Learn to speak Spanish

1. 1

   Week 1: sounds and greetings

   Say hello (Hola) and thank you (Gracias) until they feel natural. Learn the sounds that differ from English, and say ten short sentences about yourself. 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.

2. 2

   Week 2: everyday requests

   Learn to order, ask the price, ask where things are and say you do not understand. Build each as a full sentence and say it three times.

3. 3

   Week 3: questions and answers

   Practise question words and the answers to them. Listen to each Spanish sentence first, then say it, then compare.

4. 4

   Week 4: short exchanges

   Chain sentences into a mini conversation: greet, introduce yourself, ask a question, answer one. Record yourself and listen back.

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

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.

A good first target sentence: ¿Dónde está la estación? (Where is the station?).

• Ten to twenty minutes, same time every day.
• Say everything out loud, even when alone.
• Learn whole sentences, not isolated words.
• Repeat yesterday's sentences before learning new ones.
• After a couple of weeks, find a conversation partner or tutor and use what you have practised. At 30 minutes a day, Spanish reaches working proficiency in roughly 3.8 years, and you will be speaking well before that.

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