Whenever I take on a new student who has previous knowledge of the language, I give them the 24 sentences below, with the following instructions:
"See how many of these sentences you can say in Spanish, off-the-top-of-your-head, without using a translator. We will discuss these during our first lesson, so I will know where to begin teaching you."
If you use a translator, I will not have a truly authentic indicator of where to start my lessons with you.
So, don't do that. Lol...
(Following Present, Past, Future, Past-Participle format)
1. I can't go.
2. She arrived late.
3. They will change their minds.
4. I have heard that before.
5. We hope so.
6. Did you (tu) speak with Jose?
7. I'll be on time.
8. I thought that she had been here before.
9. They don't have enough information.
10. He couldn't make it last night.
11. We'll have to get there early tomorrow.
12. They would have told us that if we had asked.
13. We know that already.
14. It wasn't that bad.
15. I'll be there.
16. She hasn't seen a difference yet.
17. I'm eating my dinner right now.
18. What did you do last weekend?
19. They will buy the car after thinking about it.
20. Believe us, we've heard it all before.
21. We see things differently.
22. They said that they wanted to come.
23. Will you (tu) be on time?
24. If they had told us ahead of time, we would have been ready.