Free B1 Spanish course: intermediate

B1 is the first independent-user level. You can travel, tell a story, give your opinion and follow clear speech on familiar topics. The big new idea is the subjunctive, after wishes, feelings and doubt.

26 grammar lessons, 5 graded stories, 2 classic books, flashcards and an AI conversation partner, all free. Plan on roughly 195 hours of study for this level (375 in total from zero, by an approximate CEFR estimate that isn't specific to Spanish).

What you'll be able to do

• Listening: I can follow the main points of clear speech on familiar topics at work, school or leisure.
• Listening: I can understand the main points of many radio programmes and podcasts on topics I care about.
• Reading: I can read everyday texts and understand descriptions of events, feelings and wishes.
• Reading: I can read a novel for teenagers or a simplified classic, such as a Bécquer legend.
• Speaking: I can deal with most situations that come up when travelling in a Spanish-speaking country.
• Speaking: I can express wishes, doubts and advice (Espero que…, No creo que…, Te recomiendo que…).
• Writing: I can write a connected text on a familiar topic, such as an email describing an experience.
• Writing: I can write a short opinion with reasons.

What you'll learn

Learning B1 Spanish with AI

At B1 the AI partner can discuss your opinions and plans in longer exchanges, and write short stories at your level on topics you choose. The AI also explains any wrong answer in a lesson, in plain English. It's included free, with a daily allowance; like any AI it can make mistakes, so the lessons remain the reference. More about learning Spanish with AI.

All 26 B1 grammar lessons

Free to read here. In the app, each one is taught in short steps with audio, practised, and brought back for review.

1. The simple future (hablaré) and irregular stems
2. The future for guesses: Serán las diez
3. The conditional: politeness, advice, hypotheses
4. The present subjunctive: forms
5. Irregular present subjunctives
6. The subjunctive for wishes and requests: quiero que, ojalá
7. The subjunctive after feelings: me alegra que, siento que
8. Doubt and denial: no creo que vs creo que
9. es importante que, es verdad que
10. Cuando + subjunctive for the future
11. Commands with usted and ustedes
12. Negative commands (no hables) and vosotros commands
13. Commands with pronouns: dímelo, no me lo digas
14. The pluperfect: había hablado
15. Narrating the past: all three past tenses together
16. Verbs that change meaning in the preterite: supe, conocí, quise, pude
17. Por and para in full
18. el que, la que, lo que, quien
19. The passive: ser + participle and the passive se
20. Reporting what someone said: dijo que…
21. Becoming: ponerse, volverse, hacerse, quedarse
22. Accidents with se: se me olvidó, se me cayó
23. pero, sino, sino que
24. aunque, sin embargo, por eso, así que, además
25. Diminutives and augmentatives: -ito, -illo, -ón
26. Everyday idioms: tomar el pelo, estar hecho polvo, ponerse las pilas

Reading at B1

• La última función: On Thursday night the Cine Estrella opens for one last screening, with an unexpected guest, and Rosa brings something of her own from 1975.
• El último ferry: Marcos misses the last ferry from La Gomera, in the Canary Islands, and a local woman finds a way to help. Canarian Spanish in the story: papas (potatoes), mi niño (a warm way to address someone); the silbo gomero is the island's whistled language.
• Un correo para mi hermano: Laura writes to her younger brother, who is starting university in Bilbao, with advice. Local words: sirimiri (fine drizzle), zurito (a small glass of beer), euskera (the Basque language).
• Mi abuela y el móvil: A young woman teaches her eighty-three-year-old grandmother, who lives alone in a village in Extremadura, to use a smartphone. Local word: migas (fried breadcrumbs, a typical Extremaduran dish).
• Un tinto en Medellín: A Spanish woman working in Medellín, Colombia, learns the local Spanish and spends a weekend on a coffee farm. Colombian Spanish in the story: tinto (a small black coffee), paisa (someone from the Medellín region), parce (mate), bacano (great), plata (money), mija (love, from mi hija), ¿Qué más? (a greeting, like ¿Qué tal?), bus; usted is used even with family, and many paisas say vos among friends.
• Ratón Pérez by Luis Coloma (1894): The tale of the tooth mouse, written for the boy king Alfonso XIII: little King Buby follows Ratón Pérez through Madrid at night.
• La Edad de Oro by José Martí (1889): Martí's magazine for the children of the Americas (Cuba): stories, poems and articles on heroes, Homer and how people have lived.

Questions