Is Spanish hard to learn?

Difficulty depends on how different a language is from your own. For a native English speaker, Spanish falls in the closest to English band, which follows the US Foreign Service Institute's groupings of 24-30, 36, 44 and 88 weeks of full-time class. Languages the Institute does not rank are placed beside their closest relatives, so treat this as an estimate.

It is one of the friendlier languages for English speakers. Many words look familiar, the spelling is regular, and you can say any word you can read. Verb endings and the two words for to be take practice, which is why we have you build and say whole sentences.

Languages in the same band include Mexican Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch.

• Spanish uses the Latin alphabet, so you can read and sound out words from day one.
• Motivation. A trip, a partner, a job or a show you love will carry you further than a small difference in difficulty.
• Speaking from day one. Sentences you say out loud stick far better than words you only read.
• Short daily practice. Consistency beats intensity.

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.

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