Access the lessons from the course content below.
Course contents
Expand each unit to see what you will learn over each 5-6 hours of study, and to access the lessons.
Unit 1. Who are you? Talking about you, your family and friends.
Pay now for full access to Unit 1u003cbru003e1A. Names and greetings.
I’m called Bob. And you?
2 words for “you”.
Good morning/ good afternoon, good evening, good night, goodbye
What are you called?
2 words for “you”.
Good morning/ good afternoon, good evening, good night, goodbye
What are you called?
How are you? Pleased to meet you.
1B. Professions and introductions.
I am, you are, are you?
10 words for different professions
Hi, I’m called (Ruth) and I’m (a teacher).
What are you?
This is Mr Gomez. This is Mrs Santamarina.
1C. Countries and nationalities
I’m Scottish, from Dundee (10+ nationalities)
A person from Ireland is Irish (10+ countries)
Where are you from? Where is he/ she from?
Who is from Canada?
1D. Family
Mother, father, husband, wife, son, daughter, brother, sister (and more family vocabulary)
Luis is the father of Yolanda (instead of Luis is Yolanda’s father)
What is the father of Javier called? He is called Luis.
Four words for “the”
Do you have brothers and sisters/ children?
What is your son called?
I have a sister.
1E. How do you spell it?
The sounds of the Spanish alphabet.
Spelling your own surname.
Where are they from?
Numbers from 0 – 9
Reading about a Spanish celebrity
Grammar and exercises
Ser, the verb to be
Tener, the verb to have
Llamarse, to be called
Pronouns: I, you, he, she, you (formal)
Plural pronouns: we, you, they, they (females), you (formal)
Masculine and feminine nouns
Four words for the
Words for my, your, his and her
De: the father of Anna
Plurals (+ s or + es)
Unit 2. What do you want? Food, drink and making friends.
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2A. In the bar.
What do you want to have?
Do you want an orange juice?
I want a coffee
20 items of food and drink, including Spanish and Latin American variations
Are there snacks?
Anything else?
Nothing else
How much is it?
2B. Are there chips?
Is there, are there, there is, there are.
12 items of food.
What is the bar called?
What is the owner of the bar called?
Where is the owner of the bar from?
I want. Do you want?
2C. In the restaurant.
Starters, main courses, desserts and drinks (13 items)
What do you want to eat?
For me, soup
I want salad.
What do you want to drink?
House wine, (red or white)
Coffee, with milk and sugar
The bill please
2D. Coffee time.
Where do you live? Where does he/ she live? I live in …
Where are you from? Where is he/ she from? I am from …
What is his/ her job?
Do you want to have something (a drink)? What does he/ she want to drink?
Verbs: to live and to work
Words for streets, avenues, passages and highways
How to spell out your email in Spanish (@/-_.)
2E. Numbers.
10 – 100
What is your telephone number? (formal and informal)
How old are you? I am 25 (using the verb tener)
Numbers to 1 000 000
I drink tea. I don’t drink alcohol. I eat fish. I don’t eat meat.
She eats meat, but she is allergic to fish
He doesn’t eat fried food
Grammar and exercises
Link to Unit 2 Grammar and Exercises
Verbs: to want and to live
Words for a and some
There is/ there are
Making sentences negative
De meaning of
Using to have to talk about age
Unit 3. Where is it? Location, distance and direction.
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3A. Where is it?
8 Latin American countries
Where is she from?
How many people live there?
Where is the city?
Where does she live now?
North, east, south and west … Lima is in the west of Perú
Where are you from?
Where do you live?
3B. Near or far?
Is it near? Is it far?
How many kilometres away is it?
It’s 30 kilomentres away.
Here and there.
Is it big? What is it like?
How many inhabitants does it have?
4 things a town might have
3C. Where are you?
I’m in Bilbao.
Where is Bilbao?
It’s near Santander.
Where are you?
I’m at home
What is the town like? It’s a very pretty/ quiet/ excellent town.
What is there in the town? There aren’t many tourists/ restaurants/ nightclubs.
3D. Directions.
Where is the museum/ catheral/ station/ restaurant?
Take the first/ second/ third on the left/ right.
Carry straight on to the end of the street.
3E. The restaurant is next to the cinema.
Is there a hotel/ nightclub/ park/ supermarket/ swimming pool/ tourist information office/ chemist/ petrol station near here?
It is next to/ opposite/ at/ on/ under/ in front of/ behind/ between …
Continent/ desert/ country/ coast/ lake/ beaches/ rivers/ jungles/ waterfalls city and mountains
Grammar and exercises
To be: estar
A meaning from
Expressions of place (next to, etc.)
Qualifiers very and quite
Unit 4. What is it like? Hotels, towns, houses and furniture.
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4A. A room please.
10 items in/ connected with a hotel room
Do you have free rooms?
How much does it cost?
Is breakfast included?
For how many nights?
Months and dates
From June 30th until July 2nd
6 units of time
Days of the week
4 services a hotel might offer
Writing a formal letter
An email to reserve a room
4B. What is the hotel like?
8 adjectives to describe a hotel
19 areas and services a hotel might have or offer
Reading activity about a hotel to answer what there is, what it’s called, where it is and what it is like
Describe 2 hotels and say which one you want to go to
Read an email from someone on holiday and use your vocabulary to complete the missing words
Answer 10 questions about the completed text, in Spanish
4C. The flat/ The house.
Learn 7 words for rooms and areas in a home
Listen to a girl describe her home, and answer 4 questions on what you hear
Learn the words for the different floors in a high rise, up to the tenth floor
Describe your own home
4D. Juan is moving house.
Use two different words for is, to describe temporary and permanent features of a house
Use “little words,” such as is and has, to form complete sentences from classified ads that are to sell or rent out homes
Learn up to 9 words connected with buying and renting houses or flats
Read descriptions of houses for sale, and pick out information to answer questions about price, size, location, style and features
Learn up to 21 words for furniture and other items in a home
Grammar and exercises
Prepositions for, with and without
Dates
Adjective changes for masculine and feminine nouns
The two verbs to be, ser and estar
Unit 5. What do you do? Routines, the time, and describing people
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5A. And you? Do you work?
Where do you work?
How long do you work?
How long do you have for lunch?
Where do you eat?
Talking about a lady who works in a shop.
Words that end with the letters -mente
The present tense of 6 regular verbs
Asking questions about people’s routines
5B. What is the time?
What time is it? It’s … o’clock
… in the morning/ afternoon/ evening/ night
It’s 5/ 10/ quarter/ 20/ 25/ half past …
It’s 25/ 20/ quarter/ 10/ 5 to …
5C. What do you do every day?
2 irregular verbs, to do and to go
Listen to a woman describe her day, from getting up to going to bed
3 different types of verb: reflexive, irregular and stem-changing verbs
Comparing the different routines of 2 women
Changing verbs from infinitive to 3rd person (to do, to he does)
Saying when in the week you do things: during the week and at the weekend
5D. What are you like?
Learn up to 18 words to describe a person’s character
Answer questions about a woman’s life as an au pair in London: What is the family like?
What is the dog like?
What is her teacher like?
How is her life in London different to life in Spain?
Write about your character and what you do
Read an extended text about the life of Spanish author, Corín Tellado
Grammar and exercises
Question words
Regular -ar, -er and -ir verbs
Irregular verbs, to go and to do
Reflexive verbs, to get up and to go to bed
Adjectives
Time
Unit 6. Anything else? Shopping for food and clothes. Describing people.
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6A. Shopping.
Give me a kilo of tomatoes
6 types of shop
Put 16 words into categories of greens, fruit, fish and meat
How to ask for different quantities (eg. 200 grammes, half a dozen)
What would you like? What can I get you?
5 words for packaging
6B. How much is it?
How much are the potatoes?
Prices
Learn up to 10 words for different grocery items
Read about what the Spanish spend on food as a nation
4 more types of shop
6C. Clothes.
Learn up to 25 items of clothing
Learn 10+ colours
The verb to wear
Describe what people are wearing
Can I try this on?
What size do you need?
I’ll take it/ them
6D. What is he like, physically?
6 words to describe a person
Practice describing a person including personality and clothes
6E. What time does it open?
What time does the museum open/ close?
4 verbs: open, close, start, finish
Buying tickets for the cinema
Reading about shopping in Guatemala. Read, understand and answer 10 questions about the text in Spanish
Write about shopping near where you live, using 8 questions for guidance
Grammar and exercises
Using the words for the
Words for how much and how many
Colours
Words for this and these
Four verbs: open, close, start, finish
Unit 7. Revise and extend. Families and people, a road trip, holiday apartments and describing your holiday
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7A. This is what we are like.
Extended family vocabulary: learn up to 10 new words
Listen to people talk about their family
Introduce members of a family
Learn 7 more words related to family
Listen to an interview based on 12 personal questions
Complete a text describing various members of a family with the “little” missing words, such as is, the, has, in , of, and, are and call.
Learn how to describe people’s colouring and build
Talk about your family
Use descriptions to identify similar people on a beach
7B. On the road.
Asking for directions to drive to a given site: do you have a map, where is the monastery, is it far, how far is it, how do you get there?
Then asking for information about that attraction: what time does it open, is it open every day, are there restaurants there?
Hiring a car: I’d like a small car for a week, is the petrol tank full?
Buying fuel
Dealing with a breakdown: giving your location and number plate
7C. Where are you staying?
Describe a development of apartments using the images and map given to you in a leaflet
Read about the luxury development and translate the information
Use the plan of an apartment to write a description
Listen to a telephone conversation to rent a holiday apartment. Use the information from the telephone call to complete a written advert. Compare this holiday let with the apartments from the first activity in the section
Use cues from the telephone conversation to create your own dialogue
Write an email to reserve an apartment
7D. An email from the beach.
Read an email from a man on holiday. Complete the text with the missing “little” words: I am, it is, there is, it has, they are, they have;
…and the missing verbs: I get up, I eat breakfast, I buy, I go, I swim, I take, I drink, I go back
Pretend you are on holiday and write about your routine to your friends
Listen to dialogues and say where they happen: a shop, a bank or a bar.
Read 12 sentences and questions and say where you would expect to hear them
Complete a test on the first seven units
Your score will be out of 100. Celebrate your achievements!
Unit 8. What do you like? Likes and dislikes, personal details, opinions and free time
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8A. I like music.
I like music. I don’t like sport.
What do you do in your free time?
Do you like sport?
What do you like most?
I like to go to the cinema.
10 verbs for free time activities (eg. walk)
10 nouns for free time activities (eg. television)
Marisa likes to relax
The present tense of the verb to like (to please)
8B. Personal information.
10 items on a form about personal information (eg, height, date of birth, etc)
Make full sentences from data: name to he is called …
Make wild guesses about the likes of Spanish actress Lydia Bosch, in a range of categories, then listen to a description of her to compare your guesses with the audio.
Ask and answer about your likes in a range of categories.
He likes to dance.
He does a lot of sport.
She doesn’t like to dance.
She hates nightclubs.
8C. What do you think of your city?
The atmosphere, the people, the pollution, the buses and traffic, the weather, the amenities
Read along as you listen to people describe México, Barcelona and Madrid. Focus on the merits and faults of each place.
Use 10 questions as a framework to help you write about the place where you live.
8D. What do you do in your free time?
Verbs to say what we do. Complete the gaps in a young Spanish woman’s description of her weekends.
Write a text about what you do with your friends.
Change a text from 1st to 3rd person, what I do to what she does.
Listen to a twin saying what she does together with her sister, and what they do separately.
Read an email from friends on holiday that uses lots of verbs saying what we do. Compare this with sentences saying what they do.
Read about the life of a young Spanish actress, what she likes to do, her clothes and her family. Write about her, and write questions to ask her.
Grammar and exercises
The verb to like.
Plural forms of verbs.
A structure: the good thing about …
Unit 9. Do you want to go out? Invitations: accepting and declining. Problems and advice. Future plans. The cinema.
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9A. Do you want to come to the cinema?
“I am sorry, my mum is unwell,” and other reasons you can’t go out.
Why and because.
3+ ways to make an invitation.
5+ ways to accept an invitation.
4+ ways to decline an invitation.
7+ excuses for not going out.
9B. Advice.
14+ words to describe character, positive and negative.
I don’t know what to do.
What can I do?
You have to …
6 life problems (eg. health, work, housing, relationships)
9C. I’m going to have dinner in a restaurant.
Structure: I am going to, you are going to, he/ she is going to …
Structure: do you want to …
Days of the week and dates (revision)
Making arrangements
Reading about what you do on holiday, and changing that to what you are going to do on holiday.
9D. We’re going to the cinema.
Give me two tickets for the 9 o’ clock showing.
Here you are.
8 genres of film/ movie with descriptions.
Talking about cinema: eg. I’ve wanted to see that for ages; where shall we meet? I saw it yesterday.
Read the synopsis of 5 films/ movies, and answer 6 questions about them.
Read about an area in Spain that was used to film over 200 westerns.
Grammar and exercises
2 verbs: to want and to be able to (can)
With me, with you, with him, with her
To have to do something
To be going to do something
De meaning of, and it’s use to say an adventure film: a film of adventures
Unit 10. Where shall we go? Buying tickets, making comparisons, the future (will) with regular and irregular verbs, types of holiday
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10A. A return ticket, please.
Order train tickets: 1st or 2nd class, one way or return
When does it leave/ arrive?
Can I reserve the return?
Names and descriptions of different Spanish train services
10A. Part 2.
More than, less than and as fast as
10+ adjectives to describe transport
Where/ when do you want to go?
Reading a timetable for departures, arrivals and platform numbers
Conversations in or about taxi, metro and bus.
10B. The future.
I will and I am going to
Can I stay at your house?
I’ll arrive at 11. Will you come to get me?
Saying what you will do on holiday.
Irregular verbs in the future.
Talking about skiing.
10C. What will you do tomorrow?
Talking about daily routine: I will …
Talking about weekday and weekend plans: I will
Planning a holiday. I like fresh air. I prefer sunbathing. I’ll go to the mountains.
Reading a holiday itinerary for a grand tour of Latin America, and another for a tour of México.
Grammar and exercises
Comparatives and superlatives
The future tense
Unit 11. What is the weather like? Weather, seasons, how you feel, telephone calls, saying what you are doing right now
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11A. The weather.
8+ types of weather
It is sunny. It is so hot.
The weather is awful. What a pity.
4 seasons
Informal emails
Describing the climate of an area.
11B The weather in the world.
Weather forecasts: 11 types of weather and associated vocabulary, eg. risk of, especially in the South, for today, temperatures
11C. On the telephone.
Using to have to say how you feel.
Is Rosa there? Yes, it’s me, who is that?
I’ll call later.
I’ll just get him.
Casual conversations on the phone: work, health, invitations, the house, holidays and a birthday
How do you like to communicate: text, email, letters, internet, fax, phone?
16+ advantages and disadvantages of different means of communication
11D. What are you doing?
He is doing something
The verb to be
9+ activity verbs (dance, eat, write)
He is sleeping. Ok, I’ll call later.
Talk about studying.
You have to do x. I am doing x now.
Multiple choice test on when historical events happened.
Grammar and exercises
The weather
Expressions with to have
Present continuous tense: I am doing x
Unit 12. What did you do? Yesterday, past holidays, biographies
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12A. What did you do yesterday?
6+ verbs to describe what you did on a night out
14+ verbs to describe a routine day yesterday
Sequencers, first, then, after that
What I normally do and what I did on my birthday
6+ moments in the past (yesterday, last night, etc)
3 ordinary days: a student, a day of leisure, a day in the office
Remembering routine, including reflexive verbs in the past
12B. Where did you go?
A holiday in the past: transport, place, timing, accomodation and activities
Where/ when/ how did you go? What did you do?
A survey of people’s holidays.
Travelling with your studies
12C. This is my life.
8+ major life events
10 biographies of famous Hispanic people
Grammar and exercises
Regular past tense verbs
Irregular past tense verbs
Unit 13. What is the matter? Parts of the body, what hurts, what happened, what you have done, lost property, describing lost items
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13A. What is the matter?
18+ parts of the body
12+ symptoms of illness
8+ illnesses
5+ treatments
Making suggestions and giving orders
10+ medical services
Reading text about the comparative health of men and women
13B. What has happened to you?
A consultation with a doctor about illnesses, vaccinations and operations
The present perfect (I have done, you have done, etc.)
Reflexive verbs in the present perfect (I have burned myself).
13C. Where have you been?
Catching up with someone and finding out what they have been up to/ what has happened to them
17+ verbs as past participles (bought, met, said, written, won, done, been, had, sold) to describe life events.
13D. I have lost my suitcase.
Describing objects: material, shape, size design, colour
Reporting lost property
Words for it
9+ examples of lost property notices and the opportunity to write your own notice
13E. In the police station.
Reporting a robbery: when and where it happened, what the thief was like, what was in the bag and instructions for how to proceed.
The imperfect tense for describing the past.
Words for my, your, his, her, our and their
Text about house burglaries
Grammar and exercises
The verbs to hurt, should, have to
Present perfect tense formation and uses (have/ has done)
Present perfect with reflexive pronouns (to myself, yourself, etc.)
Imperfect past tense (was, used to)
Words for it and them
Possessive adjectives (my, your, etc.)
Unit 14. Revise and extend. Free time, cities, work, communication, trips and holidays, problems, festivals
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14A. Free time.
9+ activities from dance to parachuting
11+ adjectives from interesting to cruel
Practice making invitations
Talking about television programmes
Talking about reading
8+ expressions of frequency
14B. My city.
Read and listen to a description of a Spanish village, Belchite. Use it as a model to help you write about where you live.
Write about last week’s weather, the weather today and next week’s weather.
14C. Work.
Read about the work of a hotel receptionist and tourist guide.
Read 5 job adverts with the duties and requirements.
Read a letter applying for one of the jobs.
14D. Communicating.
Read emails about a conference, a dinner date, a meeting and a request for a conversation.
Write messages to change plans.
Things you can do in a post office. 8+ words connected with the post office.
A letter to a friend asking to meet up, about accommodation, dates and transport
14E. Trips and holidays.
Listen to a report about 500 young people recreating the journeys of Christopher Colombus (without the atrocities) from the Iberian Peninsular to the Americas.
Read about a group of 12 young people who travelled to South America where they had many adventures.
Read adverts looking for holiday companions and write one of your own using the prompts.
Complete a text that is missing the words is and are. Can you decide whether to use ser or estar?
Look at a picture of people on holiday and say what they are doing.
14F. Problems.
Making complaints about false advertising and poor quality hotel rooms.
Making complaints in a restaurant.
14G. Festivals.
9 festivals in Spain, from Carnavales in February to All Saints at the beginning of November, and many more.
A test, with up to 100 points.
- I provide video guidance through every text and exercise in the course.
- I provide supplementary videos materials to show you how your Spanish can be used and encourage you on your journey.
- I provide emails of encouragement to help you maintain your moral, because learning a language takes time, and therefore resiliance.
- I provide signposting to other resources that are exactly right for you at each step.
- I provide you with a challenge at the end of each unit. (I strongly encourage you to submit your response to the challenge to me so I can give you feedback on your progress).
“I want my Spanish course to mean something!”
There are great courses out there that teach you how to put sentences together in Spanish, focusing on a limited vocabulary and words that are similar in English. They are great, but some people want a course that gives them dialogue, that gives them examples of meaningful texts and conversations, which is what Pasos offers. It is tangible because you will have the coursebook that enables you to look back and to look ahead and know what you are going to learn. It is interesting because you will be able to imagine yourself engaging with people using the sentences, exclamations, questions and phrases that you learn here, and I will encourage you to have fun with that.
“What will I learn?”
Scan through the content of the course by looking at these collapsible menus. There are 14 units in Pasos. As a teacher who appreciates a well structured and thorough course, it will be a pleasure for me to guide you through each and every step of the way. You will see more details of the course contents when you look in the contents page of your Pasos textbook.
How does it work?
You buy the course book.
You buy access to one unit of lessons (approximately 6 hours of study per unit).
You set aside an hour to study with me.
You watch my input about a text or exercise.
You complete that exercise, then repeat this cycle until you have completed the section or lesson.
When you have completed all the lessons in a unit, you can buy the next unit when you are ready to do so. Please note, as I am currently building my video support for the Pasos course, lessons to accompany one unit will be released each month, and you are able to buy them at the heavily discounted price of just £10.00 per unit. This reduction will only be available until the videos are all published (planned completion date year end 2021).
The value you get from studying with me?
Teacher support is so useful when you decide to learn to speak Spanish. I will help you in the following ways and more.
- Understand the vocabulary, including what it means, how it sounds, what connections it has with other Spanish and English words, and how to remember it. Vocabulary is the foundation of learning a new language. When you get help to engage with that vocabulary you have a far better chance of being able to recall and use it when you need it.
- When you are on a journey somewhere it is nice to have someone with you who knows the direction and the distance to each waypoint. More than nice in fact! I will explain what you need to know as you need to know it. I will help you maintain real expectations and motivation. It takes time to learn un lenguaje so you need to keep making la decisión that YOU WANT TO SPEAK SPANISH. Take each step of the way with me, and WE WILL GET YOU THERE!
- The Pasos Course Pack includes the 278 page coursebook, 3 audio cds for the listening exercises, the answer key to check your accuracy, the transcript book to read along and get used to the pronunciation, as well as a DVD you can enjoy watching. It will take a year to complete this course, so it is great value for money. Get your copy here. There are many great advantages to this course. Lots of people like physical, paper resources. Learning around a theme a month is great for the human mind because we like a context that we can imagine. It is good for us to have a variety of input and plenty of different types of activities for active learning. In my opinion it is the teacher who pulls all this Spanish off the pages of the book and makes it real for you. All this, in combination with lessons delivered using the Spanish I know you can understand, and you will find it easy to stay on the path to being able to understand clear speech, read articles, enter into conversation, describe experiences and events and write simple texts.
- This is what I can help you to achieve.
About your teacher.
Ruth studied French at school but always wanted to learn more languages. After completing a degree in law at Reading University she went to Barcelona, where she did the TEFL teaching course, and then worked teaching English. Her travels took her to Poland, London, Cambridge and then to Lima in Perú, learning Spanish through conversation and extensive reading.
Ruth formalised her Spanish studies with a diploma from the Open University, which included time studying Spanish in Santiago de Compostela in Northern Spain. She became a fully qualified teacher in 2011 (13 years after starting to teach professionally!) She developed the use of Spanglish in the classroom as a tool to encourage students to use the target language, and has since written and published 3 books which model Spanglish as a method to learn confidence and fluency in Spanish.
When schools closed for the lockdown of 2020, Ruth’s YouTube project, 100 Days of Spanish began. Many people have enjoyed the 100 videos. It was through this project that she met Dan Hall, and began the Daily Word Builder series of videos to increase vocabulary and model fluency.
Ruth is also a gardener, a website developer (this one!), a sister, a daughter, and above all, a mother.