Spanish for Beginners

Welcome to Spanish. The best news for a beginner is that Spanish is phonetic: with a few rules, you can read almost any word out loud correctly, because letters almost always make the same sound. English vowels wander (think of the "a" in cat, father, and about), but Spanish vowels are steady and pure. Master these five sounds and you are halfway to a good accent.

The five vowels

Each Spanish vowel has one clean sound. Say them crisply and do not let them glide into a second sound the way English often does.

Vowel	Sounds like	Example	English
a	"ah" in father	casa	house
e	"eh" in met	mesa	table
i	"ee" in see	sí	yes
o	"oh" in note	foto	photo
u	"oo" in food	uno	one

Try reading these aloud, one clean sound per vowel: casa (house), peso (weight or the currency), libro (book), mono (monkey), música (music). Notice how the vowels stay pure even when several appear in a row: Europa is "eh-oo-ROH-pah".

A few friendly consonants

Most consonants are close to English, but a handful surprise beginners. The letter h is always silent: hola (hello) is said "OH-lah". The letter j makes a strong "h" sound from the back of the throat: jamón (ham) is "hah-MOHN". The pair ll usually sounds like the English "y": llamar (to call) is "yah-MAR". The tilde letter ñ sounds like the "ny" in canyon: español is "es-pah-NYOL". Finally, r is a quick tap of the tongue, and rr is a rolled trill, as in perro (dog) versus pero (but).

Do not worry about sounding perfect. Spanish speakers understand learners easily, and clean vowels matter far more than a perfect rolled r. Read every new word out loud in this course and your ear and mouth will train together.

The Spanish alphabet, the abecedario, has the same 27 letters as English plus the extra letter ñ. Knowing the letter names lets you spell your name on the phone, read signs, and use a dictionary. Here are the letters with how their names are pronounced.

Letter	Name	Letter	Name
a	a	n	ene
b	be	ñ	eñe
c	ce	o	o
d	de	p	pe
e	e	q	cu
f	efe	r	erre
g	ge	s	ese
h	hache	t	te
i	i	u	u
j	jota	v	uve
k	ka	w	uve doble
l	ele	x	equis
m	eme	y	ye
		z	zeta

Letters that change their sound

A few consonants change depending on the vowel that follows. The letter c sounds like "k" before a, o, u (casa, "house") but like "s" before e or i (cena, "dinner"). The letter g is hard like "go" before a, o, u (gato, "cat") but throaty like the Spanish j before e or i (gente, "people"). To keep a hard "k" sound before e or i, Spanish uses qu: queso (cheese) is "KEH-so", and the u is silent.

When you spell aloud, you can add helpful words. For a double letter you say doble. To spell the name Ana you would say "a, ene, a". To ask how something is spelled, use the question Como se escribe? (How is it written or spelled?). Practice spelling your own name now; it is one of the first things a new acquaintance will ask.

Spanish conversations open with warm, predictable greetings. Learning a dozen phrases lets you start almost any exchange. The all-purpose hello is hola, and you can add a time-of-day greeting.

Spanish	English
Buenos días	Good morning
Buenas tardes	Good afternoon
Buenas noches	Good evening / Good night
Adiós	Goodbye
Hasta luego	See you later
Hasta mañana	See you tomorrow

How are you?

To ask how someone is, the friendly form is Como estas? (How are you?) and the polite or formal form is Como esta usted?. Common answers include Muy bien, gracias (Very well, thank you), Bien (Fine), Mas o menos (So-so), and Mal (Bad). A natural follow-up is Y tu? (And you?) or the formal Y usted?.

Courtesy words appear constantly. Learn por favor (please), gracias (thank you), de nada (you are welcome), perdon (excuse me or sorry), and con permiso (excuse me, when passing by someone). Here is a tiny dialogue you could already use:

• Hola, buenos días. (Hello, good morning.)
• Buenos días. Como estas? (Good morning. How are you?)
• Muy bien, gracias. Y tu? (Very well, thank you. And you?)
• Bien, gracias. (Fine, thanks.)

Notice the difference between tu and usted. Use tu with friends, family, classmates, and children. Use usted to show respect to strangers, elders, and people in authority. When in doubt with an adult you have just met, usted is the safe, polite choice.

To say who does something, Spanish uses subject pronouns. Here they are with their meanings. Note that Spanish has several words for "you" depending on formality and number.

Pronoun	Meaning
yo	I
tú	you (informal, singular)
él / ella / usted	he / she / you (formal)
nosotros / nosotras	we (masculine / feminine)
vosotros / vosotras	you all (informal, used in Spain)
ellos / ellas / ustedes	they (m / f) / you all

Spanish often drops the pronoun because the verb ending already shows who is speaking. So Soy estudiante already means "I am a student" without saying yo.

Conjugating ser (to be)

One of the two Spanish verbs for "to be" is ser. It is irregular, so memorize its forms.

Pronoun	Ser	Example	English
yo	soy	Yo soy Ana.	I am Ana.
tú	eres	Tú eres alto.	You are tall.
él / ella / usted	es	Ella es doctora.	She is a doctor.
nosotros	somos	Nosotros somos amigos.	We are friends.
vosotros	sois	Vosotros sois jóvenes.	You all are young.
ellos / ellas / ustedes	son	Ellos son de México.	They are from Mexico.

Use ser for things that define what someone or something fundamentally is: identity (Soy Ana, "I am Ana"), profession (Es profesor, "He is a teacher"), origin (Somos de España, "We are from Spain"), and lasting characteristics (El libro es interesante, "The book is interesting"). A handy memory aid is that ser describes the essence of a thing, the traits that stay the same over time.

Spanish has a second verb that also translates as "to be": estar. Where ser describes what something is, estar describes how or where something is right now. Here is the present tense.

Pronoun	Estar	Example	English
yo	estoy	Yo estoy bien.	I am fine.
tú	estás	Tú estás en casa.	You are at home.
él / ella / usted	está	Ella está cansada.	She is tired.
nosotros	estamos	Estamos contentos.	We are happy.
vosotros	estáis	Estáis aquí.	You all are here.
ellos / ellas / ustedes	están	Ellos están ocupados.	They are busy.

When to use estar

Use estar for two big categories: location and temporary states. For location, El libro está en la mesa means "The book is on the table," and Estamos en la escuela means "We are at school." For feelings and conditions that can change, Estoy cansado means "I am tired," and El café está caliente means "The coffee is hot right now."

Ser or estar?

The choice can change the meaning of the sentence. Compare these:

• Ella es aburrida. (She is boring, a lasting trait.)
• Ella está aburrida. (She is bored, a passing mood.)
• El es rico. (He is rich.) versus El pastel está rico. (The cake tastes delicious.)

A simple guideline: ask whether you are describing an essential identity or trait (use ser) or a current condition, feeling, or location (use estar). Many learners remember estar with the phrase "how you feel and where you are." With practice the difference becomes automatic.

Every Spanish noun (a person, place, or thing) has a gender: it is either masculine or feminine. This is grammatical, not about biology, so a table (la mesa) is feminine and a book (el libro) is masculine. The gender of the noun controls the words around it, so you must learn each noun together with its article.

Helpful endings

Most nouns follow a pattern. Nouns ending in -o are usually masculine, and nouns ending in -a are usually feminine.

• Masculine: el libro (the book), el gato (the cat), el dinero (the money)
• Feminine: la casa (the house), la silla (the chair), la ventana (the window)

There are exceptions worth memorizing: el día (the day) is masculine though it ends in -a, and la mano (the hand) is feminine though it ends in -o. Words ending in -ción or -dad are feminine, such as la nación (the nation) and la ciudad (the city).

The four "the" and four "a"

English has one word for "the." Spanish has four, matching gender and number. It also has four words for "a" or "some."

	Masculine singular	Feminine singular	Masculine plural	Feminine plural
the (definite)	el	la	los	las
a / some (indefinite)	un	una	unos	unas

So "the book" is el libro, "the books" is los libros, "a house" is una casa, and "some houses" is unas casas. To make most nouns plural, add -s after a vowel (libro to libros) and -es after a consonant (ciudad to ciudades). Always practice new vocabulary with its article attached; "libro" alone is only half the word to a Spanish speaker's ear.

An adjective describes a noun. In Spanish, adjectives must agree with the noun they describe in both gender (masculine or feminine) and number (singular or plural). This is one of the biggest differences from English, where adjectives never change.

How agreement works

An adjective that ends in -o has four forms. Take alto (tall):

	Singular	Plural
Masculine	alto	altos
Feminine	alta	altas

So we say el chico alto (the tall boy), la chica alta (the tall girl), los chicos altos (the tall boys), and las chicas altas (the tall girls). Adjectives that end in -e or a consonant usually do not change for gender, only for number: inteligente becomes inteligentes, and un libro interesante and una clase interesante use the same form. Adjectives of nationality ending in a consonant do add an -a for feminine, as in español and española.

Where adjectives go

Unlike English, most descriptive adjectives come after the noun: una casa grande (a big house), not "una grande casa." Some short, common adjectives about quantity, like mucho (much or many) and numbers, come before the noun: muchos amigos (many friends). Here are useful describing words with their masculine and feminine pairs: bueno / buena (good), malo / mala (bad), pequeño / pequeña (small), bonito / bonita (pretty), and nuevo / nueva (new). Full example: Tengo un carro nuevo y una casa pequeña means "I have a new car and a small house," with each adjective matching its noun.

A Spanish verb in its base form is called the infinitive, and it always ends in -ar, -er, or -ir. To conjugate a regular verb, you drop that ending to find the stem and add a new ending that matches the subject. Once you learn the three patterns, you can use hundreds of verbs.

The three patterns

Here are three model verbs: hablar (to speak), comer (to eat), and vivir (to live).

Pronoun	hablar	comer	vivir
yo	hablo	como	vivo
tú	hablas	comes	vives
él / ella / usted	habla	come	vive
nosotros	hablamos	comemos	vivimos
vosotros	habláis	coméis	vivís
ellos / ellas / ustedes	hablan	comen	viven

Notice that -er and -ir verbs share the same endings except in the nosotros and vosotros forms (comemos versus vivimos). The -ar endings all feature the letter a, while -er and -ir endings feature e or i.

Putting it to work

The Spanish present tense covers three English ideas at once. Hablo español can mean "I speak Spanish," "I am speaking Spanish," or "I do speak Spanish." Here are more examples with translations:

• Nosotros comemos pan. (We eat bread.)
• Ella vive en Madrid. (She lives in Madrid.)
• Los estudiantes estudian mucho. (The students study a lot.)
• Tú bebes agua. (You drink water.)

Other common regular verbs to practice include trabajar (to work), estudiar (to study), aprender (to learn), leer (to read), escribir (to write), and abrir (to open). Conjugate them the same way: drop -ar, -er, or -ir, then add the matching ending.

Numbers appear everywhere: prices, ages, phone numbers, and time. Here are the essentials from zero to twenty, then the tens.

#	Spanish	#	Spanish
0	cero	11	once
1	uno	12	doce
2	dos	13	trece
3	tres	14	catorce
4	cuatro	15	quince
5	cinco	16	dieciséis
6	seis	17	diecisiete
7	siete	20	veinte
8	ocho	30	treinta
9	nueve	40	cuarenta
10	diez	100	cien

To build numbers in between, join a ten and a unit with y (and): treinta y uno is 31, cuarenta y cinco is 45. The numbers 16 to 19 and 21 to 29 are written as one word (dieciséis, veintidós).

Days, months, and dates

The days of the week are lunes (Monday), martes, miércoles, jueves, viernes, sábado, and domingo. They are not capitalized in Spanish. The months (enero, febrero, marzo, and so on) are also lowercase. To give a date, use the pattern el + number + de + month: el cinco de mayo means "the fifth of May." For the first of the month, Spanish traditionally uses el primero.

Telling time

To ask the time, say Que hora es? (What time is it?). For one o'clock use es; for all other hours use son, because they are plural:

• Es la una. (It is one o'clock.)
• Son las tres. (It is three o'clock.)
• Son las cuatro y media. (It is four thirty; media means half.)
• Son las siete y cuarto. (It is a quarter past seven.)
• Son las nueve menos diez. (It is ten to nine.)

Add de la mañana (in the morning), de la tarde (in the afternoon), or de la noche (at night) to be clear.

Some of the most useful Spanish verbs are irregular, meaning they do not follow the regular patterns. Three you will use constantly are tener (to have), ir (to go), and hacer (to do or make). Learn them now and your sentences will open up quickly.

Pronoun	tener (to have)	ir (to go)	hacer (to do/make)
yo	tengo	voy	hago
tú	tienes	vas	haces
él / ella / usted	tiene	va	hace
nosotros	tenemos	vamos	hacemos
vosotros	tenéis	vais	hacéis
ellos / ellas / ustedes	tienen	van	hacen

Special uses of tener

Spanish uses tener where English uses "to be" for certain states. Most importantly, age: Tengo veinte años literally means "I have twenty years," that is, "I am twenty years old." Other tener expressions include tener hambre (to be hungry), tener sed (to be thirsty), tener frío (to be cold), tener calor (to be hot), and tener que + infinitive (to have to do something), as in Tengo que estudiar (I have to study).

ir and hacer

The verb ir almost always pairs with a (to): Voy a la escuela (I am going to school), Vamos al cine (We are going to the movies). Note that a + el contracts to al. The verb hacer means to do or make, and it also appears in weather: Hace calor (It is hot out), Hace frío (It is cold out), Hace sol (It is sunny). A common question is Que haces? (What are you doing?).

Asking questions is how conversations grow. Spanish makes it easy. For a simple yes-or-no question, you can keep the same word order as a statement and just raise your voice at the end, or you can put the verb first. Both of these ask "Do you speak Spanish?":

• Tú hablas español? (statement order, rising tone)
• Hablas español? (subject dropped, very common)

One thing to remember in writing: Spanish opens a question with an inverted question mark and closes with a normal one. So the full written form is an upside-down question mark, then the question, then a regular question mark. The same happens with exclamations. This tells the reader a question is coming.

Question words

To ask for specific information, use these interrogatives. Each carries a written accent.

Spanish	English	Example
qué	what	Qué quieres? (What do you want?)
quién	who	Quién es? (Who is it?)
dónde	where	Dónde vives? (Where do you live?)
cuándo	when	Cuándo llegas? (When do you arrive?)
por qué	why	Por qué estudias? (Why do you study?)
cómo	how	Cómo estás? (How are you?)
cuánto	how much	Cuánto cuesta? (How much does it cost?)

A subtle but important pair: por qué (two words, accent) means "why," while porque (one word, no accent) means "because." So you might ask Por qué estudias español? and answer Porque me gusta (Because I like it). With these question words plus a verb, you can already interview a new friend about their name, home, age, and plans.

Food is one of the most rewarding topics for a new speaker because you can use it immediately. Let us build a small menu of vocabulary, then learn how to order.

Spanish	English	Spanish	English
el pan	bread	el agua	water
el queso	cheese	el café	coffee
la carne	meat	el jugo	juice
el pollo	chicken	la leche	milk
el pescado	fish	el vino	wine
la manzana	apple	la sopa	soup

The three meals are el desayuno (breakfast), el almuerzo (lunch), and la cena (dinner). To eat is comer and to drink is beber.

Wanting and liking

To say what you want, use querer (to want), a common verb that changes its stem from e to ie: quiero (I want), quieres (you want), quiere (he/she wants). So Quiero un café means "I want a coffee." To be polite you can soften it to Quisiera (I would like). To say what you like, use gustar, which works differently: it literally says something "is pleasing to me." Me gusta el café means "I like coffee," and Me gustan las manzanas means "I like apples" (plural noun, so gustan).

Ordering

Here is a short restaurant exchange you could use today:

• Waiter: Buenas tardes. Qué desea? (Good afternoon. What would you like?)
• You: Quisiera la sopa y un pollo, por favor. (I would like the soup and a chicken, please.)
• Waiter: Y para beber? (And to drink?)
• You: Un agua, por favor. (A water, please.)
• You (at the end): La cuenta, por favor. (The check, please.)

The keyword la cuenta (the bill) and the polite por favor will carry you through most meals.

Talking about family (la familia) is a natural early conversation. Here are the core members.

Spanish	English	Spanish	English
el padre	father	la madre	mother
el hijo	son	la hija	daughter
el hermano	brother	la hermana	sister
el abuelo	grandfather	la abuela	grandmother
el tío	uncle	la tía	aunt
el primo	cousin (m)	la prima	cousin (f)

A useful feature: the masculine plural covers a mixed group. Los padres means "the parents," los hermanos can mean "the siblings," and los abuelos means "the grandparents."

Whose family? Possessives

To show whose relative you mean, use possessive adjectives: mi (my), tu (your), su (his, her, your formal, or their), and nuestro/nuestra (our). They agree in number: mi hermano (my brother), mis hermanos (my brothers). Examples: Mi madre es alta (My mother is tall), Nuestros abuelos viven en España (Our grandparents live in Spain).

Describing people

Combine ser with adjectives to describe appearance and character. For looks: alto/bajo (tall/short), joven/viejo (young/old), guapo/bonita (handsome/pretty). For hair: Tiene el pelo negro (He/She has black hair), Tiene los ojos azules (has blue eyes). For personality: simpático (nice), inteligente (smart), trabajador (hardworking). A full description: Mi hermana es simpática e inteligente, y tiene el pelo largo means "My sister is nice and smart, and has long hair." Remember agreement, and note that y becomes e before a word starting with an i sound (inteligente).

Describing your day introduces a new kind of verb: the reflexive verb. These describe actions you do to yourself, like waking up or getting dressed. Their infinitives end in -se, such as levantarse (to get up) and llamarse (to call oneself, that is, to be named). You have already met one: Como te llamas? literally asks "How do you call yourself?"

How reflexives work

A reflexive verb needs a reflexive pronoun that matches the subject and sits before the conjugated verb. Here is levantarse (to get up).

Pronoun	Reflexive form	English
yo	me levanto	I get up
tú	te levantas	you get up
él / ella / usted	se levanta	he/she gets up
nosotros	nos levantamos	we get up
vosotros	os levantáis	you all get up
ellos / ellas / ustedes	se levantan	they get up

Common routine verbs include despertarse (to wake up), ducharse (to shower), vestirse (to get dressed), desayunar (to eat breakfast, not reflexive), and acostarse (to go to bed).

Sequencing your day

Link actions with time words: primero (first), luego (then), después (afterward), por la mañana (in the morning), por la tarde (in the afternoon), and por la noche (at night). Here is a short routine:

• Por la mañana, me despierto a las siete. (In the morning, I wake up at seven.)
• Luego me ducho y me visto. (Then I shower and get dressed.)
• Después, desayuno y voy al trabajo. (Afterward, I eat breakfast and go to work.)
• Por la noche, me acuesto a las once. (At night, I go to bed at eleven.)

With these building blocks you can narrate an entire day, one of the most useful things a beginner can do.

You do not need a whole new verb tense to talk about the future. Spanish has an easy, extremely common structure called the near future (or futuro próximo). It works just like the English phrase "going to." The formula is simple:

a form of ir + a + an infinitive

You already know how to conjugate ir (voy, vas, va, vamos, vais, van). Add a, then any verb in its base form. Look how the whole thing comes together.

Spanish	English
Voy a estudiar.	I am going to study.
Tú vas a comer.	You are going to eat.
Ella va a viajar.	She is going to travel.
Nosotros vamos a bailar.	We are going to dance.
Ellos van a trabajar.	They are going to work.

The only part that changes is ir; the a and the infinitive stay the same. This is why beginners love it: master one verb and you can express countless future plans.

Talking about when

Pair the near future with time expressions to be specific: hoy (today), mañana (tomorrow), esta noche (tonight), este fin de semana (this weekend), la próxima semana (next week). For example:

• Mañana voy a visitar a mi abuela. (Tomorrow I am going to visit my grandmother.)
• Este fin de semana vamos a ver una película. (This weekend we are going to watch a movie.)
• Qué vas a hacer esta noche? (What are you going to do tonight?)

Notice the last example combines a question word, the near future, and a time expression. You can now make plans, invite friends, and answer questions about what comes next.

To say what you did, Spanish uses a past tense called the preterite (pretérito). It describes actions that are finished and complete, such as "I ate," "she arrived," or "we lived there for a year." This is your first step into talking about the past, and the regular patterns are very learnable.

Regular preterite endings

As in the present, you drop the infinitive ending and add new endings. Good news: -er and -ir verbs share the exact same preterite endings. Here are hablar (to speak), comer (to eat), and vivir (to live).

Pronoun	hablar	comer	vivir
yo	hablé	comí	viví
tú	hablaste	comiste	viviste
él / ella / usted	habló	comió	vivió
nosotros	hablamos	comimos	vivimos
vosotros	hablasteis	comisteis	vivisteis
ellos / ellas / ustedes	hablaron	comieron	vivieron

The written accents on the yo and él forms matter: hablé (I spoke) versus hablo (I speak), and habló (he spoke) versus habla (he speaks). One small letter changes the whole meaning.

Telling a simple story

With these endings you can narrate past events. Read this short account with its translation:

• Ayer hablé con mi amigo. (Yesterday I spoke with my friend.)
• Comimos en un restaurante. (We ate in a restaurant.)
• Después, ella escribió un mensaje. (Afterward, she wrote a message.)
• Yo viví en Perú dos años. (I lived in Peru for two years.)

Useful past-time expressions include ayer (yesterday), anoche (last night), la semana pasada (last week), and el año pasado (last year). Some very common verbs like ser, ir, and hacer are irregular in the preterite and are worth studying next, but the regular patterns here already let you describe much of what you did.