Key learning points

1. The -tion ending of an English word often changes to -ción in Spanish, e.g. 'nation' - 'nación'.
2. If a word ending in -n or -s has final syllable stress, use an accent, otherwise, no accent is needed.
3. To talk about where someone goes (present) use the verb ‘ir’, e.g. ‘voy’, ‘vas’, ‘va’.
4. To say ‘to the’, use ‘a la’ for singular feminine nouns and ‘al’ for singular masculine nouns.
5. In the preterite tense, the verb ‘ir’ does not follow general conjugation rules, e.g. ‘fui’, ‘fuiste’, ‘fue’.

Keywords

• Final syllable stress - pronouncing the last syllable more heavily than other syllables in a word

• Penultimate syllable stress - pronouncing the second-last syllable more heavily than other syllables in a word

• Simple present - describes habitual events in the present, e.g. 'I do'

• Preterite - a tense used for events completed in the past

Common misconception