Learn Spanish for beginners

Spanish uses the Latin alphabet, so you can read and sound out words from day one.

Spanish uses five clean vowel sounds, and they stay the same in every word. Get a, e, i, o and u right and you will be understood almost at once. The tapped and rolled r takes longer, so say words with it out loud early instead of saving it for later.

• Hola: hello
• Gracias: thank you
• ¿Dónde está la estación?: where is the station

1. 1

   Listen first

   Hear the Spanish sentence before you try it so your ear knows the target.

2. 2

   Say it out loud

   Say the sentence three times. Slow first, then natural speed.

3. 3

   Build it

   Rebuild the sentence from its words so the word order sticks.

4. 4

   Repeat tomorrow

   Start the next session with yesterday's sentences.

• Only reading and tapping, and never saying anything aloud.
• Memorising word lists with no sentences around them.
• Waiting until you feel ready to speak. You get ready by speaking.
• Studying for two hours once a week instead of fifteen minutes daily.
• Expecting fast results. Spanish takes about 700 hours to reach working proficiency, but basic spoken Spanish comes much sooner.

Go deeper with most common Spanish words, useful Spanish phrases, and Spanish verb conjugations.