CSEC Spanish cheat sheet

Csec Spanish orals typically pair a prepared topic presentation with follow-up questions; anticipate at least one question that asks you to justify or give an example, not just state a fact.

Register rule: use tú with peers and family, usted with strangers, officials, and elders; switch to usted if the examiner addresses you with usted first.

Turn-taking markers to deploy: 'Perdón, ¿puedo añadir algo?', 'Disculpe, no he entendido bien, ¿puede repetir?', 'Es decir...', 'Por un lado... por otro lado...'.

Repair strategy when a word is missing: paraphrase with a definition ('es una persona que...') or a hypernym ('un tipo de comida') instead of switching to English or falling silent.

Numbers, dates, and prices are frequent listening traps: Spanish writes 1.500 as fifteen hundred and 1,5 as one and a half; escucha for 'mil quinientos' versus 'quincecientos' variants.

Common listening distractors: a stated time followed by a correction ('a las ocho... no, perdón, a las ocho y media'); the second mention is the answer.

Pronunciation targets that affect intelligibility: pure vowels (no glide on /e/, /o/), trilled or tapped r, and soft d between vowels ('nada' as [naða]).

Formula for a structured oral answer: direct answer + one reason + one concrete example + a closing link back to the question.

Skim for genre and layout first: an advertisement, a letter, a notice, or a news item each signals a different expected answer type (purpose, tone, factual detail, inference).

Cognate warning: 'actual' means current (not actual), 'embarazada' means pregnant (not embarrassed), 'largo' means long (not large), 'éxito' means success (not exit).

Question-type mapping: 'según el texto' = literal detail; '¿qué se deduce?' = inference; '¿cuál es la intención?' = author purpose; '¿qué significa ... en la línea X?' = context meaning.

Pronoun tracking: lo/la/le/los/les and se refer back to a previously named noun; identify the antecedent before answering detail questions.

False friends and idioms that flip meaning: 'no cabe duda' = without doubt; 'por poco' = almost; 'sin embargo' = however; 'a lo mejor' = maybe.

Negation and double negation: 'no ... nunca', 'no ... nada', 'no ... nadie' keep the negative in Spanish; a question asking what the text does NOT say requires checking every option against the text.

Scan for numbers, names, and dates as anchors; answers to detail questions are usually adjacent to a repeated keyword rather than in the first sentence.

Time order in narrative texts: look for markers (primero, luego, después, al final, antes de, mientras) to answer sequencing questions correctly.

Formal letter frame: greeting (Estimado/a Sr./Sra. + apellido), opening purpose sentence, body paragraphs, closing formula (Atentamente / Un saludo cordial), signature.

Informal email frame: Hola + name, opening line, body, closing (Un abrazo / Besos / Hasta pronto), your name; contractions and exclamation marks are acceptable.

Word-count control: plan 3-4 content points before writing; each point becomes one short paragraph of 2-3 sentences to hit typical 100-150 word tasks without padding.

Connector ladder to raise band: y, pero, porque, además, sin embargo, por lo tanto, aunque, ya que, a pesar de; use at least four different ones per response.

Narrative tense rule: preterite for completed events (fui, comí), imperfect for background, habits, and descriptions (era, comía, solía); mixing them deliberately signals control.

Subjunctive triggers to show range: espero que + subj., es importante que + subj., cuando + subj. for future, para que + subj.; never after 'creo que' in the affirmative.

Accents change meaning and are marked: el/él, si/sí, mas/más, esta/está, solo/sólo (adverb, older norm); check interrogatives (qué, cómo, dónde) and exclamations.

Agreement checklist before submitting: adjective matches noun in gender and number, article matches noun, verb matches subject, and ser/estar choice reflects permanent versus state.

Ser vs estar: ser for identity, origin, profession, inherent traits; estar for location, temporary state, and progressive (estoy estudiando); some adjectives shift meaning (ser listo = clever, estar listo = ready).

Preterite vs imperfect: preterite = bounded action or sequence; imperfect = ongoing background, repeated past action, or description; 'cuando era niño, iba...' sets the frame.

Por vs para: por = cause, exchange, duration, movement through (por la calle); para = purpose, destination, deadline, recipient (para ti, para el lunes).

Object pronouns: indirect (me, te, le, nos, les) precede direct in the third person and become se before lo/la/los/las (se lo di); leísmo is regional, use lo/la for direct objects in the exam.

Reflexive vs non-reflexive meaning shifts: ir/irse, dormir/dormirse, poner/ponerse, quedar/quedarse; the reflexive often adds a change-of-state or completion nuance.

Commands: affirmative tú uses the third-person present (habla, come, escribe); negative tú uses the subjunctive (no hables); usted/ustedes use the subjunctive form for both affirmative and negative.

Gender of common exceptions: el problema, el mapa, el día, el idioma, la mano, la foto, la moto; nouns in -ción, -sión, -dad, -tad are feminine.

Relative and question words with accents: que (conjunction/relative) vs qué (interrogative); como vs cómo; donde vs dónde; accent marks the question or exclamation.