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Spanish by level
Spanish books by CEFR level
Most Spanish books tell you their level and leave you to take their word for it. This page gives the numbers instead: how long the sentences run at each level, which tenses turn up, how many words you read, and what you can read here for nothing before you buy anything at all.
The four levels, side by side
| Level | Free lessons | Words a lesson | Words in all | What arrives at this level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A1 | 20 | 124 | 2,489 | The present tense, and the first past tenses at the end |
| A2 | 22 | 231 | 5,089 | The preterite and the imperfect, the future, the conditional |
| B1 | 24 | 329 | 7,887 | The subjunctive, from the first lesson of the level |
| B2 | 24 | 544 | 13,050 | The imperfect subjunctive, unreal conditions, register |
The word counts are of the Spanish story alone, which is what you read straight through. Vocabulary lists, grammar and exercises come on top of that, and so do the 16 review units.
How to tell which level you are
Not with a test. Open the level you think you are, read the sample at the top of it, and use the one rule that has never failed anybody:
- If you understand it and it costs you nothing, you are above that level. Go up one.
- If you understand it and it costs you something, that is your level. Stay there.
- If you are stopping more than once a sentence, go down one. Reading below your level is how the level rises; reading above it is how people quit.
- Spanish books at A1 level20 lessonsThe present tense, and the first past tenses at the end
- Spanish books at A2 level22 lessonsThe preterite and the imperfect, the future, the conditional
- Spanish books at B1 level24 lessonsThe subjunctive, from the first lesson of the level
- Spanish books at B2 level24 lessonsThe imperfect subjunctive, unreal conditions, register
What is free, and what is not
The ninety lessons, the 16 review units, the grammar pages, the verb tables and the glossary are free, with no account and no sign-up, and they stay that way. The first chapter of each of the three novels is a free PDF too: Don Quixote, Eighty Days and The War of the Worlds.
What costs money is the same material on paper and in one file, in order and away from a screen: the eight volumes of the course in paperback and on Kindle, and the EPUB and PDF editions of the readers and of the whole course.