However, I’m going to argue that learning Spanish can be easy. How’s that possible?

Don’t make these mistakes when learning Spanish

Many people don’t realize this, but there are two frequent mistakes people make that make language learning an unnecessarily difficult task:

Not finding the right pace. Learning Spanish in a short time is “possible”, but it requires an intensive course and/or a real language immersion, which is expensive and hard. Very hard. If, instead of trying to learn everything at once, you focus on learning one “piece” at a time, you will find it considerably easier. Learning Spanish at a natural pace is a lot more bearable. But it takes time. Accept it.

Not leveraging psychology. Luckily for us, psychology and neuroscience have been for a long time studying how our brain acquires new knowledge in general, and a new language in particular. Many key concepts have arisen from these studies: forgetting curve, comprehensible input and many more.

The following tips will help you to learn Spanish at your own pace in a series of easy steps.

1. First, gather the best learning materials

Get hold of all the necessary materials to acquire, let’s say, a basic Spanish level. Then make a detail (and realistic) plan to use those materials step by step until you master them. Establish a routine and make it a habit: words per day, chapters per week, etc.

Here you have a list of learning materials that you’ll need at this stage:

• Grammar. You will need something to learn the Spanish grammar step by step. It can be a book, a textbook or an app, but it’s critical to choose a good one and, if possible, with accompanying audio examples.
• Dictionary. You’ll want to find a good Spanish dictionary. It can be a book, but there are also some good online Spanish dictionaries. If you choose one of these, I recommend to set up a browser search shortcut. That way, you’ll always be able to find any word in a matter of seconds.
• Basic vocabulary. Any native speaker knows thousands upon thousands of words, but just the first thousand words account for around 75% of everyday speech. Focus on those frequent words and you’ll soon begin recognizing many of them on texts, TV, radio and the Internet.
• Reading materials. Begin with easy texts, like comic strips for children or something like that. Then gradually build your way up to more complex texts. Ideally, they should be interesting to you and a little bit challenging (not too much).
• Audiovisual material. If possible, choose materials with subtitles or transcriptions available. It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand some words, you can always revisit them later. What matters is that you train the parts of the brain responsible for interpreting the words you hear. If you understand nothing at all, look for other sources, accents, etc. At the most basic levels, the audio examples in your textbook should be enough.

2. Fight forgetfulness

One of the most useful discoveries for language learning was made in the late 19th century. It’s the forgetting curve. The German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus spent years memorizing nonsense syllables and recording the time it takes to forget them. The result of this experiment was a graph that shows how memories fade non-linearly over time.

What this has to do with Spanish learning? Easy. Whether you like it or not, learning Spanish involves committing lots of words to memory. If your memorization and retention strategies suck, much of your efforts will be wasted.

Luckily, as a result of the discovery of the forgetting curve, science has developed the most efficient memory strategy known to mankind: spaced repetition (typically using flashcards). Spaced repetition consists of reviewing material at increasing time intervals so that the forgetting curve being less and less pronounced with each review.

There are spaced repetition apps, such as Anki or MemRise, but it is also possible to just use paper flashcards. The principle is simple: each flashcard has a question (say: Spanish for cat) and an answer (gato). You read the question and try to recall the answer, then you flip the flashcard to see if you got it right. If you forgot or were wrong, you put the card on a stack of high priority cards for sooner review. If it was easy, you put it on a stack of easy cards, which are reviewed less frequently. This way, you take the most out of your reviewing time.

Note: Of course, learning Spanish is much more than just memorizing individual words. However, you can’t learn Spanish easily without, one way or another, memorizing words in the first place (you need bricks to build a wall, right?). Spaced repetition is just the most efficient way to have all the bricks you need within easy reach.

3. Learn one thing at a time

There’s an appropriate order to learn things in a language, which resembles the order in which babies learn their mother tongue. The main difference is that, of course, second language acquisition usually involves both spoken and written language at the same time.

This order is important to make learning Spanish as easy as possible. For example, if you try to learn vocabulary before having a good grasp of the phonetics, you may easily confuse similar words and you’ll find it difficult to recognize words when you hear them.

An appropriate order could be something like this (some of the steps could be made more or less in parallel, though, if you feel like it):

1. Alphabet and orthography: study the letters of the alphabet and their rules of pronunciation (this is relatively easy in Spanish). Also, learn the meaning of all those strange characters (¿, ¡, ¨, ´, º, ª). This shouldn’t take more than a few days.
2. Phonemes (sounds): learn to distinguish subtle differences in sounds. For example, una vs uña, begonia vs Begoña, esta vs está, and so on. Minimal-pair training is one way of achieving this.
3. Basic vocabulary (with emphasis on phonetics). As said above, spaced repetition helps a lot with this.
4. Pronunciation. In the meantime, you can practice the pronunciation of difficult phonemes, like ñ or the trilling r’s (you can do this at any time wherever you are, while preparing breakfast or in the shower, for example).
5. Grammar. Once you have enough good quality “bricks”, start building the wall. Follow the textbook at your own pace, putting emphasis on practical applications. Do the exercises to test your knowledge and try to find more examples in other texts or audios.
6. Read. Read as much as you can. Start with easy readings and gradually increase the difficulty. Notice that this will give you a lot of opportunities to reinforce many words you learned in step 3. Take note of unknown words that you find important and incorporate them to your favorite spaced repetition system.
7. Train your ear. Written and spoken languages are two different beasts, you have to train them both or your language acquisition will never be complete. Use the audio material for that.
8. Write. A lot. Write about you or anything else that comes to your mind. Then, and this is important, share your sentences with natives to receive feedback. There are online platforms that you can use for that (see below).
9. Speak. When you can confidently understand spoken Spanish and form coherent written sentences, begin practicing conversation. Again, you can do this online, but even talking to yourself can be helpful to “train your tongue” and to discover gaps in your vocabulary.

4. First understand Spanish, then talk Spanish

Even though practicing pronunciation of difficult sounds is useful at any stage, the priority at the beginning should be reading and listening comprehension. After all, it doesn’t make much sense to try to speak a language you barely understand. Once you have good comprehension abilities, that will be the time to start communicating, both verbally and in writing.

In fact, there’s theory called silent period, which says that, when you learn a language, it is natural to focus first on processing and understanding what you hear, without trying to talk. Only when you have a good grasp of the language, then you’ll have the tendency to start talking. This is especially true in the case of children.

5. Seek help

At first, you can progress very fast by yourself, but as your level increases, it’s best to find someone to correct your errors and help you to express yourself in a more native-like way. This is very important, because if nobody corrects your errors, then these errors tend to eventually “fossilize” in your brain, so it’s more difficult to eradicate them.

Fortunately, nowadays there are many online platforms where you can show your sentences, both written and spoken, to native speakers of Spanish. Some of such platforms are italki, HiNative or Lang-8, but there are many more. Find the one that better suits you.

Finally, some general advice

Motivate yourself. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot by choosing materials you don’t enjoy just because they are the “recommended” ones. Choose readings that you find interesting, funny videos, etc. Focus on enjoying your learning activities. Also, where possible, master first the easiest parts of the language in order to gain confidence to deal with the hard ones.

Divide and conquer. In Spanish, there are some concepts that are hard to understand, like the difference between ser and estar, when to use the subjunctive mood, etc. Decompose them and focus on one aspect at a time. For example, learn first the most frequent uses of ser and estar, or only the present subjunctive of the regular verbs.

Ultimately, the key to learning Spanish easily is to know yourself, be motivated at all times and build your knowledge of the language as if it were a building: beginning with solid foundations, and then one brick at a time, in the right order.

The post Learning Spanish can be easy, if you follow these steps appeared first on Spanish Learning Hacks.

Let’s see!

Spanish word for love

as a noun:

• Amor (pronounced like /um-or/, click here to hear it in Forvo. Isn’t it beautiful?? <3

as a verb:

• Amar, querer.

How to say I Love You in Spanish?

There are basically two ways to say “I love you” in Spanish:

• Te quiero: This is the most common way, not only for romantic love, but also to express affection for a loved one. Note that it is an irregular verb. Alejandro, te queremos (Alejandro, we love you).
• Te amo: Also means “I love you”, but it is perhaps a more “intense” way of expressing it. It is somewhat less colloquial and more, say, poetic. It is more frequently used in a romantic way, but not exclusively. Amarás a Dios sobre todas las cosas y al prójimo como a ti mismo (You shall love the Lord your God above all things and your neighbor as yourself).

Hoy do you say My Love in Spanish?

Simply. In Spanish, “Mi Amor” is “My love”. For example, let’s use it in a typical sentence. The English sentence:

I love you so much, my love!

Would be typically translated to Spanish as:

¡Te quiero mucho, mi amor!

(Awww!)

Spanish Love Words and Phrases

Here are some Spanish words and phrases related to love, relationships, etc.

• My love…: mi amor
• Darling, honey: cariño, mi vida (my life),vida mía, cielo (heaven), tesoro (treasure), querido/a (mío/a)…
• St. Valentine: San Valentín.
• St. Valentine’s Day: día de San Valentín, or also día de los enamorados (lovers’ day).
• Valentine (card): Tarjeta de San Valentín.
• Cupid: Cupido.
• Love: (el) Amor. I Can’t Give Back The Love I Feel For You: No puedo devolver el amor que siento por ti.
• Love at first sight: Amor a primera vista. Also, flechazo (literally, arrow shot).
• Heart: Corazón. I love you with all my heart: Te quiero con todo mi corazón.
• To beat (heart): Latir.
• Love letter: Carta de amor.
• Compliment: cumplido, or, more coloquially, piropo. To pay compliments: hacer cumplidos, echar piropos, piropear.
• Kiss: beso. To kiss: besar. French kiss: beso en la boca (in the mouth), or beso con lengua (with tongue). Kiss me: bésame.
• Caress: caricia. To caress: acariciar.
• Hug: abrazo. To hug: abrazar.
• Passion: pasión.
• Couple: pareja.
• Boyfriend: novio (also means groom).
• Girlfriend: novia (also means bride).
• Lover: amante.
• Marriage: matrimonio (matrimonio can also mean “married couple”).
• Husband: marido, or esposo.
• Wife: mujer, or esposa. I pronounce you man and wife: Yo os declaro marido y mujer.
• Until death parts us: Hasta que la muerte nos separe.
• Wedding: Boda.
• To fall in love: enamorarse (de). I’m in love with you. Estoy enamorado/a de tí.
• To love: querer, amar.
• To blush, to turn red: ruborizarse, ponerse colorado/a.
• To seduce: seducir.
• To flirt: flirtear, coquetear.
• To court: cortejar.
• To marry: casarse (con), contraer matrimonio (very formal).

• Beautiful: bonito, bello/hermoso (more “poetic”), precioso (waaay beautiful).
• Handsome, pretty: guapo/a.
• Attractive: atractivo.
• Seductive: seductor.
• Tender: cariñoso, tierno.

Finally, some other ways to say “I love you” can be: te adoro (I adore you),estoy loco/a por ti (I’m crazy about you), te quiero con locura (I love you madly).

Spanish love poems

Nothing can express love like some love poems. Here’s a short one, which is very well known in the Spanish culture:

¿Qué es poesía?, dices mientras clavas
en mi pupila tu pupila azul.
¿Qué es poesía? ¿Y tú me lo preguntas?
Poesía… eres tú.
— Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer

Here’s in English, translated by A.Z. Foreman:

“What’s poetry?” You ask me, as you rivet
Into my pupil your pupil of blue
“What’s poetry?” You of all people ask me?
Poetry is you.

But, of course, the indisputable master of Spanish love phrases was the Chilean Pablo Neruda. The book “Love Poems” contains some of the best Neruda’s poems, in the original Spanish and also translated into English (click on the image for more details and related books).

If you are serious about learning Spanish, poetry is a must.

Happy (and successful) Valentine’s Day!

Array

The post My Love in Spanish… +36 other Spanish love words appeared first on Spanish Learning Hacks.

The letter ñ is commonly described as the n in “onion” or in “canyon”. Unfortunately, that’s only partially true. It depends on exactly how you pronounce those words. Following that advice, chances are you end up pronouncing Begoña (female proper name) as begonia (“begonia”), with unpredictable consequences.

In a way, the /ñ/ sound is just another “variety” of /n/. If you speak English, you already know how to pronounce two varieties:

• The n in sin: the tip of the tongue against the alveolar ridge (just behind the upper front teeth).
• The n in sing: the back of the tongue against the soft palate (the back of the roof of the mouth).

The /ñ/ sound just sits in the middle. The three of them are nasal consonants. The only difference is the position of the tongue:

• The ñ in señor: the middle of the tongue against the hard palate (the middle of the roof of the mouth).

EXERCISE

Just try to pronounce the word “now” with the tip of the tongue resting behind the lower front teeth (so that the middle of the tongue touches the hard palate). Keep your tongue far apart from your upper front teeth. You’ll find yourself pronouncing the word “ñow” (whatever that means).

ll (elle)

The letter ll has two alternative sounds, none of them exists in English:

• Traditionally, it is pronounced as a “palatal l”, so to speak. More on that in a minute.
• However, that palatal sound is being gradually replaced by the consonantal sound of the Spanish letter y (see later). That means that baya (“berry”) would sound exactly like valla (“fence”).

Yeísmo

That phenomenon (the tradicional /ll/ sound being replaced by the consonantal /y/) is called, in Spanish, yeísmo. It is now so widespread that it is officially accepted as the norm.

Places where the /ll/ sound survives include: Bolivia, Paraguay, areas of the rest of South American countries (except Uruguay) and some areas of Spain.

How to pronounce the /ll/ (“palatal l”) sound

You know now that the /ñ/ sound is just a “palatal” /n/ sound, right?. By the same token, the /ll/ sound is simply a “palatal” /l/.

Both /l/ and /ll/ are lateral consonants, that is, they are pronounced by directing the airstream over the sides of the tongue. The difference is that the /ll/ needs the middle of the tongue against the hard palate instead of the tip against the alveolar ridge.

EXERCISE

So, try it: pronounce the word “low” with the tip of the tongue resting behind the lower front teeth. Practice it and you’ll be soon pronouncing perfectly: “llow”, “llow”, “llow” (you are doing this privately, right?).

The post The alphabet. Letter ñ and the digraph ll. appeared first on Spanish Learning Hacks.

h, v, z

• h (hache): the letter h is always silent. So, hola (“hello”) sounds exactly like ola (“wave”).
• v (uve): unlike in english and many other languages, in spanish the letter v must be pronounced exactly like the letter b (bilabial, not labiodental). So, yes: vaca (“cow”) should sound exactly like baca (“roof rack”).
• z (zeta): depending of the dialect, it is pronounced:
  • as th in thin (central and northern Spain): voz [boz] (“voice”).
  • as s in sin (pretty much everywhere else): voz [bos].

j (jota)

The sound of the letter j may be somewhat familiar to you. It is pronounced:

• like the ch in the Scottish word “loch“.
• like the ch in “yech!” (exclamation of disgust).

If you don’t know how to pronounce it, try this: say the word “key” several times, each time stretching the sound /k/ a bit more:

key, kkkey, kkkkkkkey.

In fact you’d be pronouncing something like:

key, kjjey, kjjjjjjey

That’s because the sounds /k/ and /j/ are articulated in the same place (the soft palate). the difference is that the /k/ sound is produced by obstructing the airflow (and then releasing it), and the /j/ sound is produced by simply constricting it. The less you constrict it, the more it becomes the English /h/ sound (as in hat).

In fact, there are places where the letter j is pronounced precisely as the h in hat. These places are mainly Colombia, Venezuela, all Central America and some areas of Peru, Bolivia and Spain.

Next: The alphabet.  Letter ñ and the digraph ll.

The post The alphabet. Letters h, v, z… and j. appeared first on Spanish Learning Hacks.

Here comes the good news: Once you’ve learned some simple rules, the pronunciation of any Spanish word becomes predictable. Furthermore, most of the letters of the Spanish alphabet have only one possible pronunciation, regardless of their position in a word.

Behold the Spanish alphabet:

*Note: for simplicity, I’m including the digraphs ch and ll, but since 2010 they are not officially considered letters of the alphabet anymore.

I’ve informally classified them in five groups:

• In blue: vowels: a, e, i, o, u.
• In green: consonants whose sound is (nearly) identical to their English counterparts: b, ch, d, f, k, l, m, n, p, q, s, t, w, x.
• In black: consonants that doesn’t sound like you would expect, but are familiar to the English ear anyway, just written differently: h, v, z.
• In red: consonants whose sound doesn’t (formally) exist in English: j, ñ, ll.
• In magenta: consonants that have more than one possible sound (depending of their position in the word or the letter they go with): y, c, g, r.

Let’s begin with the vowels.

The vowels

There are only five vowel sounds in Spanish:

There are two main differences with English vowels:

• There is no distinction between short and long vowels. In essence, all of them are short. If one of them sounds long, it’s because one of two reasons:
  • Because of emphasis (mmmm… chocolaaate)
  • Because there are really two vowels, not one, like in ¡léelo! (“read it!”).
• Spanish vowels are always “pure” (unchanging) vocalic sounds. A common mistake is to pronounce no as in English, that is, rhyming with “toe”. Another is to pronounce the letter e as [ei], which, for example, makes vente (“come here”) sound like veinte (“twenty”).

Easy consonants

The following consonants should pose no problem for you, as they are pronounced the same as in English: b, ch, d, f, k, l, m, n, p, q, s, t, w, x.

More precisely:

Spanish consonants are always unaspirated. Aspirated consonants are those pronounced with a little puff of air. For example:

So, in particular, the letters k, p, and t are always pronounced unaspirated (as in skin, spool and stop, respectively) regardless of their position in the word.

A few notes:

• qu: Almost always, the letter q appears in the combinations que and qui. In those cases the letter u is always mute (so they sound as [ke] and [ki], respectively). The only excepcions are (unfrequent) expressions borrowed from other languages, mainly Latin, such as quid pro quo [kuid pro kú.o].
• s: The Spanish s is always voiceless, that is, the vocal cords don’t vibrate. So it’s always pronounced as in sin, never as in rose. In many dialects the letter s is pronounced aspirated, that is, like the h in hat, –or even disappears altogether– when it is located before another consonant or at the end of the word: agosto [a.gós.to / a.góh.to] (“august”), mes [mes / meh / me] (“month”).
• w: The letter w is only used in words borrowed from other languages. Its pronunciation is the same as in English in words borrowed from English, such as waterpolo (“water polo”). In other cases (mainly derivatives of German or Visigoth proper nouns) it is pronounced like a /b/, like in wagneriano (“Wagnerian”).
• x: Although it is “officially” pronounced [ks], as in “extra”:
  • In some cases, its pronunciation may be “relaxed” to a [gs] (roughly like in English: “exam”) or even to an /s/. Specifically, at the beginning of the word it must be pronounced as an /s/: xenofobia [se.no.fó.bia].
  • In some place names, and derivatives, like México, mexicano, Texas, texano, the x must be pronounced like a Spanish j (see later).

Next: The alphabet. Letters h, v, z… and j

The post The alphabet. The basics. appeared first on Spanish Learning Hacks.

The topic of this video is the ancient philosophical, proto-scientific practice known as “alchemy” (in Spanish: alquimia). What is alchemy? What is its relationship with modern chemistry? What were the alchemists looking for?

About the accent: it’s Castilian Spanish, easy to recognize, as you may know, due to the differentiated pronunciation of /s/ and /z/ (or “soft” /c/). For example, in Latin American Spanish the words cien (100) and sien (temple) have the same pronunciation, while in Castilian Spanish the letter c in the word cien sounds like the th in “think”.

What’s the meaning of…?

• Adeptos: initiated, adept.
• Antecesor: predecessor.
• Nada que ver con: nothing to do with.
• Principios (in this context): principles.
• Las oscuras tierras de Egipto: the dark lands of Egypt.
• Alquimista: alchemist.
• Centrarse en: focus on.
• Piedra filosofal: philosopher’s stone.
• Consecución de: achievement of.
• Estado superior de existencia: higher state of existence.
• Legajo: bundle of papers.

Array

The post Spanish subtitles: Alchemy appeared first on Spanish Learning Hacks.

Never again! Here you have all the Spanish food vocabulary your stomach will ever need, dished out in digestible chunks!

I’m using here the following color codes:

• blue background = basic (most frequent) words; gray background = less frequent words.
• red letters = mostly Latin American variant; green letters = mostly Spaniard variant (not strictly, but merely orientative).

Fruit (fruta)

* In some countries, such as Mexico, “lime” is translated as limón, and “lemon” as lima.

Vegetables (verdura)

Nuts and cereals (frutos secos* y cereales)

* The Spanish term fruto seco sometimes includes also dried fruits, such as prunes, raisins, etc.

Dairy and eggs (lácteos y huevos)

Oil and fats (aceite y grasas)

Fish and meat (pescado y carne)

Condiments (condimentos)

Sweets and sweeteners (dulces y endulzantes/edulcorantes)

Bebida (drink, beverage)

* Note that the accent mark distinguishes the noun té from the pronoun te.

Cooking

General food related words

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The post 310 Spanish food words appeared first on Spanish Learning Hacks.

Tip: you can toggle the subtitles on/off with the dropdown list below the video. This way you can first see how much you can understand without subtitles. Enjoy!

What’s the meaning of…?

• A lo mejor…: Perhaps…
• Cetáceo: cetacean (sea mammals, like dolphins and whales).
• Tan seguido: so often. This is typically latin-american. In Spain we say tan frecuentemente (so frecuently), tan a menudo (so often) or, more typically, simply tanto (so much).
• Nado: swimming (the act of swimming).
• Brinco, brincar: jump.
• Funja, subjunctive from fungir: to act/serve (as).

Array

The post Spanish subtitles: Dolphins and Humans appeared first on Spanish Learning Hacks.

By the way, in this video there are different accents from different Spanish-speaking countries. Can you identify them?

What’s the meaning of…?

• Pruebas: proofs, evidence.
• Investigadores: researchers.
• Choque: impact, collision.
• Una teoría que apoya la gran mayoría de especialistas: A theory supported by the vast majority of specialists.
• Frente a: versus, in contrast to.

Array

The post Spanish subtitles: Did a meteorite kill the dinosaurs? appeared first on Spanish Learning Hacks.

Remember, you may want to try first without looking at the subtitles (suggestion: resize your browser window and scroll the page so that you cannot see them).

What’s the meaning of…?

• Ovni (Objeto Volante No Identificado): Unidentified Flying Object (UFO).
• A todas luces: clearly, obviously, without doubt.
• Fusiforme: fusiform, spindle-shaped.
• De excepción (excepcional): exceptional.
• Iberia: Iberia is the flag carrier airline of Spain.
• Llevaría medio programa: it would take half a program.
• A buena pluma: approximately, roughly (perhaps somewhat more frequent: a vuela pluma)
• Tenía como venas: it had something like veins.
• Desde luego sí que nos sorprende: of course it does surprise us.
• Por lo menos: at least.

Array

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