Buy fruit in Spanish with one line at the counter.

Ask for a kilo in one line.

At a market counter you do not need a sentence with a verb. The pattern is the amount, then de, then the fruit, then por favor. Read the table, then say each line aloud.

Use un, not uno, in front of a masculine noun: un kilo, un melón. The fruit does not change the pattern: un kilo de manzanas, dos kilos de manzanas.

Produce words vary between countries, and even between markets, so the stall may use a word your app never taught. That is not a problem: point and ask ¿Me da un kilo de esto, por favor? If you want the name, ask ¿Cómo se llama esto?

Walk through the counter dialogue.

Read it once as the learner and once as the vendor. Practising alone, cover the vendor lines and answer aloud before you look.

An original practice dialogue, not a recorded conversation. The prices are illustrative, not real market prices, and the currency word changes by country.

The total is 70 pesos: 50 for a kilo of apples plus 20 for half a kilo of bananas at 40 a kilo. Doing that sum while the vendor is still talking is what catches a number you misheard.

The same ask, listen, answer loop sits on Day 4 of the free 7 Day Spanish Starter Plan, with a café counter instead of a market stall.

Catch the price and the total.

Vendors give prices in short phrases, not sentences. Recognise these three and you can stay calm with your hand on your wallet.

Tell 15 from 50, then count to 100.

Most market confusion is not grammar; it is one number heard as another. A kilo at 15 and a kilo at 50 are very different purchases.

Two cues help. The teens up to 15 are short: once, doce, trece and quince have two syllables, while catorce has three (ca-tor-ce). The tens from 40 up end in -enta: cuarenta, cincuenta, sesenta, setenta, ochenta, noventa. Three syllables and an -enta ending means tens, not teens. If it still slips past, say it back: ¿Quince o cincuenta?

The numbers in Spanish 1-20.

The numbers in Spanish 1-20 are uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho, nueve, diez, once, doce, trece, catorce, quince, dieciséis, diecisiete, dieciocho, diecinueve, veinte. Note the written accent in dieciséis; diecisiete, dieciocho and diecinueve have none.

From 21 to 100 in three rules.

After veinte, the numbers in Spanish 1-100 settle into three rules. 21 to 29 are one word: veintiuno, veintidós, veintitrés, up to veintinueve. From 31 you join tens and units with y: treinta y uno, cuarenta y dos, noventa y nueve. And 100 is cien before a noun (cien pesos) but ciento inside a longer number (ciento cincuenta pesos).

Run a two-minute number drill.

Say each Spanish word aloud, then write the digit before you check. Ten items, no more.

Then leave it. Come back to the same list tomorrow, and again later in the week. The IES What Works Clearinghouse practice guide on organising instruction and study recommends spacing learning over time and using quizzing that requires active retrieval. Short, repeated recall fits a working week better than one long session you never repeat.

Turn it into daily practice in ten minutes.

Read, recall, role play, note. The free 10 Minute Practice Planner has a weekly template for that shape, and Day 6 of the starter plan is a recall day if you want it laid out for you.

Nobody needs a microphone for this. Say the vendor’s line yourself, even if it feels silly in your kitchen; reading silently does not count.

• I can ask for a kilo with one short line.
• I can catch a per-kilo price and check the total.
• I can tell quince from cincuenta without guessing.

Why this is not another points app.

You have probably used an app that rewarded tapping and left you silent when a real person spoke. This page is a different shape of thing, so it is worth being plain about it.

It does not hear you, score you or record you, and it will not tell you that you spoke well, because we cannot know. What it gives you is the vocabulary of one situation, both sides of a dialogue, a drill aimed at the pair you are most likely to mishear, and a ten-minute way to repeat it all. The speaking part is yours: out loud, at the counter, in your kitchen.

The seven-day plan is published in full on the free plan page, so you can read it without downloading anything. If you want the PDF, the form asks for a first name and an email address; signing up is what sends the plan plus four follow-up emails on days 2, 4, 7 and 10, and every email has an unsubscribe link. The paid options (Starter Toolkit, Conversation Course, Practice Membership) are planned, not on sale: planned prices sit on the pricing page, there is no checkout and nothing starts automatically. How pages are checked is set out in the Editorial Policy.

Common questions.