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Spanish Essay Phrases: 40 Useful Phrases for an Impressive Writeup

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May 30, 2019

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Do you need to write a lot of essays in Spanish? If you do, don’t worry. It's about to get a little bit easier for you because here in this article, we’ve listed many useful Spanish essay phrases that you can readily use in your essays.

Feel free to pepper your essays with the words and expressions from this list. It would certainly elevate your essays and impress your teachers. You're welcome!

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Spanish Essay Phrases

Additional Resources

You can also check out the following resources:

84 Spanish Expressions for Agreeing and Disagreeing

Common Spanish Verbs

Expresiones útiles para escribir en español

Looking for more Spanish phrases? Check out this e-book with audio!

Try to use the essay phrases in Spanish that you learned in this lesson and write a few example sentences in the comments section!

About the author 

Janey is a fan of different languages and studied Spanish, German, Mandarin, and Japanese in college. She has now added French into the mix, though English will always be her first love. She loves reading anything (including product labels).

VERY VERY useful !! Gracias

Amazing! This will definitely help me in tomorrow’s spanish test 🙂

Sounds good

Thanks for the assistance, in learning Spanish.

Amazing article! Very helpful! Also, this website is great for Spanish Beginners.

It’s easy when you put it that way

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Basic Guidelines For Writing Essays in Spanish

Students tend to focus on speaking practice while learning Spanish, so they often neglect writing. However, most educators emphasize its importance for mastering the language. They say it’s impossible to become fluent in a particular language if one doesn’t train writing skills. 

Therefore, teachers give a lot of essay assignments to students. This type of homework is a great way to inspire them to think and communicate in Spanish effectively. It may be quite difficult to complete such a task. However, it’s one of the most effective ways to learn Spanish or any other language.

You may be tempted to go online and find the best essay writing service to have your essay written for you. This may be helpful when you’re pressed for time, but in the long run, you’re missing an opportunity to improve your own essay writing skills. That’s why we are going to provide you with some recommendations on how to ease the writing process.

Some tips on writing in Spanish 

• Be careful with word spelling. Remember that teachers pay special attention to spelling so it can either make or break your student image. Having good spelling makes a positive impression of your writing skills and boosts your grades. 
• Make your essay coherent with the help of connectors. Use them to explain the relationship between the ideas so your essay doesn’t look like just a list of thoughts and facts. 
• Pay attention to syntax or the word order. As you need to stick to the academic style, try to keep the traditional order such as “subject + verb + objects”. This will also help you express your opinion in a simpler way, so it’s more clear to the reader.
• Avoid word repetitions by using synonyms. Frequent repetitions make your text boring and heavy. If you use the same words again and again, your essay will look dull. Hence, try to find synonyms in Spanish thesaurus and replace the most commonly used expressions with them. 
• Before you create a final version of your essay, let someone read it and give feedback. It’s hard to be objective about your writing, so ask another person to tell you which ideas are less clear if your text contains any confusing phrases, and what are the positive aspects that can be reinforced. 
• Do not write the essay in your native language first to translate it into Spanish then. This approach is not viable for mastering a foreign language. The only thing that you are doing by translating the text literally is practicing the grammatical structures that you have learned. This doesn’t help you learn new idioms and collocations that don’t follow the general grammatical rules. 

Now that you know how to make your writing better, let’s consider a step-by-step guide to essay writing in Spanish. 

Pick an interesting topic 

If possible, choose a topic you are truly excited about. Unless the specific title was given to you by instructors, find a theme you want to research and write about. True interest is what will drive you towards creating an excellent piece. If you enjoy reading about the subject you are going to analyze in your essay, then you will definitely succeed in writing. Remember that decent work can be done only if you are passionate about it. 

Brainstorm the ideas 

When it comes to any project, brainstorming is an integral stage of the creation process. This is one of the most efficient ways to gain insights and generate new ideas. You can use this technique to think of the main supporting arguments, an approach for a catchy introduction, and paragraph organization. You can also try freewriting and/or make a brief outline to ease the writing process itself. 

Create an introduction 

Probably the main rule about creating an introduction that you have to stick to is adding a clear thesis statement there. It must be included in the first paragraph to give your essay a certain direction and help the readers focus their attention on the topic. Also, your introduction must be catchy and intriguing to evoke the desire to read the essay further and learn more. 

Organize an essay body 

It’s essential to make the body paragraphs organized logically. You need to make sure that each of them is closely related to the main topic and discusses one major point. Each body paragraph must consist of a topic sentence and supporting arguments with evidence. It’s very important to write sentences in a logical sequence so they follow each other orderly. Also, since paragraphs shouldn’t overlap in content, add smooth transitions from one to the other. 

Sum up the content 

The vital requirement to the conclusion is that it must logically relate to the original thesis statement. Generally, it’s not acceptable to introduce new ideas in the conclusion. Instead, you need to sum up the main points mentioned in the essay’s body. It’s also forbidden to add any off-topic ideas to the last paragraph of your paper.

Check content relevance and cohesion 

Once you complete the conclusion, read through the essay for relevance and cohesion. Make sure that the whole piece is on the topic and in the mode required. In particular, check if body paragraphs support the thesis statement and whether the conclusion relates to it. After that, read your paper once again to see whether the parts connect together well. Think if there are logical links between ideas and if you need more transitions. 

Read for clarity and style

Scan your essay to find out whether some sections may be unclear to the reader. Analyze the text to find out if it sounds academic and polished. Check if there are any vague pronouns, excessive wording, or awkward phrases. Don’t forget to make sure that all points are listed in similar grammatical forms.

The last stage of your writing process is final proofreading. Read your paper the last time looking at grammar, spelling, punctuation, verb tense, word forms, and pronoun agreement. Correct all the mistakes to make your work excellent. 

Remember that the most important thing about learning a foreign language is a regular practice. Therefore, you should use any opportunity provided by instructors to polish your skills. Hopefully, the recommendations given above will help you write an excellent essay and master the Spanish language!

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51 Spanish Phrases for Essays to Impress with Words

• January 7, 2021

Joanna Lupa

Communicating in a foreign language is hard enough, even in everyday situations, when no sophisticated or academic vocabulary is needed. 

Being able to write an actual essay in Spanish requires you not only to have a solid grammar base but also be knowledgeable about specific phrases and words typically used in school and university writing. 

For those of you who study in one of the Spanish speaking countries or are toying with the idea of signing up for an exchange program, I have prepared a summary of useful Spanish phrases for essays. They are divided into the following categories:

• Connectors (sequence, contrast, cause and effect, additional information, and conclusion)
• Expressions to give your opinion, agree and disagree with a thesis
• fancy academic expressions

Spanish Connectors to Use in Essays

Written language tends to be more formal than the spoken one. Ideas get explained in complex sentences showing how they relate to each other. A fantastic tool to achieve that is connectors.

What are some useful Spanish connectors for essays? Let’s have a look at the ten examples below:

• 🇪🇸 primero – 🇬🇧 first
• 🇪🇸 segundo – 🇬🇧 second
• 🇪🇸 el siguiente argumento – 🇬🇧 the next argument
• 🇪🇸 finalmente – 🇬🇧 finally, last but not least 
• 🇪🇸 sin embargo – 🇬🇧 however, nevertheless, nonetheless
• 🇪🇸 por lo tanto – 🇬🇧 therefore, thus
• 🇪🇸 además – 🇬🇧 besides
• 🇪🇸 por un lado….por el otro lado – 🇬🇧 on the one hand….on the other hand
• 🇪🇸 a menos que – 🇬🇧 unless
• 🇪🇸 a pesar de (algo) – 🇬🇧 despite / in spite of (something)
• 🇪🇸 aunque / a pesar de que – 🇬🇧 although / even though
• 🇪🇸 debido a – 🇬🇧 due to
• 🇪🇸 puesto que / dado que – 🇬🇧 given that
• 🇪🇸 ya que –  🇬🇧 since
• 🇪🇸 mientras que – 🇬🇧 whereas
• 🇪🇸 en conclusión – 🇬🇧 in conclusion
• 🇪🇸 para concluir – 🇬🇧 to conclude

Do you think you would know how to use these connectors in an essay? Let’s suppose you are writing about ecology:

🇪🇸 Los paises han estado cambiando sus politicas. Sin embargo, aún queda mucho por hacer.  🇬🇧 Countries have been changing their policies. However, there is still a lot to do. 

🇪🇸 Una de las amenazas climáticas es el efecto invernadero. Además está la contaminación del agua que presenta un serio riesgo para la salud.  🇬🇧 One of the climate threats is the greenhouse effect. Besides, there is water pollution that presents a severe health hazard. 

🇪🇸 A pesar de los acuerdos internacionales, varios países no han mejorado sus normas ambientales.  🇬🇧 Despite international agreements, many countries haven’t yet improved their environmental standards. 

🇪🇸 Debido a la restricción en el uso de bolsas de plástico desechables, Chile ha podido reducir su huella de carbono.  🇬🇧 Due to the restrictions in the use of disposable plastic bags, Chile has been able to reduce its carbon print. 

Spanish Phrases to Express Your Opinion in Essays

Essay topics commonly require you to write what you think about something. Or whether you agree or disagree with an idea, a project, or someone’s views. 

The words below will allow you to express your opinion effortlessly and go beyond the typical “creo que ” – “ I think ”:

• 🇪🇸 (yo) opino que – 🇬🇧 in my opinion
• 🇪🇸 me parece que – 🇬🇧 it seems to me
• 🇪🇸 desde mi punto de vista – 🇬🇧 from my point of view
• 🇪🇸 (no) estoy convencido que  – 🇬🇧 I am (not) convinced that
• 🇪🇸 no me cabe la menor duda – 🇬🇧 I have no doubt 
• 🇪🇸 estoy seguro que – 🇬🇧 I’m sure
• 🇪🇸 dudo que – 🇬🇧 I doubt
• 🇪🇸 sospecho que – 🇬🇧 I suspect
• 🇪🇸 asumo que – 🇬🇧 I assume
• 🇪🇸 estoy (totalmente, parcialmente) de acuerdo – 🇬🇧 I (totally, partially) agree
• 🇪🇸 no estoy de acuerdo en absoluto – 🇬🇧 I absolutely disagree
• 🇪🇸 opino diferente – 🇬🇧 I have a different opinion
• 🇪🇸 me niego a aceptar – 🇬🇧 I refuse to accept
• 🇪🇸 estoy en contra / a favor de – 🇬🇧 I am against / in favor of
• 🇪🇸 no podría estar más de acuerdo – 🇬🇧 I couldn’t agree more
• 🇪🇸 encuentro absolutamente cierto / falso  – 🇬🇧 I find it absolutely correct / false

Phrases like these can really give shape to your essay and increase its formality level. This time, let’s verify it with views on education: 

🇪🇸 Opino que estudiando remotamente los jóvenes están perdiendo las habilidades sociales.  🇬🇧 In my opinion, remote schooling makes youngsters lose their social skills. 

🇪🇸 Dudo que esta decisión traiga verdaderos cambios para el sistema educacional en mi país.  🇬🇧 I doubt this change will bring any real changes to the educational system in my country. 

🇪🇸 Estoy totalmente de acuerdo con que todos deberían tener acceso a educación de calidad. 🇬🇧 I totally agree that everyone should have access to good quality education. 

🇪🇸 Estoy en contra de escuelas solo para niñas o solo para niños.  🇬🇧 I am against girls-only or boys-only schools. 

Pay attention to certain language differences between English and Spanish versions. The most common mistake that my students make is to say “ I am agree ” ❌ (direct translation from “ Estoy de acuerdo ”) instead of “ I agree ”✔️. 

Fancy Academic Verbs and Expressions for Essays in Spanish

Would you like to impress your professor with sophisticated academic vocabulary or get extra points on your DELE? Grab a pen and take notes:

• 🇪🇸 afirmar  – 🇬🇧 to state
• 🇪🇸 refutar – 🇬🇧 to refute, to reject
• 🇪🇸 argumentar – 🇬🇧 to argue that
• 🇪🇸 poner en duda  – 🇬🇧 to cast doubt
• 🇪🇸 poner en evidencia – 🇬🇧 to shed light 
• 🇪🇸 demostrar – 🇬🇧 to demonstrate
• 🇪🇸 concentrarse en – 🇬🇧 to focus on
• 🇪🇸 sostener – 🇬🇧 to sustain
• 🇪🇸 reflejar – 🇬🇧 to reflect
• 🇪🇸 considerando (que) – 🇬🇧 considering (that)
• 🇪🇸 siendo realista – 🇬🇧 realistically speaking
• 🇪🇸 de cierto modo – 🇬🇧 in a way
• 🇪🇸 en lo que se refiere a – 🇬🇧 with regards to
• 🇪🇸 en vista de – 🇬🇧 in view of
• 🇪🇸 de acuerdo a – 🇬🇧 according to
• 🇪🇸 no obstante – 🇬🇧 nevertheless

So many great words to work with! And some of them sound really similar to English, right? This is exactly why Spanish is such a good option when you want to learn a second language.

Let’s see how to make all these verbs and phrases work:

🇪🇸 Los resultados de los nuevos estudios ponen en duda la relación entre el consumo de huevos y altos niveles de colesterol.  🇬🇧 The recent study findings cast doubt on the relation between egg consumption and high cholesterol levels. 

🇪🇸 Los autores del estudio argumentan que los azucares y los carbohidratos juegan un rol importante en este asunto.  🇬🇧 The authors of the study argue that sugars and carbs play an important role in this topic. 

🇪🇸 En lo que se refiere al consumo de carne, este influye directamente los niveles de colesterol malo, sobre todo si es carne con mucha grasa. 🇬🇧 Regarding meat consumption, it directly influences the levels of “bad” cholesterol, especially in the case of greasy meat. 

Spanish Resources

How to get a haircut in spanish, spanish past tenses – pretérito indefinido.

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Spanish Writing Practice

Spanish writing exercises by level.

Practise your Spanish writing skills with our ever-growing collection of interactive Spanish writing exercises for every  CEFR level from A0 to C1! If you're unsure about your current proficiency, try our  test to get your Spanish level before diving into the exercises.

All writing exercises are made by our qualified native Spanish teachers to help you improve your writing skills and confidence.

Kwizbot  will give you a series of prompts to translate to Spanish. He’ll show you where you make mistakes as you go along and will suggest related lessons for you.

Boost your Spanish writing skills by adding the lessons you find most interesting to your  Notebook and practising them later.

Click on any exercise to get started.

A1: Beginner Spanish writing exercises

• A business meeting Employment Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo Adjetivo posesivo Noelia tells us about her business meeting.
• A declaration of love Family & Relationships Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo Adjetivo posesivo Read this declaration of love from Enrique.
• A hotel booking Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo Adjetivo posesivo Borja is going to spend a week in Barcelona and tells us about the hotel that he is going to book.
• A love story Family & Relationships Adjetivo Adjetivo posesivo Apócope Marta and Andrew meet in a bar...
• A march for rare diseases Sports & Leisure Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo Adjetivo posesivo Diego is participating today in a charity march.
• A mysterious invitation Family & Relationships Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo Adjetivo indefinido Guillermo tells us about a mysterious note he found inside his locker.
• A new space suit Technology & Science Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo Adjetivo invariable Sergio is going to travel to the moon in a new space suit!
• A perfect day in Granada Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo Adjetivo invariable Travel with Enrique to Granada.
• A piece of cake, please Food & Drink Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo Adjetivo posesivo Carolina loves celebrating her birthday in style with her favourite cake.
• A purple tide Politics, History & Economics Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo Adjetivo indefinido Learn about the purple tide in Spain.
• A royal dinner in Santo Domingo Food & Drink Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo Adjetivo invariable Indulge yourself with a royal dinner experience in Santo Domingo.
• A sunny Christmas in the Southern Cone Celebrations & Important Dates Adjetivo Adjetivo posesivo Artículo definido Humberto tells us about Christmas in Uruguay.
• A ticket for Malaga, please! Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjetivo Adverbio Artículo indefinido César wants to get a train ticket to travel to Malaga.
• A trip to the Sierra de Atapuerca Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo Adjetivo indefinido Pedro and Miguel are visiting Atapuerca tomorrow.
• A very interactive lesson with Kwiziq Language & Education Technology & Science Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo Adverbio Clara is using kwiziq for the first time and tells us about a lesson she is taking.
• Alexis Sánchez: a famous soccer player Famous People Adjetivo Adverbio Artículo indefinido Learn about Alexis Sánchez, a famous soccer player.
• Amelia Valcárcel: a famous Spanish philosopher Famous People Language & Education Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo Adjetivo invariable Learn about Amelia Valcárcel, a famous Spanish philosopher.
• An exhibition by Frida Kahlo Art & Design Famous People Adjetivo Adjetivo invariable Adjetivo posesivo Marcos is going to a Frida Kahlo exhibition.
• An exotic flower Art & Design Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo Adjetivo posesivo Learn about this Argentinian flower.
• An original costume Celebrations & Important Dates Adjetivo Adjetivo posesivo Adverbio Lucía's mum tells us about her daughter's costume.
• Ana's baby shower Family & Relationships Adjetivo Adjetivo posesivo Artículo definido Some friends are planning Ana's baby shower.
• Animal welfare Family & Relationships Adjetivo Adjetivo invariable Adjetivo posesivo Step into the realm of animal welfare, where compassion guides us to protect and care for our animal companions.
• Arón Bitrán: a Chilean violinist Music Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo Adjetivo indefinido Learn about Arón Bitrán, a famous Chilean violinist.
• At El Corte Inglés Sports & Leisure Adjetivo Adjetivo indefinido Adjetivo invariable Have you ever been to El Corte Ingles?
• At the cocktail bar Food & Drink Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo Adjetivo invariable Raúl is having a refreshing cocktail in Majorca.
• At the nutritionist Food & Drink Adjetivo Adjetivo indefinido Adjetivo invariable Sheila is at the nutritionist looking for a healthier lifestyle.
• At the opera Music Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo Adjetivo invariable Ana plans to go to the opera tonight.
• At the science lab Technology & Science Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo Adjetivo invariable Marta and Javier love spending time in the lab.
• Bank of Spain Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Politics, History & Economics Adjetivo Artículo definido Artículo indefinido Learn about Bank of Spain.
• Benefits of sport Sports & Leisure Adjetivo Adjetivo indefinido Adjetivo invariable Mara tells us about exercising at the gym and its benefits.
• Blanca Paloma: Spanish candidate 2023 Music Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo Adverbio Meet Blanca Paloma, Spain's candidate for Eurovision 2023.
• Booking a table in a restaurant Food & Drink Adjetivo Adjetivo posesivo Artículo indefinido Learn how to book a table in a Spanish restaurant.
• Breakfast at home Food & Drink Adjetivo Adjetivo invariable Adjetivo posesivo Raúl loves having a healthy breakfast at home every morning.
• Buenos Aires International Book Fair Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjetivo demostrativo Artículo definido Artículo indefinido Learn about this cultural event in Buenos Aires.
• Calva: a traditional Spanish game Sports & Leisure Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo Adjetivo indefinido Learn about calva, a traditional Spanish game.
• Carnival in Rio de Janeiro Celebrations & Important Dates Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo Adjetivo invariable Julio is in Rio de Janeiro to visit its famous carnival.
• Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela Art & Design Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Artículo definido Contracción de artículo El Futuro Próximo John would like to visit the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.
• Celebrating a new year Celebrations & Important Dates Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo Artículo definido Juan tells us his plans for New Year's Eve.
• Chocolate and roses Celebrations & Important Dates Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo Adjetivo posesivo Patricia describes us the most common presents for Saint Valentine's Day.
• Cibeles: a monument in Madrid Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo Adjetivo posesivo Learn about Cibeles, a famous monument in Madrid.
• Climate change Technology & Science Adjetivo Adverbio Aspecto progresivo Patricia doesn't feel happy at all about climate change.
• Coco: a lovely poodle Family & Relationships Adjetivo Adjetivo indefinido Adjetivo invariable Meet Coco, a lovely poodle.
• Colombian coffee Food & Drink Adjetivo Adjetivo posesivo Adverbio There is always a nice cup of Colombian coffee at Carlos Alberto's house!
• Colon Theatre in Buenos Aires Art & Design Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo Adjetivo indefinido Pedro tells us about a famous theatre building in Buenos Aires.
• Cuban rum Food & Drink Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo Adjetivo invariable Patricia tells us about her favourite Cuban drink.
• Cycle-ball Sports & Leisure Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo Adjetivo invariable Learn about cycle-ball, an exciting sport.
• Different types of wind in Spain Technology & Science Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo Adjetivo invariable Unleash your senses as Spain unveils a symphony of diverse winds, from the cool Mistral to the warm embrace of the Levant.
• Discovering the majesty of the ceiba tree Sports & Leisure Adjetivo Adjetivo invariable Adjetivo posesivo Discover the mighty ceiba tree.
• Dreaming Sports & Leisure Adjetivo Artículo definido Contracción de artículo Do you enjoy dreaming?
• Easter in Ecuador Celebrations & Important Dates Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo Adjetivo indefinido María Isabel explains how Easter is celebrated in Ecuador.
• Load more …

A2: Lower Intermediate Spanish writing exercises

• A Christmas cocktail Food & Drink Adjetivo Adjetivo indefinido Adverbio Celebrate the season in style with our special cocktail.
• A Spanish course in Bogota Language & Education Adjetivo Adjetivo indefinido Adjetivo invariable Patrick tells us about his Spanish course in Colombia.
• A creepy recipe for this Halloween Food & Drink Adjetivo Adverbio El Futuro Próximo Enjoy a terrifying Halloween recipe!
• A cruise to Puerto Rico Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjetivo Adjetivo invariable Adjetivo posesivo Manuel feels excited about his next cruise trip to Puerto Rico.
• A day in Las Burgas Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjetivo Adjetivo indefinido Adjetivo posesivo Borja tells us about a relaxing day in Las Burgas.
• A day outside Sports & Leisure Adjetivo Adjetivo indefinido Adjetivo invariable Julián tells us about his amazing weekend.
• A different look Art & Design Adjetivo indefinido Adverbio Adverbio de cantidad Carmela went to the beauty salon and tells us about her experience.
• A documentary about the Sun Film & TV Technology & Science Adjetivo Adverbio interrogativo Artículo definido Javier watched a documentary about the Sun last night.
• A ghost tour Celebrations & Important Dates Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo Adjetivo indefinido David has booked a ghost tour for Halloween night in Madrid.
• A horrible campsite Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjetivo Adjetivo indefinido Adverbio María describes us her unpleasant experience at a campsite.
• A horror film Film & TV Adjetivo Adjetivo indefinido Aspecto imperfectivo Marta watched a terrifying film yesterday.
• A job interview Employment Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo Adjetivo posesivo Ainhoa is ready to do her first job interview.
• A letter to Melchior Celebrations & Important Dates Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo El Presente Alberto wrote a letter to Melchior, his favourite wise man.
• A luxurious day in Marbella Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Aspecto imperfectivo El Pretérito Imperfecto El Pretérito Indefinido Aurelia tells us about her luxurious visit to a friend in Marbella.
• A memory-based challenge Sports & Leisure Adjetivo Adjetivo invariable Adjetivo posesivo Embark on an enchanting journey with Julia through the enigmatic labyrinth of memories.
• A movie marathon Film & TV Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo Adjetivo indefinido Carlos plans to have a movie marathon this weekend at home.
• A postcard from Madrid Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjetivo indefinido Adverbio Conjunción Raquel received a postcard from her best friend.
• A story of personal triumph Sports & Leisure Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo Adjetivo indefinido Pedro tells us his story of personal improvement after being in an accident.
• A stunning car in the newspaper Sports & Leisure Aspecto imperfectivo El Pretérito Imperfecto El Pretérito Indefinido Discover Antonio's latest passion.
• A superbike event Sports & Leisure Adjetivo Adverbio El Futuro Próximo Two friends have been to a superbike event.
• A surprise party Family & Relationships Adverbio Adverbio de cantidad Adverbio interrogativo Raquel doesn't know where her family is today.
• A tour of Buenos Aires Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjetivo Adverbio El Futuro Próximo Manuel tells us about his visit to Buenos Aires.
• A very healthy barbecue Food & Drink Adjetivo Adjetivo indefinido Adjetivo posesivo Discover Pedro and Maribel's recipes for their barbecue.
• A very noisy neighbour Family & Relationships Adjetivo Adjetivo invariable Adjetivo posesivo Sara has to deal with a really noisy neighbour living downstairs.
• A wedding in Las Vegas Family & Relationships Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo Adjetivo indefinido Discover what a wedding in Las Vegas means!
• A weekend in Sierra Nevada Monuments, Tourism & Vacations El Pretérito Indefinido Expresión idiomática con "estar" Gender of nouns in Spanish: masculine Mercedes tells us about her weekend in Sierra Nevada in the south of Spain.
• Acid rain Technology & Science Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo Adjetivo invariable Learn about some interesting facts about the acid rain.
• Ainhoa Arteta: a Spanish soprano Famous People Music Adjetivo Adjetivo invariable Aspecto imperfectivo Learn about Ainhoa Arteta, a famous Spanish soprano.
• Aire fresco: an Argentinian film Film & TV Adjetivo Adjetivo posesivo Adverbio Learn about the Argentinian movie that Rodrigo saw yesterday.
• An afternoon in Caracas Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo Adjetivo indefinido María Elena spent an exciting afternoon with her friend Gabriela in Caracas.
• An aromatherapy session Sports & Leisure Adjetivo Conjunción subordinante El Futuro Próximo Discover what an aromatherapy session is like!
• An interview with Juanes Famous People Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo Adjetivo indefinido Learn about Juanes' music with this interview.
• An unusual taxi ride Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjetivo Artículo neutro El Pretérito Imperfecto Juan tells us about his strange experience in a taxi. In this exercise you'll practise El Pretérito Imperfecto and El Pretérito Indefinido.
• Aragonese jota Music Adjetivo Adjetivo indefinido Adverbio Pilar tells us about her local dance, the Aragonese jota.
• Argentina's journey towards a zero-waste lifestyle Technology & Science Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo Adjetivo invariable Argentina is striving for zero waste, prioritizing reduction, reuse, and recycling for a sustainable future.
• Arguiñano and his set menu Famous People Food & Drink Adjetivo Adjetivo posesivo Adverbio Minerva loves Zarauz and Arguiñano's restaurant.
• Armed Forces Immigration & Citizenship Politics, History & Economics Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo Adjetivo indefinido Learn about The Spanish Armed Forces
• Art therapy in Spain Art & Design Adjetivo Adjetivo indefinido Adjetivo interrogativo y exclamativo Learn about some art therapy exercises.
• At Cartagena beach Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adverbio Adverbio de cantidad Aspecto imperfectivo Juan went to the beach with some of his friends yesterday.
• At a barbecue Food & Drink Adjetivo Adjetivo indefinido Adjetivo interrogativo y exclamativo Grill and chill at Sandra and her friends' barbecues.
• At a karate competition Sports & Leisure Adjetivo Adjetivo indefinido Adverbio Gabriel just participated in a karate competition.
• At our deli shop Food & Drink Adjetivo Adjetivo invariable Adjetivo posesivo Are you looking for something different to eat? If so, visit Leila's deli.
• At the circus Sports & Leisure Adjetivo Adjetivo invariable Adjetivo posesivo Irene tells us about a circus afternoon with her son.
• At the dry cleaner's Family & Relationships Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo Adjetivo indefinido Raquel just left the dry cleaners with a lovely just-ironed shirt.
• At the florist Art & Design Adjetivo Adjetivo interrogativo y exclamativo Adjetivo posesivo Marta is at the florist to buy her sister some flowers.
• At the office gym Employment Sports & Leisure Adjetivo Adjetivo posesivo Artículo indefinido Do you have a gym in your office?
• At the restaurant Free Food & Drink Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo Adverbio Mónica and Raúl are at a restaurant next to the beach.
• At the shoe shop Art & Design Adjetivo Adjetivo indefinido Adjetivo invariable Raquel is at the shoe shop looking for some fancy shoes.
• At the train station Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjetivo Adjetivo indefinido Adjetivo invariable Join Clara and her friend Isabel who travel to Zaragoza by train every weekend.
• Aztec culture Art & Design Artículo definido Artículo indefinido El Presente Learn about the Aztec culture.

B1: Intermediate Spanish writing exercises

• 5G network Technology & Science Adjetivo Adverbio El Futuro Simple Learn about the 5G network.
• 6th of January Celebrations & Important Dates Adjetivo Artículo neutro El Futuro Simple Eduardo is thinking about the 6th of January in order to get his Christmas presents.
• A Christmas jumper Art & Design Adjetivo El Futuro Simple El Presente de Subjuntivo Marcos must wear a Christmas jumper (US: sweater) for a party, but he is not very excited about it.
• A Halloween wish Celebrations & Important Dates Adjetivo Adjetivo indefinido Adverbio Daniela tells us about her special Halloween wish.
• A Mediterranean breakfast Food & Drink Adjetivo Adverbio de cantidad Adverbio interrogativo This food company has prepared a magnificent Mediterranean breakfast for you to start your day!
• A Tinder date Family & Relationships Technology & Science Adjetivo Adverbio de duda Artículo neutro Learn about Tomás's Tinder date.
• A bumpy flight Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjetivo Adverbio interrogativo Adverbio relativo Rosa tells us about her bumpy flight to Costa Rica.
• A day among dolphins Family & Relationships El Futuro Simple El Presente El Presente de Subjuntivo Marisa tells us about her mother's passion: dolphins.
• A family lunch on Easter Sunday Celebrations & Important Dates Family & Relationships Adjetivo Adverbio interrogativo Conjunción Javier tells us about what lunch on Easter Sunday is like for his family.
• A gala evening Art & Design Adjetivo Adjetivo indefinido Adjetivo invariable Sara has received an invitation for a special event.
• A jungle trip Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjetivo Adjetivo indefinido Conjunción subordinante Andrea tells us about her ideal holiday.
• A luxurious stay in Madrid Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjetivo Adverbio interrogativo Conjunción Stay in a top luxurious hotel in Madrid!
• A magic show in hospital Employment Adjetivo Adverbio interrogativo Apócope Alberto is starting a new job next week in a hospital.
• A night hike Sports & Leisure Adjetivo Adverbio Adverbio de cantidad Experience the thrill of a night hike with María and Alberto.
• A photo of our grandparents Family & Relationships Adjetivo Adjetivo interrogativo y exclamativo Adjetivo invariable Two brothers show us a heartwarming snapshot of their cherished grandparents.
• A second chance Family & Relationships Adjetivo Adjetivo invariable Comparativo Manuela is asking Mateo to give their relationship a second chance.
• A trip to Majorca Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjetivo Adjetivo indefinido Adverbio interrogativo Discover the beautiful city of Majorca.
• A video game night Sports & Leisure Adjetivo Artículo neutro El Imperativo Learn about the benefits of playing with video games.
• A wonderful gardener Art & Design Adjetivo Adjetivo indefinido Adjetivo invariable Learn about Pedro, a high-skilled gardener.
• Acupuncture Sports & Leisure Adjetivo Adverbio Adverbio interrogativo Learn about acupuncture in Spanish.
• Adventures with friends Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjetivo Adverbio interrogativo Adverbio relativo Raquel loves spending time with her friends and going on trips with them.
• All Saints' Day Celebrations & Important Dates Adjetivo Adjetivo indefinido Artículo neutro Learn about how All Saints' Day is celebrated in Spain.
• As bestas by Rodrigo Sorogoyen Film & TV Adjetivo Adjetivo indefinido Adverbio interrogativo Discover As bestas, a Spanish thriller by the film director Rodrigo Sorogoyen.
• At Carlos Baute's concert Music Adjetivo Adjetivo indefinido Adverbio interrogativo María Fernanda went to a Carlos Baute's concert, a famous Venezuelan singer.
• At summer camp Employment Sports & Leisure Adjetivo Adverbio interrogativo Conjunción Maribel feels very excited about working as a group leader at a summer camp.
• At the Magic Fountain of Montjuïc Celebrations & Important Dates Adjetivo Adverbio interrogativo Apócope Ester plans to start the New Year at the Magic Fountain of Montjuïc.
• At the butcher's Food & Drink Adjetivo Adjetivo indefinido Adjetivo interrogativo y exclamativo Learn how to order some meat at the butcher's.
• At the gym Sports & Leisure Adverbio Adverbio interrogativo Conjunción Samuel wants to lose some weight and keep healthy.
• At the local gym Sports & Leisure Adjetivo indefinido Adverbio Adverbio interrogativo Pedro tells us about his workout at the local gym.
• At the pediatrician Family & Relationships Adjetivo Adverbio Adverbio interrogativo Lucia's baby is not feeling well and she is at the pediatrician to get some advice.
• At the street market Food & Drink Adjetivo Adjetivo indefinido Adjetivo invariable Learn about the most famous street market in Madrid.
• At the tourist office Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjetivo Adverbio Adverbio interrogativo Mónica and Ángel are at the tourist office to get some information for their day trip to San Jose.
• At the vet Family & Relationships Adjetivo Adjetivo indefinido Adverbio Rodrigo takes Max to the vet as he is not feeling well.
• B-Travel Barcelona: a tourism fair Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjetivo Adjetivo invariable Adverbio de duda Learn about this interesting tourism fair in Barcelona.
• Baroque in Latin America Art & Design Adjetivo Adverbio interrogativo Adverbio relativo Learn about the baroque in Latin America.
• Bartering Politics, History & Economics Technology & Science Adjetivo Artículo neutro El Condicional Simple Interested in exchanging your stuff without using money?
• Buena Vista Social Club: a Cuban band Music Adjetivo Apócope Aspecto progresivo Learn about the Buena Vista Social Club, a famous Cuban band.
• Buying a second home in Spain Politics, History & Economics Adjetivo Adverbio Adverbio interrogativo This couple feels very excited about buying a house in Spain for their retirement.
• Captain Thunder Literature, Poetry, Theatre Adjetivo El Pretérito Imperfecto El Pretérito Indefinido Ramiro tells us about Captain Thunder.
• Changing schools Language & Education Adjetivo Adjetivo invariable Conjunción María is starting at a new school.
• Cheap smart homes Technology & Science Adjetivo Adverbio Adverbio interrogativo Learn about how to set up a cheap smart home.
• Circuit of Jarama Sports & Leisure Adjetivo Adverbio Apócope Learn about Rodrigo, a high-speed motorcyclist.
• Classical music in Mexico Music Adjetivo Adverbio interrogativo Apócope Learn about classical music in Mexico.
• Climbing up and down stairs Sports & Leisure Adjetivo Adjetivo indefinido Adjetivo invariable Explore the benefits for your health and well-being by climbing the stairs.
• Coaching to improve family relationships Family & Relationships Adjetivo demostrativo El Condicional Simple El Imperativo Learn about coaching techniques to improve family relationships.
• Coffee in the morning Food & Drink Adjetivo Adverbio Adverbio interrogativo Mar really enjoys having a coffee in the morning.
• Costa del Sol in Málaga Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjetivo indefinido Adverbio Adverbio interrogativo Lucía has booked a holiday in Málaga.
• Courtyards in Cordoba Celebrations & Important Dates Adjetivo Adjetivo demostrativo Adjetivo indefinido Learn about this famous festival in Cordoba.
• Cuban collective memory Politics, History & Economics Adjetivo Adverbio interrogativo Apócope Immerse yourself in the vibrant tapestry of Cuban collective memory.
• Darien National Park Sports & Leisure Adjetivo Adverbio Apócope Discover Darien National Park, a beautiful nature reserve in Panama.

B2: Upper Intermediate Spanish writing exercises

• 12 self-portraits by Pablo Picasso Art & Design Adjetivo Adjetivo indefinido Adverbio Learn about Pablo Picasso's self-portraits.
• A Christmas surprise Celebrations & Important Dates Adjetivo Adverbio Adverbio de cantidad Daniela is wondering who wrote her an anonymous message.
• A Christmas tale Celebrations & Important Dates Adjetivo Adjetivo invariable Adverbio A forgotten Christmas gift sparks a heartwarming holiday story.
• A big surprise! Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjetivo El Presente de Subjuntivo El Pretérito Imperfecto Adela tells us about an axciting surprise she got from her boyfriend.
• A change of career Employment Language & Education Adjetivo Apócope Conjunción Discover Vanessa's career plans.
• A delayed train Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjetivo interrogativo y exclamativo El Condicional Simple El Futuro Perfecto Ana is furious about the fact that her train is delayed.
• A family of potters Art & Design Adjetivo Adjetivo invariable Adverbio Get into the fascinating world of a family of master potters.
• A gift woven with care Family & Relationships Adjetivo Adverbio interrogativo Adverbio relativo Clara's skilled hands knit more than just a sweater.
• A homemade costume Art & Design Celebrations & Important Dates Adjetivo Adverbio de negación Conjunción coordinante Amalia plans to make her own costume for carnival.
• A letter to Santa Celebrations & Important Dates Adjetivo Conjunción El Condicional Simple Read this letter from my nephew.
• A letter to my love Family & Relationships Adjetivo Adverbio Adverbio interrogativo Sandra wrote a romantic letter to her love.
• A lost Nazarene Celebrations & Important Dates Adverbio Adverbio de duda Adverbio interrogativo Rodrigo got lost during a celebration!
• A magic piano Music Adjetivo Adjetivo interrogativo y exclamativo Adverbio interrogativo Learn about Pablo Alborán and his excellent piano skills.
• A saeta Celebrations & Important Dates Music Adjetivo Artículo neutro El Futuro Simple Jaime tells us about his experience in Seville during Easter celebrations.
• A snow storm Technology & Science Adjetivo Apócope El Pretérito Imperfecto Have you ever experienced a big snow storm?
• A special lunch Food & Drink Adjetivo Adjetivo indefinido Adjetivo interrogativo y exclamativo Arancha enjoyed a special lunch today.
• A tourist in my own city Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjetivo Adverbio de duda Artículo neutro Marta tells us about the pleasure of being in an empty city during the summer.
• A true friendship Family & Relationships Adjetivo Adverbio interrogativo Apócope What does a true friendship look like?
• A very nosy parrot Family & Relationships Aspecto progresivo Conjunción El Condicional Simple Meet Beru the parrot. It's hard to have a secret conversation with him around!
• A walk along the Guayas river Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjetivo Adverbio Conjunción Have a fun learning jorney with this tourist leaflet about the Guayas river in Ecuador.
• A weekend without new technology Family & Relationships Technology & Science Adjetivo Adverbio de cantidad Conjunción coordinante Carlos' mum was concerned about his health and recommended him to spend a weekend away.
• An afternoon around the fire Sports & Leisure Adjetivo Aspecto progresivo Conjunción subordinante What do you think of a warm afternoon around the fire?
• An appointment with the ENT specialist Family & Relationships Adjetivo interrogativo y exclamativo Adverbio interrogativo Conjunción Carlos got an appointment with the Ear, Nose and Throat doctor to get a treatment for his anosmia.
• An inspiring extreme sports story Sports & Leisure Adjetivo Adverbio interrogativo Adverbio relativo Unleash your adrenaline with an inspiring story of extreme sports triumph.
• An oasis in the middle of the desert Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjetivo Adverbio interrogativo Adverbio relativo In the barren desert, a hidden oasis offers solace to weary travelers.
• An online Carnival party Celebrations & Important Dates Technology & Science Adjetivo Adjetivo indefinido Adverbio Victoria is very excited about her upcoming online Carnival party.
• An online shopping gift voucher Technology & Science Adjetivo El Condicional Simple El Futuro Simple Lorena feels very lucky today with her online shopping gift voucher.
• An undercover investigation Employment Adjetivo Adverbio interrogativo Adverbio relativo In the shadows of the drug underworld, an undercover investigation reveals the truth.
• Apology letter to a client Free Language & Education Adjetivo Conjunción Conjunción subordinante Learn how to write a formal letter of apology in Spanish.
• Are you ready to adopt an animal? Family & Relationships Conjunción subordinante El Condicional Simple El Futuro Simple Find out if you are ready to adopt an animal.
• Art therapy exercises Art & Design Adjetivo Adverbio interrogativo Adverbio relativo Learn about some art therapy exercises.
• At the hairdresser's Art & Design Adjetivo indefinido Adjetivo interrogativo y exclamativo Adverbio de duda Clara goes to the hairdresser to change her look.
• Athleisure on social media Sports & Leisure Technology & Science Adjetivo Adjetivo indefinido Adverbio Laura loves following social media athleisure accounts.
• Basque Pottery Museum Art & Design Adjetivo Adverbio interrogativo Adverbio relativo Have you ever been to the Basque Pottery Museum?
• Be my Valentine! Celebrations & Important Dates Family & Relationships Adjetivo Adverbio Adverbio interrogativo Miguel is declaring his love for Jimena in front of everyone!
• Blanca Suárez: a Spanish actress Famous People Film & TV Adjetivo Conjunción coordinante El Pretérito Perfecto Subjuntivo Learn about the famous Spanish actress Blanca Suárez
• Breakfast, the most important meal of the day Food & Drink Adjetivo Adverbio Adverbio interrogativo Discover why breakfast is such an important meal for performing well at work.
• Campervan trip Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Sports & Leisure Adjetivo Adjetivo indefinido Adverbio Jesús and Mateo love their campervan and travelling around Spain
• Campsite activities Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjetivo Apócope Artículo neutro Get some fresh ideas for things to do when you go camping.
• Casa Decor Madrid Art & Design Adjetivo Adjetivo indefinido Apócope Adriana plans to attend an exclusive exhibition next year.
• Casillero del Diablo Food & Drink Adjetivo El Presente de Subjuntivo El Pretérito Imperfecto Rosa and Enrique tell us about their experience with this Chilean wine.
• Changing my wardrobe Art & Design Adjetivo Adverbio Adverbio interrogativo María plans to change the clothes in her closet for the new season.
• Chupachups: the Spanish lollipop Food & Drink Adjetivo Apócope El Pretérito Imperfecto Did you know that these lollipops were a Spanish invention?
• Colombia in the world Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjetivo Apócope Conjunción Why is Colombia a great place to visit?
• Couchsurfing in Spain Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjetivo Adjetivo indefinido Adverbio interrogativo Learn about Couchsurfing, a service that connects a global community of travelers.
• DIY Art & Design El Condicional Perfecto El Futuro Perfecto El Futuro Simple Do some DIY with Marta!
• Dancing an aurresku Music Adjetivo Adverbio El Imperativo Learn about the aurresku, a famous dance from the Basque Country.
• Dream trips Sports & Leisure Adjetivo Adverbio interrogativo Adverbio relativo Have you ever experienced a dream trip?
• Driving in Lima Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjetivo Adverbio Adverbio de cantidad Learn about what driving looks like in Lima.
• Easter Empanadas from Chile Food & Drink Adjetivo Adverbio Adverbio de cantidad Agustín tells us about his delicious Easter empanadas from Chile.

C1: Advanced Spanish writing exercises

• 2021: the Year of the Ox Celebrations & Important Dates El Infinitivo Compuesto Jerga/ Expresión idiomática Modo subjuntivo Learn about the new Chinese year for 2021.
• A TikTok dance challenge Sports & Leisure Technology & Science Adverbio Adverbio de duda Artículo definido Celia's dance got popular in TikTok.
• A coffee shop for cats Family & Relationships Sports & Leisure Adjetivo Artículo neutro Gerundio/Spanish present participle Discover this unusual coffee shop where cats are the stars!
• A film review Film & TV Adjetivo Artículo neutro Aspecto progresivo Antonio makes us a review of a movie.
• A rock 'n' roll grandmother Family & Relationships Music Adjetivo Artículo definido Artículo neutro Sandra tells us about her unconventional grandmother, Carmen.
• A tornado Family & Relationships Adjetivo Artículo neutro Conjunción A fierce tornado struck Mar Azul, turning its tranquil shores into a tempestuous battleground.
• Alcoy and its textile industry Art & Design Adjetivo Artículo definido Artículo neutro Inés is telling her son Alberto about Alcoy's industry.
• Antonio Gaudi's architecture Art & Design Famous People Adjetivo Artículo neutro Conjunción coordinante Learn about Gaudí's architecture in Barcelona and practise relative pronouns and the passive voice.
• Benefits of art therapy Art & Design Adjetivo Artículo neutro Conjunción coordinante Have you ever heard about art therapy?
• Bilbao Book Fair Literature, Poetry, Theatre El Infinitivo Compuesto El Presente de Subjuntivo El Pretérito Imperfecto Subjuntivo Ready to visit the Bilbao Book Fair?
• Bungee Jumping Sports & Leisure El Condicional Perfecto El Condicional Simple El Futuro Perfecto Candela tells us about her first bungee jump.
• Castile comes from 'castle' Language & Education Adjetivo Artículo neutro Conjunción coordinante Learn about the etymological origin of the word 'Castile'.
• Cataract surgery Family & Relationships Artículo definido Artículo neutro Aspecto perfectivo Cecilia tells us about her upcoming cataract surgery.
• Centennial oak trees Sports & Leisure Artículo neutro Conjunción subordinante El Presente de Subjuntivo Shelter beneath the magnificent centennial oak trees.
• Charity Kings Parade Celebrations & Important Dates Artículo definido Artículo neutro Conjunción Are you a fan of The Three Wise Men?
• Chinese horoscope Technology & Science Artículo neutro Aspecto progresivo Conjunción Learn about the Chinese horoscope.
• Climbing the Gorbea Sports & Leisure Adjetivo Aspecto progresivo Conjunción Learn about this hill in the north of Spain.
• Cognitive inclusion at school Language & Education Artículo definido Artículo indefinido Artículo neutro Learn about this cognitive inclusion project.
• Combat sports: sport or violence? Sports & Leisure Adjetivo Conjunción coordinante Expressing need and obligation (deber, tener que, haber que, necesitar [que]) Do you think that combat sports are violent? Look at what Pedro thinks about them.
• Corruption Politics, History & Economics Adjetivo Aspecto progresivo El Presente Corruption in Spain is a serious problem that dates back centuries.
• Council housing challenges Art & Design Aspecto progresivo Conjunción subordinante El Condicional Simple Learn about the council housing situation in a Spanish city.
• Eating in the heights of Barcelona Food & Drink Adjetivo Adverbio interrogativo Adverbio relativo Interested in getting a high-flying meal?
• Frozen Film & TV Adjetivo Artículo neutro Conjunción Experience the magic of ice and adventure in 'Frozen'.
• Handicrafts Art & Design Adjetivo Artículo neutro Conjunción Discover what the traditional Honduran handicrafts are.
• Hatless women Politics, History & Economics Adjetivo Artículo neutro El Condicional Simple Learn about the hatless women from the twenties.
• History of Valencia FC Sports & Leisure Adjetivo Artículo neutro El Pretérito Imperfecto Learn about Valencia FC's history.
• History of ceramics in America Art & Design Adjetivo Artículo neutro El Pretérito Imperfecto Trace the evolution of American ceramics through the centuries.
• How to become an au pair Employment Language & Education Adjetivo Artículo neutro El Presente Are you looking for a host family to do some au pair work while improving a foreign language?
• I'm going everywhere with my GPS! Sports & Leisure Artículo definido Artículo neutro El Infinitivo Compuesto Pedro tells us about the GPS he just bought.
• Ice on the moon? Technology & Science Adjetivo Adverbio interrogativo Aspecto progresivo Is there or was there water on the Moon?
• Intarsia Art & Design Adjetivo Expresión idiomática con "ser" Infinitivo Learn about intarsia, a very old traditional woodwork technique.
• Is it cake? Film & TV Adjetivo Adverbio interrogativo Adverbio relativo Learn about an amazing TV show on Netflix.
• Jose Ortega y Gasset: a Spanish philosopher Famous People Language & Education Adjetivo Artículo neutro El Pretérito Imperfecto Learn about Ortega y Gasset and his philosophy.
• Last minute travelling Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adverbio interrogativo Adverbio relativo Artículo definido Marisa is tempted to travel last minute this summer.
• Lost among cacti Family & Relationships Adjetivo Conjunción subordinante El Pretérito Imperfecto Lucía found herself adrift in a prickly sea of cacti.
• Madeira Centro hotel Art & Design Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Adjetivo Conjunción coordinante Gerundio/Spanish present participle Discover this beautiful hotel in Benidorm.
• Marmitako to keep warm Food & Drink Adjetivo Artículo neutro El Condicional Simple Blanca feels like cooking a hot tuna dish to warm herself up after a rainy day.
• Mexicans in the USA Immigration & Citizenship Adjetivo Artículo neutro Conjunción coordinante Amelia is impressed by Mexican culture and cuisine in the USA.
• Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba Art & Design Monuments, Tourism & Vacations Conjunción Expresión idiomática con "ser" Expressing need and obligation (deber, tener que, haber que, necesitar [que]) Have you ever visited the Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba?
• My father's self-portrait Art & Design Adverbio de cantidad Expresión idiomática con "estar" Gerundio/Spanish present participle Daniel had a lot of fun with his father's self-portrait.
• My relationship with my parents Family & Relationships Adjetivo Artículo neutro Conjunción Learn about Pablo's relationship with his parents.
• On the moon Technology & Science Adjetivo Adverbio interrogativo Adverbio relativo Learn about Clara's adventure in an unknown place.
• One day on the radio Film & TV Adjetivo Adverbio de duda Artículo neutro María is looking forward to participating in a radio session.
• Our energy bill Technology & Science Adjetivo Artículo neutro Conjunción Samuel and his wife are not happy at all with their last electricity bill.
• PISA report: Spain Language & Education Adjetivo Artículo neutro Conjunción coordinante Carlos, headmaster of a Spanish school, shares his thoughts about the latest PISA report.
• Paid to sleep! Employment Artículo neutro Conjunción coordinante El Imperativo Learn about this relaxing business.
• Putting yourself first Family & Relationships Artículo neutro El Pretérito Perfecto Subjuntivo Infinitivo Isabel is giving Maria some advice following her breakup with her boyfriend.
• Really hard January Politics, History & Economics Adjetivo Adverbio de duda Conjunción subordinante Manuel is regretting having spent so much money on Christmas.
• Sailing in Majorca Sports & Leisure Adjetivo Artículo neutro El Imperativo Sara has received an exciting proposal to sail in Majorca.
• San Isidro in Madrid Celebrations & Important Dates Adverbio de cantidad Expresión idiomática con "estar" Expresión idiomática con "ser" Learn about this popular celebration in Madrid.

In this section

• Hanukkah 2023 Menorah
• Christmas 2023 Advent Calendar
• Tips and ideas to improve your Spanish writing skills
• Spanish Glossary and Jargon Buster

Spanish Writer Freelance

65 spanish phrases to use in an essay.

If Spanish is not your first language, memorizing specific phrases can help you improve your essay-writing skills and make you sound more like a native speaker. Thus below, you will find a list of useful phrases categorized by groups to help you appear more proficient and take your essays to the next level!

Introductory Phrases

Based on my vast experience as a freelance writer , I can say that starting an essay is undoubtedly the most challenging part of essay writing. Nonetheless, many phrases have proven to help organize my thoughts and form cohesive and intriguing introductions, such as:

• “Para empezar” – To begin with

• “Al principio” – At the beginning… 

• “En primer lugar” – To start… 

• “Empecemos por considerar” – Let’s begin by considering/acknowledging 

• “A manera de introducción” – We can start by saying…

• “Como punto de partida “ – As a starting point

• “Hoy en día” – Nowadays… Notice that these introductory phrases are not exactly the same than those you would use in a conversation. For that, I suggest reading my article about Sentence Starters in Spanish .

You can also use phrase to introduce a new topic in the text such as:

• En lo que se refiere a – Regarding to
• Respecto a – Regarding to
• En cuanto a – Regarding to
• Cuando se trata de – When it comes to
• Si pasamos a hablar de – If we go ahead to talk about

Concluding Phrases

It is also crucial that you know how to finish your essay. A good conclusion will allow you to tie all your ideas together and emphasize the key takeaways. Below, a few ways in which you can begin a concluding argument:

• “En conclusion” – In conclusion

• “En resumen/resumiendo…” – In summary

• “Como se puede ver…” – As you can see

• “Para concluir” – To conclude

• “Para finalizar” – To finish

• “Finalmente, podemos decir que…” – We can then say that…

• “ En consecuencia, podemos decir que…” – As a result, one can say that…

• “Por fin” – Finally

Transitional Phrases

Transitions phrases are crucial if you wish your essay to flow smoothly. Thus, I recommend you pay special attention to the following sentences:

• “Además” – Besides

• “Adicionalmente” – In addition…

• “Dado que…” – Given that…

• “Por lo tanto” – Therefore

• “Entonces” – Thus/So

• “Debido a…” – Hence

• “Mientras tanto” – Meanwhile

• “Por lo que” – This is why

• “Desde entonces” – Since then

Argumentative Phrases

When writing essays, it is very common for us to need to include argumentative phrases to get our message across. Hence, if you are looking for new ways to introduce an argument, below a few ideas:

• “Por otro lado…” – On the other hand…

• “En primera instancia…” – First of all 

• “A diferencia de…” – As oppossed to

• “De igual forma” – More so

• “Igualmente” – The same goes for… 

• “En otras palabras” – In other words

• “A pesar de que…” – Although 

• “Aunque” – Even though 

• “En contraste” – By contrast 

• “De hecho…” – In fact… 

• “Sin embargo” – Nevertheless

• “No obstante” – However

Opinion Phrases

There are many formal (and less formal ways) to express your opinions and beliefs in Spanish. Here, a few examples: 

• “Considero que…” – I considerthat…

• “Mi opinión es” – It is my opinion

• “Pienso que…” – I think that…

• “Opino que” – In my opinion…

• “Afortunadamente” – Fortunately

• “ Lamentablemente” – Unfortunately

• “Me parece que…” – It seems to me that…

• “En mi opinión” – I believe that…

• “En mi experiencia” – Based on my experience

• “Como yo lo veo…” – As I see it…

• “Es mi parecer” – My pointview 

General Phrases

Finally, I wanted to include a group of useful common phrases that can enrich your essay’s vocabulary:

•   “En realidad” – In reality

• “Actualmente” – Today/Nowadays 

• “De acuerdo a…” – According to… 

• “Por ejemplo” – For example

• “Cabe recalcar que…” – It is important to note that… 

• “Vale la pena resaltar que…” – It is important to highlight that… 

• “No podemos ignorar que…” – We can’t ignore that… 

• “Normalmente” – Usually/Normally 

• “Por lo general” – In general

• “Es normal que…” – It is normal to…

• “Otro hecho importante es…” – Another relevant factor is… 

• “Podría decirse que…” – One could say that… 

• “Para ilustrar” – To illustrate 

There you have it! A list of 60 useful phrases you can memorize to make your essays sound more professional and become more appealing to readers. However, if you are struggling and need further assistance with your essay, here you can see an Spanish essay example that can help you to structure and edit your work.

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How To Read And Write In Spanish (14 Essential Tips)

• Read time 11 mins

Some Spanish learners are naturally better speakers and listeners, but when it comes to reading and writing in Spanish they face challenges.

You might be able to relate. You may be feeling overwhelmed and struggling with Spanish literacy.

There are some strategies you can use to get better at these two skills.

Do you want to know these strategies?

Keep reading.

Why is reading in Spanish so important?

Reinforcing your knowledge is always critical. If you learn something once and never revisit it, you’re unlikely to remember it.

This is why reading in Spanish is so important.

Reading in Spanish is the best way to learn new Spanish idioms , how you should use the subjunctive mood , pick up vocabulary that native speakers use every day, understand past, future, conditional, imperative and present tense verbs, and take note of irregular verbs.

When you read in Spanish, you also grow accustomed to seeing the Spanish accent marks floating on top of the vowels that require them.

This is one of the tricky things to master and, even though there are rules that can help you understand it, you’ll find it easier to remember those rules when you read in Spanish.

Why is writing in Spanish so important?

Communicating in the Spanish language is not only limited to verbal communication.

You’ll find yourself sending emails to colleagues, using slang or colloquial expressions when communicating with friends, and even communicating online.

Using accent marks correctly and spelling words correctly is important for formal writing, as is using the right register for the right audience. For example, if you’re writing an email to your boss, you should avoid using colloquial expressions.

For this reason, practising how to write in Spanish is vital.

You’ll find that reading and writing in Spanish are two skills that you can master when you practice them alongside each other.

So, the more you read, the more you’ll know how to confidently spell complex words like otorrinolaringólogo .

How to read in Spanish

Let’s now look at some handy tips for learning how to read in Spanish and grow accustomed to learning more vocabulary as you do so.

1. Begin by reading English works in the Spanish language

When you already recognise a story in English, this can make it easier to follow the narrative in Spanish and remain entertained.

It’s the first secret to staying motivated when you’re finding your feet in a new language like Spanish.

Just by reading English works in the Spanish language, you’ll find yourself deducing the meaning of new verbs as your brain recalls the story that you’ve previously read.

You’ll notice that the vocabulary might make more sense when you already have the context of the story in your mind, so look at works that you have already read in English.

2. Complete comprehension tasks based on the Spanish books you read

Selecting Spanish books that have a comprehension task section at the end of the book is a great way to test what you have understood when you read in Spanish.

As you answer the questions, revisit the passages indicated in the comprehension task and try to evaluate whether you fully understand the meaning of the text.

3. Pay attention to Spanish grammar

If you’re reading a book and studying a Spanish course, now is the perfect time to assess whether you fully understood the grammatical rules of your course.

It’s also a time to test how much you understand when reading the text.

Take note of any verb conjugations that you didn’t understand and go to your Spanish notes to refresh your memory. Then go back and read the passage in the book again.

You can open your eyes to new, clarified meanings by accompanying your Spanish course with a book and vice versa: You can understand what you study in a Spanish course thanks to what you read outside of the course, so make the most of it.

4. Use a dictionary to clarify the meaning of vocabulary you don’t recognise

Not even native Spanish speakers know the meaning of every single word in the Spanish language, so don’t feel like you’ve failed if you find yourself reaching for a dictionary.

Pat yourself on the back when you learn the meaning of a new word and can begin to understand the passage more fully with it when reading in Spanish.

5. Use verb conjugation tools to help you understand irregular verb conjugations

Paying attention to Spanish grammar is a step in the right direction, now you must take part in active learning and start using your conjugation tools to remember irregular verb conjugations as much as possible.

Some verb conjugation tools are the ideal way to master irregular verbs. Wordreference.com and SpanishDict spring to mind, but there are also others.

When you see the irregular verb again, you will then recognise who the subject of the sentence is.

You’ll understand the meaning of the text and find it less difficult to understand what is happening in the passage.

6. Avoid choosing a book that is too advanced

It can be discouraging to select an advanced book such as Cien Años de Soledad by Gabriel García Márquez and find that you don’t understand anything that is happening in the book when you read in Spanish.

If you’re reading at an A2 level, books for kids might be the best option for you, and there’s nothing to be ashamed of if you’re starting at this level. We all have to begin at the beginning.

Some fairy tale stories can be a great way to begin reading in Spanish and feel like you’re making progress. In fact, Caperucita Roja ( Little Red Riding Hood ) is often taught in A2 Spanish courses to help students understand the past tense.

It’s always better to make small steps in the right direction than jump straight into the deep end, so choose books that you can understand and adjust the reading difficulty as you make progress.

7. Keep note on your novels

Keeping notes can help you become an active reader, as opposed to noticing that you don’t understand a word and continuing reading (hoping that the meaning will reveal itself).

You can also highlight words in the text that made little sense to you. Highlighting words that you don’t recognise and then doing your own research on the word can help take your reading skills to the next level.

Make note-keeping a go-to practice and become an active reader.

How to write in Spanish

Now, let’s move on to how to write well in Spanish. Here are my tips for learning how to do this.

1. Use simple vocabulary and syntax first

There’s no point in using multiple clauses when you’re just starting to write in Spanish. Not only are there some syntactic rules that you have to know, but you may also lack the vocabulary if you’re just starting to learn Spanish.

Instead, begin with basic sentences and basic vocabulary.

Start with the easiest sentences that take the present tense , such as:

Llueve mucho hoy.

La niña estudia español.

Bebo mucha agua.

As you can see, these sentences all use the present tense and don’t have more than one clause.

When you get more confident, you can begin to add more vocabulary and conjunctions, such as:

Llueve mucho hoy, pero tengo un paraguas.

La niña estudia español, aunque no le gusta.

Bebo mucha agua, sin embargo, no como comida sana.

2. Learn about formal and informal writing

If you’re writing an email or letter, one of the crucial things your Spanish teacher will mention to you is “formal or informal” register.

When you write to people you know and love, use querido or querida to say (dear…). When you write to people you don’t know, or to your colleagues, use estimado or estimada . Note, the difference between querido / a and estimado / a is that querido is used for a male addressee and querida is used for a female addressee.

It’s also important to use the Spanish pronoun tú when addressing loved ones and friends, but usted when addressing people who you don’t know.

Finally, when you close your email or letter, only use besos or abrazos (hugs and kisses) when writing to a friend or family member, but atentamente (sincerely) when speaking to a client or a colleague you don’t know or haven’t met.

3. Study how to structure your writing

When you write in Spanish you need to structure your emails and letters well to convey your meaning, so try to study how to structure your writing.

Here’s a tip: Structure your emails into four main parts.

• First, you start with the greeting
• Then, you explain your motive for writing the email or letter
• Next, you give more detail in the body of the email or letter
• Finally, you close the email or letter

Even though the content of your writing may vary, try to follow this order to write your emails and letters.

4. Practice informal language and rules of texting and informal chat

If you have sent text messages in English, you will probably know that there are many rules to get accustomed to.

Not only can you omit letters from words, but you can also use abbreviations to shorten words.

In Spanish, this is the same.

Instead of porque , you can simply write pq . Instead of no pasa nada , you can write npn .

You’ll also notice that you can use numbers or symbols to shorten words. For example, instead of writing chicos y chicas , or niños y niñas , you can write chic @s or nin @s, where the @ symbol represents the a and o of niños and niñas .

Pretty cool, right? 😊

Just to get you started, here are seven key Spanish slang acronyms used for texting:

• tqm. Te quiero mucho
• ntp. No te preocupes
• mdi. Me da igual
• tqi. Tengo que irme
• cdt. Cuídate.
• fds. Fin de semana
• npn. No pasa nada

5. Learn the accent marks and how to type them

Remember that vowels in Spanish sometimes have an acute accent mark above them when you write in Spanish.

The acute mark helps you understand how to pronounce a word and how to distinguish two words that are otherwise spelled the same - like tu and tú

We use the diéresis mark to indicate that you should pronounce the letters u and i in particular circumstances, like in the words bilingüe and vergüenza , and we use the virgulilla to distinguish between the letters ene (letter n ) and enye (letter ñ ).

I have a whole guide on Spanish accent marks so check it out to learn how to use them.

6. Exclamation and question marks: Don’t forget about them

Exclamation and question marks are orthographically different to the English equivalent.

In Spanish, we have an upside-down exclamation mark at the beginning of the sentence and a closing right side up exclamation mark at the end of the sentence.

This is also true for question marks.

It’s something that you’ll have to get used to when you write in Spanish, but you’ll get it with practice.

7. Learn the order of sentence structures in Spanish

Do you know the order of sentence structures in Spanish?

Although it sometimes uses the same structure as English, which is subject, verb, object, (for instance Louisa está cocinando una receta ) this can change.

It’s possible to omit the pronoun or subject of the sentence altogether in Spanish, meaning that the subject doesn’t always come first in the sentence structure. The main reason for this is that verb conjugations include the subject itself.

Another thing to watch out for when writing in Spanish is that nouns come before Spanish adjectives .

In English you would write “the black gloves”, in Spanish this becomes los guantes negros.

Keep practising to become an excellent reader and writer in Spanish

Learning how to read and write in Spanish might seem challenging at first, but by following the tips in this article you’ll know exactly what to watch out for.

Avoid resorting to translation apps for reading.

Frequent practice is the best way to get better at reading and writing in Spanish. Try journaling in Spanish, writing letters, reading books and reading newspaper articles to improve.

Have fun reading and writing in Spanish.

Which else would you recommend to someone learning to read and write in Spanish?

Add your advice to the comments below!

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52 Spanish Writing Prompts to Level Up Your Language Skills

Here’s a method that’s quite effective for helping you build confidence in your Spanish , no matter your level.

You only need two items: pencil and paper.

That’s right, we’re going to get you that much-needed writing practice !

With Spanish writing prompts, you can strengthen your grasp on Spanish verb conjugations , grammatical structures , vocabulary and more.

Ready your writing materials, buckle up and let’s get started.

Spanish Writing Prompts for Beginners

1. daily routine (with a twist), 2. dream vacation, 3. mysterious object, 4. unlikely friends, 5. family portrait, 6. time capsule, 7. unexpected gift, 8. language exchange, 9. lost in the city, 10. the weather today, 11. my favorite season, 12. a visit to the zoo, 13. at the restaurant, 14. a day without technology, 15. a mysterious letter, 16. a visit to the doctor, 17. my favorite book or movie, 18. an unexpected friendship, 19. my ideal home, 20. the magical object, spanish writing prompts for intermediate learners, 21. postcard from paradise, 22. dear diary, 24. never have i ever, 25. lost in translation, 26. haunted house, 27. future professions, 28. unexpected encounter, 29. secret diary, 30. culinary adventure, 31. the mysterious package, 32. childhood memories, 33. social media: yay or nay, 34. the art of persuasion, 35. the time-traveling journal, spanish writing prompts for advanced learners, 36. ideal friend, 37. alternate timeline, 38. eco-friendly habits, 39. artistic inspiration, 40. tangled tales, 41. culinary fusion, 42. lost and found in translation, 43. untranslatable beauty, 44. cultural dilemma, 45. the mind’s canvas, 46. echoes of history, 47. nature’s poetry, 48. evolving traditions, 49. the four-day workweek, 50. cultural collage, 51. ephemeral moments, 52. language odyssey, tips to practice spanish by writing for beginner, intermediate and advanced learners, intermediate, and one more thing….

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

Focus on: Present simple tense

You’ve probably had to write about your daily routine at some point in Spanish class. This prompt is great because it forces you to practice present simple verbs, which are used to talk about repeated or habitual actions. But writing about your morning coffee and shower routine can get a little dry.

So, for this writing prompt, try to write about a daily routine from someone else’s point of view. Pretend you’re someone else—a celebrity, a farm animal, a person from the future, an alien—and write about “your” daily routine. Not only is this a fun exercise in creativity, it also allows you to incorporate new vocabulary.

Sample: Soy un gato. Cada mañana cazo ratones en el jardín. Luego los llevo a la mesa y se los doy a mi dueño humano. (I’m a cat. Every morning, I hunt mice in the garden. Then, I bring them to the table and give them to my human owner.)  

Keep practicing: Instead of writing from a first-person point of view, write as though you’re reporting on someone’s daily routine. This will allow you to practice third-person verb conjugations. Since in Spanish, first- and third-person conjugations are often quite different in the present simple, it’s worth your time to practice them both.

Focus on: Future tense

You’ve been working hard on your Spanish studies , so you’ve definitely earned that dream vacation—and this fun writing prompt!

Picture this: you’ve been given the golden opportunity to take a dream vacation anywhere in the world. Now, think about where you would go, what you would do and how you would feel during this incredible trip. Since this one takes place in the future, it’ll flex your mastery of the Spanish future tenses.

Sample: En las vacaciones de mi sueños, voy a viajar a las playas hermosas de Bora Bora. Pasaré mis días buceando en aguas cristalinas y relajándome en la arena blanca. (On my dream vacation, I will travel to the beautiful beaches of Bora Bora. I will spend my days diving in crystal-clear waters and relaxing on the white sand.)

Keep practicing: Instead of writing about your own dream vacation, write about the dream vacation of someone you know very well, like a friend or family member. This will give you practice in conjugating verbs in the future tense for third-person subjects.

Focus on: Descriptive adjectives

Imagine you discover a mysterious object in your backyard. (It doesn’t have to be a UFO—it can literally be anything!) Write a description of this object using as many adjectives in Spanish as you can. Make your description as vivid and intriguing as you can.

Sample: Encontré un objeto redondo y brillante enterrado en la tierra húmeda. Era pequeño pero pesado, y tenía un brillo metálico. Su superficie estaba llena de detalles grabados y parecía antiguo y misterioso. (I found a round, shiny object buried in the damp earth. It was small but heavy, and had a metallic sheen. Its surface was full of engraved details and looked ancient and mysterious.)

Keep practicing: Instead of describing an object you found, describe an object that your favorite book or movie character found.

Focus on: Comparatives and superlatives

From simple adjectives, let’s take it up a notch. Write a short story or paragraph about two characters who are very different from each other, but still become close friends. Use comparatives and superlatives to describe their personalities, interests and unique qualities.

Sample: María era la más callada de la clase: siempre estaba más interesada en los libros que en conversaciones ruidosas. Por otro lado, Juan era el más extrovertido, siempre listo para contar chistes y hacer reír a todos. A pesar de sus diferencias, María y Juan se hicieron mejores amigos. (Maria was the quietest in the class: she was always more interested in books than in noisy conversations. Juan, on the other hand, was the most outgoing, always ready to tell jokes and make everyone laugh. Despite their differences, Maria and Juan became best friends.)

Keep practicing: Add a third character into the mix. Compare and contrast this third character with both of your existing characters.

Focus on: Possessive pronouns

I’m sure you’ve seen the “describe your family” prompt at some point. This one turns that prompt a bit on its head.

Imagine you’re describing a family portrait to a friend. Write a paragraph talking about each family member’s appearance and personality, using possessive pronouns to show their relationships.

Sample: En la foto de mi familia, mi hermana lleva su vestido favorito y sostiene a su gato en los brazos. Mi padre está junto a su bicicleta, sonriendo. Mi madre está recogiendo verduras de nuestro huerto y se ve orgullosa. Mis perros están a mi lado, jugando con su pelota favorita. (In my family photo, my sister is wearing her favorite dress and holding her cat in her arms. My father is standing next to his bicycle, smiling. My mother is picking vegetables from our garden and she looks proud. My dogs are next to me, playing with their favorite ball.)

Keep practicing: Write about the family portrait of a fictional family, including extended family members like cousins, aunts and uncles. Not only will this help you practice using possessive pronouns with a variety of nouns, but you’ll also brush up on your family vocabulary .

Focus on: Reflexive verbs

Reflexive verbs refer to action words that the subject of a sentence does to itself. It’s a pretty simple concept, but that doesn’t mean the corresponding writing prompt has to be boring!

For this one, pretend you’re making a time capsule that you’ll bury soon and open years later. In that time capsule, you’re going to include a letter to your future self describing your current interests, hobbies and daily routine. When writing the letter, make sure you practice using reflexive verbs.

Sample: Querido yo del futuro: en este momento, me levanto temprano cada día y me preparo un desayuno saludable. Luego me relajo leyendo un libro o meditando. Me dedico tiempo a mí mismo para crecer y aprender. Espero que sigas manteniendo estas prácticas positivas. (Dear future me: right now, I wake up early every day and make myself a healthy breakfast. Then, I relax by reading a book or meditating. I take time for myself to grow and learn. I hope you will continue to maintain these positive practices.)

Keep practicing: Write a letter to a friend describing their current interests and routines using reflexive verbs. This will give you practice using reflexive verbs in the third person — specifically, the pronoun se .

Focus on: Direct and indirect object pronouns

As you know, there are a ton of pronouns in Spanish . For this exercise, we’re going to focus on direct and indirect object pronouns.

The direct object is the one that receives the action from the subject (e.g., “Juan gave the ball,” where the ball is the direct object). Meanwhile, the indirect object is the thing or object receiving the direct object (e.g., “Juan gave the ball to Maria,” where Maria is the indirect object).

You can practice these tricky pronouns with this prompt. Here, you have to write a story about a character who receives an unexpected gift from a mysterious sender. Use direct and indirect object pronouns to describe the gift, the recipient and the actions involved.

Sample: Juan recibió un paquete en la puerta de su casa. Al abrirlo, encontró un reloj elegante. No sabía quién se lo había enviado, pero le agradeció al misterioso remitente en una tarjeta que decía: “Para ti, con cariño”. (Juan received a package at his front door. When he opened it, he found an elegant watch. He didn’t know who had sent it to him, but he thanked the mysterious sender on a card that read, “To you, with love.”)

Keep practicing: Using the character above, imagine that they sent their unexpected gift to a friend or other third-party.

Focus on: Using different tenses

Now this will be probably be a relatable prompt for you personally. For this one, you’ll write a dialogue between two language exchange partners discussing their language learning experiences. Use a variety of tenses (present, past and future) to describe their progress and goals.

Sample: María: He estado estudiando inglés durante dos años. Quiero visitar Nueva York algún día y poder comunicarme sin problemas. (Maria: I have been studying English for two years. I want to visit New York someday and be able to communicate without any problems.)

John: Yo aprendí francés en la escuela, pero lo dejé. Si pudiera, lo retomaría y viajaría a París. Tú aún puedes lograr tu meta. (John: I learned French in school, but I stopped. If I could, I would take it up again and travel to Paris. You can still achieve your goal.)

Keep practicing: Write a dialogue where one character talks about their language learning journey, and the other character offers advice and encouragement using different tenses.

Focus on: Giving directions

You’ve probably had plenty of practice asking for directions as a tourist in a Spanish-speaking country . Imagine being on the other side of the conversation for a change!

This time, pretend you’re a tour guide in a foreign city. Write a conversation between a lost tourist and yourself, giving them step-by-step directions to a popular landmark or attraction in the city.

Sample: Turista: ¡Disculpe! Estoy perdido y quiero llegar a la catedral.  (Tourist: Excuse me! I’m lost and I want to get to the cathedral.)

Tú: Claro, no te preocupes. Gira a la derecha en la esquina y sigue recto dos cuadras. Luego cruza la plaza y verás la catedral a tu izquierda. Será imposible que no la veas. (You: Sure, don’t worry. Turn right at the corner and go straight for two blocks. Then cross the square and you’ll see the cathedral on your left. It will be impossible for you to miss it.)

Keep practicing: Imagine the tourist you’re talking to has no sense of direction whatsoever—i.e., if you tell them to “go left,” they will just look at you quizzically as if they don’t know what “left” means. In other words, come up with the most creative ways to give directions to someone who’s directionally-challenged!

Focus on: Weather expressions

How’s the weather right now for you? Whether it’s good or bad, now’s the time to write about it—in Spanish!

For this exercise, you need to describe the current weather in your area, including temperature and conditions.

Sample:   Hoy está soleado y cálido. La temperatura es de 25 grados Celsius o 77 grados Fahrenheit. (It is sunny and warm today. The temperature is 25 degrees Celsius or 77 degrees Fahrenheit.)

Keep practicing: Listen to the weather forecast for the next week, and write a summary about it. Imagine you’re giving that summary to a friend.

Focus on: Seasons and related activities

Going off of the weather theme, let’s jump into seasons. This time, talk about your favorite season and the activities you enjoy during that time.

Sample: Mi estación favorita es el otoño. Me encanta recoger hojas y tomar chocolate caliente. (My favorite season is autumn. I love collecting leaves and drinking hot chocolate.)

Keep practicing: Write about a season you don’t particularly like and explain why.

Focus on: Animal vocabulary

If you like to marathon animal documentaries on YouTube, now’s your chance to put your knowledge of common animals to good use in your Spanish studies.

For this one, imagine visiting a zoo. (Even better, write about your last visit to the zoo.) Mention the animals you saw (or imagined you saw) and what they were doing.

Sample: Vi elefantes jugando en el agua y leones descansando bajo el sol. (I saw elephants playing in the water and lions resting in the sun.)

Keep practicing: If you want to move beyond statements like “The tiger has stripes,” you can try describing a zoo visit from the perspective of one of the animals.

Focus on: Ordering food

I’m sure you have at least one favorite restaurant. It doesn’t have to be a Spanish restaurant—the great thing about studying languages is learning about their specific words for specific food or ingredients .

For this exercise, write about your experience at a restaurant, including what you ordered and how the food tasted.

Sample: Pedí una hamburguesa con papas fritas y estuvo deliciosa. (I ordered a burger and fries and it was delicious.)

Keep practicing: Write a dialogue between a waiter and a customer in a restaurant.

Focus on: Daily routines without technology

Can you imagine a world without smartphones and desktop computers?

If that sounds like a lot to wrap your head around, imagine just one day of it. In Spanish, describe a day where you can’t use any technology (phones, computers, etc.), and explain how you spent your time.

Sample: Pasé el día leyendo libros, dibujando y paseando por el parque. (I spent the day reading books, drawing and walking in the park.)

Keep practicing: Now that you’ve managed to imagine a world without modern conveniences, you probably appreciate just how useful your devices are. This time around, write about these wonderful pieces of technology and what role they play in your daily life.

Focus on: Writing a short message

This one may seem like a simple, straightforward exercise, but it’s really not. This one allows you to practice being concise in Spanish—that is, conveying as much as you can in as few words as you can.

Here, you’ll write a short letter to a friend inviting them to a mysterious event, providing clues but not revealing the details of it.

Sample: Hola, amigo; te invito a un evento especial que se realizará este viernes. ¡Espero que puedas venir! (Hello friend, I invite you to a special event taking place this Friday. I hope you can make it!)

Keep practicing: Imagine that your friend gave you a response asking for more information about the event, and write what you think your friend would have said.

Focus on: Expressing symptoms and health issues

Do you remember the last time you paid a visit to the doctor’s office? You can write about that experience, describing your symptoms and what the doctor told you. You can also write about an imagined visit and what that would’ve been like.

Sample: Fui al médico porque tenía fiebre y dolor de garganta. Me recetó medicina y me dijo que descansara. (I went to the doctor because I had a fever and a sore throat. He prescribed medicine and told me to rest.)

Keep practicing: Instead of describing the visit to a third party (like a family member or friend), write a dialogue between a patient and doctor using all of the medical vocabulary you know.

Focus on: Expressing opinions

If you’re the sort who has an opinion on everything, I’ll bet you’ll enjoy this one! For this exercise, write about your favorite book or movie, explaining why you like it and what makes it special. The book or movie doesn’t have to be originally in Spanish—the important thing is that you can express your honest thoughts about that piece of media in Spanish.

Sample: Mi libro favorito es ‘Harry Potter’ porque tiene magia y aventuras emocionantes. (My favorite book is ‘Harry Potter’ because it has magic and exciting adventures.)

Keep practicing: Now that you’ve written about books and movies you like, write about those you don’t like.

Focus on: Describing relationships

You could say this is an offshoot of our earlier exercise “Unlikely Friends,” in that you have to write about an unexpected friendship between two very different people. The difference is that you’re going to go beyond just comparatives and superlatives, and describe the relationship as a whole. Talk about how you and your friend met and what activities you enjoy together, for example.

Sample: Conocí a Pablo en un taller de arte y ahora pintamos juntos todos los fines de semana. (I met Pablo in an art workshop and now we paint together every weekend.)

Keep practicing: Write about a friendship that starts off on the wrong foot but eventually becomes strong. It can be from your own experience, from someone else’s or entirely made-up.

Focus on: Describing living spaces

I’m sure we all have a certain kind of house we’d like to live in—and this exercise is your chance to talk about your ideal home . Describe details like the location, size, rooms and special features you’d like your dream home to have.

Sample: Mi casa ideal estaría cerca de la playa, tendría un jardín grande y una cocina moderna. (My ideal house would be close to the beach, have a large garden and a modern kitchen.)

Keep practicing: After describing your ideal home, try to write about a less-than-ideal home for you.

Focus on: Creative writing and imaginary scenarios

For our last beginner-friendly Spanish writing prompt, let’s give you a bit more free rein. Don’t worry about the particular grammatical concept you need to master—just express yourself in Spanish as best you can.

Imagine you find a magical object that can grant you just one wish. Describe the object, your wish and what happens next.

Sample: Encontré una lámpara mágica y pedí viajar al pasado para conocer a mis abuelos. (I found a magic lamp and asked to travel back in time to meet my grandparents.)

Keep practicing: Write a different story where finding the magical object has unexpected consequences. For example, for every wish you ask from the magic lamp, the wish-granting genie has to stay inside it for another 100 years. (If that sounds a bit too tragic, feel free to make it a bit more lighthearted and fun!)

Focus on:  Present continuous

For this writing prompt, write a postcard to a friend or family member as though you’re on vacation. Describe what’s going on around you and what you’re doing as you write.

This particular prompt is great for practicing the present continuous tense, which is used to talk about actions happening in the moment of speaking.

Sample: Estoy tomando un café al lado del mar. Hay mucha gente en la playa. Algunas personas están caminando en la orilla y otras se están bañando. ¡Lo estoy pasando muy bien! (I’m drinking a coffee next to the sea. There are a lot of people on the beach. Some people are walking on the shore, and others are swimming. I’m having a great time!)

Keep practicing: Find a classmate or a writing partner. Each of you should choose a vacation location and write a postcard to the other, without mentioning what place you’re writing about. Instead, try to convey it through your description of what’s happening around you. Then, switch postcards and try to guess where the other person wrote about.

Focus on: Preterite and imperfect tenses

Reflecting on events in your life in a diary format is a great way to practice preterite and imperfect verbs. There are many ways to do this.

You could simply write about what has happened to you that day, write about a day in the past (a fun vacation day, for example) or invent a diary entry from someone else’s perspective—whatever stokes your creativity!

Sample: Hoy fui con mi madre al parque. Empezó a llover y nos fuimos a casa. Cuando llegamos, ya eran las ocho, así que puse la mesa mientras ella hacía la cena. (Today I went with my mother to the park. It started to rain and we went home. By the time we arrived, it was eight o’clock, so I laid the table while she made dinner.)

Keep practicing: Why not turn this writing prompt into a nightly routine? Keeping a journal can be a great way to get in your daily Spanish writing practice. Plus, it’s a great way to keep track of your progress over time.

Focus on: Commands

Choose a task that you know how to do well, and write a step-by-step explanation of it as though you were guiding a friend through the process.

This prompt is a great way to practice the Spanish commands. Plus, depending on what your specific hobby or area of expertise is, this could be a great way to learn new, specific vocabulary relevant to your interests.  

Sample: Para empezar, pon aceite en una sartén y pica dos dientes de ajo. (To begin, put oil in a pan and chop two cloves of garlic.)

Keep practicing : In Spanish, the way to give a command changes based on who you’re talking to. You say a command differently depending on if you’re talking to one person or multiple people. The form also changes based on whether you’re in a formal or informal situation.

So now, re-write your step-by-step instructions, but this time pretend you’re giving those directions to your boss (use the usted form), a group of friends (use the vosostros form ) or the Spanish royal family (use the ustedes form).

Focus on: Present perfect

Have you ever played the party game “Never Have I Ever”? The point of the game is to reveal things you’ve never done, in order to get others to reveal that they have done them. In Spanish, the game is called Yo nunca (I never). It’s great for getting to know people—and, incidentally, it’s also great for practicing the present perfect tense.

For this writing prompt, write sentences about things you’ve never done, starting with the phrase Yo nunca (I’ve never) followed by a present perfect verb.

Sample: Yo nunca he viajado a China. (I’ve never traveled to China.)

Keep practicing: Convert your phrases into questions as though you were asking a friend if they have ever done the action in question. You can start your questions with the phrase “Alguna vez has…” (Have you ever…)

Focus on: Idiomatic expressions

Like all languages, Spanish has its fair share of idioms—phrases that mean something much different from their literal translations. There’s usually a historical or cultural basis for how the idiom came to be and why it means the way it does, but that’s for another discussion altogether.

This time, think of a common idiom or expression in your native language. Write a short story that incorporates this expression, but translate it directly into Spanish. Try to make the translated idiom fit naturally within the story.

Sample: Mi amiga estaba nerviosa antes de su audición, así que le dije que se rompiera una pierna. Ella me miró confundida y preguntó si en verdad quería que se lastimara. Tuve que explicarle que en inglés, “romperse una pierna” es un deseo de buena suerte. (My friend was nervous before her audition, so I told her to break a leg. She looked at me confused and asked if I really wanted her to hurt herself. I had to explain to her that in English, “break a leg” is a good luck wish.)

Keep practicing: Instead of translating an idiom from English, think of a common Spanish idiom and write a short story that includes it. This will help you practice incorporating Spanish idiomatic expressions in context.

Focus on: Conditional tense

The conditional tense allows you to express ideas about hypothetical situations—things that never happened, things that you’d like to happen, etc. That sounds very dry and academic, so let’s pair it with a fun writing prompt!

Imagine you’ve just inherited an old house from a distant relative. Write a letter to your best friend describing your thoughts and plans for the house.

Sample: Si restaurara esta casa antigua, tendría que reparar los techos y renovar las ventanas. También instalaría un jardín hermoso en el patio trasero. Si decidiera venderla, podría sacar una buena ganancia; pero si optara por vivir aquí, tendría un lugar único y lleno de historias. (If I were to restore this old house, I would have to repair the roofs and renovate the windows. I would also install a beautiful garden in the backyard. If I decided to sell it, I could make a nice profit. But if I chose to live here, I would have a unique place full of stories.)

Keep practicing: Instead of inheriting a house, imagine you won a large sum of money. Describe how you would use it using the conditional tense. You can talk about traveling the world, giving it away to charity—whatever you’d like to do with a huge sum of money.

Focus on: Future tense with probability

When I say “future tense with probability,” I mean emphasizing future actions with how likely they are to happen. You can say the Spanish equivalent of “I think I will be …” or “I will probably be …”

For this prompt, imagine that you’re attending a career fair at your school. Imagine a dialogue between yourself and a classmate about your future professions and write about it. Use the future tense with probability to discuss your aspirations and potential careers.

Sample: Tú: En el futuro, creo que seré médico. Me encanta ayudar a los demás y tengo buenas notas en las ciencias. (You: In the future, I think I will be a doctor. I love helping others and I have good grades in the sciences.)

Amigo: Yo probablemente seré ingeniero. Siempre me ha gustado resolver problemas y construir cosas. (Friend: I will probably be an engineer. I’ve always liked solving problems and building things.)

Keep practicing: Instead of writing about you and your friends’ future, write a dialogue discussing what your parents’ occupations were when they were your age. Again, practice using the future tense with probability.

Focus on: Past progressive tense

The past progressive tense is also known as the past continous tense, and for good reason: it talks about actions that happened continously at some point in the past. It’s pretty easy to construct: get the imperfect tense of estar (to be), conjugate it according to the pronoun it’s paired with and combine it with the gerundio form of the verb.

Now, you’re going to write a short story about your unexpected encounter (imagined or otherwise) with a famous person or a character from a book. Use the past continuous tense to describe what was happening when the encounter took place.

Sample: Estaba caminando por el parque cuando vi a mi actor favorito sentado en un banco, hablando por teléfono. Me emocioné tanto que me tropecé con la raíz de un árbol y caí al suelo. Él me miró con una sonrisa y me ayudó a levantarme. (I was walking through the park when I saw my favorite actor sitting on a bench, talking on the phone. I got so excited that I tripped over a tree root and fell to the ground. He looked at me with a smile and helped me up.)

Keep practicing: This time, write about two characters who unexpectedly run into each other while doing different activities. Use the past continuous tense to create a sense of simultaneous action.

Focus on: Indirect speech (reported speech)

When you’re talking about what another person said (as opposed to quoting them word-for-word), you are using indirect or reported speech. For example, “John says he likes cats” is indirect speech, while “John said: ‘I like cats.'” is direct speech.

For this exercise, imagine you found an old diary with someone’s secrets written in it. Write a story about the person who wrote the diary, using indirect speech to report what they wrote and their feelings.

Sample: Según relataba en sus escritos, Elena confesaba haber estado enamorada en secreto de su mejor amigo de la infancia, Alejandro. Ella escribía que su corazón latía con fuerza cada vez que él entraba a la habitación, y que se sonrojaba cuando él le dirigía la palabra. Aunque nunca se atrevió a confesarle sus sentimientos, las páginas del diario se convirtieron en el refugio de sus emociones más íntimas. (According to her entries, Elena confessed to having been secretly in love with her childhood best friend, Alejandro. She wrote that her heart would race every time he entered the room and that she would blush when he spoke to her. Although she never dared to confess her feelings to him, the diary’s pages became the refuge for her most intimate emotions.)

Keep practicing: Write a story about a conversation between two characters where one character reports what the other character said, using indirect speech to convey the dialogue.

Focus on: Past simple vs. Present perfect

If you often mix up the past simple and past perfect, this is a good exercise to help you set things straight. Also, it’s literally an exercise you can sink your teeth into!

This time, describe a memorable meal you’ve had recently. Explain what you ate, where you were and how it tasted.

Sample: Anoche cené en un restaurante japonés. Pedí sushi y sashimi fresco. No he probado nada tan delicios o desde entonces. (Last night, I had dinner at a Japanese restaurant. I ordered sushi and fresh sashimi. I haven’t tasted anything so delicious since then.)

Keep practicing: Write a short paragraph about a restaurant experience from your past using both the past simple and present perfect tenses.

Focus on: Past perfect

I know “pluscuamperfecto” is quite a mouthful, but trust me: it’s easier than its tongue-twisting appearance might suggest. And if you like reading or writing mystery stories, this will be a fun prompt for you.

For this story, imagine that a mysterious package arrived at someone’s doorstep. (That someone could be you, someone you know or a completely made-up character.) Use the past perfect tense to narrate events that happened before the story’s main events.

Sample: Cuando María abrió el paquete, se sorprendió al ver que alguien ya había abierto el sobre interno. Alguien más había estado curioseando antes que ella. (When Maria opened the package, she was surprised to see that someone had already opened the inner envelope. Someone else had been snooping before her.)

Keep practicing: Describe a moment in which you had already made a decision that significantly impacted your life. Use the Spanish past perfect tense to narrate the events leading up to that decision and its consequences.

Focus on: Past simple vs. past continuous

Narrate a childhood memory where you were engaged in an activity when something unexpected happened. Use both the Spanish past simple and past continuous tenses to vividly depict the sequence of events, your ongoing actions and the interruption that took place.

Sample: Cuando era niño, solía pasar largas tardes jugando en el parque cerca de mi casa. Un día, mientras mis amigos y yo estábamos jugando fútbol, un gato salió de la nada; estaba temblando y se veía triste. Me lo llevé a casa y lo llamé Chicle. Desde entonces, Chicle se volvió parte de nuestra familia. (When I was a child, I used to spend long afternoons playing in the park near my house. One day, while my friends and I were playing soccer, a cat came out of nowhere; he was trembling and looked sad. I took him home and named him Bubblegum. Since then, Bubblegum became part of our family.)

Keep practicing: Describe a memorable event from a vacation you took. Use the Spanish past simple and past continuous tenses to vividly narrate the background actions and the specific moments that stood out during your trip.

Focus on: Conditional clauses with si and future tense.

This time, you’re going to combine what you know about conditional tenses and the simple future in Spanish.

Craft a dialogue between two friends debating the pros and cons of social media usage. Use conditional clauses with si and the future tense to discuss hypothetical outcomes.

Sample: Si no pasara tanto tiempo en las redes sociales, podría concentrarme más en mis estudios y pasatiempos en el futuro. (If I didn’t spend so much time on social media, I could focus more on my studies and hobbies in the future.)

Keep practicing: Do the same exercise, except replace “social media usage” with a different issue.

Focus on: Formal language

For this prompt, you’re going to practice writing in Spanish in the formal register.

Imagine that you’re hosting a formal business event, such as a conference or a networking dinner. Write an invitation email to a respected industry expert, inviting them to speak at the event. Use formal language to convey professionalism and respect.

Sample : Espero que esta carta le encuentre bien. En calidad de organizador del [Nombre del Evento], me complace extenderle una cordial invitación para participar como ponente en nuestro prestigioso evento empresarial que se llevará a cabo el [Fecha] en [Lugar]. Su destacada trayectoria y experiencia en [Área de Conocimiento] lo convierten en un referente indiscutible en la industria. (I hope this letter finds you well. As the organizer of the [Event Name], I am pleased to extend a warm invitation to you to participate as a speaker at our prestigious business event, scheduled to take place on [Date] at [Venue]. Your outstanding career and expertise in [Area of Expertise] make you a true authority in the industry.)

Keep practicing: Imagine that the one you invited responded to you with either a “Yes” or “No.” Write your response to either or both. If they say “No,” write in a way that would gently persuade the other party to change their mind.

Focus on: Narrative tenses

Let’s cap off the intermediate Spanish writing prompts with something that’ll allow more of your creative juices to flow.

This time, write a short story about a person who discovers a magical journal that allows them to travel to different time periods. Use appropriate narrative tenses to describe their experiences.

Sample: Al abrir el diario, me encontré en el antiguo Egipto. Mientras exploraba las pirámides, me di cuenta de que podía entender el idioma y comunicarme con los habitantes. (When I opened the journal, I found myself in ancient Egypt. As I explored the pyramids, I realized I could understand the language and communicate with the inhabitants.)

Keep practicing: Write a paragraph about another adventure the character has using different narrative tenses.

Focus on: Present subjunctive

The subjunctive can be difficult for English speakers to wrap their heads around, especially because it has many different uses. One is to talk about hypothetical situations. So in this writing prompt, you’re going to write about a hypothetical perfect friend.

What qualities would they have? What kinds of things would you do together? Use the phrase “Quiero un amigo que…”  (I want a friend that…) because it’ll necessitate use of the subjunctive mood.

Sample: Quiero un amigo que juegue al futbol conmigo. (I want a friend who plays soccer with me.)

Keep practicing: Write about other hypothetical “ideal” people. What would your ideal employee look like? Your ideal partner? Roommate? Pet? All of these prompts will necessitate a different set of vocabulary, allowing you to practice even more conjugations.

Focus on: Third conditionals

We use third conditionals to talk about impossible hypothetical events. An example of a third conditional in English would be something like, “If you hadn’t arrived so late, you would have gotten a piece of pizza.” Since the speaker is talking about a past event, the outcome described is impossible.

To practice third conditionals, turn to the world of counterfactuals. Think of an event in history or in your own life. How would things be different if the event had never happened, or had happened differently?

Here are some examples to get you started:

• How would the world be different if the Internet had never been invented?
• How would the world be different if chocolate didn’t exist?
• How would your life be different if you had never met your best friend?
• How would your life be different if you had grown up in Spain?

Sample: Si no hubiera conocido a mi mejor amiga, nunca habría aprendido a tocar la guitarra. (If I had never met my best friend, I never would have learned how to play the guitar.)

Keep practicing: Try writing this prompt in second-person question form, as though you were asking a friend. This way, you practice both the construction of a third conditional question as well as the tú conjugations of verbs. For example, you might ask: Si no me hubieras conocido, ¿habrías aprendido a tocar la guitarra? (If you had never met me, would you have learned to play the guitar?)

Focus on: Subjunctive in recommendations

If you need more practice with Spanish subjunctives, I suggest using related writing prompts about topics you enjoy. For example, if you’re all about eco-friendly living, this prompt may be right up your alley.

Here, you’re going to write a blog post encouraging readers to adopt eco-friendly habits in their daily lives. Use subjunctive expressions to give recommendations.

Sample: Es fundamental que reciclemos cada día y que reduzcamos nuestro consumo de plástico para proteger el medio ambiente. (It’s essential that we recycle every day and that we reduce our plastic consumption to protect the environment.)

Keep practicing: Write a list of eco-friendly tips using different subjunctive expressions.

Focus on: Present subjunctive with verbs of influence

On the other hand, if you think that subjunctives are too easy, here’s one way to spice things up: add verbs of influence.

This time, write a letter to an artist you admire, using the present subjunctive with verbs of influence to express how their work has inspired you.

Sample: Espero que continúes creando arte increíble que inspire a generaciones futuras. (I hope you continue creating amazing art that inspires future generations.)

Keep practicing: Write letters to other people you admire, using present subjunctive expressions to convey your admiration.

Focus on: Complex sentence structures

At this point, you’re probably tired of reading and writing the same stock phrases over and over. So now, you’re going to create a narrative with intricate sentences that include relative clauses, participial phrases and other advanced grammatical structures.

Sample: En un bosque encantado, donde los árboles susurran secretos y las estrellas tejen destinos, vivía una criatura misteriosa que solo se revelaba en las noches de luna llena. (In an enchanted forest, where trees whisper secrets and stars weave destinies, lived a mysterious creature that only revealed itself on full moon nights.)

Keep practicing: Rewrite simple sentences from a children’s story using elaborate structures.

Focus on: Incorporating specialized vocabulary

Are you someone who unabashedly loves fusion cuisine and has no second thoughts about shouting that fact on top of the Empire State Building? You’re in luck: not only will this prompt let you do the written equivalent of that, but you’ll also learn to pick up the kind of vocabulary you’d normally not encounter in your Spanish studies.

Specifically, you’re going to write a menu description for a dish that blends elements from two or more culinary traditions.

Sample: Presentamos el “Sushi Mexicano”: tortilla crujiente rellena de delicado pescado fresco, acompañada de aguacate y salsa de soja picante. Una fusión que une a Japón y México en un bocado. (Introducing “Mexican Sushi”: crispy tortilla filled with delicate fresh fish, accompanied by avocado and spicy soy sauce. A fusion that brings together Japan and Mexico in one bite.)

Keep practicing: Design more dishes that combine unexpected ingredients.

Focus on: Humor and wordplay

Speaking of vocabulary, if you pride yourself on your ability to not mix up similar Spanish words, this is your chance to flex your chops in this regard.

In this prompt, you’re going to share funny anecdotes involving misunderstandings or linguistic mishaps while trying to speak Spanish or English.

Sample: Intenté pedir un “embarazado” en lugar de un “empanizado”. ¡Nunca olvidaré la mirada de confusión del camarero y las risas en la mesa! (I tried to order a “pregnant” dish instead of a “breaded” one. I’ll never forget the waiter’s confused look and the laughter at the table!)

Keep practicing: Write a humorous dialogue in which characters misinterpret each other’s words.

Focus on: Cultural nuances

Explore a word or concept in Spanish that doesn’t have an equivalent in English . Discuss its cultural significance and why you find it intriguing.

Sample: Explora la palabra “sobremesa”, que se refiere al tiempo pasado charlando después de una comida en compañía, capturando la importancia cultural de la conexión humana. (Explore the word “sobremesa,” which refers to the time spent chatting after a meal in company, capturing the cultural significance of human connection.)

Keep practicing: Research and write about other untranslatable words in Spanish.

Focus on: Ethical considerations

As an advanced learner , you probably don’t need to zero in so much on specific vocabulary and grammar points anymore. From here on out, I’m going to give you writing prompts that will push your Spanish mastery to the limit.

For this writing prompt, draft an essay discussing a cultural dilemma or ethical issue that you think is important. Explain different perspectives on the matter and offer your own viewpoint.

Sample: El dilema de preservar tradiciones culturales contra adoptar nuevas normas es un tema complejo. Si bien es crucial mantener nuestra identidad, también debemos ser abiertos a la evolución y al progreso. (The dilemma of preserving cultural traditions versus adopting new norms is a complex issue. While it’s crucial to maintain our identity, we must also be open to evolution and progress.)

Keep practicing: Write a sentence expressing a personal opinion on another cultural or ethical issue.

Focus on: Expressing abstract concepts

Write a metaphorical description of the human mind. Compare it to something unexpected and explain the connection.

Sample: La mente humana es como un vasto océano, donde las olas son pensamientos y las profundidades albergan los misterios más oscuros. (The human mind is like a vast ocean, where waves are thoughts and the depths hold the darkest mysteries.)

Keep practicing: Describe other abstract concepts using creative metaphors.

Focus on: Historical narratives

Step right up, history buffs: this writing prompt is for you.

Choose a historical event and narrate it from the perspective of someone who experienced it firsthand. Try to capture their emotions and reactions in a way that’s believable.

Sample: Desde el rincón de mi memoria, revivo aquel día en que la libertad finalmente alzó sus alas sobre nuestra tierra. Las lágrimas de felicidad llenaron los ojos de todos nosotros. (From the corner of my memory, I relive that day when freedom finally spread its wings over our land. Tears of happiness filled all our eyes.)

Keep practicing: Explore the same event from multiple viewpoints.

Focus on: Symbolism

Now it’s time to channel your inner Neruda .

Choose a natural element (e.g., a tree, a river, a mountain) and write a poem that uses it as a symbol to convey a deeper meaning or emotion.

Sample: El árbol anciano, raíces profundas como historias enterradas, sus hojas susurran cuentos al viento, testigos silenciosos de la vida que fluye. (The ancient tree, roots deep like buried stories, its leaves whisper tales to the wind, silent witnesses of flowing life.)

Keep practicing: Create poems using different symbols and themes.

Focus on: Sociocultural changes

Reflect on a traditional aspect of your culture that has evolved over time. Discuss the reasons for these changes and their impact.

Sample: La festividad ancestral del solsticio ha evolucionado de rituales agrarios a una celebración de unidad cultural en la era moderna, reflejando nuestra cambiante relación con la tierra y entre nosotros. (The ancient solstice festival has evolved from agricultural rituals into a celebration of cultural unity in the modern era, reflecting our changing relationship with the land and each other.)

Keep practicing: Predict how current traditions might change in the future.

Focus on: Persuasive writing

Write a persuasive essay arguing for or against the implementation of a four-day workweek in businesses, highlighting its potential benefits or drawbacks on productivity, employee well-being and overall work-life balance.

Sample: La implementación de una semana laboral de cuatro días es una propuesta que merece una consideración cuidadosa. Desde mi perspectiva, esta medida podría beneficiar tanto a los empleados como a las empresas. (The implementation of a four-day workweek is a proposal that deserves careful consideration. From my perspective, this measure could benefit both employees and businesses.)

Keep practicing: Write persuasive pieces about other contemporary issues.

Focus on: Multiculturalism

Write a story in which characters from various cultural backgrounds come together for a common purpose, celebrating their differences.

Sample: En las calles bulliciosas de la ciudad, personas de diversas culturas tejieron un tapiz de amistad y colaboración, demostrando que la diversidad es nuestra mayor fortaleza. (In the bustling streets of the city, people from diverse cultures wove a tapestry of friendship and collaboration, showing that diversity is our greatest strength.)

Keep practicing: Craft narratives that highlight cross-cultural friendships.

Focus on: Reflective writing

Choose a moment from your past that left a lasting impact on you. Describe it in detail and analyze its significance.

Sample: Aquel atardecer en la playa, cuando las olas parecían acariciar el horizonte y el tiempo se detuvo, me recordó que la belleza efímera puede dejar una huella eterna en el corazón. (That sunset at the beach, when the waves seemed to caress the horizon and time stood still, reminded me that ephemeral beauty can leave an eternal mark on the heart.)

Keep practicing: Reflect on other pivotal moments in your life.

Focus on: Language learning journey

Let’s end this entire list with a bang! And I have just the writing prompt for you.

For this last exercise, you’re going to write a letter to your future self reflecting on your Spanish learning journey. Discuss challenges, accomplishments and your aspirations for further language development.

Given the nature of this exercise, I suggest bookmarking this post and going back to this prompt once you feel you’ve already reached your desired level of fluency in Spanish.

Sample: Querido yo del futuro, al mirar atrás en este viaje de aprendizaje del español, veo desafíos conquistados, metas alcanzadas y un amor más profundo por la diversidad de las palabras. ¡Que continúe esta emocionante odisea lingüística! (Dear future self, looking back on this journey of learning Spanish, I see conquered challenges, achieved goals and a deeper love for the diversity of words. May this exciting language odyssey continue!)

Keep practicing: Write letters to your past self at different stages of your language learning journey.

No matter your level of Spanish, writing is an important part of learning Spanish and practicing various aspects of the language. Here are some tips to get the most out of these prompts.

If you’re a beginning Spanish learner, there will inevitably be vocabulary words you don’t know. Don’t fret or get frustrated! Instead of reaching for a dictionary every time you’re at a loss, simply leave a blank space.

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The same goes for verb conjugations. If you don’t remember how to conjugate a verb, write it in its infinitive form and flag it with a star or question mark. At the end, go back and look up the correct conjugation.

No more leaving blank spaces on the page! Once your Spanish is at an intermediate level , it’s time to focus on making yourself understood in any situation, even if you can’t always think of the right word.

Whenever the right word feels like it’s beyond your grasp, find a way to describe or express it. Flag this with a star or question mark to remind yourself to later look up the actual word.

Advanced Spanish speakers should be able to communicate in almost any situation. Now, it’s time to focus on diversifying your word usage. Why not make your compositions into mini-competitions with yourself?

For example, if you’re practicing verbs, get a timer and try to write as many verbs as you can in as many conjugations as you can. Once the time is up, count up all your verbs. Give yourself one point for each distinct verb you used (that you conjugated correctly!) and subtract one point for each verb you repeated or conjugated incorrectly.

Whether you’re practicing for your Spanish AP essay or working on your writing skills in general, prompts are a fantastic way to get started. The most important thing is just to write anything about any subject.

Working to form sentences and narratives in Spanish can be difficult at first. But just like any other skill, as you keep working on it, it’ll feel more and more natural.

Writing prompts are a great way to practice Spanish, and you just might have some fun while you study!

If you've made it this far that means you probably enjoy learning Spanish with engaging material and will then love FluentU .

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Review a complete interactive transcript under the Dialogue tab, and find words and phrases listed under Vocab .

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Oftentimes, clients will have questions as to the style choices that language professionals make. Perhaps the target document may not appear the way they see it in English, or perhaps it does not coincide with other documents they have seen written in the target language. In order to alleviate some of the stress in this process, this style guide was created to help English speaking translation clients understand some of the key differences in the visible appearance of Spanish. Translators could create similar guides for their respective languages as general guidance for their clients.

Capitalization

In Spanish, for titles of stories, creative works, and articles written in magazines or newspapers, slogans, etc. sentence case and italics are used:

• Cien años de soledad
• Las señoritas de Avignon (Avignon is capitalized because it is a place)
• West side story (note that Spanish rules apply to an English text quoted in a Spanish document).

The rules are more similar to the English ones for titles of weekly publications, presentations and exhibitions, laws and official documents. Spanish capitalizes all words with lexical content, as well as italicizing the name of the publication to show where the title starts and ends:

Weekly publications

• El Comercio

Laws and official documents

• el Código Civil
• la Ley 40/1998, de 9 de diciembre, de Impuestro sobre la Renta de las Personas Físicas y otras Normas Tributarias
• la Convención de Ginebra

Names of historical eras, events and festivities

• el Precámbrico
• la Contrarreforma
• Navidad, Año Nuevo, Día Internacional de la Mujer

Punctuation

Semicolon: separates phrases of equal weight that are all affected by the same verb. Spanish sentences are often quite long, and phrases within them are separated by semicolons.

Comma: separates words of equal weight within the phrase.

Colon: no capital letter after a colon. Caps only go at the start of a sentence, the start of a book title, or the start of a proper name.

Traiga lo siguiente a la escuela: compás, transportador, lápiz, papel.

In this case no caps follow the colon since it is only a list of items to take to school.

However, note the following exceptions:

Cómo hacer puré: Hierva las papas, etc.

In the above case, using a capital letter after the colon is OK because a small sentence truly starts after the colon.

Muy señor mío: Le agradeceré…

After the colon that follows the greeting in a letter.

CERTIFICA: Que D. José Álvarez García ha seguido el Curso de Técnicas Audiovisuales…

After the colon that follows the main verb of an administrative legal document.

Pedro dijo: «No volveré hasta las nueve».

After the colon that introduces a citation or quotation.

Bulleted lists: treat the punctuation as if the items followed each other within a paragraph. In other words, each new item does NOT get a capital letter because it is on a new line. To make this point obvious, I used the same list as in the sentence above. In English, items in bulleted sentences are separated by semicolons, and in Spanish we can use commas.

Traiga lo siguiente a la escuela:

• transportador,

(Note that this list has commas, no capital letters, and ends in a period: it is a sentence graphically broken down into bullets to itemize the elements of the list.)

Simple quotes enclose meanings.

Quotation marks:

The period always goes outside of the quotation marks.

Me dijo: “Es una tontería”.

Long parenthetical comments should be replaced by footnotes.

Numbered lists should always have Arabic numerals followed by a closing parenthesis, as shown below. Lowercase Roman numerals are not used, nor is the (1) format. Even inside a paragraph, these rules are followed.

A long dash can be used to enclose explanations –. In these cases, the long dash needs to be on both sides of what it encloses, even if the end is just before the period at the end of the sentence or the paragraph. In this case, it is “kissing” the enclosed comment and “keeping its distance” from the rest of the sentence with a space. However, such use is somewhat rare, and often writers use commas or parentheses instead.

• La editorial ha publicado este año varias obras del autor –todas ellas de su primera época–.
• Para él la fidelidad –cualidad que valoraba por encima de cualquier otra– era algo sagrado.

(Examples taken from Ortografía de la lengua española , published by Real Academia Española, p. 374)

“Siglas” (Acronyms) don’t take periods (OTAN; ONU, EUA)

Acronyms are not pluralized in Spanish (“los CD”, not “los CDs”)

Translators should not create new acronyms, but use the official ones in Spanish (for example ONU for UN, SIDA for AIDS, etc.). If no official Spanish acronym exists, translators should use the acronym of the source text, spelling it out the first time, followed by (ABC, por sus siglas en inglés) or (ABC, American Broadcasting Company) and using it sparingly after that. Either format can be used as long as it is consistent. Note that in some cases, acronyms have been used as words often enough that they are commonly found in lowercase format, such as “sida”, and in some cases only the first word is capitalized, as in Renfe. Readers should not have to go to the previous page to find the definition of the acronym. If it is used once per page, it should be spelled out or the name should be abbreviated using words, not the acronym.

tú (informal you) vs usted (formal you): In Spanish business communications (from memos to manuals) should always be in the “usted” form unless the client insists. Of course, when addressing young people, the “tú” form is appropriate.

Business letters signed with only a first name are not culturally acceptable in Spanish. When an English document is signed by “Joe”, the Spanish should also give Joe’s last name and say “Joe Brown, President”.

Unit conversions: square feet, inches, pounds, etc., are not used in the Spanish speaking world. However, the units in the document should be those commonly used in the target country. The requester should specify whether unit conversions should be made. Any unit conversions should be done carefully, verifying the accuracy of the conversion. In technical documents, however, units of measurement should not be converted to avoid confusion. One acceptable alternative is putting the conversion between parentheses, as follows: 450 sq. ft (45 m 2 ). In any event, the unit should always be stated immediately after the number because significant mistakes have been made in the science field because of lack of attention to unit conversion.

Gender neutrality: In Spanish, the masculine singular is the neutral case. Filling the text with “él o ella” makes for cumbersome reading. As a matter of fact, when referring to a group of men and women as “them”, the Spanish is “ellos” (masculine plural).

Sex (male/female) refers to people, but nouns in Spanish have gender (the table is “la mesa”, a glass of water is “el vaso”, the president could be “el presidente” or “la presidente”, etc.). The fact that a noun ends in the letter “a” does not necessarily mean that the article should be “la”: “el pianista” could refer to a male pianist, for example, and “el mapa” is “the map.”

Conversations: In Spanish, conversations are punctuated by a dash, not by quotation marks. Please note that in English we assume that the speaker continues to speak if there are no ending quotation marks. In Spanish, we assume the speaker changes from one dash to the next. If there is any ambiguity or change from this norm, the author will clarify it.

–¿Cómo estás? –dijo José–. [Note: no space between dash and spoken text, no space between dash and explanatory text]

–Muy bien, –dijo María– pero siéntate, por favor.

–¿Qué te trae por aquí? [José is assumed to be speaking.]

–Vengo a devolver un libro. [María is assumed to be speaking.]

–Bueno, me alegro de haberte visto acá en la biblioteca. Hasta la próxima.

–Nos vemos.

Numbers: N.° 1, or Núm. 1 are correct, but #1 is not Spanish.

Units of measurement don’t take caps or periods (10 km, 5 cm, etc.)

MPH is OK because it is an English only unit. However, KPH doesn’t exist. It would be km/h

Prefixes are not independent units;therefore, they are used in three ways:

• attached to the word they precede: antiadherente, cuasidelito, exalcohólico, expresidente;
• with a dash separating the prefix from the main word only when the root word is capitalized (e.g. pre-Obama) or it is a number; and,
• separated only when they modify more than one word: ex relaciones públicas, anti pena de muerte, pro derechos humanos, vice primer ministro, super en forma.

Periods and commas in numbers:

Half of Latin American countries use commas for thousands and periods for decimals, and the other half go the other way. The European Union is going with hard spaces. Any of these choices is acceptable as long as consistency is maintained through the document. However, when the document is written with a single target country in mind, the translator should make an effort to be consistent with the usage in that country.

Abbreviations should be easy to understand with no previous knowledge. They take accents, periods, and can be pluralized.

Days, months, seasons, job titles, languages, tribes, religions are not capitalized. The General Manager is “el gerente general”. If the title is at the start of the line, only capitalize the first word (Gerente general de Operaciones). However, names of departments do take more than one capital letter (e.g. Recursos Humanos, Operaciones y Mantenimiento). NEVER capitalize articles or prepositions, though!

Use italics for

• names of titles of books, articles, etc.,
• foreign words
• invented words
• scientific names

Bold type: avoid it as much as possible, as overuse makes reading difficult. However, bold type can be used to emphasize a word within a sentence, since capital letters and italics are not used for emphasis in Spanish.

To give multiple options, señores(as) is widely used in Mexico, but señores/as is used in other places (Spain and Argentina, at least).

DO NOT USE ALL CAPS . There are other ways to denote emphasis. A text in allcaps is visually convoluted and hard to read. Capitalization for emphasis is not used in Spanish texts.

Paragraphs should have a left indent, except for the first paragraph. This applies to writing an article, a letter, or something of that type. When working on a PowerPoint, the rules change for the sake of space. Depending on the type of text, it may be important to maintain the same style as the source.

Names of institutions, laws, medications, etc.: Use the Spanish names when translating to English, and when the English source text is using material that has been translated from Spanish, use the original terminology from the source country. However, when translating the name of a law from English to Spanish and the name of the law is not commonly known in Spanish, give the name of the law in English in italics followed by a translation of its meaning in Spanish between parenthesis. Users will be searching for it by the English name, not the Spanish name, in any event.

The official Spanish names of many US government institutions can be found on  USAGov’s website .

Translation from English to Spanish does not require keeping the same tense. The following are just a few examples.

• Spanish uses the subjunctive much more frequently than English does.
• Spanish uses tacit subjects unless the subject must be specified to avoid ambiguity.
• The English passive voice is often replaced by the impersonal se hace or by the active voice.

Keeping English terms in the Spanish text:

This practice can lead to clumsy Spanish writing and confusion. When technical terms must be kept in English because they will be on the computer screen in English, the translator should receive a list of the terms the user will see on the screen to be able to avoid leaving unnecessary terms untranslated. In any event, all English terms should be followed by a Spanish translation in parenthesis and the English term should be in italics, as follows:

Haga click en la pestaña Design (diseño).

This practice allows the reader to follow the text as a Spanish paragraph with no loss of meaning or fluency.

Redundancy:

In Spanish we avoid redundancy. If the concept is repeated too many times throughout a text, the English would use the exact same term throughout, whereas the Spanish would use two or three variations of the term so as not to sound so repetitive. Especially in legal documents or instructions, when the English is very repetitive, it will seem like the Spanish is missing a sentence, and it may actually be missing a sentence, but it is deliberate when the meaning of the sentence is included in previous content. This also happens with legal doublets (e.g. “terms and conditions”, “cease and desist”).

Source materials: Many ideas came from Xosé Castro, presentation to AATIA in September 2010 Discussions with Gabriela Penrod Ortografía de la lengua española , Real Academia Española, 2010 El buen uso del español, Real Academia Española, 2013

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Guest Essay

Some Words Feel Truer in Spanish

By Natalia Sylvester

Ms. Sylvester is the author of the forthcoming children’s book “A Maleta Full of Treasures” (“La Maleta de Tesoros”).

My earliest relationship with language was defined by rules. As an immigrant who came to this country from Peru at age 4, I spent half of my days in kindergarten occupied with learning the rules of the English language. There was the tricky inconsistency of pronunciation to navigate and, once I learned to speak it, the challenge of translating what I’d learned into reading skills.

At home, my mom would often create games to help my sister and me preserve our Spanish and improve our grammar. Driving around our neighborhood in Miami, she’d point at a traffic light, hold up four fingers and say, “Se-ma-fo-ro — on which syllable do you put the accent?”

Each language had its defined space: English in school, Spanish at home. But as my parents became more fluent (and my sister and I more dominant) in English, the boundaries became blurred. Being bilingual empowered us to break barriers beyond the rules and definitions attached to words. Some things were simply untranslatable, because they spoke to this new space we were living in — within, between and around language. We were making a new home here, same as so many immigrants who end up shaping language as much as it shapes us.

It became evident as the phrase “Cómo se dice?” or “How do you say?” became a constant in my home. Sometimes, it’d be my parents who asked, “How do you say” followed by a word like “sobremesa” or “ganas.” It seemed simple enough in theory, but proved nearly impossible for us to translate without elaborating using full sentences or phrases. After all, to have a word to describe a long conversation that keeps you at the table and extends a meal, you’d have to value the concept enough to name it. Some ideas are so embedded in Latin American and Spanish cultures that they exist implicitly. Of course “ganas” can be something you feel but also give, and be at once more tame yet more powerful than “desire.” (If you know, you know.)

Other times, it’d be my sister and I who were curious about a word’s Spanish counterpart. Was there really no differentiating in Spanish between the fingers (dedos) on our hands, and those on our feet we call toes? When we wanted to say we were excited about something, the word “emocionada” seemed to fall short of capturing our specific, well, emotion. Sometimes we would blank on a word. But sometimes, we would find that the perfect word isn’t necessarily in the language we’re speaking.

What I’m describing, of course, has its own word: code switching. The act of shifting from one language or dialect to another, particularly based on social context, is often framed as something that so-called minorities do to fit into more mainstream spaces. It’s true that code switching can be a form of assimilation, a way of shielding ourselves from the prejudices rooted in racism, classism and xenophobia that can arise when we freely express our culture and language in spaces not designed to embrace them. But what I seldom see discussed is how code switching isn’t solely a reactionary response to feeling unwelcome. Within our own communities, it can signal comfort and belonging.

Take the Spanish word “maleta,” or “suitcase” in English. This year, I was at a writing conference and met up with two Mexican American authors, one of whom brought her suitcase to the venue because she had already checked out of the hotel. We walked the halls and offered to help with her maleta, making several jokes and references to it, but never once using the word “suitcase,” despite speaking mainly in English.

This was an entirely natural and unspoken decision. There are some words that simply feel truer in Spanish than they do in English. I call these home words and heart words because I associate them with the place I most grew up using them: at home, among family. Though the words might share a literal definition with their translation, one version carries emotional depth that enriches its meaning. To code switch this way among friends implies we share not only a language, but an intimate understanding of where we come from.

A suitcase is for clothes and possessions when someone travels, but to me, a maleta meant family had arrived from Peru, carrying flavors, textures and memories of my birthplace. Language is rooted in context, which is another way of saying that language is driven by memory. In this way, what we do or don’t choose to translate is another way of telling stories about our past.

Last year, a study on the specific way that Miamians use direct Spanish translations to form English phrases called the practice an emerging dialect. It’s a form of borrowing between languages that results in what is known as calques. For decades, expressions like “get down from the car” and “super hungry,” which are translated from Spanish, have made their way into regional speech, even in the case of non-Spanish speakers.

When I shared the article on social media, my DMs were flooded by friends and family — not only in Miami but also in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas and in Southern California — who joked that they’ve been using these phrases since they were children, and their parents had, too. The novelty was not in their usage but in their validation (whether or not we sought that validation). My friends and I grew up being told to speak a certain way and respect the rules of both languages. We, in turn, didn’t so much break the rules as we simply played with them, swirling bits of English and Spanish together until it resembled something new yet familiar, our fingerprints proudly planted in its mess.

This is one of my greatest joys as a writer. I love language not only for all it can do but also for all it can’t and all the space it leaves in the gaps for creation. It is empowering that something as supposedly fixed as the meaning of a word or phrase is actually alive and evolving. It means we don’t have to lose parts of ourselves to assimilation; we can expand language to include the full breadth of our experiences.

Words are just sounds and letters until we collectively give them meaning through story. When we use language to connect, it’s one of the most beautiful things that make us human.

Natalia Sylvester is the author of the forthcoming children’s book “A Maleta Full of Treasures” (“La Maleta de Tesoros”).

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Exploring spanish writing abilities of children with developmental language disorder in expository texts.

• 1 NeuroDevelop eHealth Lab, eHealth Center, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), Barcelona, Spain
• 2 Estudis de Psicologia i Ciències de l’Educació, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), Barcelona, Spain
• 3 Departament de Cognició Desenvolupament i Psicologia de l’Educació, Secció Cognició, Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Barcelona, Spain
• 4 Institut de Neurociències, Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Barcelona, Spain

Introduction: Numerous studies have shown that children with developmental language disorder (DLD), in addition to oral language difficulties, exhibit impaired writing abilities. Their texts contain problems in grammar, organization, cohesion, and length of written output. However, most of these studies have been conducted with English speakers. English is characterized by complex phonological structure, opaque orthography, poor morphology and strict word order. The aim of this research is to observe the writing abilities of children with DLD in a language with simple phonological structure, transparent orthography, rich morphology and flexible word order like Spanish in the production of expository texts.

Methods: Twenty-six children with DLD (mean age in months = 128.85) and 26 age-and sex-matched typically developing (TD) children (mean age in months = 124.61) wrote an expository text about their favorite animal.

Results: In order to analyze how the two groups plan and encode written texts, we looked at word frequency and sentence structure, grammatical complexity and lexical density, and omissions and errors. Compared to the TD group, the children with DLD omitted more content words; made more errors with functional words, verb conjugation and inflectional morphemes, and made a large number of spelling errors. Moreover, they wrote fewer words, fewer sentences, and less structurally and lexically complex texts.

Discussion: These results show that children with DLD who speak a transparent orthography language such as Spanish also have difficulties in most language areas when producing written texts. Our findings should be considered when planning and designing interventions.

1 Introduction

Developmental language disorder (DLD)—also known as specific language impairment (SLI)—is a neurodevelopmental disorder affecting around 7.5% of the child population ( Tomblin et al., 1997 ; Norbury et al., 2016 ) with no significant difference in sex distribution ( Calder et al., 2022 ). DLD is defined as a severe and persistent disorder in oral language acquisition and development, unassociated with a medical condition, such as hearing loss, intellectual disability, autism, or any neurological disorder or genetic syndromes ( Bishop et al., 2016 ). Moreover, DLD may co-exist with other neurodevelopmental disorders such as attention-deficit, hyperactivity, motor, speech and behavioral problems, or dyslexia ( Bishop et al., 2016 ).

Studies of children with DLD have found that they exhibit an heterogeneous oral language profile ( Conti-Ramsden, 2008 ) which may, to differing degrees, involve one or several expressive and receptive language components and which affects social and/or school development (e.g., Leonard, 1998 ; Bishop et al., 2017 ). Previous studies have documented significant difficulties across the different components of oral language including phonology, morphology, syntax, vocabulary, semantics, pragmatics, discourse, and verbal learning and memory ( Bishop et al., 2017 ). Research have found some phonological issues in productive phonology such as omissions of unstressed syllables and final consonants and changing syllabic structures (e.g., omitting final consonants and reducing consonant and vowel clusters; Aguilar-Mediavilla et al., 2002 , 2007 ; Bishop and Clarkson, 2003 ; Gallon et al., 2007 ; Broc et al., 2013 ; Larkin et al., 2013 ). Additionally, children with DLD struggle with other phonological abilities, such as in phonological awareness abilities including complex tasks like deleting phonemes, substituting phonemes, or producing rhyming words ( Thatcher, 2010 ; Vukovic et al., 2022 ; Korlaet et al., 2023 ). A considerable body of research has focused on studying morphological problems in children with DLD. They have deficits in the use of inflectional morphology, such as verb tense and agreement. Specifically, they omit the ending-s in the third singular person (e.g., ‘She read a book’ instead of ‘She reads a book’) and the past tense marker-ed (e.g., ‘Yesterday, I play with Rachel’ instead of ‘Yesterday, I played with Rachel; Van der Lely and Ullman, 2001 ; Abel et al., 2015 ). Research has shown that these children struggle also with functional words since they omit articles, pronouns and prepositions ( Bedore and Leonard, 2001 ; Restrepo and Gutierrez-Clellen, 2001 ; Sanz-Torrent et al., 2007 ; Coloma et al., 2016 ). Children with DLD produce syntactically simpler sentences ( Marinellie, 2004 ) and find it difficult to understand both complex syntactic structures, such as dependent clauses and passive sentences (e.g., Bishop, 1997 ; Leonard and Deevy, 2006 ; Novogrodsky and Friedmann, 2006 ; Montgomery and Evans, 2009 ; Van der Lely et al., 2011 ; Leonard, 2014 ). Different studies have analyzed vocabulary and semantics in children with DLD and have observed that they typically present smaller and less rich lexicons than their typical peers ( McGregor et al., 2023 ) and show slower latency times and more errors in picture naming ( Lahey and Edwards, 1996 ; Lahey and Edwards, 1999 ; McGregor et al., 2002 ). Moreover, in receptive single-word vocabulary tests, they tend to score within the average range but statistically lower than their matched TD peers ( Gray et al., 1999 ; McGregor et al., 2002 , 2013 ; Sheng and McGregor, 2010 ; Haebig et al., 2015 ). Furthermore, they show semantic impairments encompass problems with expressing or understanding meaning from word combinations ( Katsos et al., 2011 ). In pragmatics, children with DLD have difficulties understanding figurative language such as metaphors, double meanings or idiomatic expressions ( Norbury, 2005 ) and understanding communicative intentions ( Andrés-Roqueta and Katsos, 2020 ).

Having these problems in oral language, children with DLD are very likely to also experience difficulties in literacy. Different studies have reported that they are at greater risk for reading difficulties than children with typical language development (TD) ( Sanz-Torrent et al., 2010 ; Bishop et al., 2017 ; Adolf and Hogan, 2018 ). It has been estimated that around 50% of children with DLD present also dyslexia ( Bishop et al., 2009 ; Ramus et al., 2013 ) and they may exhibit reading comprehension difficulties ( Ramus et al., 2013 ; Gough Kenyon et al., 2018 ).

Regarding writing, according to Hayes and Flower (1980) model, the writing process can be divided into three stages: planning, translating, and revising. The planning stage involves generating ideas, organizing thoughts and ideas, and setting writing goals. The translation stage is where these ideas are transformed from oral language into written form, and the revising stage involves reading and editing the written material. Additionally, the Not-So-Simple View of Writing ( Berninger et al., 2002 ; Berninger and Amtmann, 2003 ) which is a modification of the Hayes and Flower model that incorporates various cognitive and executive function components, including working memory, into the writing process. Thus, children with DLD are expected to face difficulties in producing written content due to their challenges both in oral language and executive functioning, particularly in working memory ( Im-Bolter et al., 2006 ; Archibald and Joanisse, 2009 ; Montgomery et al., 2010 ; Ebert and Kohnert, 2011 ). Accordingly, different studies have found problems in written production in children with DLD (i.e., Broc et al., 2021 ; Tucci and Choi, 2023 ). Written productions can be evaluated accordingly through analyses of microstructure and macrostructure ( Liles et al., 1995 ). According to Hughes et al. (1997) , microstructure refers to the syntactic and lexical levels of the production, that is, the language form and content. It has been characterized in terms of productivity as well as complexity. Conversely, macrostructure denotes the hierarchical structure and coherence of the text beyond the level of a single sentence. The way the story’s episodes are arranged, how events are sequenced, and how the protagonists’ internal states drive or respond to the story’s events are all examples of macrostructure (e.g., McCabe and Peterson, 1984 ; McCabe and Rollins, 1994 ; Liles et al., 1995 ).

As far as we know, previous studies about writing in children with DLD have focused on analyzing the microstructure. Tucci and Choi (2023) performed a scoping review of literature focused on the effects of DLD on writing skills across the lifespan. Results showed that spelling may be the most vulnerable area for individuals with DLD. In this sense, previously studies show that children with DLD make a significantly higher percentage of spelling errors when producing written texts compared to TD children of the same age ( Mackie et al., 2013 ; Williams et al., 2013 ; Dockrell et al., 2014 ; Reilly et al., 2014 ; Joye et al., 2019 ). For the most part, these spelling errors are due to phonological and morphological errors, which involve substituting, inserting or eliminating letters within a word ( Mackie and Dockrell, 2004 ). Broc et al. (2021) conducted a scoping review about the nature of spelling errors in children with DLD across different orthographies. They divided the 18 reviewed studies into those based on dictation tasks and those containing written narratives because these two types of tasks involve different writing processes. In addition, they separately analyzed those two types of studies regarding the typology of the orthography of language in which they were carried out (opaque or transparent orthographic system). On dictation tasks, children with DLD produced more phonologically unacceptable spelling errors. These errors varied by age and by the nature of the words dictated. Moreover, children with DLD produced less phonologically unacceptable spelling errors when the spelling could be derived by applying one-to-one sound-letter correspondences (transparent orthographic system) than when the phoneme-grapheme correspondences were irregular (opaque orthographic system). On written narratives, they found that most of the studies to assess the spelling skills of children with DLD had been conducted in opaque orthographies and only identified one study conducted in a transparent orthography language, Spanish ( Soriano-Ferrer and Contreras-González, 2012 ). Overall, on written narrative tasks, results were contradictory about phonologically unacceptable spelling errors. Some studies found more difficulties than the control groups ( Mackie and Dockrell, 2004 ) but others did not replicate those results ( Broc et al., 2013 ; Dockrell and Connelly, 2015 ). In the only study conducted in a transparent orthography ( Soriano-Ferrer and Contreras-González, 2012 ) children with DLD produced more spelling errors that were phonologically unacceptable compared to their peers of the same age. However, both groups made four times as many errors when the phoneme correspondence was irregular, as opposed to when it was regular, resulting in observable errors. Finally, on written narratives, only studies conducted in opaque orthographies were reported to examine errors in inflectional morphological spelling. Children with DLD overall showed problems in their ability to accurately use inflections in their spelling. Error patterns in children with DLD were similar to younger language matched peers but more frequent than their age-matched peers.

Moreover, children and adolescents with DLD also may have difficulties with grammar, organization, cohesion, and length of written output ( Tucci and Choi, 2023 ). They make more errors and omissions when writing nominal inflectional morphemes and using derivational morphemes (prefixes and suffixes) than age-matched children ( Connelly et al., 2011 ; Mackie et al., 2013 ). For example, they produce more errors in the use of plural forms and past simple verb tenses ( Windsor et al., 2000 ; Mackie and Dockrell, 2004 ; Larkin et al., 2013 ). Additionally, they use fewer words that contain prefixes, such as im/patient or dis/agree and suffixes, such as teach/er or profession/al ( Mackie et al., 2013 ). Interestingly, these differences are still significant when children with DLD are matched with children possessing the same language skills. The percentage of omitted auxiliary verb be and content words—such as nouns as subjects—is also significantly higher than in TD children of the same age with a similar receptive vocabulary ( Windsor et al., 2000 ; Mackie and Dockrell, 2004 ). Moreover, they display poorer lexical diversity ( Scott and Windsor, 2000 ; Mackie et al., 2013 ; Williams et al., 2013 ; Levlin and Waldmann, 2020 ; Stuart et al., 2020 ). The differences are once again significant when children with DLD are compared to a younger cohort with the same language skills. Research has also shown differences in writing abilities to be significant when children with DLD are compared to younger children of a similar reading age ( Mackie et al., 2013 ). In addition, written texts produced by children with DLD are also shorter (i.e., contain fewer written words; Mackie et al., 2013 ; Dockrell et al., 2014 ; Stuart et al., 2020 ; Ralli et al., 2021 ) and contain a lower percentage of meaningful syntactic units (T-units) and coordinated sentences than texts produced by TD children of the same age. The sentences in their texts are also significantly shorter and contain fewer words per clause ( Scott and Windsor, 2000 ; Mackie et al., 2013 ).

Most of these studies about the characteristics of the written language in DLD have been conducted with English speakers, a language with an opaque orthographic system. However, English has a number of characteristics that make it very different from transparent orthographic system languages such as Spanish. First, Spanish has a simple phonological structure. It has approximately 23 phonemes and the majority of syllables follow a simple consonant–vowel (CV) structure and have limited clusters and blends ( Gorman and Gillam, 2003 ; Goikoetxea, 2005 ). Therefore, in Spanish, segmentation of syllables at the level of onset–rime is often equivalent to segmentation at the phonemic level. For example, a Spanish speaker who segments the syllables of the word “casa” [house] into onset and rime (onset:“c,” rime: “a”) will also identify the phonemes that make up the word (/c/ /a/ /s/ /a/; Goswami, 2008 ). This is not the case for the English, where many onsets and rimes contain clusters of phonemes, as in “sport” and “cost” which must be segmented further ( De Cara and Goswami, 2002 ). Spanish has a transparent orthography both in terms of reading and writing since practically every phoneme is represented by a single, unique letter. Thus, children need to learn fewer phoneme-to-letter conversions in Spanish than in English, where one phoneme can be represented by multiple spellings (as the phoneme /f/ in words like frog, tough, and photo). Moreover, Spanish is a morphologically rich language: it uses inflections to indicate the relationship between the elements; that is, the composition of the words changes (e.g., “casa” [house], “casas” [houses], “casita” [little house]). This implies important morphological changes in words that include a lexeme or radical morpheme, to which one or more grammatical morphemes can be added (e.g., cas-a, cas-as, cas-ita). Another feature of Spanish, as in other Romance languages, is that the order of the words within the sentence is flexible (e.g., “Juan ama a Maria” [“John loves Mary”]; “A Maria ama Juan” [“To Mary loves John”]; “Juan a Maria ama” [“John to Mary loves”]), although there is a basic order of words in the sentence (canonical order: subject > verb > object). In addition, Spanish is a pro-drop language that allows personal pronouns to be dropped in the sentence (“Juega al fútbol” [Plays football]).

Previous cross-linguistic research suggests that both the simple phonological structure of Spanish and its highly regular phoneme-to-letter correspondence facilitate the process of learning to read and write in Spanish children with TD ( Müller and Brady, 2001 ; Seymour et al., 2003 ; Ellis et al., 2004 ; Ziegler et al., 2010 ; Florit and Cain, 2011 ; Castejón et al., 2015 ). In theory, this should also help Spanish-speaking children with DLD as they learn to write. However, to our knowledge only two studies have been conducted concerning written language production among the DLD population in Spanish ( Soriano-Ferrer and Contreras-González, 2012 ; Buil-Legaz et al., 2023 ). Buil-Legaz et al. (2023) analyzed the difficulties of children with DLD in spelling. Participants were 18 children with DLD (aged 7;0–11;5, M = 8;4, SD = 1.25) and 18 children with DLD with TD (aged 7;0–11;6, M = 8;2, SD = 1.29) that completed a spelling-to-dictation task of words and pseudowords, where length was manipulated. They used digital tablets to collect data and obtain measures of accuracy, latencies and total writing durations. Results showed that children with DLD produced more errors, longer latencies and longer writing durations than age-matched children. Regarding accuracy, analysis of the errors showed that children in the control group produce few errors, most being substitutions, while children with DLD made more errors and of more varied types (substitutions, omissions and additions). Moreover, they were more affected by length on writing accuracy than the control group. Soriano-Ferrer and Contreras-González (2012) examined the written narrations and the influence of linguistic measures on narrative competence of children with DLD. Children did a written narrative task, where they had to recall, in writing, a story given to them previously orally twice. The story was composed of 19 propositions, with a simple grammatical structure. The children with DLD created short narratives, poorly organized and less cohesive. Also, their writings contained more syntax errors and had a higher proportion of phonologically inaccurate spelling errors in natural spelling but not in arbitrary spelling errors.

However, in these two previous studies, written performance was measured by single-word dictation ( Buil-Legaz et al., 2023 ) and by a narrative based on a story given orally ( Soriano-Ferrer and Contreras-González, 2012 ). As stated Broc et al. (2021) , in dictated tasks the words to be written are predetermined while on written narratives participants can choose words they know, which may result in fewer spelling errors as they may opt for words they feel to spell. However, in the study of Soriano-Ferrer and Contreras-González (2012) children had to retell in writing a story given orally. Therefore, as far as we know, there are not any studies that analyze the production of expository texts in Spanish-speaking children with DLD. An expository text or informational text is a non-fiction text that gives facts and information about a topic. It aims to inform, explain, describe, or define a particular topic or subject. Its primary purpose is to present factual information, clarify ideas, and provide insights in a clear, concise, and organized manner. This kind of text is very common in subjects such as science, history and social sciences. There are several different types of expository structures. Meyer and Ray (2011) proposed six structures: compare-and-contrast, problem-and- solution, cause-and- effect, sequence, enumeration, and description. Each text structure type represents a distinct text organization and purpose. For example, description focuses on describing a topic, person, place or thing by listing a collection of its features or examples while. Expository texts serve as valuable tools for assessing writing abilities in children due to their inherent structure, which demands clear, organized, and coherent expression of ideas. Evaluating a child’s ability to comprehend, synthesize, and communicate information effectively can be achieved through their creation of expository texts ( Fisher and Frey, 2017 ). In this way, the aim of this study was to examine and compare text writing of children with DLD in the production of expository texts in Spanish. More specifically, by looking at how these children and their aged-matched TD counterparts plan and encode expository texts, we sought to find out what variables are most frequently impaired in children with DLD compared to the TD group. We hypothesize that, given the errors that children with DLD tend to make in oral language, we expect to find significantly more difficulties in this population compared to TD children in all areas of writing. Specifically, we expect to find more inflectional morpheme and verb conjugation errors, as well as a higher percentage of omitted functional words.

2 Materials and methods

This study was approved by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya’s (UOC) Ethics Committee. Furthermore, it was conducted in accordance with the ethical standards laid out in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and subsequent updates ( WMA. World Medical Association, 2013 ).

2.1 Participants

This sample of children was a subsample of the study conducted by Ahufinger et al. (2021) , which included 70 children (35 children with DLD and 35 typically developing (TD) children). The subset of children in this study included 52 participants (12 girls and 40 boys): 26 children had DLD (mean age in months = 128.85 (10.73 years); SD = 25.02; range: 95 to 188 months) and 26 were age-and sex-matched TD children (mean age in months = 124.61 (10.38 years); SD = 24.25; range: 90 to 184 months). All participants met the following inclusion criteria: (a) nonverbal intellectual quotient (NVIQ) > 75; (b) typical hearing at 500, 1000, 2000 and 4,000 Hz at 20 dB, in accordance with the American National Standard Institute (1997) ; (c) typical or corrected vision; (d) typical oral and speech motor abilities, as confirmed by a certified speech language pathologist; and (e) native Spanish-Catalan bilingual speakers as reported by parents. Children were excluded if parents reported (a) other biomedical conditions commonly linked to genetic or neurological causes, such as autism, intellectual disability, Down syndrome or Williams syndrome ( Bishop et al., 2017 ); (b) frank neurological signs; or (c) seizure disorders or the use of medication to control seizures.

In 2017, children with DLD were identified with the help of the Catalan Center of Resources for Language-and Hearing-Impaired People (CREDA), members of the Catalan service for school counseling and guidance (EAP), and the Catalan Association of Specific Language Impairment (ATELCA), who work in conjunction with public and private schools throughout Catalonia to identify children with DLD or children with language difficulties. Children in the DLD group had a formal diagnosis of DLD or a suspected diagnosis and were in the process of being diagnosed, or were children whose families or teachers were concerned about language difficulties and/or were receiving speech–language services at the time of the original study per parental report. The TD children were recruited from public schools within the larger Barcelona metropolitan area. The TD children were at grade level in school, had no history, or diagnosis, of language learning disability, and had never received speech and language services.

To confirm each participant’s language status, standardized tests were administered by two trained researchers at the time of the study. These were the non-verbal IQ (NVIQ) Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test (K-BIT; Kaufman and Kaufman, 2004 ) and the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals - Fourth Edition, Spanish (CELF-4 Spanish; Semel et al., 2006 ). In the latter case, the researchers evaluated and recorded the participants’ Core Language Score, Expressive Language Score and/or Receptive Language Score. For the children with DLD, the CELF Core, Expressive or Receptive composite scores were at least 1.5 standard deviation below age-level expectations. For the children in the TD group, the CELF composite scores were all at or above age-level expectations. Each child with DLD was matched with a TD child of the same sex and age (+/− 3 months), as shown in Table 1 .

Table 1 . Age and standardized cognition and language measurement scores for the group of children with developmental language disorder (DLD) and the group of typical developing (TD) children.

Table 1 shows no significant age or NVIQ differences between the participants with DLD and their matched TD peers when the sample was selected. However, the children with DLD obtained significantly lower scores than the TD group on the three CELF language test scales.

In 2019, these children were invited to participate in the current study to examine and compare text writing abilities in the production of expository texts. All families were asked to sign a new consent form following the IRB protocol from the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC).

2.2 Instruments and procedure

Children completed two testing sessions of approximately 60 min each. These sessions were part of a larger study examining reading and writing skills. In the first session, children completed a reading assessment. In the second session, children completed two brief oral morphological tasks first, and the writing test for the present study after. The time allocated to carry out the writing task was approximately 15/20 min per child. The evaluation sessions were carried out individually in the research laboratories of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya and the Universitat de Barcelona by two research assistants trained for this purpose. All participants were administered the narration writing task from the Spanish Batería de Evaluación de los Procesos de Escritura (Writing Process Evaluation Battery – PROESC; Cuetos et al., 2018 ). The children had to write an expository text about their favorite animal. If they were unable to think of an animal, they were given suggestions such as cats, dogs or lions. The children were given unlimited time to write a one-page text explaining whatever they wanted to about the animal. The instructions on how to complete the task were given in Spanish, but the examiner explained to the children that they could write the text in the language they preferred. All the participants wrote the text in Spanish.

The children’s texts were transcribed for analysis using the Codes for the Human Analysis of Transcripts (CHAT) program and were analyzed using the Child Language Data Exchange System (CHILDES) Project’s Computerized Language Analysis (CLAN) program ( MacWhinney, 2000 ). The following category system was created to study the transcribed data, drawing on Mackie et al. (2013) and Salas and Caravolas (2019) :

2.3.1 Word frequency and sentence structure

• Total number of words (TNW): Total number of words written in the text.

• Number of different words (NDW): This index was used to score the lexical diversity of the vocabulary in the text. To prevent an effect caused by the length of the text, we calculated Guiraud’s R index: types/√tokens ( Guiraud, 1954 ).

• Main clauses ($MC): Total number of simple sentences the child has written as a proportion of the total number of sentences. A simple sentence is defined as a meaning unit that has a noun phrase, functioning as subject, and a verb phrase, functioning as predicate. Thus, it is a sentence expressing a single action, e.g., ‘El gato come verdura’ (‘The cat eats vegetables’).

• Coordinate clauses ($CC): Total number of coordinate sentences the child has written as a proportion of the total number of sentences. A coordinate sentence consists of two simple clauses, with equal syntactic importance, linked by a conjunction, e.g., ‘El perro ladra y el gato maúlla’ (‘The dog barks and the cat meows’).

• Subordinate clauses ($SC): Total number of subordinate sentences the child has written as a proportion of the total number of sentences. A subordinate sentence consists of a simple independent clause and at least one simple dependent clause. In subordinate sentences, dependent clauses do not make sense on their own; they need to be embedded in the independent clause to convey their meaning, e.g., ‘El perro, que es mi animal favorito, come comida de perro’ (‘Dogs, which are my favorite animal, eat dog food’).

• Total number of clauses (TNC): Total number of main, coordinate and subordinate clauses.

• Words per clause (WpC): This index is calculated by dividing the total number of words the child produces by the total number of clauses in the text.

2.3.2 Grammatical complexity and lexical density

• Number of adjectives ($NAj): Number of adjectives the child uses in the text.

• Number of adverbs ($NAv): Number of adverbs the child uses in the text.

• Number of connectors ($CO): Number of connectors the child uses in the text. Connectors include conjunctions, e.g., ‘y’, ‘o’ and ‘también’ (‘and’, ‘or’ and ‘also’), and discourse markers, e.g., ‘Primero de todo’ and ‘finalmente’ (‘first of all’ and ‘finally’). The purpose of linguistic connectors is to provide contextual meaning and clarity to the text by combining sentences and paragraphs.

2.3.3 Errors

• Spelling errors ($SE): Spelling errors in the children’s texts are defined using the categories established by Matute et al. (2010) .

• Omission errors ($SEo): Omitting a letter, syllable or segment from the word, e.g., writing ‘hose’ instead of ‘horse’.

• Joining words ($SEw): Omitting the space between words, e.g., writing ‘elcaballo’ (‘thehorse’) instead of ‘el caballo’ (‘the horse’).

• Segmentation errors ($SEs): Dividing words incorrectly, e.g., writing ‘con migo’ (‘to gether’) instead of ‘conmigo’ (‘together’).

• Translocation errors ($SEt): Changing the letter or syllable order in a word, e.g., writing ‘fuetne’ (‘soucre’) instead of ‘fuente (‘source’).

• Addition errors ($SEa): Adding a letter or syllable to a word, e.g., writing ‘cominida’ (‘dininer’) instead of ‘comida’ (‘dinner’).

• Phoneme substitution errors ($SEp): Substituting an unvoiced sound for a voiced sound, e.g., ‘peso’ (‘weight’) instead of ‘beso’ (‘kiss’). An English example would be ‘pear’ instead of ‘bear’.

• Articulatory substitution errors ($SEas): Natural spelling errors caused by substituting a consonant for another that has a close production point, e.g., ‘cato’ instead of ‘gato’ (‘cat’), and/or a similar mode of articulation, e.g., ‘mida’ instead of ‘mira’ (‘look’). An English example would be ‘coal’ instead of ‘goal’ for the first case and ‘deal’ instead of ‘real’ for the second.

• Arbitrary spelling errors ($SEar): Spelling errors related to spelling rules. In Spanish, these manifest as substitution errors between the letters /v,b/, /c,s,z/, /g,j/, /y,ll/ and /h,∅/., e.g., ‘cantava’ instead of ‘cantaba’ (‘sang’). An English example would be ‘liv’ instead of ‘live’ or ‘werked’ instead of ‘worked’.

• Accent errors ($SEc): Errors such as ‘tenia’ instead of ‘tenía’ (had).

• Code-switching ($CSE): Words written in Catalan instead of Spanish, e.g., ‘gos’ (‘dog’ in Catalan) instead of ‘perro’ (‘dog’ in Spanish).

• Word omissions ($WOM): Omission of nouns, verbs, articles, prepositions or pronouns that are required to understand the context of the expository text (including argument omissions and subject elisions), e.g., writing “es alto” (‘is tall’) instead of ‘el caballo es alto’ (‘the horse is tall’).

• Functional words errors ($WE): Errors in the use of articles, prepositions or pronouns.

• Errors in nominal inflectional morphemes ($EIM): Changing or omitting a word’s gender inflection (feminine and masculine), e.g., writing ‘el niña’ (‘girl’ with masculine article ‘el’) instead of ‘la niña’ (‘girl’ with feminine article ‘la’); or changing or omitting the nominal number inflection (singular and plural), e.g., ‘los perro’ (singular ‘dog’ with plural article ‘los’) instead of ‘los perros’ (plural ‘dogs’ with plural article ‘los’).

• Verb conjugation errors ($VCE): Verbal inflection errors made when conjugating regular and irregular verbs (errors of number, person or mode). This category also includes errors in gerund and participle use.

• Semantic errors ($SEE): These occur when the child writes one word instead of another, i.e., the child tries to activate a given concept but activates another in the same semantic category ( González et al., 2008 ), e.g., writing ‘gato’ (‘cat’) instead of ‘perro’ (‘dog’), or replacing a word with another semantically unrelated word, e.g., writing ‘yo he abierto la puerta con la bolsa’ (‘I unlocked the door with the bag’) instead of ‘con la llave’ (‘with the key’).

• Pragmatic errors ($PrE): This error is counted when the child uses literal expressions, writes oral expressions or uses a set phrase incorrectly, e.g., ‘El animal te muerde y estás acabado’ (‘The animal bites you and you are done’).

2.3.4 Other

• Language switch ($LS): An occasional use of Catalan to write the text. This category includes switching language for whole sentences, in which case the code is $LSS.

• Colloquialisms ($CW): Slang words, e.g., ‘guay’ (‘cool’) instead of “bueno” (‘good’), ‘mega’ instead of ‘muy’ (‘very’) or ‘chicha’ (colloquial way to refer to ‘meat’ in Spanish) instead of ‘carne’ (meat).

2.3.5 Reliability

Approximately 30% of the written texts ( n  = 16) were randomly selected from the sample to test the reliability using Cohen’s Kappa. Errors were coded by two independent reviewers. The reliability estimates for each writing measure are as follows: MC, 1; CC, 0.93; SC, 0.95; NAj, 0.89; NAv, 0.91; CO, 0.88; SE, 0.97; WOM, 0.92; WE, 0.70; EIM, 1; VCE, 0.82; SEE, 1; PrE, 1; LS, 1; LSS, 1; and CW, 1. If the two evaluators disagreed, they discussed the discrepancy until they reached an agreement. In the exceptional cases that no agreement was reached, the scores of the first author was used in the main analyses.

3.1 Data analysis

Starting with the coding of the expository texts using the CHAT system and the subsequent analysis using CHILDES, we obtained the values of each category for each subject. To assess the differences between the groups, descriptive data for each variable were used, and a non-parametric analysis, specifically the Mann–Whitney U test, was conducted. This choice was made due to the sample size, as it does not follow a normal distribution (as determined by the Shapiro–Wilk test) and the heterogeneity of variances (as determined by Levene’s test). The data is available online in https://n9.cl/0er91 .

3.2 Word frequency and sentence structure

Table 2 shows the mean, standard deviation and differences between the two groups with respect to word frequency, lexical diversity and sentence structure. The difference between the DLD and TD groups was significant for four out of the seven variables (total number of words, number of different words, total number of clauses and subordinate clauses). Children with DLD wrote significantly fewer words and sentences than TD children. Also, children with DLD wrote texts with less lexical diversity and used a significantly lower proportion of subordinate clauses compared to TD children.

Table 2 . Mean and standard deviation (SD) of the word frequency and sentence structure variables for the Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) and Typically Developing (TD) groups.

3.3 Grammatical complexity and lexical density

Table 3 shows the mean, standard deviation and differences between the two groups with regard to grammatical complexity and lexical density. Using the nonparametric Mann–Whitney U test, significant differences between the DLD and TD groups were identified in all three variables. Children with DLD used significantly fewer adjectives, adverbs and connectors compared to TD children of the same age.

Table 3 . Mean and standard deviation (SD) of the grammatical complexity and lexical density variables for the Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) and Typically Developing (TD) groups.

Table 4 shows the mean, standard deviation and differences between the two groups with regard to omissions and errors in their expository texts. Significant differences between the two groups were found in 5 out of the 7 variables. The DLD group made significantly more functional words, verb conjugation, nominal inflectional morpheme and spelling errors than the TD group. Children with DLD also omitted more words needed to understand the context of the text. A more detailed analysis was carried out for spelling errors. When the different categories of spelling errors were observed more closely, significant differences appeared between the two groups with respect to arbitrary spelling errors and articulatory spelling errors (z[2.309], p  < 0.05 and z[3.105], p  < 0.01, respectively). The children with DLD made significantly more arbitrary spelling errors (mean = 1.02, SD = 0.88) compared to the TD group (mean = 0.5, SD = 0.7). They also made significantly more articulatory spelling errors (mean = 0.81, SD = 1.34) compared to their TD peers (mean = 0.11, SD = 0.21; see Figure 1 ).

Table 4 . Mean and standard deviation (SD) of the omissions and errors variables for the Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) and Typically Developing (TD) groups.

Figure 1 . Mean number of arbitrary spelling errors (arbitrary sp. err.), accent mark spelling errors (accent sp. err.) and articulatory spelling errors (natural sp. err) in children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) and Typically Developing (TD) children.

With regard to switching languages, the results revealed significant differences between the two groups (z[2.194], p < 0.05). The ratio of language switch per word is significantly higher in children with DLD (mean = 0.013, SD = 0.026) compared to TD children (mean = 0.001, SD = 0.003). No significant differences were observed between children with DLD and TD children (z[1.42], p  = 0.15) in terms of language switches applied to whole sentences. There were also no significant differences between the two groups in the use of colloquialisms (z[0.487], p  = 0.648).

4 Discussion

In this study we explored the Spanish writing abilities of a group of children with DLD in comparison to a group of sex-and age-matched TD children using a written expository text. We were particularly interested in analyzing the writing abilities of this oral-language-impaired population in Spanish. This language is characterized by simple phonological structure, transparent orthography, rich morphology and flexible word order like Spanish.

Building on previous research on English-speaking children with DLD, in this study we analyzed word omissions, inflectional morpheme errors and verb conjugation errors. The analysis showed that the ratio of word omissions, errors in inflectional morphemes marking gender or number, and verb conjugation errors were significantly higher in the texts written by children with DLD compared to TD children of the same chronological age. These results are similar to other studies, such as Mackie et al. (2013) , Connelly et al. (2011) and Mackie and Dockrell (2004) , who also found that children with DLD had trouble using gender inflectional morphemes, as well as plural (−s), past (−ed) and gerund (−ing) markers, in their writing. Another morphological measurement not reported in previous writing research but key among Spanish-speaking children with DLD are errors using functional words such as articles, prepositions and pronouns that are very frequent in oral language ( Bedore and Leonard, 2001 ; Restrepo and Gutierrez-Clellen, 2001 ; Sanz-Torrent et al., 2008 ; Morgan et al., 2013 ; Coloma et al., 2016 ). In our study, the children with DLD produced texts with significantly more functional words errors compared to the TD group. All these errors are similar to those made by children with DLD when they express themselves orally, for example difficulties with verb morphology (i.e., No me gusta [:gustan] las avejas [:abejas] / I do not like [number error in Spanish] sheep [: bees]) and in the use of functional words, such as articles (i.e., …la [:las] leonas… / …the [sing.]: the [pl.] lioness…), prepositions (i.e., …pueden oir [:oír] [:a] distansias [:distancias]…/..They can hear [:from] distance) and pronouns (i.e., Mi [:la] raza de mi perro…/ my [:the] breed of my dog.). This clearly shows that such difficulties in oral language production also affect children with DLD’s writing.

Spelling is one of the most impaired aspects of writing among English-speaking children with DLD when compared to TD children ( Williams et al., 2013 ; Dockrell et al., 2014 ; Reilly et al., 2014 ). Our results showed that in Spanish, children with DLD also made significantly more spelling errors than their age-matched peers. A more specific analysis showed that they make significantly more articulatory and arbitrary spelling errors. These results are in line with previous research by Mackie and Dockrell (2004) , who concluded that most spelling errors are due to letter substitution, insertion or elimination and letter combinations that do not comply with spelling rules. Although the research sample in Mackie and Dockrell (2004) were English-speaking children, their results are similar to ours. This means that children with DLD exhibit difficulties with phonological awareness whether they speak a language with shallow orthography or one with deep orthography.

Children with DLD performed worse in most of the other writing variables compared to their peers in the TD group. These results suggest that children with DLD had more difficulty writing longer texts, i.e., they wrote significantly fewer words and significantly fewer sentences than TD children. Texts by children with DLD were also structurally simpler, contained a significantly lower percentage of subordinate clauses and were not as lexically rich as those written by the TD group. These results track with previous studies done on English-speaking samples ( Scott and Windsor, 2000 ; Puranik et al., 2006 ; Dockrell et al., 2014 ; Reilly et al., 2014 ), where children with DLD produced texts with significantly fewer words and a lower percentage of syntactic units. Our research found no significant differences between the two groups regarding mean sentence length. These results are consistent with Puranik et al. (2006) , who found that, despite significant differences between children with DLD and children with TD in sentence production, mean sentence length does not vary significantly between the groups. However, these results contradict research by Mackie et al. (2013) and Scott and Windsor (2000) , who found significant differences between the groups, with children with DLD producing fewer words per clause than their TD peers. Regarding clause types, no significant differences were found between the groups in terms of the percentage of simple and coordinate clauses used. There was, however, a difference when comparing the two groups for percentage of subordinate clauses. Proportionally, children with DLD used significantly fewer subordinate clauses than TD children, which indicates that their texts were simpler and less structurally complex. These results were also reported by Mackie and Dockrell (2004) .

Along with structural characteristics, this study also evaluated the grammatical richness of the texts. The texts written by the children with DLD contained significantly fewer adjectives, adverbs and connectors (i.e., they were characterized by poor lexical density compared to the same-aged TD children). Another characteristic not analyzed in earlier research related to children with DLD’s writing abilities is the role of pragmatic errors and semantic errors in written texts. We explored these characteristics and did not find significant differences between the DLD and TD groups in these areas.

Finally, we looked for code-switching in the written texts. This measurement was included because the children in our sample were bilingual, speaking both Catalan and Spanish. The results show that the ratio of language switch per word is significantly higher in children with DLD than in TD children, indicating a lack of consistency in language used while writing and supporting the idea that bilingual children with DLD code-switch more than TD children ( Pert et al., 2004 ). This could also be explained as a difficulty in thinking of a word and using the same word in another language as a compensation mechanism. However, as regards oral language, both Gutiérrez-Clellen et al. (2009) and Sanz-Torrent et al. (2007) found that Spanish-English and Spanish-Catalan bilingual children with DLD, respectively, did not differ from age-matched control children in terms of code-switching. Future research might look more closely at code-switching in written texts by bilingual children to analyze the differences between oral and written language.

In summary, writing abilities of children with DLD in Spanish showed more morphology-related, spelling and other writing errors compared to their age-matched TD peers. These results highlight the limitations that children with DLD may face in school when instruction is based on written language, and how these can affect their academic performance.

5 Limitations and future directions

This is the first study to explore the characteristics of expository text production in Spanish by children with DLD. However, there are a few areas for future improvement. Although we aimed to recruit as many participants as possible, the final sample consisted of 52 children (26 with DLD and 26 TD children). This sample size aligns with prior studies on English (e.g., Mackie et al., 2013 ; Dockrell et al., 2014 ; Andreou and Aslanoglou, 2022 ; Brimo et al., 2023 ) and Spanish ( Soriano-Ferrer and Contreras-González, 2012 ; Buil-Legaz et al., 2023 ) writing abilities in children with DLD. However, our study included participants ranging in age from 7;11 to 15;8 years, representing a diverse range of ages. In order to further enhance the generalizability and reliability of our findings, it is recommended for future studies to expand the sample size and include a more specific age range. By increasing the number of participants and narrowing down the age range, researchers can obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the topic at hand.

Our study centered on the production of expository texts, a common school activity that requires children to plan, translate, and revise. Although we primarily focused on microstructure, the task also allows for macrostructure analysis (global structure and coherence), a crucial factor in gaging the quality of children’s written texts. This aspect could be examined in future studies. The expository text task is less controlled than other tasks like dictation, where evaluators can choose words with different spelling characteristics. When writing expository texts, children can use words they are familiar with, potentially resulting in fewer spelling errors as they may prefer words they can spell correctly. Additionally, even though we allowed unlimited time for children to write a one-page text, the length of their texts significantly varied. Future research should examine the microstructure abilities in children with DLD, and attempt to control the text length to yield a similar amount of information.

In conclusion, the findings from our study should be considered when planning and conducting activities with these children. We emphasize the value of using expository text writing in assessing children with DLD. It is a simple, quick method that yields substantial information about their language and writing skills. Additionally, it would be insightful to examine the effectiveness of interventions targeting oral language issues on improving writing impairments, and vice versa.

Data availability statement

The datasets presented in this study can be found in online repositories. The names of the repository/repositories and accession number(s) can be found at: https://n9.cl/0er91 .

Ethics statement

The studies involving humans were approved by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya’s (UOC) Ethics Committee. Furthermore, it was conducted in accordance with the ethical standards laid out in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and subsequent updates ( WMA. World Medical Association, 2013 ). The studies were conducted in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. Written informed consent for participation in this study was provided by the participants’ legal guardians/next of kin.

Author contributions

RB-C: Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Validation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. NA: Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Validation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. MS-T: Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. LA: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing.

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación del Gobierno de España [2016EDU2016-75368-P and PID2020-114690RB-I00] and the Agència de Gestió d’Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca (AGAUR) de la Generalitat de Catalunya [2021SGR01102].

Acknowledgments

We thank the Associació del Trastorn Específic del Llenguatge de Catalunya (ATELCA) and all the schools that participated in the study. Especially, we thank the participation of the Escola Santa Anna (Premià de Dalt), the Centres de Recursos per a Deficients Auditius de Catalunya (CREDA) and the Equips d’Assessorament Psicopedagògic de Catalunya (EAP). We would like to extend our gratitude to the professors, speech and language pathologists, and other experts who participated in the study. Finally, we thank Coral Mayo and Joan Tarrida for their assistance with the data collection.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Sheng, L., and McGregor, K. K. (2010). Lexical-semantic organization in children with specific language impairment. J. Speech Lang. Hear. Res. 53, 146–159. doi: 10.1044/1092-4388(2009/08-0160)

Soriano-Ferrer, M., and Contreras-González, M. C. (2012). Narraciones escritas en niños con Trastorno Específico del Lenguaje (TEL). Univ. Psychol. 11, 1341–1351. doi: 10.11144/Javeriana.upsy11-4.nent

Stuart, N. J., Connelly, V., and Dockrell, J. E. (2020). Written verb use and diversity in children with developmental language disorder: stepping stones to academic writing. Read. Writ. 33, 67–96. doi: 10.1007/s11145-019-09978-z

Thatcher, K. L. (2010). The development of phonological awareness with specific language-impaired and typical children. Psychol. Sch. 47, 467–480. doi: 10.1002/pits.20483

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Keywords: developmental language disorder (DLD), specific language impairment (SLI), writing abilities, shallow language, expository text

Citation: Balboa-Castells R, Ahufinger N, Sanz-Torrent M and Andreu L (2024) Exploring Spanish writing abilities of children with developmental language disorder in expository texts. Front. Psychol . 15:1360245. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1360245

Received: 22 December 2023; Accepted: 20 March 2024; Published: 11 April 2024.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2024 Balboa-Castells, Ahufinger, Sanz-Torrent and Andreu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Raquel Balboa-Castells, [email protected]

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Why Writing Down Angry Thoughts and Shredding Them May Help You Process Emotions in a Healthy Way

A new study in Japan found that the physical disposal of the paper itself played a key role in eliminating the anger

Erin Clack is a Staff Editor for PEOPLE. She has been writing about fashion, parenting and pop culture for more than 15 years.

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Managing your anger could be as simple as putting pen to paper — followed by one extra key step — according to a new study.

In the findings, published on April 9 in Nature 's Scientific Reports, researchers in Japan found that writing down your thoughts and feelings after a negative incident on a piece of paper and then shredding it or crumbling it into a ball and throwing it out in a trash bin can dispel anger. Specifically, it was the act of disposing of the paper — rather than just writing down feelings — that eliminated anger in the study participants.

"This study shows that physical disposal of a piece of paper containing one’s written thoughts on the cause of a provocative event neutralizes anger, while holding the paper did not," the study's authors, Yuta Kanaya and Nobuyuki Kawai, wrote.

To conduct the study, a group of 57 students from a local university were asked to write brief opinions about an important social problem, such as smoking in public. Their handwritten responses were deliberately given low evaluations (according to criteria such as intelligence, rationality, logic and friendliness) and even some insulting comments.

The provoked participants then wrote down their angry thoughts about the negative feedback they received. One group of participants disposed of their paper in either the trash can or the shredder, while the other group kept their paper in a file or a plastic box on their desk.

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While all of the participants demonstrated an increased subjective rating of anger in response to the negative feedback, those who discarded their paper in the trash can or shredded it returned to their baseline state. However, those people who retained their paper experienced only a small reduction in their overall anger.

"The meaning (interpretation) of disposal plays a critical role," the researchers concluded. "These results are consistent with other studies which showed that the meaning of disposal was critical for determining its impact, not the action itself."

The study's author's noted that the results may be connected to the phenomenon of "backward magical contagion," which is "the belief that actions taken on an object (e.g. hair) associated with an individual can affect the individuals themselves."

"The phenomenon of ‘magical contagion’ or ‘celebrity contagion’ refers to the belief that the ‘essence’ of an individual can be transferred to their possessions," they continued. "This backward magical contagion operates in a reversed process, where manipulating an object associated with a person is thought to impact the individuals themselves."

The elimination of anger through the disposal of an object may be achieved by recognizing that the physical entity — in this case, the piece of paper — has been diminished, causing the anger to also disappear.

Kanaya and Kawai noted that the study reveals a "convenient" and "cost-effective" way to manage anger in a variety of settings, including childcare, business meetings and clinical applications.

"The building blocks of this method (e.g. applying it to a digital device or creating a specific application) could be useful in various daily situations as well as behavioral therapies. In particular, for someone who has difficulty suppressing their anger in their homes," they wrote.

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Students Are Likely Writing Millions of Papers With AI

Students have submitted more than 22 million papers that may have used generative AI in the past year, new data released by plagiarism detection company Turnitin shows.

A year ago, Turnitin rolled out an AI writing detection tool that was trained on its trove of papers written by students as well as other AI-generated texts. Since then, more than 200 million papers have been reviewed by the detector, predominantly written by high school and college students. Turnitin found that 11 percent may contain AI-written language in 20 percent of its content, with 3 percent of the total papers reviewed getting flagged for having 80 percent or more AI writing. (Turnitin is owned by Advance, which also owns Condé Nast, publisher of WIRED.) Turnitin says its detector has a false positive rate of less than 1 percent when analyzing full documents.

ChatGPT’s launch was met with knee-jerk fears that the English class essay would die . The chatbot can synthesize information and distill it near-instantly—but that doesn’t mean it always gets it right. Generative AI has been known to hallucinate , creating its own facts and citing academic references that don’t actually exist. Generative AI chatbots have also been caught spitting out biased text on gender and race . Despite those flaws, students have used chatbots for research, organizing ideas, and as a ghostwriter . Traces of chatbots have even been found in peer-reviewed, published academic writing .

Teachers understandably want to hold students accountable for using generative AI without permission or disclosure. But that requires a reliable way to prove AI was used in a given assignment. Instructors have tried at times to find their own solutions to detecting AI in writing, using messy, untested methods to enforce rules , and distressing students. Further complicating the issue, some teachers are even using generative AI in their grading processes.

Detecting the use of gen AI is tricky. It’s not as easy as flagging plagiarism, because generated text is still original text. Plus, there’s nuance to how students use gen AI; some may ask chatbots to write their papers for them in large chunks or in full, while others may use the tools as an aid or a brainstorm partner.

Students also aren't tempted by only ChatGPT and similar large language models. So-called word spinners are another type of AI software that rewrites text, and may make it less obvious to a teacher that work was plagiarized or generated by AI. Turnitin’s AI detector has also been updated to detect word spinners, says Annie Chechitelli, the company’s chief product officer. It can also flag work that was rewritten by services like spell checker Grammarly, which now has its own generative AI tool . As familiar software increasingly adds generative AI components, what students can and can’t use becomes more muddled.

Detection tools themselves have a risk of bias. English language learners may be more likely to set them off; a 2023 study found a 61.3 percent false positive rate when evaluating Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) exams with seven different AI detectors. The study did not examine Turnitin’s version. The company says it has trained its detector on writing from English language learners as well as native English speakers. A study published in October found that Turnitin was among the most accurate of 16 AI language detectors in a test that had the tool examine undergraduate papers and AI-generated papers.

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Schools that use Turnitin had access to the AI detection software for a free pilot period, which ended at the start of this year. Chechitelli says a majority of the service’s clients have opted to purchase the AI detection. But the risks of false positives and bias against English learners have led some universities to ditch the tools for now. Montclair State University in New Jersey announced in November that it would pause use of Turnitin’s AI detector. Vanderbilt University and Northwestern University did the same last summer.

“This is hard. I understand why people want a tool,” says Emily Isaacs, executive director of the Office of Faculty Excellence at Montclair State. But Isaacs says the university is concerned about potentially biased results from AI detectors, as well as the fact that the tools can’t provide confirmation the way they can with plagiarism. Plus, Montclair State doesn’t want to put a blanket ban on AI, which will have some place in academia. With time and more trust in the tools, the policies could change. “It’s not a forever decision, it’s a now decision,” Isaacs says.

Chechitelli says the Turnitin tool shouldn’t be the only consideration in passing or failing a student. Instead, it’s a chance for teachers to start conversations with students that touch on all of the nuance in using generative AI. “People don’t really know where that line should be,” she says.

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About 1 in 5 U.S. teens who’ve heard of ChatGPT have used it for schoolwork

Roughly one-in-five teenagers who have heard of ChatGPT say they have used it to help them do their schoolwork, according to a new Pew Research Center survey of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17. With a majority of teens having heard of ChatGPT, that amounts to 13% of all U.S. teens who have used the generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot in their schoolwork.

Teens in higher grade levels are particularly likely to have used the chatbot to help them with schoolwork. About one-quarter of 11th and 12th graders who have heard of ChatGPT say they have done this. This share drops to 17% among 9th and 10th graders and 12% among 7th and 8th graders.

There is no significant difference between teen boys and girls who have used ChatGPT in this way.

The introduction of ChatGPT last year has led to much discussion about its role in schools , especially whether schools should integrate the new technology into the classroom or ban it .

Pew Research Center conducted this analysis to understand American teens’ use and understanding of ChatGPT in the school setting.

The Center conducted an online survey of 1,453 U.S. teens from Sept. 26 to Oct. 23, 2023, via Ipsos. Ipsos recruited the teens via their parents, who were part of its KnowledgePanel . The KnowledgePanel is a probability-based web panel recruited primarily through national, random sampling of residential addresses. The survey was weighted to be representative of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 who live with their parents by age, gender, race and ethnicity, household income, and other categories.

This research was reviewed and approved by an external institutional review board (IRB), Advarra, an independent committee of experts specializing in helping to protect the rights of research participants.

Here are the  questions used for this analysis , along with responses, and its  methodology .

Teens’ awareness of ChatGPT

Overall, two-thirds of U.S. teens say they have heard of ChatGPT, including 23% who have heard a lot about it. But awareness varies by race and ethnicity, as well as by household income:

• 72% of White teens say they’ve heard at least a little about ChatGPT, compared with 63% of Hispanic teens and 56% of Black teens.
• 75% of teens living in households that make $75,000 or more annually have heard of ChatGPT. Much smaller shares in households with incomes between $30,000 and $74,999 (58%) and less than $30,000 (41%) say the same.

Teens who are more aware of ChatGPT are more likely to use it for schoolwork. Roughly a third of teens who have heard a lot about ChatGPT (36%) have used it for schoolwork, far higher than the 10% among those who have heard a little about it.

When do teens think it’s OK for students to use ChatGPT?

For teens, whether it is – or is not – acceptable for students to use ChatGPT depends on what it is being used for.

There is a fair amount of support for using the chatbot to explore a topic. Roughly seven-in-ten teens who have heard of ChatGPT say it’s acceptable to use when they are researching something new, while 13% say it is not acceptable.

However, there is much less support for using ChatGPT to do the work itself. Just one-in-five teens who have heard of ChatGPT say it’s acceptable to use it to write essays, while 57% say it is not acceptable. And 39% say it’s acceptable to use ChatGPT to solve math problems, while a similar share of teens (36%) say it’s not acceptable.

Some teens are uncertain about whether it’s acceptable to use ChatGPT for these tasks. Between 18% and 24% say they aren’t sure whether these are acceptable use cases for ChatGPT.

Those who have heard a lot about ChatGPT are more likely than those who have only heard a little about it to say it’s acceptable to use the chatbot to research topics, solve math problems and write essays. For instance, 54% of teens who have heard a lot about ChatGPT say it’s acceptable to use it to solve math problems, compared with 32% among those who have heard a little about it.

Note: Here are the  questions used for this analysis , along with responses, and its  methodology .

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101 Basic Sentences in Spanish Every Beginner Wants to Know

Knowing basic sentences in Spanish is essential for any amateur learner. 

Being able to start a conversation, answer simple questions, or provide information is key to building up confidence. Ultimately, if your goal is to be fluent and speak intuitively, becoming familiarized with basic sentences in Spanish is essential.

Join me in this entertaining blog post and discover 101 basic sentences in Spanish every beginner wants to know.

Basic Sentences in Spanish: Greetings

Use these basic sentences in Spanish as both formal and informal greetings. You can use them as introductions, when you arrive at a new place, or meet new people. 

1. ¡Hola! ¿Cómo estás? Hi! How are you?

2. ¿Qué tal todo? How is everything?

3. ¿Cómo has estado? How have you been?

4. ¿Cómo te va? How are you doing?

5. Mucho gusto, mi nombre es… Nice to meet you, my name is…

6. Es un placer conocerte, ¿Cómo te llamas? It’s a pleasure to meet you, what’s your name?

7. ¡Buenos días! Good morning!

8. ¡Buenas tardes! Good afternoon!

9. ¡Buenas noches! Good evening!

10. ¿Qué onda? What ‘s up?

11. Que gusto saludarte. It’s nice to see you. 

12. ¡Bienvenido! Welcome!

13. Estoy bien, ¿Y tú? I am fine, and you?

14. Muy bien, ¿Y usted? Very well, and you?

15. ¿Cómo te llamas? What’s your name?

16. ¿Cual es tu nombre? What is your name?

Basic Sentences in Spanish: Polite Phrases 

Use these basic sentences in Spanish to show manners. Spanish speakers are naturally friendly and these polite phrases are guaranteed to create opportunities for small talk with native speakers.

17. ¡Muchas gracias! Thank you very much!

18. Disculpe señor, señora, señorita… Excuse me sir, mam, miss…

19. Mil disculpas. I’m really sorry.

20. Con permiso ¿Puedo pasar? Excuse me, can I come in?

21. Le agradezco mucho.  I really appreciate it. 

22. Disculpe; ¿me puede ayudar por favor? Excuse me, could you help me please?

23. Lo siento mucho. I’m very sorry.

24. Buen provecho. Enjoy your meal. 

25. Gracias por su ayuda. Thank you for your help. 

Basic Sentences in Spanish: Saying Goodbye

Spanish speakers have different ways of saying their goodbyes during an event, visit, or phone call. Use these basic sentences in Spanish for saying farewell to friends, acquaintances, or family. 

25. ¡Hasta pronto! See you soon!

26. Hasta mañana. See you tomorrow.

27. Te veo luego. I’ll see you later.

28. Que pases un lindo día. Have a nice day.

29. ¡Hasta luego! See you later!

30. Que te vaya bien. Have a good day.

31. Cuídate mucho. Take care.

32. Que todo te salga bien. Hope everything goes well. 

33. Nos vemos pronto. See you soon. 

34. Lamento interrumpir. I’m sorry to interrupt. 

Basic Sentences in Spanish: Questions

Every beginner Spanish learner needs to know how to ask questions. Among the types of basic sentences in Spanish, questions are essential for you to learn new information. Que (what), como (how), donde (where), por que (why), and quien (who) are the starting point for most Spanish questions. 

35. ¿Cuántos años tienes? How old are you?

36. ¿Dónde vives? Where do you live?

37. ¿De dónde eres? Where are you from?

38. ¿Cuándo es tu cumpleaños? When’s your birthday?

39. ¿Quién eres? Who are you?

40. ¿Qué fecha es hoy? What is the date today?

41. ¿Qué es esto? What is this?

42. ¿Dónde queda? Where is it?

43. ¿Por qué te gusta? Why do you like it?

44. ¿Me puedes explicar esto? Can you explain this to me?

45. ¿Dónde está el baño? Where is the bathroom?

46. ¿Me entiendes? Can you understand me?

47. ¿Cuánto cuesta esto? How much is this?

48. ¿Qué edad tienes? How old are you?

49. ¿Cómo llego hasta allá? How do I get there?

50. ¿Puede hablar más despacio por favor? Can you talk slower, please?

51. ¿Quieres algo de comer? Do you want something to eat?

52. ¿Todo bien? Is everything okay?

53. ¿A dónde vamos? Where are we going?

54. ¿A dónde vamos a ir a comer? Where are we going to eat?

55. ¿Estoy equivocado? Am I wrong?

56. ¿Dónde puedo comprar esto? Where can I buy this?

57. ¿Tienes hermanos o hermanas? Do you have any brothers or sisters?

58. ¿Cómo es tu familiar? What’s your family like?

Basic Sentences in Spanish: Special Occasions, Exclamations, and Best Wishes

Spanish is a very emotional and joyful language. Basic sentences in Spanish are a must for expressing kind wishes, what you’re feeling, and for special occasions. 

59. ¡Muchas felicidades! Congratulations!

60. Que sigas mejor. Get well soon. 

61. Espero que te mejores pronto. I hope you feel better soon.

62. ¡Feliz cumpleaños! Happy birthday!

63. ¡Feliz aniversario! Happy anniversary!

64. Esto es impresionante. This is impressive.

65. Bien hecho. Well done.

66. Salud por eso. Cheers to that. 

67. ¡Felices fiestas! Happy holidays!

68. Que la pases muy bien. Have a wonderful time. 

69. ¡Todo listo!  Everything is ready!

70. Que tengas un buen viaje. Have a good trip. 

71. Te deseo todo lo mejor.  I wish you all the best. 

Basic Sentences in Spanish: Hobbies and Interests

Talking about your likes and dislikes leads to finding common ground with new friends and acquaintances. Sharing about yourself and your hobbies using basic sentences in Spanish, transforms a conversation, and allows it to flow smoothly. 

72. ¿Qué te gusta hacer? What do you like to do?

73. ¿Cual es tu pasatiempo? What is your hobby?

74. ¿Qué haces en tu tiempo libre? What do you do in your spare time?

75. ¿Qué te gusta leer? What do you like to read?

76. Mi pasatiempo favorito es… cocinar, hacer ejercicio o viajar. My favorite pastime is… cooking, working out, or traveling. 

77. ¿En qué trabajas? What is your job?

78. ¿A qué te dedicas? What do you do for a living?

79. ¿Qué música te gusta? What music do you like?

80. En mi tiempo libre, me gusta… In my free time, I like to…

81. Yo trabajo en… I work in…

82. No me gusta… I don’t like…

83. Me encanta… I love…

84. Me apasiona… I am passionate about…

85. Soy un excelente cocinero. I’m an excellent cook.

86. Vamos al cine. Let’s go to the movies.

87. Acompáñame a tomar algo. Join me for a drink. 

88. ¿Te gustan los perros? Do you like dogs?

89. ¿Estás estudiando? Are you in school?

Learn in detail How to Talk About Your Hobbies and Pastimes in Spanish with this insightful blog post. 

Basic Sentences in Spanish: Idioms and Sayings

Spanish is a colorful language. It’s full of curious and quirky expressions unique to different countries and nationalities. Some basic sentences in Spanish that are own to native speakers will add spice to any conversation. They’ll also support you in sounding natural. 

90. ¡Qué buena onda! That’s awesome!

91. Hablando del rey de Roma… Speak of the devil…

92. Metí la pata. I messed up.

93. ¡Ponte las pilas! Look alive!

94. Échale ganas. Put some elbow grease on it. 

95. Tiré la casa por la ventana. I went above and beyond.

96. Estoy hasta las narices. I’m fed up. 

97. Dilo sin pelos en la lengua. Don’t sugarcoat it. 

98. Me dieron gato por liebre. I was tricked.

99. Esto es pan comido. This is a piece of cake.

100. Dale la vuelta a la tortilla. Turn the table. 

101. Lo hice al pie de la letra. I did it following instructions. 

Expand this lesson of basic sentences in Spanish with this curious list of 50 Spanish Idioms To Use in Your Everyday Conversations. 

Move From Basic Sentences in Spanish to Advanced Conversation

After covering this list of basic sentences in Spanish, you’re right on track towards fast-tracking your fluency. 

Take your Spanish skills to the next level and sign up for a free class with our certified teachers from Guatemala. They’ll teach you more basic sentences in Spanish and will give you the confidence for engaging in conversations with confidence.

According to The Economist, people who are bilingual access better and more competitive job opportunities. Spanish speakers are valuable to the workplace and earn attractive salaries. 

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to advance in your language skills and expand your communications possibilities to new horizons. 

Want more free Spanish lessons, fun content, and easy learning strategies? Check these out!

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Writing a new Sherlock Holmes story was daunting – but mine does something that hasn’t been done before

The thriller writer on the responsibility, challenges and joy of writing an authorised new adventure

S mog-filled Victorian alleyways where villains lurk with glittering knives. Bleak heaths where giant devil dogs await the weary traveller. Blackmailers laughing at wide-eyed victims. All these have been my companions for half a year as I have felt my way through the landscapes of the world’s most famous detective: Sherlock Holmes. Because a few weeks ago, authorised to do so by the Conan Doyle estate , and in a haze of 4am self-doubt, I finished writing a new official Holmes novel, Holmes and Moriarty .

In recent years, only one other author, Anthony Horowitz, has been allowed to write a new authorised novel; so it’s been a riveting project – but a daunting one too.

Everyone wants a piece of Sherlock Holmes. Around the world there are those who grew up with Harry Potter, James Bond or Alice, but only Holmes has been absorbed and adapted by just about every society, either gently moulding or violently pummelling him into place.

The first major stage version, for instance, was on Broadway in 1899 by American actor William Gillette. That opened the floodgates to hugely popular French “gentleman burglar” Arsène Lupin battling Holmes in a copyright-infringing 1907 story.

Skip through a century of radio plays, card games and prog-rock operas, and 2024 features Sherlock in Russia on Russian TV, in which the hero, a native of St Petersburg, is in pursuit of Jack the Ripper, who has turned up on the streets of his home town; Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter for your Xbox games console; or Young Miss Holmes , one of the biggest-selling Japanese manga comic series.

The question I had to grapple with is where that leaves me. If every possible incarnation or setting has been attempted – and believe me, it has – there’s little point in trying to push the boundaries just for the sake of it. So no, I made a decision straight off the bat to stick with what has always grabbed Holmes’s public: intellectual mystery; characters with a hint of the Gothic romance about them; and the dangerous thought that your hero could turn into antihero at any moment.

That said, I also wanted to offer something that you don’t find in the Holmes canon. It took a lot of shut-away pondering to create a storyline in which Holmes and Professor Moriarty – a character who, incredibly, appears in person in only a single story – are forced to work together on a case. It provides room to explore both the fascinating criminal mastermind, and the sparks that fly as the two compete, collaborate, stab each other in the back and save one another from fatal peril.

Perhaps the reason these characters are so gripping is that they are, in fact, drawn from the real world. As Conan Doyle explained in his autobiography: “I was educated in a very severe and critical school of medical thought, especially coming under the influence of Dr Bell of Edinburgh who had the most remarkable powers of observation. He prided himself that when he looked at a patient he could tell not only their disease, but very often their occupation and place of residence.”

While, for his part, Professor Moriarty was based on the real-life Adam Worth, known as “the Napoleon of crime”.

There’s something a bit thrilling for an author about stealing part of your book from the world of flesh and blood, as if you might be caught doing it and arrested. That’s why one plot thread in Holmes and Moriarty is taken straight from a famous real murder mystery that could have groundshaking consequences for the British constitution if it’s ever solved. It’s far more extraordinary than anything I could have dreamed up, so I thieved it from history.

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One of the most intriguing aspects of the stories is how they address controversial issues we think today that we invented: religious extremism in A Study in Scarlet ; interracial marriage in The Adventure of the Yellow Face ; the mafia in The Adventure of the Six Napoleons . ( The Man with the Twisted Lip is a searing indictment of the low salaries paid to journalists, though I accept this may not be a universal concern.)

And yet we mustn’t feel a need to make a run at any hot topics just because – like Everest – they’re there . Indeed, my favourite story is The Adventure of the Creeping Man , a bonkers mashup of gothic horror and science fiction. The literary equivalent of a rugby club Christmas lunch, it’s often considered among the worst of Conan Doyle’s stories. I don’t care. I like it the most.

Oh, let’s go with what enthrals us. That’s why I’m taking my cue from when William Gillette telegrammed Conan Doyle to ask if he could marry Holmes off in his play. Conan Doyle, ever the liberal author, replied: “You may marry him, or murder or do what you like with him.”

Holmes and Moriarty is published on 12 September

• Arthur Conan Doyle
• The Observer

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How to Type Spanish Accents and Letters

Having trouble typing á , é , í , ó , ú , ü , ñ , ¿ , and ¡ on your keyboard? ¡No te apures! ( Don't sweat it! ) There are several ways you can incorporate these letters and punctuation marks into your daily life.

1. You can simply copy and paste the letters and punctuation marks given above.

2. you can learn the keyboard shortcuts on your mac or pc., 3. you can set your keyboard layout to spanish..

Read on for more on keyboard shortcuts and layouts!

Keyboard Shortcuts

If you only need an accented character every now and then, there is no need to change your full keyboard layout. Instead, you can make use of keyboard shortcuts, which we'll explain for both PC and Mac users below.

There are several keyboard shortcuts you can use for Spanish letters and punctuation on your PC. This first set is for newer computers and may only work in Microsoft Office.

If you’re using Office for Windows, use the following shortcuts:

• For accented vowels, press Ctrl + ' , then the vowel you want to accent.
• For the Spanish ñ , press Ctrl + ~ , then the n key.

To get accented vowels on a Mac, hold down the Option/Alt key (⌥) , and press the e key. Then, release both keys and type the letter that you want to accent.

To type an umlaut over the u , hold down the Option/Alt key while pressing the u key, then press u again.

To type ¡ , press the Option/Alt key and the ! key. To type ¿ , press the Option/Alt key, Shift , and the ? key.

On many keyboards, you can also simply hold down the letter you want to accent. This will cause a little box with letter choices to pop up, and you can select which letter you want. For example, holding down the n key will cause a box with and ñ and ń to appear.

How to Type Accents and Letters with Character Codes

Another way to type Spanish letters and punctuation marks is to use character codes. Each character in your computer has a code made up of the Alt key and a three-digit number, all of which are listed below.

To type the numbers, you must use the numeric keypad on the right side of your keyboard, not the number keys on the top row.

Full Keyboard Configuration

For those using Spanish letters and punctuation on a regular basis, we recommend going into your Control Panel/System Preferences and adding the Spanish keyboard configuration. This will mean you need to learn the new key placements, but it is very easy once you get used to it.

After changing your keyboard layout, you can also put a skin on your keyboard to help you learn new key placements. A skin is a plastic keyboard cover that you can place over your original keyboard if you happen to configure it. Skins are very cheap and available in many different languages, including (of course) Spanish!

For Windows Vista

• Go to your Control Panel
• Click on "Clock, Language, Region”
• Click on "Change Keyboards"
• Click "Add" and Select "Spanish-International Sort"

For Windows XP

• Click on "Date, Time, Language, and Regional Options"
• Click on "Regional and Language Options"
• Select the "Languages" tab at the top
• Click on "Details" near the bottom
• Click "Add" and choose "Spanish-Traditional Sort"
• Go back to the "Languages" tab and choose the option to "switch languages" by pressing "left alt-shift" at the same time. This way, you can switch to and from the Spanish and regular keyboard whenever you want.
• Go to your System Preferences
• Click on "International"
• Select the "Input Menu" tab
• Scroll down to select "Spanish - ISO"
• Note the keystrokes necessary to switch between languages or select "Show input menu in menu bar" to be able to select which keyboard you want to use.

Spanish-International Sort Keyboard Layout

Once you have installed your Spanish keyboard, it may react a bit differently than you're used to. In particular, several punctuation marks are in different places than they are on an English-language keyboard. Here's how to type a few of the trickier ones (check out the image of the Spanish Mac keyboard below to follow along.)

• To type an apostrophe ( ' ), press the key immediately to the right of the key for the number 0.
• To type a question mark ( ? ), press Shift, then the key immediately to the right of the key for the number 0.
• To type double quotes ( " ), press Shift, then the key for the number 2.
• To type a semicolon ( ; ) press Shift, then the comma ( , ) key.

Happily, the period ( . ), comma ( , ), and exclamation point ( ! ) keys are in the same places on Spanish and English Mac keyboards.

Spanish Mac Keyboard

Learn more about Spanish punctuation with these articles!

• Spanish Punctuation
• What Is the Upside-Down Question Mark?
• What Is the Upside-Down Exclamation Point?
• Written Accent Marks (Tildes)
• How to Pronounce "Ñ" in Spanish

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