🇪🇸 Spanish (Spain) Recommended Learning Material

¡Hola! 🇪🇸

Here’s our selection of content for language learners.

Start with Basic Research, do your first Listening-Reading with EasySpanish, and then move on to Listening-Reading. There are also resources for basic grammar.

(Click / Tap to expand).

Basic Research (Language Introduction and Pronunciation)

Language Introduction by LangFocus (warning: great but nerdy)

Spanish Pronunciation 1, 2, 3 by Fluent Forever (very detailed, rewatch in a few weeks)

First Week Listening-Reading

EasySpanish has simple content (they get a bit boring after some time, but hey). Continue with them as long as you enjoy it.

Se ha convertido – Convertirse is a reflexive verb. As in convert yourself = turn into.
Paseando – Walking (like passage). Verbs with –nd– are in the process of happening. like walking.
Demasiado = too much. Think más is more, like “más grande” larger. Can be remembered with mass as in volume. Demasiado is then too much.

Levantarse – like Wingardium leviosa, to get up
Lavar las dentes – brushing (lit. washing) teeth
Despertar – to wake up
Acabar – to stop
Despertando – waking up (in the process of)
Me acabo de despertando – When I just finished waking up. (Explanation vid of Acabar de)
And here’s a “friends” episode with double subtitles.

Listening-Reading Channels

You can find many more videos like the ones above on EasySpanish. Those have double subtitles.

With the Google Chrome extension “LanguageReactor” installed you can create your own YouTube videos with two subtitles. And they pause playing and translate words when you hover your mouse over them.

Here are two channels made for learners:

Then there are channels made for native speakers, once you feel ready for it:

That should be already enough material here to keep you busy for 12 weeks.

TV Series

Are you more the type of person that watches series.

Well, using Language Reactor in Google Chrome, you can watch and rewatch episodes with two subtitles. Even if the level seems too high, it can help you feel the structure of sentences and the rhythm of the language.

Here’s our selection of original Spanish series:

  • Casa de Papel – About a bank heist with some plot twists.
  • La Cocinera de Castañar – A great cook and a widowed nobleman get to know each other.

And there are many series that were dubbed in Spanish. The subtitles are often not exactly the same so it takes some getting used to. Here are some examples you can find on Netflix:

  • Star Trek
  • Stranger things
  • Rick and Morty
  • Brooklyn Nine-Nine
  • The Queen’s Gambit
  • Modern Family
  • Breaking Bad, and many more.

Grammar Content

Below are some further explanations of grammar elements. They might explain patterns you’ve noticed in conversations and while listening.

There are three verb families, which are ending with -ir, -er, -ar. They’re quite similar.

There are two future tense we’ll explain below. Forget about the subjuntivos for now, they express if something is unsure.

Let’s focus on the two perfect (completed) past tenses and one imperfect past tense. The two perfect tenses are quite similar. The imperfect is more different.

Preterito Perfecto Compuesto 
yo he estudiado → I’ve studied
yo he salido → I’ve gone out 

Preterito Perfecto Simples
yo estudié → I studied
yo salí → I went out

And then there’s the imperfect, which this video sums it up pretty well:

And finally there’s the future, where there’s two versions:
The composite like “I’m going to do x” -> “voy a x”
e.g. I’m going to eat -> voy a comer. It’s a declination of ir + a + verb.
Vamos a bailar, we’re gonna dance.

And there’s the future simple of infinitive + future ending.
e.g. hablar -> hablaré.

You can find the full tables on Wikipedia

To fix most common grammar mistakes and teach tricky expression, these videos are worth gold. So if your teachers distinguishes a problem, Juan can help you fix it yourself.