Check the Spanish in time (5)
I believe the answer is:
delay
'check' is the definition.
(delaying is a kind of checking)
'the spanish in time' is the wordplay.
'the spanish' becomes 'el' ('the' in Spanish).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'time' becomes 'day' (day is a kind of time).
'el' put inside 'day' is 'DELAY'.
(Other definitions for delay that I've seen before include "Put off; pause" , "Postpone, defer" , "hold-up of train?" , "Stoppage" , "Time lapse" .)