Essential Spanish-English Vocabulary & Grammar Reference

Essential Spanish-English Vocabulary

Vocabulary:

  • Anxious: ansioso / Anxiously: ansiosamente
  • Fortunate: afortunado / Fortunately: afortunadamente
  • Generous: generoso / Generously: generosamente
  • Honest: honesto / Honestly: honestamente
  • Moody: triste / Moodily: cambio de humor
  • Optimistic: optimista / Optimistically: optimistamente
  • Passionate: apasionado / Passionately: apasionadamente
  • Pessimistic: pesimista / Pessimistically: pesimisticamente
  • Polite: educado / Politely: educadamente
  • Respectful: respetuoso / Respectfully: respetuosamente
  • Responsible: responsable / Responsibly: responsablemente
  • Successful: exitoso / Successfully: exitosamente

Verbs:

  • Aim: objetivo
  • Concentrate on: concentrarse en
  • Forget: olvidar
  • Intend: intentar
  • Look forward to: desear
  • Miss: hechar de menos
  • Put off: quitar
  • Regret: lamentar
  • Remember: recordar
  • Spend time: pasar el tiempo
  • Take part in: tomar parte en
  • Waste time: perder tiempo

Phrases:

  • Break a promise: romper una promesa
  • Break the law: saltarse las leyes
  • Do something wrong: hacer algo mal
  • Feel guilty about something: sentirse culpable por algo
  • Hurt someone’s feelings: herir los sentimientos de alguien
  • Keep a promise: mantener una promesa
  • Keep quiet about something: mantenerse tranquilo
  • Make a mistake: cometer un error
  • Make an excuse: poner una excusa
  • Make something up: inventarse algo
  • Pretend to be something: pretender ser algo
  • Tell a lie: contar una mentira
  • Tell the truth: decir la verdad

Communication Verbs:

  • Admit: admitir
  • Agree: estar de acuerdo
  • Ask: preguntar
  • Complain: quejarse
  • Convince: convencer
  • Explain: explicar
  • Insist: insistir
  • Invite: invitar
  • Offer: ofrecer
  • Order: ordenar
  • Persuade: convencer
  • Promise: prometer
  • Refuse: rechazar
  • Remind: recordar
  • Say: decir
  • Tell: contar

Verb Tenses (Tiempos Verbales)

  • Present Simple (Active): Peter paints
  • Present Continuous (Active): Peter is painting
  • Past Simple (Active): Peter painted
  • Past Continuous (Active): Peter was painting
  • Present Perfect (Active): Peter has painted the house
  • Past Perfect Simple: Peter had painted
  • Future (will) (Active): Peter will paint the house
  • Be going to (Active): Peter is going to paint the house

Third Conditional

Structure: if + past perfect + ‘d (would) / wouldn’t have + past participle

Example: If I’d seen Kerry, I’d have told her.

Superlative and Comparative Adverbs

Regular Adverbs:

  • Comparative: quickly, more quickly than
  • Superlative: the most quickly

Irregular Adverbs:

  • Comparative: faster than
  • Superlative: the fastest

Gerunds and Infinitives

  • Gerund: Add ‘ing’ to the verb (pones ‘ing’ al verbo)
  • Infinitive: to + the base form of a verb

Common Irregular Verbs

  • Be: be, was/were, been (ser)
  • Become: become, became, become (convertirse)
  • Begin: begin, began, begun (empezar)
  • Bet: bet, bet, bet (apostarse)
  • Bite: bite, bit, bitten (morder)
  • Bleed: bleed, bled, bled (sangrar)
  • Blow: blow, blew, blown (soplar)
  • Break: break, broke, broken (romper)
  • Bring: bring, brought, brought (traer)
  • Build: build, built, built (construir)
  • Burn: burn, burnt/burned, burnt/burned (quemar)
  • Buy: buy, bought, bought (comprar)
  • Can: can, could, been able to (poder)
  • Catch: catch, caught, caught (coger)
  • Choose: choose, chose, chosen (elegir)
  • Come: come, came, come (venir)
  • Cost: cost, cost, cost (costar)
  • Cut: cut, cut, cut (cortar)
  • Deal: deal, dealt, dealt (tratar)
  • Do: do, did, done (hacer)
  • Draw: draw, drew, drawn (dibujar)
  • Dream: dream, dreamt/dreamed, dreamt/dreamed (soñar)
  • Drink: drink, drank, drunk (beber)
  • Drive: drive, drove, driven (conducir)
  • Eat: eat, ate, eaten (comer)
  • Fall: fall, fell, fallen (caerse)
  • Feel: feel, felt, felt (sentir)
  • Fight: fight, fought, fought (luchar)
  • Find: find, found, found (encontrar)
  • Fly: fly, flew, flown (volar)
  • Forget: forget, forgot, forgotten (olvidar)
  • Forgive: forgive, forgave, forgiven (perdonar)
  • Freeze: freeze, froze, frozen (congelar)
  • Get: get, got, got (tener)
  • Give: give, gave, given (dar)
  • Go: go, went, been/gone (ir)
  • Grow: grow, grew, grown (cultivar)
  • Hang: hang, hung, hung (colgar)
  • Have: have, had, had (tener)
  • Hear: hear, heard, heard (oir)
  • Hide: hide, hid, hidden (esconder)
  • Hit: hit, hit, hit (golpear)
  • Hold: hold, held, held (sujetar)
  • Hurt: hurt, hurt, hurt (hacer daño)
  • Keep: keep, kept, kept (guardar)
  • Know: know, knew, known (conocer)
  • Lay: lay, laid, laid (poder)
  • Lead: lead, led, led (dirigir)
  • Learn: learn, learnt/learned, learnt/learned (aprender)
  • Leave: leave, left, left (dejar)
  • Lend: lend, lent, lent (prestar)
  • Let: let, let, let (permitir)