Chinese (Mandarin)

Spanish

English

Hindi

Arabic (Modern Standard)

Portuguese

Bengali

Russian

Japanese

Punjabi

German

Javanese

Malay

Telugu

Vietnamese

Korean

French

Marathi

Tamil

Urdu

Turkish

Italian

Chinese, Yue / Cantonese

Thai

Gujarati

Chinese, Jin

Chinese, Min Nan

Dari

Farsi

Polish

Pashto

Kannada

Chinese, Xiang

Malayalam

Sundanese

Hausa

Odia

Burmese

Chinese, Hakka

Ukrainian

Bihari, Bhojpuri

Tagalog

Yoruba

Bihari, Maithili

Uzbek

Sindhi

Amharic

Fula

Romanian

Oromo

Igbo

Azerbaijani

Chinese, Gan

Dutch

Kurdish, Central

Kurdish, Northern

Kurdish, Southern

Malagasy

Lahnda, Saraiki

Nepali

Sinhalese

Chittagonian

Zhuang

Khmer

Turkmen

Assamese

Madurese

Somali

Marwari

Bihari, Magahi

Haryanvi

Hungarian

Chhattisgarhi

Greek

Chewa

Dakhini

Akan, Twi

Akan, Fante

Kazakh

Chinese, Min Bei

Sylheti

Zulu

Czech

Kinyarwanda

Marwari, Dhundhari

Haitian Creole

Chinese, Min Dong

Ilocano

Quechua

Kirundi

Swedish

Hmong

Shona

Uyghur

Hiligaynon

Mossi

Xhosa

Belarusian

Balochi

Spanish (Spain)

### Reporting it on another day

When you pass on what someone said with **dijo que**, the tenses move back (*vuelvo* → *volvía*, *volveré* → *volvería*). If you report it on a later day, the time words move too: **mañana** only means *tomorrow* counted from today. If you can, simply count from today (*Ayer me dijo que volvía **hoy***); in a story, or when that day is further back, use these:

| what was said | in a story, or reported days later |
|---|---|
| hoy | **aquel día** / **ese día** |
| mañana | **al día siguiente** |
| ayer | **el día anterior** |
| la semana que viene | **la semana siguiente** |

{{item:1220122}}

{{item:1220131}}

{{item:1220126}}

{{item:1220129}}

Passed on the same day, nothing has to move: *Me ha dicho que vuelve mañana.*

Watch the small word: **al** día siguiente, but **el** día anterior. Both also work in plain storytelling:

{{item:1220125}}

### In an hour: **dentro de**

**Dentro de** + a period says how long until something happens: *in an hour*, *in a year*. With a place it means *inside*, as you know (*dentro de la casa*).

{{item:1220135}}

{{item:1220137}}

### After a while: **al cabo de**

**Al cabo de** + a period counts from a moment you are already talking about, so it is a common choice when you tell what happened.

{{item:1220140}}

### Common mistake

- For a point in the future, the standard form in Spain is **dentro de una hora**. **En una hora** usually says how long something takes: *Lo hago en una hora.*

### **Anterior**

**Anterior** works with any noun: *el año anterior*, *mi trabajo anterior*. It means *previous*, the one before.

Time words in reported speech (al día siguiente, el día anterior)

adjective

adverb

conjunction

contraction

determiner

interjection

noun

numeral

preposition

pronoun

sentence

verb

Singular subjects and 'ser' (yo soy, esto es)

Plural nouns and definite articles (los, las)

Plural pronouns and 'ser' (somos, sois, son)

Adjective agreement (-o, -a, -os, -as)

Indefinite articles (un, una, unos, unas)

Simple negation (no)

Yes/no questions

Regular '-ar' verbs (-o, -as, -a...)

Regular '-er' verbs (-o, -es, -e...)

Regular '-ir' verbs (-o, -es, -e...)

Locative adverbs (aquí, allí)

Question words (quién, cómo)

The verb estar (estoy, estás)

The preposition en (en)

Ser vs. estar

The verb tener (tengo, tienes)

Possessive determiners (mi, tu, su)

Origin and possession (de, del)

The verb ir (voy, vas)

Destination (a, al)

The personal 'a' (a)

Stem-changing verbs: e to ie

Stem-changing verbs: o to ue

Irregular first-person verbs

Reflexive verbs (me, te, se)

Numbers 1 to 10 (uno, dos, tres)

Numbers 11 to 20 (once, doce, trece)

Counting by tens to 100 (treinta, cuarenta, cien)

Compound numbers up to 99 (veintiuno, treinta y uno)

Days of the week (el lunes, el martes)

The family and the personal 'a' (a mi tío, a mi prima)

Months of the year

Telling time (es la, son las)

Verbs of liking (me gusta)

Plural agreement with verbs of liking (gustan)

Degree modifiers (muy, mucho)

Formal address (usted, ustedes)

Direct object pronouns (lo, la, los, las)

The near future (ir a)

Obligation (tener que)

Present continuous (-ando, -iendo)

Affirmative commands (tú, vosotros)

Basic Food and Drink

The Human Body: Head and Arms

The Human Body: Legs and Health

Wardrobe Essentials

Fresh Produce

Meals and Proteins

Public Transport

Hello and goodbye (hola, ¿qué tal?)

Thank you, sorry, OK (gracias, vale)

There is, there are (hay)

My building (la escalera, el ascensor)

Describing people (moreno, rubio, tímido)

Land and sea (el mar, el río, el norte)

Sightseeing (la plaza, la catedral)

Asking the way (cerca, a la derecha, todo recto)

In class (¿puedes repetir?)

Verb + infinitive (quiero comer, sé leer)

What's your name? (me llamo, encantado)

Phone, computer and email

Hundreds and thousands (doscientos, mil)

What do you do? (¿a qué te dedicas?)

Personal details (la edad, la fecha de nacimiento)

Me neither (también, tampoco, ni)

How much is it? (el precio, la vuelta)

What's the weather like? (hace sol, nieva)

Free time (el concierto, el tenis)

At the bar (¿qué vas a tomar?)

The Natural World

Demonstratives (este, ese, aquel)

Prepositions of place (encima de, debajo de)

Prepositional pronouns (para mí, contigo)

Ordinal numbers 1st to 10th (primero to décimo)

Adverbs of frequency (a veces, nunca)

Exclamations (¡qué...!)

Indefinite pronouns (algo, alguien)

Indefinite determiners (algún, ningún)

Indirect object pronouns (le, les)

Double object pronouns (me lo, te la)

Double object pronouns (se lo, se la)

Verbs of preference (encantar, interesar)

Impersonal obligation (hay que)

Starting and finishing actions (empezar a, terminar de)

Adjective comparatives (más que, menos que)

Comparatives of equality (tan como)

Noun comparatives (tanto como)

Question	Answer
the next day, the following day	al día siguiente
He said he would come back the next day.	Dijo que volvería al día siguiente.
She told me the meeting was the next day.	Me dijo que la reunión era al día siguiente.
He promised he would call me the next day.	Prometió que me llamaría al día siguiente.
The next day, everything was calm.	Al día siguiente, todo estaba tranquilo.
She said she was very tired that day.	Dijo que aquel día estaba muy cansada.
He explained to us that he couldn't come that day.	Nos explicó que ese día no podía venir.
She promised she would finish the report the following week.	Prometió que terminaría el informe la semana siguiente.
Ana said she was getting married the following week.	Ana dijo que se casaba la semana siguiente.
the day before, the previous day	el día anterior
She told me she had arrived the day before.	Me contó que había llegado el día anterior.
Luis explained that he had been sick the day before.	Luis explicó que el día anterior había estado enfermo.
The day before, it had rained a lot.	El día anterior había llovido mucho.
in (+ a time from now, e.g. in an hour)	dentro de
I'll be back in an hour.	Vuelvo dentro de una hora.
The train leaves in ten minutes.	El tren sale dentro de diez minutos.
In a year I will speak Spanish very well.	Dentro de un año hablaré muy bien español.
The movie starts in a little while.	La película empieza dentro de un rato.
after (+ a period of time)	al cabo de
After an hour, the bus arrived.	Al cabo de una hora, llegó el autobús.
She went to France and came back after two years.	Se fue a Francia y volvió al cabo de dos años.
After a while, the child fell asleep.	Al cabo de un rato, el niño se durmió.
After a few minutes, the sun came out.	Al cabo de unos minutos, salió el sol.
previous, earlier	anterior
She told us that the year before she had lived in France.	Nos contó que el año anterior había vivido en Francia.
He said that his previous job was very boring.	Dijo que su trabajo anterior era muy aburrido.
In the previous flat we had more light.	En el piso anterior teníamos más luz.

Contributors