Free-Time Activities

To talk about your free time in three timeframes: what you did, what you do and what you're going to do.

The time words decide the tense: el sábado pasado and ayer take the preterite, normalmente and los sábados the present, and el sábado que viene and mañana take ir a + infinitive. Jugar changes in all three: jugué (spelt -gué to keep the hard "g" sound), juego (the u becomes ue) and voy a jugar. The usual mistake is the present after a past time word: el sábado pasado jugué, not juego.

Exam tip: The top language marks in AQA's 90-word task, Pearson's 80-90 and 130-150 word tasks and Pearson's conversation need all three timeframes.

To say what you like and dislike: gusta for one thing or an activity, gustan for more than one.

Gustar works backwards: me gusta el fútbol literally says "football pleases me", so the verb agrees with the thing you like, not with you. Use gusta with one thing or a verb (me gusta nadar) and gustan with plural things. Encantar (to love) works the same way: me encantan los videojuegos. Keep the article, because you mean football in general: me gusta el fútbol, not me gusta fútbol.

Two of this theme's busiest verbs change their stem: juego (u to ue), prefiero (e to ie).

The stem changes in every form except nosotros and vosotros: juego, juegas, juega, jugamos, jugáis, juegan. Jugar is the only verb that changes u to ue, and in Spain it takes al before a sport: juego al tenis. Preferir follows the e to ie pattern: prefiero, but preferimos.

The highlighted part is the letters that change.

To say how often you do each activity.

Frequency words usually go before the verb or at the end of the sentence: a veces juego al baloncesto or juego al baloncesto a veces. Nunca can go before the verb on its own (nunca veo la tele), but after the verb it needs no in front: no veo nunca la tele. Los fines de semana already means "at weekends", with no extra word for "at". Raramente is correct, but in Spain people more often say casi nunca (hardly ever).

To say what you usually do: suelo, sueles, suele + infinitive.

Soler means "to usually do", so it is always followed by an infinitive: suelo jugar al fútbol los sábados. It changes o to ue like poder (suelo, sueles, suele, but solemos). It's a natural alternative to normalmente; just remember the infinitive, or suelo reads like the noun el suelo (the floor).