Course description

You can hold a real conversation in Spanish: now it's time to discuss things properly. This course takes you from B1 towards B2, the level where you can give and defend an opinion, follow the news, write a formal complaint and keep up with a long conversation. It teaches the Spanish of Spain, with notes wherever Latin American Spanish is different, including ustedes, voseo and everyday vocabulary.

Every lesson is written in plain English for UK adults, with phrase tables, worked examples, sentences to read aloud, common slips and a practical task. The grammar of B2 is explained step by step: the present and imperfect subjunctive, all three types of conditional, reported speech, the passive and se, relative clauses, ser and estar, and por and para.

There are 10 sections and 50 written lessons, and each section ends with a short quiz. You follow Brangwen, a hospital pharmacist from Stafford, through her year of reaching for B2: weekly video calls with Nicasio, a retired journalist in Zaragoza, coffee with Agustina from Montevideo, and ten days in Zaragoza with a flat whose hot water stops working. Every section has a practice pack with a worksheet, an answer key, extra practice with answers, word lists as text and spreadsheets, flashcards, phrase cards and dialogue scripts, plus a B2 self-check, a subjunctive trigger card, a tense sequence chart, a conditionals sheet, an opinion phrases card, a connectors bank, a reported speech converter, a relative pronouns sheet, an idioms set, reading passages with questions, writing frames and a glossary. The course ends with a final project in three parts, with planning sheets and model answers.

What you'll learn

• Getting started at B2: a B2 self-check, setting goals, a review of the past tenses, the future and the conditional, and learning habits for B2.
• The present subjunctive in depth: wishes and requests, emotions and reactions, doubt and belief, impersonal expressions, and time and purpose conjunctions.
• The imperfect subjunctive and conditionals: the sequence of tenses, the first, second and third conditionals, mixed conditionals, other ways to say if, regrets and ojalá.
• Opinions, agreeing and disagreeing: giving opinions with nuance, defending them, agreeing and disagreeing politely, hedging and softening, and a discussion from start to finish.
• Connectors and discourse markers: adding and ordering ideas, contrast and concession, cause and consequence, markers in speech, and building paragraphs.
• Reported speech: reporting statements, questions, commands and advice, reporting verbs with nuance, and reporting news and conversations.
• The passive, se and relative clauses: the passive with ser and with se, impersonal se, que, quien, el que, el cual, lo que and cuyo, and the subjunctive in relative clauses.
• Meaning, register and idioms: ser and estar with adjectives that change meaning, por and para, everyday idioms, register, and the Spanish of Spain and Latin America.
• News, media, culture and writing: reading news and opinion articles, listening strategies, Spanish media, culture in general terms, and formal and informal writing.
• Conversations, exams and the final project: strategies for long conversations and exams, an opinion essay, a formal complaint email and a two-minute talk with model answers, and your next steps.

Who it's for

Adults who have finished a B1 course in Spanish and want to go further. It's the next step after Spanish Intermediate: Reach B1 and Hold Real Conversations, and it starts where that course ends. You should already be able to talk about familiar topics, use the main past tenses, and recognise the present subjunctive.

What this course is, and isn't

This is a text-based course with no audio or video, with guidance on finding your own listening practice. It aims towards CEFR level B2. This course helps you prepare, but it isn't a qualification and doesn't give you a certificate of level on its own, and it isn't linked to any exam. It doesn't recommend any apps, books or brands. The story, characters and articles are fictional.

What will I learn?

• Use the present, imperfect and pluperfect subjunctive after wishes, feelings, doubt, impersonal expressions and conjunctions, and follow the sequence of tenses
• Use the first, second, third and mixed conditionals, and other ways to say if, to talk about possibilities, imagined situations and regrets
• Give, defend and soften opinions, and agree and disagree politely in a discussion
• Link ideas with a wide range of connectors and discourse markers, in speech and in writing
• Report statements, questions, commands and news accurately, with the right tense changes and reporting verbs
• Use the passive, the passive and impersonal se, and relative pronouns from que to el cual and cuyo
• Choose correctly between ser and estar with adjectives that change meaning, and between por and para
• Understand and use common idioms, and adapt your register for Spain and Latin America
• Read news items and opinion columns, and plan your own listening practice with Spanish media
• Write formal and informal emails, a complaint, a review and an opinion essay, and give a two-minute talk from notes

Frequently asked questions