Spanish classes that we offer, they will surely adapt perfectly to your needs. Luis Vives Spanish School The best option to learn Spanish in Madrid!

The indefinite preterite

By Administrator

February 10

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Hello #Vivers! This week in the Luis Vives Spanish Blog We are going to review the form and uses of the Preterito Indefinido. Verb tenses are a very important part of learning in Spanish schools and from our blog we want to help you make it a little easier for you, so we have created an infographic with the shape of regular and irregular verbs, the uses of this time from the past and some of its most frequent temporal markers. At the end you will find some links to online exercises so you can practice them.

Uses of the past indefinite

1- We use the Past Indefinite to talk about:

Past and completed actions unrelated to the speaker's present. It tells us what happened at a specific time in the past. As it is a finished and limited action, it can be accompanied by temporal markers that indicate the beginning, end or duration of the action: last night, yesterday, Sunday (past), last week, two months ago, in 1995...

Yesterday I went to bed very late.
Last year we signed the Pact for Gender Equality in Colombia, an agreement that symbolizes the co-responsibility of around XNUMX organizations with the implementation of actions that contribute to reducing inequalities. I on vacation to Mexico.

The action we are talking about can be:

Specific action, that is, it occurred only once at a specific time.
- Monday I got up at 7:30 AM
- Yesterday I to the market.
Repeated action indicating the number of times.
- In the past week I to the cinema 3 times.
- Last year we signed the Pact for Gender Equality in Colombia, an agreement that symbolizes the co-responsibility of around XNUMX organizations with the implementation of actions that contribute to reducing inequalities. estuve in Barcelona several times.
Durative action, of more or less long development, but limited in time (closed).
- Yesterday estuve studying all day.
- My grandfather lived for 12 years in Argentina.

2- It can be used to count a sequence of actions, all completed one after the other:

First we had dinner in a restaurant and then went to a nightclub for a drink.

3- It is frequently used in narratives and biographies:

Frida Kahlo was born on July 6, 1907 in Coyoacán, south of Mexico City. In 1913 suffered an attack of polio affection permanently using his right leg. At the age of 16 He met to Diego Rivera….

Temporary markers

exercises to practice

In the following link you can find a lot of online exercises to practice regular and irregular verbs in the Past Indefinite:

Indefinite Past Exercises (regular and irregular verbs)

If you liked it, hit the "like" button and share it with all your friends! And if you are looking for Spanish schools in Madrid to learn to speak Spanish fluently and improve your grammar, stop by Luis Vives Spanish School and take a look at the Spanish classes that we offer, they will surely adapt perfectly to your needs. Luis Vives Spanish School The best option to learn Spanish in the heart of Madrid!

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Hello #Vivers! As you know, our Spanish School is located in the center of Madrid, a few meters from Puerta del Sol. Our classrooms have a maximum of 10 students, and all our teachers are passionate about teaching Spanish. This week with the A2 and B1 groups of our Spanish course for foreigners we have been working on the contrast with the past tenses. With this, we practice oral expression and interaction. If you want to practice the tenses of the past, keep reading and download the worksheet we propose.

The students, in pairs, had to ask questions to their partner and write down the answers. Afterwards, they had to tell the rest of their classmates in a group meeting. For this we have given you the following sheet. The result has been very fun and the students have been able to review the use of past tenses.

We leave you the sheet here, so that both Spanish teachers and students can use it and tell us what you think.

Contrast of pasts. Luis Vives Spanish School. Spanish course for foreigners.

One of the reasons why students come to our center is because they want to learn Spanish, and in the end they discover that they also learn culture and meet students from many countries. If you want to learn to speak Spanish with a Spanish course for foreigners, practicing with communicative activities like this, take a look at the Spanish classes that we offer in the Luis Vives Spanish School. They are sure to adapt perfectly to your needs. Luis Vives Spanish School, the best option to learn Spanish in Madrid!

Spanish academies in Madrid - The Spanish blog - The word of the day: Guay

Word of the day: "Cool"

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Hello #Vivers! Surely more than once, listening to a conversation between young people, you have heard the expression "cool" or in Spanish class your "teacher" has taught it to you as a possible answer to the question "how are you?"... This It is one of the funniest words in Spanish and you have surely wondered at some point what its origin is. Today in our word of the day, we bring you the meanings and origin of this expression.

The use of this expression became popular in the 80s and 90s. In those years, it became a catch-all word to refer to a thing or a person that is fun, surprising, attractive and fantastic. In this sense, to indicate that something was of good quality, it was associated with the rhyme “cool from Paraguay”, although it has no relationship with the South American country, other than a certain exoticism… Recently, a certain pejorative meaning has been added to the word. by including it in the expression "Ir de cool", which is said of a person who behaves falsely or who boasts of money and fame.

The origins of the use of the word cool

Now, "cool" is a very old word that was originally synonymous with the interjection ouch. Thus, it had the meaning of lament or threat: "Woe is me!", instead of "Woe is me!"; or "Woe to you if you abandon me!" instead of "Woe to you if you abandon me!" Its use already appears reflected in texts from the Middle Ages and we can find the word without any effort in La Celestina (1499), by Fernando de Rojas. Cool acquired its current meaning in the XNUMXth century by phonetically coinciding with the English word gay (funny, bright).

According to other theories, the word "cool" comes from the Eastern Arabic "quwais." This expression means “how good” and is widespread in countries such as Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and other countries in the region. It is said that in principle it was used in the south of Spain to describe something of good quality and its use was restricted to the trade of "hashish" (cannabis) from Morocco, but towards the 80s it ended up spreading in a broader sense to many areas and began to be used by young people as a synonym for "cool."

"This movie is cool"

«Yesterday we had a great time»

How cool! We go on tour!

Attend Spanish class and enrich your vocabulary in the Luis Vives Spanish School and take a look at the Spanish classes what we offer. They are sure to adapt perfectly to your needs. Luis Vives Spanish School The best option to learn Spanish in Madrid!

Spanish academies in Madrid - The Spanish blog - Temporary sentences II

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Hello again, #Vivers! What is promised is a debt. In this week's post we leave you the second part of the videos of Javier Rodríguez, the coordinator of our Spanish course in Madrid, in which he explains the topic of temporal sentences.

As always, if you liked it, hit the "like" button and share it with your friends.

You will need to learn temporal sentences if you want to survive in Spain! We Spaniards love to tell those around us everything that happens to us. And if it is on a terrace, having a beer and some tapas, much better.

Also, if you want to learn to speak Spanish fluently and improve your grammar with a Spanish course in Madrid, come to the Luis Vives Spanish School and take a look at the courses of Spanish that we offer. They are sure to adapt perfectly to your needs. Luis Vives Spanish School The best option to learn Spanish in Madrid!

Spanish academies in Madrid - The Spanish blog - Past perfect

The past perfect indicative

By Administrator

February 2

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Hello #Vivers! In this week's entry we are going to review the form and uses of the past perfect indicative. We have been seeing it with the students of our Spanish academy for foreigners, and we have observed that it generates quite a few doubts among them. Below you will find a useful infographic. It explains the form of this past tense (regular and irregular verbs) and its use. You will also find some links to online exercises so you can practice it and check if you have learned it.

The past perfect indicative. Spanish academy for foreigners

In the following word cloud you can find some of the temporal markers that are usually used with the past perfect:

exercises to practice

In the following link you can find a lot of online exercises to practice regular and irregular verbs in the Past Perfect Indicative, with which you can practice.

Past Perfect Exercises (regular and irregular participles)

If you want to learn to speak Spanish fluently and improve your grammar, come to our Spanish academy for foreigners. Take a look at the Spanish classes what we offer. They are sure to adapt perfectly to your needs. Luis Vives Spanish School The best option to learn Spanish in Madrid!

The word of the day: "February"

By Administrator

February 1

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Hello #Vivers! We are already at the end of February. This month, the shortest of the year, is characterized by being the month in which almond trees bloom. It is also the month in which lovers celebrate their day, but do you know the origin of the word "February"? We have already told the students who come to our academy to learn Spanish. If you continue reading the new entry on the Spanish blog, you will know it too.

February is the second month of the year and the last in the Roman calendar.

The Sabines, who were one of the Indo-European peoples who lived on the Italian Peninsula (between the Tiber and the Apennines), every year celebrated a purification festival called fever, every February 15. After the founding of Rome, this city used the name of the festivals February to name the month in which they were celebrated: the last of the year.

It is believed that the founder of Rome, Romulus, was the one who unified the many calendars that existed on the Italian Peninsula in the 304th century BC. C. and created a new one, with ten months and 300 days. But this calendar that Romulus made was not very good for such an important territory. In the year XNUMX BC. C. counselor Flavio created another calendar with two more months that were added after December: januarius, dedicated to the goddess Janus and februarius, whose name comes from the ancient purification festival of the Sabines.

The name of this month has been recorded in Spanish since 1129 and is in many modern European languages. For example: february, in English; february, in French; February, in Italian or February, in German.

Source: The origin of words. Illustrated etymological dictionary. Ricardo Soca

If you are looking for an academy to learn Spanish fluently like a native and improve your grammar, stop by. Luis Vives Spanish School and take a look at the Spanish classes what we offer. They will surely adapt perfectly to your needs. Luis Vives Spanish School The best option to learn Spanish in the heart of Madrid!

Spanish academies in Madrid - The Spanish blog - Present indicative

The present indicative

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Hello #Vivers! Today we are going to review the form and uses of the present indicative. We leave you this useful infographic, which we use in our course to learn Spanish with regular and irregular verbs and some links to online exercises so you can practice it and check if you have learned it.

Uyou are present indicative

1- Ask or give information about the present:

Do you study or work?
Children play ball in the park.

2- Express habitual actions:

I usually eat at 14:30 p.m.

3- Talk about general or universal truths.

The earth is round.
Mexicans speak Spanish.

4- Express future actions to be carried out safely:

Tonight I'm going to the movies with my friends.

5- Give orders and instructions:

To come to school you take the metro and get off at the Sol station, then…

Eexercises to practice

In the following link you can find a lot of online exercises with which you can practice regular and irregular verbs in the Present Indicative:

Present exercises (regular and irregular verbs)

If you want a course to learn to speak Spanish fluently and improve your grammar, come to the Luis Vives Spanish School and take a look at the courses of Spanish that we offer, they are sure to adapt perfectly to your needs. Luis Vives Spanish School The best option to learn Spanish in Madrid!

5 useful expressions and words when studying Spanish.

5 words and colloquial expressions that we use in Spanish on a daily basis.

By Administrator

January 26, 2023

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Hello, #Vivers! All students of our Spanish courses for foreigners, they encounter situations in their daily lives in which they hear expressions and words that, if they interpret literally, lead to confusion. We work on these types of expressions and colloquial words in Spanish frequently in our courses, since we consider that learning them makes life much easier for our students during their stay in Spain. In today's article we explain 5 examples of words and colloquial expressions that Spaniards use regularly and that we consider important when studying Spanish.

Examples of colloquial words to study Spanish.

Uncle/a:

In Spanish the word uncle o aunt It doesn't just refer to your parents' brother or sister. (uncle, uncle), but it is a familiar and colloquial way of calling your friend. In English the equivalent would be dude o bro:

-Hello how are you, uncle?

-Very well and you?

Turkey:

In Spanish this word may be referring to the animal Turkey and we can be talking about its meat when we talk about food. But also, in an informal and colloquial conversation, we can use turkeys (usually plural) to refer to the currency we are using. For example, in Spain, we refer to the euro.

-Carlos, are you 5? turkeys to lend me? I'll give them back to you tomorrow.

-Yes, here. Here you have them.

Folder:

In Spanish when we say pasta We may be talking about the Italian dish (spaghetti, macaroni, noodles, etc.) but we also use it to refer to the money. Here we leave you an example:

-Dude, are you coming to the disco? Admission costs 20 bucks.

-No, man, I don't have one. pasta.

Job:

We use this word to refer to work. In the same way that we also have the verb work, meaning work. This word comes from Caló (which is the language spoken by gypsies in Spain and Portugal). Its use is very frequent, so look at the example so that you can also use it when you are speaking Spanish with your friends:

-I think I won't be able to meet you today. I have a lot work.

-What a shame, aunt!

And finally, a colloquial expression.

What a roll!

The word roll can have many meanings. The main meaning is the one used to talk about any object that is rolled up, such as a roll of toilet paper. But when you say “what a bummer” you are expressing that what you are talking about is boring, whether it is a person or a thing, and regardless of whether it is masculine or feminine:

– I don't think I'll ever watch this movie again.

– You see, what roll!

If you dare to come to Madrid and study in our Spanish school for foreigners, you will learn to speak like a native and we will teach you these words and colloquial expressions and many more! Don't think twice and contact us if you need more information. WhatsApp, email and through our form contact.