How to Learn Spanish Quickly

Learning a new language is never an easy task. However, it is not an impossible feat either. As long as you put yourself in a position to succeed, you will be able to achieve your goal of learning the language. We will talk about some of the best tips for learning Spanish for beginners.

Find Your Motivation

One of the main things that you should be doing when you are getting started with learning any language is fully understanding your motivation and writing down your ‘why.’ Your ‘why’ should be the reason you are learning the language.

The stronger it is, the more likely you will stick to learning the language. After all, learning a language is all about consistency and maintaining motivation.

Let’s think about it another way. How many times have you started something, only to quit a few weeks in and wonder what happened to the joy you first had when you started and now looking it as just a chore. What happened was that your initial interest was superficial at best and so when times got tough and you really had to focus and work, the end goal didn’t seem so much fun and you gave up.

Find a strong enough why that will keep you going, even when you want to throw in the towel and quit.

Find A Native Speaker

One of the quickest ways to learn Spanish is to find a native speaker that will allow you to practice continually throughout each day with them. In order to learn a language, you need to practice speaking it. Without having a native that you can speak to, it is going to be much more difficult to learn the language. By having someone you can speak to, you will be able to get corrected on the spot and you will be able to practice your comprehension.

Immerse Yourself

One of the best things that you can do to improve your ability to learn right off the bat as a beginner is to switch all of your electronics to the Spanish language.

By doing this, you will essentially force yourself to learn some of the settings in Spanish which can help you increase your vocabulary.

Try To Incorporate Learning In Your Life

Along with using your electronics, you could try to incorporate Spanish learning into your everyday life. For instance, if you are someone that enjoys playing video games, you will be able to learn Spanish by choosing to play the game in Spanish. This alone will allow you to learn a lot more because you will be hearing the story in Spanish and you can even set the subtitles to the Spanish language as well. Another good thing to do would be to watch your favorite movies or TV shows in Spanish. This will allow you to learn Spanish while you are doing something you enjoy and having fun.

Figure Out Words You Already Know

If you are an English speaker, you will be in luck. As an English speaker, you already know a lot of words in Spanish because each language was derived from Latin. Therefore, you will start off your Spanish language journey knowing a lot more words than you would if you were to start out with a language that didn’t have commonalities between them. When you are first starting out, try to some easy Spanish words for you to learn that way you can start using them every day.

There are plenty of tips that you will want to implement in your life when you are looking to learn Spanish as a beginner. By following the various tips laid out here, you should be able to position yourself to achieve success in your language learning journey.

 

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Important Spanish Nouns And Pronouns

Spanish is one of the most beautiful languages and for anyone who speaks French or English, it is a language that is fairly easy to learn. There are many ways to learn Spanish, but no matter which way you choose, you should learn Spanish grammar as it will allow you to build a strong foundation going forward.

Spanish grammar consists of nouns, verbs, adjectives, pronouns, and so forth. Consider Spanish nouns and pronouns as a good place to start.

Pronouns

A pronoun is a small word that conveys a particular meaning or replaces a noun. For example, you can say, “Betty is pretty. Betty is smart”. You can also say, “Betty is pretty. She is smart”. Betty is a noun that in the second part of the sentence can replaced by the pronoun, “she”. We simply use pronouns, in this instance, to avoid repeating someone’s name more than once. This can be extremely beneficial if you do not know the person’s name or if they have a name that is either particularly long or unpronounceable.

However, caution is required because if you use the wrong pronoun it can cause confusion. For example, in Spanish you may say that “ella es guapo”. The confusion would be that guapo is masculine and therefore would suggest a male whereas ella is female. Nevertheless, once you get your head around how Spanish pronouns work then you will be able to say and write them properly.

It is important to note that when you speak using the wrong Spanish pronoun, you will be able to make more mistakes because people will normally understand what you’re trying to say because of verbal cues. However, when you write the wrong Spanish pronoun, it can get you into serious trouble with the person who is reading it.

Spanish Subject Pronouns

To avoid saying a person, thing, or place over and over, you can use a Spanish subject pronoun. The Spanish subject pronouns are I (yo), you (tú/usted – informal/formal), he/she (él/ella), we (nosotros/nosotras), you (vosotros/vosotras – plural, informal), you (ustedes – plural, formal), and they (ellos/ellas).

Spanish Nouns

All Spanish nouns, including feelings, ideas, people, animals, places, and things, have a female or male gender. This does not mean that inanimate objects, such as books or movies, have a gender but rather that they use a gender in a grammatical format that can be used with adjectives and articles that match their gender. There are a few basic rules that will determine whether a noun is masculine or feminine.

Masculine Spanish Nouns

Most nouns that end in “O” are masculine such as el cartero (the mailman/postman), el teatro (the theater), el niño (the child/son), el dormitorio (the bedroom) or el tío (the uncle).

Words that have an ending in the following combinations are often masculine, a consonant other than d, z, an accented vowel á, é, í, ó, ú, ma, or e.

However, there are exceptions to most of the above endings. Such as la foto (photo), la llave (key), la miel (honey), la radio (radio), la gente (people), la nieve (snow), etc.

Spanish Feminine Nouns

The majority of feminine nouns end in “a”. A word ending in an “a” will indicate that an animal, person, or thing is grammatically feminine.

Feminine nouns with an “a” ending include la enfermera (the nurse), la hija (the daughter), la piscina (the pool), la guitarra (the guitar), to name a few. Nouns that have an ending in in d, z, or -ión are also feminine.

Yes, learning Spanish nouns and pronouns will help you become more fluent in Spanish.

 

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All About Irregular And Regular Verbs In Spanish

Most learners (new and old) of Spanish will all agree that understanding irregular and regular verbs in Spanish is perhaps the most complicated thing to learn about Spanish grammar but also the most important.

Unfortunately, if you want to become fluent in Spanish then you will need to learn a lot about both regular and irregular verbs. In fact, you may spend more time learning about irregular and regular verbs in Spanish than you imagine.

To help you understand what a regular verb is and does it is important to also understand everything about irregular verbs. However, do not fret because this article will provide you with some excellent information about both regular verbs and irregular verbs. This information will help you to learn them efficiently and quickly. The key is not to become discouraged even if you are a complete beginner.

English Regular Verbs

Before you begin your Spanish language adventure, it is essential to examine the differences between irregular and regular verbs in relation to how they work in English. We can take a close look at this relationship by using a simple but proven pattern.

Let’s illustrate this point with the verb “to walk”. When you use the verb “to walk” in the present tense, it is simply a matter of putting a pronoun in front of the verb. For example, “you walk”, “we walk”, or “they walk”.The only exception to this rule is the third person singular which requires an “s” on the ending of the verb. For example, “he walks” or “she walks”.

Obviously, the above rules in English are quite simple. In fact, the other tenses are also just as easy. If you want to use the present continuous tense then you simply put an “ing” on the end of a verb while combining it with the present tense of the verb “to be”. For example, “they are walking” or “he is walking”. In the past tense, you add “ed” at the verb’s end. For example, “we walked” or “he walked”.

The English language has many other tenses, of course, but the key point is that there are consistent, simple patterns that can be equally applied to hundreds of verbs:

– Climb, climbs, climbed, climbing
– jump, jumps, jumped, jumping
– help, helps, helped, helping

English Irregular Verbs

However, in English there are irregular verbs that do not follow the above patterns such as the verbs speak, throw, or bought, just to name a few. These irregular verbs require unique conjugations such as seen in the past tense version of the verb speak. The past tense is not speak with an added “ed” but rather spoke.

Spanish Verbs

The Spanish language is similar. There are basic patterns that the majority of regular verbs follow. However, like English there are also irregular verbs. To communicate correctly in Spanish, you will need to learn both irregular and regular verbs. It will take time to learn which Spanish verbs are irregular and their particular irregularities.

Spanish Regular Verbs

Both Spanish irregular and regular verbs can be divided into 3 main categories. The categories will be based on the ending of the verb’s infinitive form. The 3 endings for Spanish verbs are “ar”, “er”, and “ir”.

Spanish Irregular Verbs

Unfortunately, many of the Spanish irregular verbs are found among the more common verbs such as “to be”, “to go”, “to have”, and “to know”. At first, it may seem difficult to learn Spanish but with a little bit of hard work and practice you will be writing and speaking fluently in no time.

All About Irregular And Regular Verbs In Spanish

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Understanding Spanish Verb Tenses

It is interesting to note that a verb’s tense will typically depend on when the action of the verb takes place in relation to time. The Spanish word for tense uses the appropriate word tiempo.

Tiempo in English means time and therefore, in a grammatical sense, it is the perfect word in Spanish. Spanish has three simple tenses including present, future, and past. Unfortunately, languages are never that simple and Spanish is a good example because it also has two types of simple past tenses, as well as a tense that is not connected with time.

Most students will quickly come to appreciate that both English and Spanish have complex tenses that utilize auxiliary verbs. However, most beginner students of Spanish verb tenses will begin their learning adventure of Understanding Spanish Verb Tenses by becoming familiar with the following 4 types of simple tenses.

Understanding Spanish Verb Tenses – Present Tense

The most common tense in Spanish is the present tense. Most Spanish classes introduce the present tense first. An example of Present Tense would be something you are doing right now in this very moment, like reading this sentence.

Understanding Spanish Verb Tenses – Future Tense

In Spanish, the future tense is primarily used to relate or reference events that have not happened. An example would be that you are planning to go to the movies next week. However, the future tense can also indicate uncertainty about current events or it can be used for emphatic commands.

Understanding Spanish Verb Tenses – Past Tense

In Spanish, there are 2 past tenses commonly known as the imperfect and the preterite. The preterite is normally used to reference something that has occurred at a specific point in time. The imperfect is normally used when describing an event that does not have a specific time period.

Understanding Spanish Verb Tenses – Conditional Tense

This interesting tense is often referred to as the future hypothetical. This tense is different than the other tenses and it is unique because it is not connected clearly with any particular time period. The name basically tells it all. It is a tense that is used with reference to events that are hypothetical or conditional in nature. It should be noted that the conditional tense is not the same as a the subjunctive mood.

The various Spanish verb tenses are made by simply changing the endings of a verb. This process is commonly known as conjugation. In English, we at times will conjugate a verb by adding “ed” to the end. When we add “ed” to the ending of a verb, this implies that the verb or action is taking place in the past tense.

In Spanish, however, the verb conjugation process is much more extensive. For example, in English to describe the future tense we simply use additional words such as “shall” or “will”. In Spanish, unfortunately, you will need to learn 5 different types of conjugation for simple tenses.

The five different types of simple tenses include present tense conjugation, preterite conjugation, imperfect conjugation, future conjugation, and conditional conjugation.

Besides the simple tenses, mentioned above, it is possible to form perfect tenses in both English and Spanish by using the verb form “to have” in English and “haber” in Spanish along with the past participle. These compound tenses include the past perfect, present perfect, preterite perfect, conditional perfect, and future perfect.

Even though both English and Spanish share a common ancestor, the Spanish language has some tense usage peculiarities. They include past tense differences of estar and ser, ability to describe future events without using a future tense, conditional sentences that use other forms of verbs rather than the conditional tense, and using the auxiliary verb estar.

 

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Best Ways To Learn Spanish Fast

If you have a mission to learn Spanish, you are likely interested in figuring out some of the best tips to learn it fast. Luckily, there are plenty of things that you can do to improve the speed at which you are able to learn the language. In this article, we will go over a few of the different ways to learn Spanish fast.

Immersion

This is easily the best way to learn Spanish fast. By immersing yourself in a country that speaks your target language of Spanish, you will be able to force yourself to not only hear the language being spoken by native speakers, but you will also force yourself to be uncomfortable and to use the Spanish language yourself. Putting yourself in situations where you have to use the language to get around can be very beneficial if you are looking for the best way to learn Spanish.

Focus On Vocabulary

Another key thing that you will want to do when you are aiming to learn Spanish in a short period of time would be to focus on learning vocabulary. By building your vocabulary, you will be able to study with much more awareness and context. This is going to allow you to get more out of your study sessions because you will know more words and be able to figure out sentences based on contextual clues.

Don’t Worry About Grammar

If your sole mission is to learn Spanish fast and you really want to get speaking in the target language to be understood, you will want to avoid worrying about grammar initially. Grammar is good to focus on later on in the stages of your learning cycle, but initially, it will just hold you back.

While you do need to focus on some of the different aspects of your grammar, you don’t want to pin yourself down studying it when you could be doing other things that can bring you much quicker results.

Get A Tutor

Another good thing that you can do to speed up your learning process would be to get someone that can hold you accountable. Getting a tutor is typically one of the best investments you can make because you will be forced to learn and communicate in Spanish with them.

Their job is to get you focused on the task at hand and it is going to help hold you accountable. Therefore, you will be forced to learn even when you might otherwise make up excuses.

Download A Flashcard App

By using repetition software with a flashcard app, you will be able to really nail down your vocabulary much quicker than ever. You will be able to practice your vocabulary while you are on the train, on break at work, and other times throughout the day when you aren’t doing much.

Overall, there are plenty of different ways you can speed up your Spanish learning. By following these tips, you should be able to actively learn Spanish at a much quicker rate than if you were to do it the traditional route.

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