Describing Issues & Giving Advice — I can describe an issue and respond with advice or next steps using connected sentences.

The ability to describe a problem and offer advice is one of the most practical communicative functions in any language. In your everyday life, you do this constantly in English — you tell a friend about a conflict with a sibling, a teacher explains how to fix an essay, or a doctor recommends a treatment. In the study of interpersonal communication in Spanish, this skill has been a cornerstone of language curricula since the communicative approach to language teaching gained prominence in the late twentieth century. Before that era, students memorized grammar rules in isolation without learning how to apply them in real conversations.

Today, the question is not just whether you can conjugate a verb correctly, but whether you can sustain a meaningful exchange — listen to someone's problem, show empathy, and propose a thoughtful next step. This lesson gives you the vocabulary, grammar structures, and discourse strategies to do exactly that.

Before diving into specific vocabulary and grammar, it helps to understand the foundational principles that make this kind of exchange work in Spanish. These principles apply whether you are talking about a personal issue, a school problem, or a hypothetical scenario.

The following diagram maps the typical flow of a conversation in which one speaker describes an issue and the other responds with advice. Notice how the exchange moves through distinct phases — from presenting the problem, to expressing empathy, to offering a recommendation, and finally to confirming the next step.

Notice that the conversation is not a one-way lecture — it is an interactive exchange. Speaker B does not simply jump to advice; instead, they first acknowledge the problem, ask a follow-up question, and only then offer a recommendation. This mirrors real conversations in any language, but in Spanish you can demonstrate higher proficiency by using discourse connectors and the subjunctive mood to make your responses more cohesive and nuanced.

Two grammatical tools drive this communicative function. First, the present subjunctive allows you to make recommendations, express wishes, and suggest actions. Second, discourse connectors (also called transition words) link your sentences so they form a coherent paragraph rather than a list of disconnected thoughts.

Subjunctive Trigger Formulas

Discourse Connectors for Cohesion

To describe an issue effectively, you need topic-specific vocabulary. The categories below cover the most common scenarios you will encounter in interpersonal speaking tasks at the Spanish 3 level. Each category includes vocabulary for both describing the problem and offering advice.

You do not need to memorize every phrase on this chart. Instead, focus on learning two to three issue phrases and two to three advice phrases per topic area. This gives you flexibility to handle a wide range of prompts. The key is not quantity but your ability to combine these phrases with connectors and the subjunctive into multi-sentence responses.

Let's walk through a full conversation between two students. We will break it down step by step, identifying the grammar structures and connectors used at each stage. The scenario: your friend Marco tells you he's failing his math class.

When you practice this kind of speaking task, certain patterns consistently separate strong responses from weaker ones. The table below highlights what evaluators — and real conversational partners — notice most.

The skills you are building now — describing issues and giving advice using connected sentences — form the foundation for more advanced interpersonal and presentational tasks. As you progress to Spanish 4, AP Spanish, and beyond, these same structures will evolve. The table below shows how each element deepens at higher levels.

If you master the present subjunctive triggers and basic connectors in this lesson, you will have a solid launching pad for the imperfect subjunctive (Si yo fuera tú...) and more nuanced discourse structures you will encounter next year. Think of this as building the first floor of a building — the upper stories depend entirely on how well this foundation is laid.

The following five problems progress from conceptual understanding to critical thinking. For speaking-oriented tasks, write out your response as if you were speaking aloud. Aim for at least three connected sentences using connectors and subjunctive structures where appropriate.