A Beginner’s Guide to Learning Spanish (from the beginner)
Four months ago, I moved to Spain. Before this period, I decided to learn some basic Spanish to use in my everyday life as a foreigner. Before moving to Spain, I had lost so much precious time on Duolingo. This manipulative green bird taught me some vocabulary, but nothing more. Btw Duolingo still manipulates me with friends’ quests and forces me to continue meaningless 5-minute lessons.
After realizing that I couldn’t have a simple conversation (even though I had a 365+ days streak on Duolingo) I started learning Spanish with a tutor. It’s been 4 months since. Now I can have simple conversations with locals.
Of course, it’s a long way to become fluent, but I believe as a beginner, I’m doing well enough, so I’ll share my techniques & sources on learning Spanish.
Define your language learning goals
“I just like the sound of Spanish” and “I’m going to live in a Spanish-speaking country” are two different goals. Either way, learning a language requires effort. Based on your goals, you can distinguish the time and intensity of practice.
Also, there are different types of Spanish: Castilian Spanish, Latin American Spanish, etc. If you are going to live in Madrid, like me, you’ll need to be learning Castilian Spanish.
Don’t waste (too much) time on Duolingo
I don’t know about other language-learning apps, but avoid spending time on Duolingo.
- It will mix Castellan Spanish and Latin American Spanish;
- It won’t explain basic grammar rules, which will be puzzling in the future.
I think the best use of Duolingo is as an additional, fun way to practice vocabulary.
Grammar is the backbone of language
Yes, it’s the only way for me. I know, almost nobody likes grammar, but I promise, it’s not that boring. Noticing structures that I learned recently, or using grammatical constructions when talking brings me joy. I feel like I’m progressing.
You may have a very limited vocabulary, but with adequate input, one can construct sentences based on the grammar rules. For starters, consider learning about:
Alphabet & pronunciation
For example, how do you read cama and cine? The letter C is pronounced differently in front of I and E (as th). In other cases, you read C as K.
Articles
Articles are definite/indefinite, feminine (la, las, una, unas), and masculine (el, los, un, unos).
Nouns & Gender
Spanish nouns have gender (masculine/feminine), so learn the basic rules for their determination.
For example: most of the nouns finishing with O are masculine (except la mano, la radio, la foto, and la moto).
Forming plurals
Depending on the ending, plurals are formed differently. If singular ends with a consonant (like la mujer) you’ll add “es” in the end to create a plural (las mujeres).
If a word ends with a vowel (like la mesa) you’ll add “s” in the end to create a plural (las mesas)
Adjectives
You’ll need to understand agreement between nouns and adjectives in terms of gender and number.
Pronouns
Yo — I
Tú — You (informal, singular)
Él/Ella/Usted — He/She/You (formal, singular)
Nosotros/Nosotras — We (masculine/feminine)
Vosotros/Vosotras — You all (informal, plural, used in Spain, masculine/feminine)
Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes — They (masculine)/They (feminine)/You all (formal, plural)
Verbs
Present tense regular — learn common verbs
Regular verbs in present tense conjugations for “ar,” “er,” and “ir” endings. They conjugate differently.
- hablar (to speak)
Yo habl-o
Tú habl-as
Él/Ella habl-a
Nosotros/Nosotras habl-amos
Vosotros/Vosotras habl-áis
Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes habl-an - comer (to eat)
Yo com-o
Tú com-es
Él/Ella/Usted com-e
Nosotros/Nosotras com-emos
Vosotros/Vosotras com-éis
Ellos/Ellas com-en - vivir (to live)
Yo viv-o
Tú viv-es
Él/Ella/usted viv-e
Nosotros/Nosotras viv-imos
Vosotros/Vosotras viv-ís
Ellos/Ellas/Ustedes viv-en
The most common irregular verbs
Learn how to conjugate and use verbs like ser (to be), estar (to be), tener (to have), hacer (to make), ir (to go), etc;
Many grammar topics can be covered, but you get the idea. Learn the sentence structure and basic grammar rules, and you’ll be able to have basic conversations.
Build vocabulary & start listening ASAP
Half of the words I learned were from conversations and different places, like supermarkets. Another half was from books my teacher uses in the teaching process.
Listening to news, information, and easy Spanish videos will help to grasp regular, everyday language. I’ll link my favorite YouTube channel to listen to Spanish conversations.
Speak as much as you can
You are lucky if you visit or live in a Spanish-speaking country/community or have Spanish-speaking friends. Be creative in finding people to speak with (or use paid services, where natives will speak to you in exchange for money).
I live in Madrid, so most of the people simply don’t speak English. Rarely, if someone knows English, we’ll switch from Spanish to English or speak Spanglish (a mix of both languages).
As a rule, every time I interact with people, I do it in Spanish. I make a lot of mistakes, pronounce words incorrectly, and use hand gestures if I don’t know a word for something. As long as it works, I’m doing it.
Read books
After learning basic grammar, I recommend reading books as soon as possible. It helps to apply grammar rules and learn new words. I recommend this series — “Lola Lago — Vacaciones al Sol” is a Spanish book series written by Lourdes Miquel and Neus Sans. It’s part of a collection designed for Spanish learners, particularly those at a beginner level. Other books are for more advanced learners. The series features detective stories centered around Lola Lago, a private detective, and her investigations.
You can find a free PDF version on Google and for listening — a YouTube video:
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