Quick check
Tap a Spanish word, then its English partner
Jobs and nationalities carry a gender
English has one word: teacher. Spanish has three shapes.
-o / -a pairs: profesor / profesora, cocinero / cocinera, traductor / traductora.
Common (one form, both genders): estudiante, periodista, futbolista, estadounidense, belga.
The trap: English says "I am a student". Spanish drops the article: Soy estudiante. And nationalities are written in lower case: soy indio, not Indio.
Three endings, one set of persons
Every Spanish verb ends in -ar, -er or -ir. Cut the ending off and add the person ending.
hablar → hablo, hablas, habla, hablamos, hablais, hablan
comer → como, comes, come, comemos, comeis, comen
vivir → vivo, vives, vive, vivimos, vivis, viven
The trap: -er and -ir are identical except for nosotros and vosotros. Comemos but vivimos; comeis but vivis.
The ending is the pronoun
English needs the pronoun: "speak" tells you nothing on its own. Spanish endings are unique, so hablo can only be yo and hablais can only be vosotros.
That is why the class exercise gives you a form and asks for the person, never the other way round.
The trap: this course teaches Spain Spanish, so vosotros is examinable. Four items of the class MCQ set test it on its own (sois, teneis, vivis, leeis). Do not skip it.
Age is something you have
English: "I am 21." Spanish: Tengo veintiun anos, literally "I have 21 years".
So the question is ¿Cuántos años tienes? and the answer uses tener, never ser.
The trap: Soy veintiun anos is a beginner error the marker will spot instantly.