GrammarPop lessons
Built around ONE structure, in three modes: input-based, explicit, or hybrid.
Intermediate LowContame qué pasó
A focused first lesson on the preterite. A friend asks what happened last night; first you learn how the preterite works (regular endings + the irregulars you'll actually use, and how it differs from the everyday present), then you notice it, practice form and use, and tell the story yourself, every step gated by understanding.
Novice HighEl sábado de Cami
An input-based listening activity. Cami sends a voice note about her Saturday, told entirely in the preterite. You just listen and show you understood: the gist, the order of events, who did what. You never conjugate anything. The past tense is acquired through meaningful exposure, not a rule.
Intermediate LowEl cuaderno de la profe Rivero
The explicit counterpart to the same preterite. Editor Profe Rivero teaches you the whole paradigm up front (the rule, the tables, the irregulars) then runs you up a five-floor tower of practice that marches from regular verbs to stem-changers, every step gated on getting both the form and the meaning right.
Novice HighAyer en el barrio
Lesson 1 of the preterite unit, on regular -AR verbs. It opens as a narrated picture-storybook (a little neighborhood mystery about a tart that vanished) told one illustrated, voiced sentence at a time. Then you check what happened, learn the -AR endings, and practice form and use on the same story.
Novice HighRompió el empate
July 19, 2026. Eighty thousand people, a red card, twelve saves, and one left-footed shot in minute 106. Mateo was in the stadium; his cousins were texting from two continents. Read the chat, then tell the final the way it actually happened.
Novice HighSaqué mil fotos
September 15, the Zócalo, a million people and one bell. Vale posted the whole night as a photo dump: arrived at six, found her cousins, took a thousand photos, paid forty pesos for an elote. Read her post, then post your own night.
Intermediate Low¿Qué hiciste el finde?
Independence weekend in Paterson: a carne asada at four, twenty relatives and a dog, the fight on the patio TV, and nobody asleep before one. Mateo told the whole thing in a 50-second voice note. Listen, then answer the only Monday question that matters: ¿qué hiciste el finde?
Intermediate Low¿Qué dijo?
Dani's quince. An emerald dress with a skirt that comes off to dance, a cake that drove three hours from Boston, a speech nobody understood until abuela translated it, and the one thing everybody said when they saw the cake. The chat has the receipts. Find out what happened.
Intermediate LowPidió mole
November 1st, a patio in Paterson, marigolds on a table and abuelo Chuy's favorite mole. Nobody cried; the cat slept under the ofrenda; the stories went past midnight. This is the story of one night, and the last rung of the ladder.
Novice HighRegulares al instante cinco minutos, tres familias.
Five minutes of the regular preterite, on purpose. Tap the past in a group chat, fill in the -AR forms, then the -ER/-IR ones, then decide six sentences where the verb looks exactly the same in both tenses and only the time word tells you what happened. Meant to be done more than once.
Novice HighSolo en yo la letra cambia, el sonido no.
Five minutes on the trickiest spelling in the preterite. Tap the yo forms that changed in Vale's post, write three of them, then the part that catches everyone: the same verbs in every other person, where nothing changes at all. Meant to be done more than once.
Intermediate LowSin tilde cambia la raíz, no la terminación.
Seven minutes on the verbs that refuse to behave. None of them takes an accent, they all share one set of endings, and the only thing you actually have to learn is the stem. Then the two traps: which stems drop the i, and how to tell ser from ir when they are spelled exactly the same. Meant to be done more than once.
Intermediate LowNi tú ni yo el cambio es de ellos, y solo en los -ir.
Seven minutes on one vowel. It moves in pedir, dormir and servir, but only in él, ella and ellos, and only in -IR verbs. Everything else you were taught to change in the present, like volver and pensar, sits perfectly still in the past. The trap is that they all feel the same. Meant to be done more than once.
Intermediate Mid–HighAutocorrecto ataca y nadie sabe quién es Jé.
Mateo's phone has a new autocorrect that has never heard of -qué, -gué or -cé. It wrecks his tryout texts to the family chat, then gets greedy and «fixes» the coach too. Students hunt the sabotage, watch Messi and Lamine Yamal tell their own firsts one short clip at a time, sort the players' words from a reporter's, catch Autocorrecto copying the players, rebuild the message by hand, and write their own first day. The fun day for rung 3.
The structures
In curriculum order, from what you teach in September to what lands in May.
Quién eres / cómo estás
One door is who you are. One door is how you are today.
A mí me encanta
The thing does the liking. You are just the one it happens to.
Justo ahora
Not today, not usually. Happening in this exact second.
Me lo hago yo
The verb turns around and lands back on you.
Ya te lo di
Stop repeating the noun. Two tiny words carry it instead.
Ya pasó
It happened, it ended, it is a story now.
Llovía cuando llegó
One is the weather. The other is the knock at the door.
El peaje y el destino
One is the road you go through. One is where you are headed.
¡Hazlo ya!
Talking to your friend. No cushioning, no please.
Pase usted
The same instruction, with the door held open.
Ojalá que sí
The mood for things that are not facts: wishes, doubts, maybe.
Yo que tú, iría
The life you would live, if.
Ya lo he hecho
Finished, but still touching right now.
Con permiso
The version of you that talks to the principal.
Vos sabés
Millions of people say vos. Your textbook forgot to mention it.
¡Vení!
The same order, with the stress moved and the D gone.
Vosotros sois
A whole country's you-plural, kept in one corner of the map.
¡Venid!
Ordering a whole group around, Iberian style.