The Modo modules
Modo is modular Spanish. Pick what you want to master, stack what you need. Every module is self-contained, every session is adaptive.
Foundations
Essentials
Master ser vs estar, por vs para, and the words that change meaning.
Essentials is the grammar bedrock of intermediate Spanish. The things every textbook teaches in five minutes and learners struggle with for years. When does ser become estar? When is it por and when para? And what changes when an adjective swaps between them? Essentials walks you through every contrast through real sentences, so you build the instinct, not just the rules.
What you'll learn
- Ser vs estar: identity, traits and origin (ser) vs current state, location and feeling (estar)
- Por vs para: path, duration, cause and exchange (por) vs destination, deadline and purpose (para)
- Ten adjectives that flip meaning between ser and estar (aburrido, listo, rico, bueno, malo, seguro, vivo, verde, interesado, orgulloso)
- Spotting the contrast in real sentences before reaching for the rule
Example
Juan ___ aburrido. He always tells the same stories.
es. With ser, aburrido means boring (a trait). With estar (Juan está aburrido) it means bored (a state). Same word, different meaning.
Subjuntivo vs indicativo
¿Qué Modo?
The Spanish subjunctive, mastered through the patterns that trigger it.
The Spanish subjunctive is not a tense, it is a mood. The speaker chooses it to mark wishes, doubts and reactions, rather than facts. ¿Qué Modo? walks you through every place mood-choice shows up: noun clauses where the matrix verb decides (espero que, dudo que, es importante que), adjective clauses where the antecedent decides (busco una persona que sepa), and adverbial clauses where conjunctions and time markers decide (cuando, antes de que, aunque). By the end, picking the right mood stops being a calculation and starts being instinct.
What you'll learn
- Subjunctive vs indicative in noun clauses, triggered by the matrix verb (querer que, dudar que, alegrarse de que, saber que, creer que)
- Subjunctive vs indicative in adjective clauses, decided by the antecedent (real and known vs hypothetical or unknown)
- Subjunctive vs indicative in adverbial clauses (cuando, antes de que, aunque, para que)
- Present subjunctive forms and the regular-irregular patterns that matter
- The trigger phrases that flip mood, grouped so they actually stick
Example
Espero que ___ mañana. (venir)
vengas. Espero que is a wish, not a fact, so the subjunctive is triggered. In Sé que viene mañana the matrix verb shifts to a statement of fact, and the indicative comes back.
¿Entiendes? · Listening comprehension
Comprensión
Train your ear for spoken Spanish, sentence by sentence.
Reading Spanish and understanding spoken Spanish are different skills, and most learners over-train the first. Comprensión gives you a Spanish audio clip and asks one question: what is being said? You pick the meaning from a set of options. The clips cover real intonation, real speed and the bits of speech that get swallowed in conversation, the moments where textbook Spanish stops helping you.
What you'll learn
- Catching meaning at native speed
- Distinguishing similar-sounding verb forms (sabía vs supe, era vs fue, hablo vs habló)
- Question types and intonation patterns
- The contractions and reductions that real speakers use
- Building confidence with audio without leaning on subtitles
Pretérito imperfecto vs pretérito indefinido
¿Era o Fue?
Nail the two Spanish past tenses, including the verbs that flip meaning.
Spanish has two past tenses where English has one, and choosing between them is what makes a sentence sound native or textbook. Imperfecto paints the background (era, estaba, hacía). Indefinido drops the moment (fui, estuve, hice). ¿Era o Fue? trains the contrast through real narrative sentences, plus the five verbs that change meaning between the two tenses, the place most intermediate learners get stuck.
What you'll learn
- Pretérito imperfecto for habits, background and ongoing past states (era, estaba, hacía)
- Pretérito indefinido for completed, time-bounded actions (fui, estuve, hice)
- The five meaning-flipping verbs: saber, conocer, querer, poder, tener (sabía = knew, supe = found out)
- Time markers and trigger phrases that point you toward each tense
- Mixed-tense narratives where you switch between background and action
Example
No ___ que estabas en Madrid. (saber)
supe. With indefinido, supe means I found out at that moment. The imperfecto sabía would mean I already knew, ongoing in the past.
Mezcla · Listening, reading and spelling combined
Vocabulario
Vocabulary that lives in your head, not on a flashcard.
Flashcards train recognition. Mezcla trains use. Every word in Vocabulario shows up across three modes, listening, reading and spelling, so it is encoded multiple ways instead of just one. Hearing the word, reading the word and producing the word in writing are different skills. Mezcla mixes them in the same session so the vocabulary is genuinely usable, not just recognisable.
What you'll learn
- Listening: hear the word in context, pick the meaning
- Reading: see the word in a sentence, choose what fits
- Spelling: produce the word from audio or a definition
- Spaced repetition tuned per word, so what you learn now is still there a month later
- Words drawn from everyday Spanish (food, travel, work, emotions, time)
Start with one module. Stack the rest later.
Modo is free. Pick the module you want to work on and start in your first session.
