01 · The one everyone starts with
Yo hablo español.
I speak Spanish.
Drop -ar, add -o. That's the whole yo form — no exceptions to memorize.
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Meat & Potatoes
Turn hablar, trabajar and estudiar into real sentences about your day — spoken, not memorized.
Drop the -ar and add the person ending: -o, -as, -a, -amos, -an — yo hablo, tú hablas, él habla, nosotros hablamos, ellos hablan. The trap is in your ear, not the rule: tú always ends in -s (tú hablas) and él/ella never does (él habla) — one letter separates you from he. And never leave the infinitive in a conjugated slot: it's yo hablo español, never yo hablar español.
Below: each ending anchored to verbs you'll actually use, how Argentina's vos shifts the accent, the mistakes that mark a beginner — and a way to lock the pattern in by talking, not by filling in conjugation tables.
The warm-up pack
The five verb endings that carry every day you narrate out loud.
01 · The one everyone starts with
Yo hablo español.
I speak Spanish.
Drop -ar, add -o. That's the whole yo form — no exceptions to memorize.
02 · The letter that separates you from him
Tú hablas muy rápido.
You speak very fast.
That final -s is the whole trick: tú always has it, él/ella never does.
03 · Missing that one letter
Él habla tres idiomas.
He speaks three languages.
Same verb, no -s. Say it next to 'tú hablas' until your ear catches the difference on its own.
04 · Talking about the group
Nosotros hablamos en clase.
We speak in class.
-amos, no accent. It's the one nosotros form worth saying out loud until it's automatic.
05 · Everyone but you
Ellos hablan inglés.
They speak English.
-an closes out the set. Five endings, and you can conjugate any regular -AR verb for life.
06 · The contrast that trips people up
Tú cocinas, él cocina también.
You cook, he cooks too.
Say both halves back to back — hearing tú and él in the same breath is how the -s finally sticks.
07 · Narrating your actual morning
Yo desayuno a las ocho.
I have breakfast at eight.
Any -AR verb works this way. Swap in your real time and it's true.
08 · What you do for fun
Yo toco la guitarra.
I play the guitar.
Same -o ending as hablo. Once one -AR verb clicks, they all do.
09 · The classic icebreaker
¿Tú estudias o trabajas?
Do you study or work?
One of the first real questions you'll get asked — and you can answer it without translating in your head.
10 · Talking about them
Ellos practican fútbol en la escuela.
They practice soccer at school.
-an again. Once you've got hablan, practican and trabajan follow for free.
11 · Describing the weekend plan
Nosotros caminamos al parque por la tarde.
We walk to the park in the afternoon.
A full sentence about a real plan — this is what the ending is actually for.
FLUENT
Finally, someone to talk to in Spanish.
Ten-minute spoken lessons. A teacher who answers back — and gently fixes what you got wrong.
First 10 lessons freeandbefluent.com/spanish/meat-and-potatoesRegional Spanish
Textbooks teach one word. Locals use several — pick your region's and stay consistent.
| English | Mexico | Argentina (vos) |
|---|---|---|
| you speak | tú hablas | vos hablás |
| you cook | tú cocinas | vos cocinás |
| you swim | tú nadas | vos nadás |
Watch out
The part no drill site can do
Carla
Your grammar teacher for this pack
There are no conjugation tables to fill in here. In the Meat & Potatoes lessons, Carla just gets you talking about your actual day: you narrate your morning with -AR verbs — yo desayuno a las ocho, yo camino al parque, yo trabajo en casa. Then she rotates one verb between question and answer — ¿tú trabajas? … él trabaja — until your ear catches that final -s on its own. By the weekend beat, you're using bailar, cocinar, viajar and cantar in full sentences without thinking about endings at all.
Blank mid-sentence and nothing bad happens — she waits. That's the practice, without unnecessary judgement.
Finish the 8 lessons and Meat & Potatoes is yours — earned, not given.
First 10 lessons free · 10-minute spoken lessons · your AI coaching team remembers you
Quick answers
Drop -ar and add -o, -as, -a, -amos, -an: yo hablo, tú hablas, él habla, nosotros hablamos, ellos hablan. In Latin America you won't need the vosotros form — you all is ellos-style hablan.
One letter: tú always ends in -s, él/ella never does. tú cocinas, él cocina también. Train your ear to listen for that final -s — it tells you who's being talked about.
The ones that power daily routines: hablar (speak), estudiar (study), trabajar (work), caminar (walk), cocinar (cook), escuchar (listen). They all conjugate identically, so five verbs buy you dozens of sentences.
The stress moves to the ending and gains a written accent: vos hablás instead of tú hablas, vos cocinás, vos nadás. Same verb, same meaning — Argentines will understand your tú forms perfectly.
No — the ending already carries the person, so speakers drop the pronoun when it's clear: camina cada mañana instead of él camina, estudiamos juntos instead of nosotros estudiamos. Keep the pronoun when you need contrast: tú trabajas y él descansa.