Spanish Conversation: past, future and travel

Present tense engine: key verbs and your daily routine

In simple words

Every tense you learn later grows from the present tense, like branches from a trunk. Make the trunk strong first.

Before this course: Spanish for Beginners (course 6.4). You should already know the sounds and spelling, greetings, tú and usted, numbers, prices, ordering food, directions and survival phrases. We do not repeat them. We build on them.

Key facts

Regular endings in the present: -ar (hablo, hablas, habla, hablamos, habláis, hablan), -er (como, comes, come, comemos, coméis, comen), -ir (vivo, vives, vive, vivimos, vivís, viven).
Four verbs you need every day:

	ser	estar	tener	ir
yo	soy	estoy	tengo	voy
tú	eres	estás	tienes	vas
él / ella / usted	es	está	tiene	va
nosotros	somos	estamos	tenemos	vamos
vosotros	sois	estáis	tenéis	vais
ellos / ustedes	son	están	tienen	van

Ser = who or what something is (identity, job, origin, time): Soy de Toronto. Es enfermera.
Estar = where something is and how someone feels right now: Estoy en casa. Estoy cansado.
Tener is also used for age and feelings: Tengo treinta años. Tengo hambre.
Hacer (to do or make): hago, haces, hace, hacemos, hacéis, hacen. Querer (to want): quiero, quieres, quiere, queremos, queréis, quieren. Poder (can): puedo, puedes, puede, podemos, podéis, pueden.
Reflexive verbs (you do it to yourself) use me, te, se, nos, os, se: me levanto (I get up), me ducho (I take a shower), me visto (I get dressed), me acuesto (I go to bed).
Daily routine words: primero (first), luego / después (then), por la mañana / tarde / noche, a las siete, todos los días.

Example (dialogue)

A: "¿A qué hora te levantas?"
B: "Me levanto a las seis y media. Luego me ducho y desayuno."
A: "¿Dónde trabajas?"
B: "Trabajo en un hospital. Estoy allí de nueve a cinco."

Step by step

Copy the table for ser, estar, tener and ir onto a card.
Write one sentence for each verb about yourself: "Soy ___. Estoy ___. Tengo ___. Voy a ___."
Choose ser or estar for these: your job, your city, your mood now, where you are now.
Write six sentences about your routine with reflexive verbs: me levanto, me ducho, me visto, desayuno, trabajo, me acuesto.
Add times: "Me levanto a las siete."
Tell your routine to a friend, then ask "¿Y tú, a qué hora te levantas?"
Check: you can say your whole day in six sentences without looking.

Watch on YouTube

Present, past and future of SER, ESTAR, TENER, IRButterfly Spanish · YouTube · youtube.com

Spanish reflexive verbs for your daily routineTell Me In Spanish · YouTube · youtube.com

Videos by other creators on YouTube, for reference. They are not made by or affiliated with The Future Market.

LESSON 01Present tense engine: key verbs and your daily routine

LESSON 01 / ANIMATED LESSON / AI VOICE00:00 / 01:00

Voice

Read the video script

[Host] "Four verbs you will use every day: ser, estar, tener, ir."
[Text on screen: Soy / Estoy / Tengo / Voy] "Soy, estoy, tengo, voy."
[Text on screen: ser = who you are, estar = where and how you are] "Ser says who you are. Estar says where and how you are."
[Text on screen: me levanto, me ducho, me acuesto] "For your day, use reflexive verbs: me levanto, me ducho, me acuesto."
[Host] "Tell me your routine in six sentences."

Try it now

Write and say your daily routine in at least eight sentences, using ser or estar twice and three reflexive verbs.

ClaudeStuck? Copy a ready-made prompt for Claude

Copy this, open Claude, paste it, and Claude will walk you through the lesson step by step.

For a grown-up: Claude is for adults (18+). Copy this, paste it into Claude, and use the answer to explain the lesson to your child.

I'm learning "Spanish Conversation: past, future and travel" on The Future Market. Lesson 1: "Present tense engine: key verbs and your daily routine".

What the lesson teaches:
- Regular endings in the present: -ar (hablo, hablas, habla, hablamos, habláis, hablan), -er (como, comes, come, comemos, coméis, comen), -ir (vivo, vives, vive, vivimos, vivís, viven).
- Four verbs you need every day:
- ser - estar - tener - ir
- yo - soy - estoy - tengo - voy
- tú - eres - estás - tienes - vas
- él / ella / usted - es - está - tiene - va
- nosotros - somos - estamos - tenemos - vamos

The exercise I'm working on:
Write and say your daily routine in at least eight sentences, using ser or estar twice and three reflexive verbs.

I'm stuck. Please:
1. Explain the main idea in plain, simple words with one everyday example.
2. Walk me through the exercise one small step at a time. Ask me what I've done so far before giving the next step.
3. Don't just give me the final answer. Help me do it myself, and check my work when I share it.

I'm a parent helping my child (about 8 years old) with a lesson called "Present tense engine: key verbs and your daily routine" from the course "Spanish Conversation: past, future and travel".

Here's what the lesson says:
Every tense you learn later grows from the present tense, like branches from a trunk. Make the trunk strong first.

The activity:
Write and say your daily routine in at least eight sentences, using ser or estar twice and three reflexive verbs.

Please explain this so an 8-year-old understands: short sentences, a fun everyday example, and no hard words.
Then give me 3 simple questions I can ask my child to check they understood, and a way to do the activity together, one tiny step at a time.

Open Claude

Sources

Real Academia Española (RAE), Diccionario panhispánico de dudas and Nueva gramática (spelling and verb forms): www.rae.es/
Instituto Cervantes, Plan curricular (A2 and B1 content): cvc.cervantes.es/ensenanza/biblioteca_ele/plan_curricular/

My notes

I learned this