🇪🇸 Spanish (Spain) Recommended Learning Material

¡Hola! 🇪🇸

Here’s our selection of content for language learners.

Start with Basic Research. Then do your first Listening-Reading with EasySpanish. And then move on to Listening-Reading. There are also resources for basic grammar at the bottom, where we write a bit about the different tenses and link to wikipedia for a full overview.

(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)

Start your Listening training here.

EasySpanish has simple content (they get a bit boring after some time, but hey). Start with watching these videos, before moving on.

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. These are the best when you practice listening on your mobile.

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 Netflix episodes with two subtitles. Even if the level seems too high, reading along in Spanish and sometimes pausing to understand 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 also dubbed in Spanish. The subtitles are often not exactly the same so it’s not optimal. But still, when you’re done with the above, 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.

In general, listening will give you a natural feeling for this, but it’s easier if you know a little bit about the structures, or have a place to review it in the future. Get an overview, it’s fine if you don’t understand it all yet.

There are three verb endings: -ir, -er, -ar. They’re declined quite similarly. Decidir – to decide. Comer – to eat. Hablar – to speak.

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

The two perfect (completed) past tenses and the imperfect past tense are the ones really used regularly when people speak:

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

Notice the -ado and -ido? Spanish is super regular. -ir and-er verbs get -ido and -ar verbs get -ado. Simple.

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

Here, -ir and -er verbs get -í and -ar verbs get é in the first person. Simple.

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

-ar verbs end on -aba, while -ir and -er verbs end on -ía. Simple.

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.

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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.