u/modo_app

The contrast between ser and estar is something you learn pretty early on in Spanish. It’s one of those topics beginners might struggle with for a while, but once you get the hang of it, you feel like you’re one step closer to actually speaking Spanish.

But don’t be fooled. There are still some cases that can make even more experienced learners stop and think.

So if this little practice turned out to be harder than you expected, remember: always go back to the basics!

The contrast between ser and estar is something you learn pretty early on in Spanish. It’s one of those topics beginners might struggle with for a while, but once you get the hang of it, you feel like you’re one step closer to actually speaking Spanish.

But don’t be fooled. There are still some cases that can make even more experienced learners stop and think.

So if this little practice turned out to be harder than you expected, remember: always go back to the basics!

Note: I am promoting my own app, but only because I think it can help some of you.

I don’t believe in apps that make you fluent in a language. I don’t want to give you the idea my app does that. It’s a companion for studying. For instance, training the subjunctive:

You may understand the subjunctive but you might also have struggled with producing it in conversation.

• Quiero que comas - I want you to eat
• Quería que comieras - I wanted you to eat

What helped me is looking at triggers: Querer que triggers the subjunctive and many others do as well. By practicing these triggers you start to use subjunctive instinctively. To practice this I created Modo Spanish. Try it out and let me know what you think: ios.modospanish.com. I also added some other intermediate topics that often are annoying to produce in conversation. Open to add even more with your recommendations!

Hey everyone.

I posted here about 9 months ago about a small tool I'd made because I could not get the subjunctive to stick. A bunch of you tried it and sent feedback, and a lot of it ended up in the app. It's grown since then and I wanted to come back and ask for help with what comes next.

The basic idea hasn't changed. You get a sentence, you pick what you think is right, you see why. Practising the choice instead of rereading the same rule for the tenth time.

It stopped being subjunctive-only a while back. Indefinido vs imperfecto has been in there for a few months, era and fue included, along with por and para, and I've been tweaking those ever since based on where people actually get stuck. Past tenses are my own weak spot, so that was the obvious place to start. I know the difference if you give me three seconds to think about it. Speaking, I don't have three seconds. What helps isn't relearning the rule, it's hitting enough different situations that picking one stops being a decision.

More recently I added a past subjunctive mode. Quería que vinieras conmigo. Most intermediate learners recognise vinieras or pudiera fine, but that's not the same as reaching for one mid-sentence without stalling. Also, free typing is back as an option. Answers go through a letter bank by default, where you tap letters from a set, but enough of you made the case that typing a form from nothing is a different skill from picking it off a screen. Fair point, so now you can switch.

Which brings me to what I'd like input on. What do you still hesitate over even though you already know the rule? Not the stuff you're still learning, the stuff you understand fine but stall on when you're actually speaking. Specific examples are ideal. I'm using this thread to decide what to build next, same as last time.

iOS link below. Android isn't there yet, sorry, it's the question I get most.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/modo-intermediate-spanish/id6754576281

James