Knowledge of Language Structures and Vocabulary
What this section tests
This domain underpins every other: the grammar and lexis you need to comprehend and produce accurate Spanish. The core structures are: verb morphology and tense contrast (present; preterite versus imperfect; perfect; pluperfect; future and conditional; present subjunctive; imperative; ser/estar; por/para); agreement of articles, adjectives and nouns, including irregulars (el agua, el día, la mano, el problema); pronouns - direct, indirect, reflexive and the order of clitics (se lo dije, me lo das); prepositions and verbs that govern them (depender de, insistir en, acostumbrarse a); and vocabulary range, including collocations (tomar una decisión, prestar atención, hacer caso) and topic lexis on family, health, environment, technology, education and leisure.
Traps to expect
- Preterite versus imperfect. Preterite for completed events, imperfect for background, habit and ongoing description: Llovía cuando salí - not llovió cuando salía.
- Ser versus estar with adjectives. Es aburrido (boring person) versus está aburrido (bored); es listo versus está listo.
- Por versus para. Por for cause, exchange, duration and movement through; para for purpose, destination, recipient and deadline.
- Subjunctive triggers. Espero que vengas, cuando llegues, ojalá llueva, no creo que sea - but creo que es.
- Clitic order and leísmo. Indirect object pronoun precedes direct: me lo dijo; regional le for lo appears in some texts.
- False friends and anglicisms: realizar (carry out), asistir a (attend), librería (bookshop).
Worked example
Choose the correct form: Cuando ____ (llegar) a casa, mi madre ____ (cocinar) y la televisión ____ (estar) encendida. Answer: llegué (single completed event), estaba cocinando or cocinaba (background action in progress), estaba (description). Rule of thumb: ask whether the verb is the event or the scenery - events take the preterite, scenery takes the imperfect.
Strategy
Keep an error log by category (tense, agreement, preposition, vocabulary) and revise the two categories you miss most, since the same errors recur across reading, writing and speaking.