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Bulgaria DZI Spanish study materials
Bulgaria DZI Spanish study resources

Bulgaria DZI Spanish: Language Use: Grammar and Vocabulary (Uso de la lengua)

Bulgaria DZI Spanish · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.

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Language Use: Grammar and Vocabulary (Uso de la lengua)

What the task demands

This section tests control of Spanish grammar and lexis in context: verb tense and mood, agreement, pronouns, prepositions, connectors, and vocabulary choice in short gapped texts or sentence-level items.

Core grammar concepts

  • Tense and aspect: pretérito indefinido for completed past events vs. imperfecto for background, habits and description; pretérito perfecto for a period still open or connected to the present.
  • Mood: subjuntivo after expressions of wish, doubt, emotion, and after cuando referring to the future; indicativo for fact and certainty.
  • Conditional sentences: si + presente → futuro/presente; si + imperfecto de subjuntivo → condicional simple; si + pluscuamperfecto de subjuntivo → condicional compuesto.
  • Pronouns: direct vs. indirect object (lo/la/le), clitic order (me lo da), and se for impersonal or reflexive-passive meaning.
  • Agreement: adjective with noun, and ser/estar distinctions.
  • Prepositions: por/para, a/en/de, and verbs with fixed prepositions (depender de, insistir en, pensar en).

Vocabulary strategy

Learn words in collocations, not isolation: tomar una decisión, hacer caso, prestar atención. Watch for false friends (actual = current, largo = long, embarazada = pregnant) and for register (pedir vs. solicitar).

Traps to expect

  1. A tense that is grammatically possible but wrong for the time marker (ayer forces indefinido).
  2. Por and para both plausible in translation; check cause, exchange, destination, deadline.
  3. Missing agreement hidden by a long noun phrase.
  4. Indicative where a future cuando clause requires subjunctive.

Rule of thumb

Find the time marker and the trigger word first (a conjunction, a negation, an emotion verb). They usually eliminate two options before you even consider meaning.

Worked example

«Cuando ___ (llegar) a Madrid, te llamaré.» The clause refers to a future event, so Spanish uses the subjunctive: llegue. Cuando llego would describe a habitual present, and cuando llegaré is impossible after cuando.