The books
Every book of the course and all three graded readers, from A1 to B2. Open one to see what is in it, go straight to the store, or start from your level if you are not sure which book is yours.
Each page says what that level of Spanish actually reads like, with a real sample, the free lessons that go with it, and only then the book.
Don Quixote in Easy Spanish
58 episodes · A2 to B1
Around the World in Eighty Days in Easy Spanish
58 episodes · A2 to B1
The War of the Worlds in Easy Spanish
58 episodes · A2 to B1
Novels, not courses: the whole story, with the hard words explained at the foot of the page. Each one is 5.99 € on its own, and the three together are 11.99 € in Three Spanish Graded Readers.
The ninety lessons end to end, with one glossary and one set of verb tables for the whole course. In EPUB and PDF from the store.
A1 · Part 1
Lessons 1 to 10
A1 · Part 2
Lessons 11 to 20
A2 · Part 1
Lessons 21 to 31
A2 · Part 2
Lessons 32 to 42
B1 · Part 1
Lessons 43 to 54
B1 · Part 2
Lessons 55 to 66
B2 · Part 1
Lessons 67 to 78
B2 · Part 2
Lessons 79 to 90
On paper and on Kindle, sold by Amazon. Course book and workbook in one, with the space to write the answers in. Each one is described below.
Lessons 1 to 10
Ten lessons that teach beginner's Spanish through the opening chapters of Don Quixote, one scene at a time. No previous Spanish at all.
The Spanish grows with the story. Here it is rewritten plainly. This is the first of the two A1 books. Part 2 carries the story to the windmills.
Lessons 11 to 20
Ten more lessons of beginner's Spanish, straight on from Part 1: the inn taken for a castle, the night watch over the armour, the boy tied to the oak tree, the windmills.
The Spanish grows with the story: this book adds the four past tenses. Part 1 is not required, but the Spanish here assumes it.
Lessons 21 to 31
Eleven lessons of A2 Spanish, straight on from A1: the morning after the windmills, the duel beside the lady's coach, the speech on the Golden Age, the student who died of love, Marcela on the crag, the Yanguesans, Maritornes in the dark, and the blanket in the inn yard.
This is where the past tense starts. Lesson 21 opens the preterite, Lesson 23 the imperfect, and from there the two are used together on every page. Part 2 carries the course on to the future, the conditional and the perfect.
Lessons 32 to 42
Eleven more lessons of A2 Spanish: the flock of sheep taken for two armies, the body carried past by torchlight, the night of the fulling hammers, Mambrino's helmet, the chain of galley slaves, the bag found in the Sierra Morena, and the letter to Dulcinea.
This book closes A2. It adds the future, the conditional, the present perfect, por against para and reported speech, and it takes the two past tenses of Part 1 for granted. Lesson 42 gathers up the whole level.
Lessons 43 to 54
Twelve lessons of B1 Spanish: the princess invented in the Sierra Morena, the night the wineskins were taken for a giant, the reunion in the courtyard of the inn, the speech on arms and letters, the captive's escape from Algiers by sea, and the brawl over a barber's basin.
This book opens B1, and it opens with the subjunctive: four lessons to build it, and then negative commands, usted, the pluperfect, reported speech, real conditions with si, and the four verbs of becoming. The whole of A2 is taken for granted.
Lessons 55 to 66
Twelve more lessons of B1 Spanish: the wooden cage on the ox cart, the news that their own story is in print and on sale, Sancho and Teresa arguing in proverbs, the night search for a palace in El Toboso, the cart of players dressed as devils, the face under the helmet of the Knight of the Mirrors, and the afternoon a real lion's cage is opened.
This book closes B1. It adds the passive with ser, verb phrases, the subjunctive after cuando and es raro que, lo in front of an adjective, and ser against estar for describing people, and it takes the subjunctive of Part 1 for granted. Lesson 66 gathers up the whole level.
Lessons 67 to 78
Twelve lessons of B2 Spanish: the wedding of rich Camacho and the trick that carries off the bride, the descent on a rope into the cave of Montesinos, Master Pedro's puppet show and the bill for the broken puppets, the enchanted boat on the Ebro, the Duke's castle, the flight of the wooden horse Clavileño, and Sancho made governor of an island that is not one.
This book opens B2. It builds the imperfect subjunctive, and with it the unreal si clause, orders reported in the past, para que against para, and aunque in its two meanings. The last lessons work on register, from the courtly Spanish of the castle to the language of a governor.
Lessons 79 to 90
Twelve last lessons of B2 Spanish: Sancho judging cases on an island invented to mock him, the banquet his doctor will not let him eat, the neighbour who came home from exile in disguise, the arrival in Barcelona, the printing house where his own book is being run off, the bandit Roque Guinart, the defeat on the beach, and the will of Alonso Quijano.
This book closes B2 and closes the course. It adds hubiera away from si, dar por and darse por, the three ways of describing a place, the suffixes Spanish builds new words with, and que with a subjunctive and nothing in front of it. Lesson 82 puts the whole subjunctive back together in one piece, and Lesson 90 gathers up all ninety.
Lessons 1 to 90
The eight volumes also exist as a single Kindle book, the ninety lessons end to end. It is the same text, not a summary and not an extra. It suits reading straight through on a screen; if you want to write the exercises by hand, the eight paper volumes are the ones with the space to write in.
The one that matches where you are. If you have never studied Spanish, that is A1 Part 1. If you already read a little, the lesson list on the home page says what every lesson teaches, and the volume that holds it is the one to buy.
You do not need a book to follow the course. Everything is on this site, in order, from Unit 0 to Lesson 90.