Interactive demo · no account required
Try The Spanish Blitz
Learn a concept, practice it, and see how your progress works — no account required. This page is a short, free sample of the product: read a brief explanation, answer 6 questions with instant feedback, and see your score and preview XP at the end.
How the demo works
Four steps. Learn a single concept in about a minute. Cards: study 4 flashcards the way you would in the real product — read the Spanish, recall the meaning, flip the card, and tell it whether you knew it. Practice: 6 questions that tell you straight away whether you were right and why. Result: how many you got right, the XP you would have earned, and the cards you marked "still learning" — the ones the full product would bring back sooner and more often.
The XP shown in the demo is a preview only: nothing is saved and no account is created. In the full product, an account keeps your XP, your progress and your practice history across flashcards, listening, writing, speaking and timed challenges.
Ser vs Estar
English has one verb for "to be". Spanish has two, and they say different things.
Ser answers "what is this?" — identity, origin, profession, relationships, what something is made of, and the time. Soy profesora. Es de Argentina. La mesa es de madera.
Estar answers "how or where is it right now?" — location, moods, temporary states, and the result of a change. Estoy en casa. Está cansado. La impresora está rota.
One exception worth knowing: an event takes ser even though it names a place, because an event happens rather than sits somewhere. La fiesta es en mi casa, but Mi casa está en el centro.
The 6 practice questions
These are the questions the interactive demo asks. Answers and explanations are shown here so the page is readable without JavaScript.
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1. Where you are from, set against where you live now.
Yo ___ de Venezuela, pero vivo en México.
Answer: soy — Ser de says where someone is from. Where they live now is a separate idea.
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2. A city sitting on a map.
Madrid ___ en España.
Answer: está — Objects, people and places are located with estar. Events use ser to say where they take place: la fiesta es en mi casa.
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3. A party happening at your house.
La fiesta de Ana ___ en mi casa.
Answer: es — An event happens somewhere rather than sits somewhere. Compare: mi casa está en las afueras.
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4. What does this sentence actually say?
Mi hermano está aburrido.
Answer: My brother is bored — Estar aburrido is bored; ser aburrido is boring. Same adjective, different verb, different meaning.
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5. Type the missing word. A profession.
Ella ___ profesora de historia.
Answer: es — A profession is part of who someone is, so it takes ser: es.
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6. Type the missing word. The printer has broken again.
La impresora ___ rota otra vez.
Answer: está — Rota is the state the printer ended up in, which takes estar: está.
Other demos
The same four-step experience is available for Por vs Para, chosen from the demo itself.
Read the full lesson · All free lessons · Create a free account