Hi!
Here are many links that I’ve collected to help English speakers who want to learn Spanish online free. Please share these resources with friends!
Have fun!
Dave Kinskey
Minnesota, USA
duolingo.com is a fun site that’s completely free. It teaches Spanish and other languages with intuitive, interactive methods. I highly recommend it! Everyone should use DuoLingo. There are free apps for smartphones, too, so you can switch between the computer and your smartphone when doing lessons.
www.studyspanish.com
StudySpanish.com’s site has many free lessons, tutorials, and quizzes. Even without a paid membership, you can learn a lot.It is a very complete site with lessons that have audio, plus examples in English and Spanish with great explanations. The beginner Spanish lessons and resources are free. (Intermediate Spanish lessons have a cost.)
Grammar: www.studyspanish.com/tutorial.htm
Pronunciation: www.studyspanish.com/pronunciation/
Verb Drills: www.studyspanish.com/verbs/
On Polly Lingual’s website and apps, you can learn many languages. To try out any of the language courses, it’s free to take some of the first lessons for beginners. Although Polly Lingual is not 100% free (only the first lessons for beginners are free), a subscription costs only $9.99 per year. It’s worth it! On Polly Lingual, you have access to all lessons for Spanish and many other languages, using either the website or the free apps for Android, iPhone or iPad. You can see all the available languages on Polly Lingual’s home page, and try them out: pollylingu.al/. The lessons have audio from native speakers, and I really like the teaching method. Lessons are short and easy to do. This page explains the features and benefits of a paying for a “Polly Passport” subscription: pollylingu.al/en/passport.
www.busuu.com is a great website (and app for Android and iOS) with a good variety of free lessons at the beginning level. However, you need a “Premium” subscription to get full access to all lessons or to submit audio recording exercises for review. With a free account, you can only submit written exercises for correction by other members. There is a nice chat function, even for a free account, so you can chat with text, audio or video and make international friends. You can then help each other as language partners. You can only choose to learn the beginning levels of one language, so to learn another language, you’d need to create a second account with a different e-mail address.
With a free account, you can review people’s audio submissions, but you can only record 10 seconds of your own audio, in addition to text in your review.
Busuu.com teaches Castillian Spanish of Spain, so the soft “c” sound and soft “z” sound like a “th” sound in English, instead of an “s” sound, as pronounced in most regions of Central and South America.
www.spanishdict.com is a fantastic website and app. It has free grammar lessons, in addition to being a great translation dictionary. Type in any word in English or Spanish and it gives you definitions, audio to listen to pronunciations, and some words have a “video translation”… a short video of someone pronouncing the word and using it in a sentence. It also has a great conjugator for verbs.
A great feature of the dictionary is that for many words, it also has examples of word usage in both languages … that also helps you see how a lot of things don’t translate word-for-word, too, since both languages express some things in distinctive ways. Subscribing to the daily word is good, too, and you can get a free app for your Android or Windows device, iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch.
dle.rae.es/ This is the official dictionary of the Spanish language by the Real Academia Española in Spain. It’s written completely in Spanish, of course. It also has a section of the website which explains in detail (in Spanish) about the most common mistakes made in Spanish. It’s called el Diccionario panhispánico de dudas: http://www.rae.es/recursos/diccionarios/dpd
This page has a list of topics discussing errors people make in Spanish and the correct ways to write: www.rae.es/diccionario-panhispanico-de-dudas/articulos-tematicos There are also many topics in the right-hand column.
www.wordreference.com/ is a fantastic translation dictionary which gives detailed results with definitions from two dictionaries, including audio of the pronunciations. Usually there are multiple meanings and examples of usage in sentences. By default, the results show are from WordReference’s own dictionary, but there’s a tab to also see the same translation and definitions by Collins Spanish-English dictionary. You can use the website for many different languages, too.
www.reverso.net/text_translation.aspx?lang=EN has language translation, dictionary, conjugation, grammar, spell check, and audio recordings of pronunciations of words. It’s a very handy tool!
IMTRANSLATOR / TEXT-TO-SPEECH
text-to-speech.imtranslator.net/ is great! You can listen to pronunciation of complete sentences in Spanish and other languages with synthetic voices. The pronunciation is less mechanical sounding than the text-to-speech function of Google’s translator. It sounds more natural. Listen to it in English and you’ll appreciate how good the prounciation is.
Just write or paste any text in the box. Choose a speed (default is zero, but you can make it talk faster or more slowly), choose the language of the text you wrote, and then click the button that says “Say it”. To hear the same text again, if you click “Say it” another time, it will have to process it again. Play buttons (like on a CD player) appear above the animated face, so you can just click the play arrow again and again. (Sometimes this gets stuck, so if the play button doesn’t appear, you will need to click the “Say it” button again.)
IMTRANSLATOR / TRANSLATE AND SPEAK
imtranslator.net/translate-and-speak/ both translates text and voices it with text-to-speech in many languages. Keep in mind, however, that the translations often have mistakes.
It’s a little confusing because it’s not very obvious where to click to make it read the text out loud, after you insert it. If you just want to hear how to pronounce something, first “uncheck” the “Translate” option (which also allows you to choose a language when you click the word “Translate”). To the right of that, click the word “Speak” and choose “Spanish.” The next option to the right says “Speed” and the default is “Normal,” but you can choose to have it read the text faster or slower. Final step … this always confused me … right above those options is a large, blue bar which now says “Speak Spanish” (or whichever language you choose). That bar is actually a button … click it and then you’ll hear the text read out loud. If you leave out accent marks or tildes (~), it will often pronounce it wrong (if you type “manana” instead of “mañana,” it will pronounce it incorrectly, as if it rhymed with banana, for instance).
IMTRANSLATOR – COMPARE TRANSATIONS AND BACK TRANSLATIONS
imtranslator.net/compare/ Which online translator translates best? Compare English to Spanish translation between Microsoft® Translator, Google™ Translate, Babylon® Translator and PROMT-Online. You also see the reverse translations (back translations), which then translates the Spanish translation back to the original language (English, in this case). This is very helpful because if the back translations are written in terrible English, the translation from Spanish to English is probably not a good translation. Sometimes, to get a good translation, you might pick a mix of phrases from each translator after comparing the back translations. NOTE: You do not see which translation is by which translator until you click the one of the “I like this” buttons above the translations. Until then, the translator names are kept hidden.
translate.google.com/ Although Google makes LOTS of mistakes in translations, it is still a very useful tool. Also, although the syntheic voice sounds a little mechanical, the pronunciation of languages is very good overall! Insert Spanish text in the left box, choose Spanish as the language, then click the symbol of a speaker in the lower right corner and it will read the text out loud. Remember to type accent marks and tildes to get the correct pronuncation!
Try it with English, too … you’ll hear how good Google’s pronunciation is.
Spanish Listening Skills
www.spanishlistening.org – This site has more than 300 short videos recorded by native speakers. Videos have transcripts of what the person says, but you should first try listening without looking at the text. There are also brief quizzes next to the videos to help you practice vocabulary used in the videos.
Video Series by “Professor Jason” – This is the YouTube channel of Professor Jason, who has many detailed lessons teaching both Spanish and Portuguese on YouTube. His teaching is very clear and helpful.
www.youtube.com/user/languagenow
123TeachMe
www.123teachme.com/
QUIZZES
www.e-spanyol.hu/en/tests.php
QUIZLET
quizlet.com/ has many vocabulary lessons with audio, in addition to interactive quizzes. You can look up many topics, such as: Spanish quizlet.com/subject/spanish/
This is an excellent group of many lessons and quizzes for learning Spanish: quizlet.com/chezbrigitte There are many more!
VOCABULIX – www.vocabulix.com
Free lessons and exercises to learn Spanish (and also to learn German)
BBC – Free Spanish Classes Online by the British Broadcasting Corporation: http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/
Many interactive quizzes for English speakers learning Spanish and vice-versa: http://iteslj.org/v/s/
“Español con Carlitos” teaches Spanish in Spanish…more for intermediate students. Some lessons have interactive exercises. http://babelnet.sbg.ac.at/Carlitos/
PREPOSITIONS
education-portal.com/articles/List_of_Free_Online_Spanish_Courses_and_Classes.html
www.zencollegelife.com/50-places-to-learn-spanish-online-for-free/
www.openculture.com/free_spanish_lessons
spanishmooc.com/
PODCASTS TO PRACTICE LISTENING SKILLS
http://www.podcastfromspain.com Listen to podcast conversations, do exercises, and read explanations about key frases in the recordings, plus learn about Spanish culture. The podcasts cover a wide variety of topics, and are organized for three levels of study: Begnner, Intermediate, and Advanced. The site also has a blog.
blog.myspanishpodcasts.com – Listen to recorded podcasts in Spanish with grammar tips and exercises. There is a transcript for each podcast, so you can also read as you listen. Better yet, listen first to try to understand without reading the text. Then read the text or play the podcast again while reading to more easily see what you didn’t understand.
www.notesinspanish.com Listen to free podcasts teaching Spanish phrases with lessons for beginner, intermediate, and advanced learners. (If you want worksheets or transcriptions, you need a paid subscription.)
DESTINOS: An introduction to Spanish (Video lessons) www.learner.org/resources/series75.html Overview Destinos: An Introduction to Spanish A video instructional series in Spanish for college and high school classrooms and adult learners; 52 half-hour video programs divided into two parts (Part I programs 1-26, Part II programs 27-52), audiocassettes, music CD, video and audio scripts, and coordinated books Now on DVD Destinos teaches speaking, listening, and comprehension skills in Spanish. This telenovela, or Spanish soap opera, immerses students in everyday situations with native speakers and introduces the cultures, accents, and dialects of Mexico, Spain, Argentina, and Puerto Rico. Understanding of Spanish and appreciation of many Hispanic cultures increase as students become absorbed in the mysterious and entertaining story. Closed captioning in Spanish can be used as a teaching and literacy resource. The series is also appropriate for teacher professional development. Produced by WGBH Boston. 1992.
www.spanishskype.net/ Although this site sells online language lessons with native speakers from Spain, it also has some good free resources. On the home page, scroll down on to view blog entries with many quick lessons that you can view. Click “Next page” at the bottom of the blog posts to see more. The site offers paid lessons via Skype with a teacher in Spain, but all of the tips and lessons in the blog are free, of course.
NEWS IN SLOW SPANISH
www.newsinslowspanish.com/ Weekly podcasts of news and conversations in Spanish spoken slowly for easier comprehension. There are also transcriptions of the podcasts, so you can read the text if you don’t understand what they said.
EL PAÍS
Another very good dictionary by the newpaper and multi-media conglomerate, El País:
http://servicios.elpais.com/diccionarios/
The newspaper’s main website: elpais.com/elpais/portada_america.html (good for practicing your reading in Spanish)
PANDORA
www.pandora.com/ This site is only availabe in the USA. It’s great for listening to music in Spanish on your computer or on your iPhone or Android phone. Free site that streams music. (if you want no commercials or pop-up ad, you pay can pay $36 per year to be ad-free). There’s a preset station with the name “Spanish Contemporary,” but you can also type in the name of a Spanish artist and then save a “station” based on the artist. It will play that singer or band’s songs, plus songs of many other artists with similar styles.
Here are some great singers and groups to listen to while reading lyrics on that site or others. They sing a variety of music styles: Juanes, La Oreja de Van Gogh, Julieta Venagas, Fonseca, Bacilos, Ximena Sariñana, Ha*Ash (or written sometimes as Ha-Ash), Juan Luis Guerra, Chayanne, Carlos Vives, Andrés Cepeda, Belanova, Diego Torres, Jesse & Joy (or written sometimes as Jesse y Joy), Kany Garcia, La Quinta Estación, Maná, Mecano, Pablo Alborán, Paulina Rubio, Reik, Reyli, Ricardo Arjona, Santiago Cruz, Shakira, Sin Bandera, Chino & Nacho, Dragon y Caballero, Alejandra Guzmán, Ha-Ash, Jarabe de Palo, Alex Ubago, Bebé, Camila.
Tip: When you hear songs you like, you can “bookmark” the artist or song. Make note of the artist’s name and save a new “station” based on that singer or band.
MUSIC AND LYRICS IN SPANISH
There are lots of great sites to look lyrics to songs and it helps to learn Spanish if you read the lyrics while listening to songs. Usually the lyrics on the internet are not the “official” lyrics … people submit them, so sometimes there are spelling mistakes, the wrong word at times, and other inaccuracies, but it’s still very helpful.
YOUTUBE –
http://www.youtube.com/
SPANISH LYRICS: Many people put the Spanish lyrics on screen in songs, which is great for reading the Spanish words. On YouTube.com, search the name of a song in Spanish or a singer or group, and include in the search words such as: letra subtítulos subtitulado.
ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF SPANISH LYRICS: On YouTube.com, search the name of a song in Spanish or a singer or group, and include in the search words such as: English subtitles subtítulos inglés. Remember, however, that many of the English translations are not 100% accurate… people of varying language abilities do the translations.
LETRAS.MUS.BR
letras.mus.br/ I LOVE THIS SITE! This site is Brazilian, so it’s the main language is Portuguese, but you don’t need to know Portuguese to use it. It’s very easy and it has vast catalog of Spanish, English, and Portuguese songs, plus most have the audio or a YouTube video of the song. It’s organized by artist. The easiest way to find a song go the the green, horizontal index bar near the top of the page. Hover your cursor over the word “Artistas,” and then click the letter of the first letter in the name of the artist or song. For artists, type the first letter of their first name (not their last name). That brings you to a page with a long list of artists with names beginning with that letter. Click on the name of the artist and it brings up a list of many of that artist’s songs. Click on a song and it gives you the lyrics, plus usually the audio or video for the song, too.
Here are some great singers and groups to listen to while reading lyrics on that site or others. They sing a variety of music styles: Juanes, La Oreja de Van Gogh, Julieta Venagas, Fonseca, Bacilos, Ximena Sariñana, Ha*Ash (or written sometimes as Ha-Ash), Juan Luis Guerra, Chayanne, Carlos Vives, Andrés Cepeda, Belanova, Diego Torres, Jesse & Joy (or written sometimes as Jesse y Joy), Kany Garcia, La Quinta Estación, Maná, Mecano, Pablo Alborán, Paulina Rubio, Reik, Reyli, Ricardo Arjona, Santiago Cruz, Shakira, Sin Bandera, Chino & Nacho, Dragon y Caballero, Alejandra Guzmán, Ha-Ash, Jarabe de Palo, Alex Ubago, Bebé, Camila.
RADIO, TELEVISION, AND NEWSPAPERS IN SPANISH
Look for radio, TV, and newspaper websites in the language you are learning. News is usually written with very good grammar. If you already know about the topic in the news, it’s easier to understand the same story in the language you are learning. Radio and TV news announcers usually speak more clearly than the average person, so it helps your listening skills. Talk radio and news radio are good. You can also find TV shows in different languages online. Some people find soap operas to be helpful for learning conversation.
To find websites, do simple searches on Google such as:
streaming online television news in Spanish
online newspapers in Spanish,
online newspaper Madrid
soap operas in Spanish
RADIO IN SPANISH
TUNEIN.COM
tunein.com/ – Streaming internet radio stations from around the world. “Talk radio” and “news radio” are very helpful.
LIVE365.COM
www.live365.com/ – Streaming internet radio stations. Search “genres” and choose “Latin” or “South American” to get started. If you don’t see the language you want, use the search bar at the top right of the page and search for the language.
JANGO
www.jango.com has music from lots of artists in many languages, including Spanish. Choose a famous artist or genre and start listening!
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NEWSPAPERS IN SPANISH
www.onlinenewspapers.com/ has 1000’s of only newspapers listed by country and region.
TV STATIONS IN SPANISH
This site has a list of many television stations online in Spanish: howlearnspanish.com/2010/08/list-of-best-sites-to-watch-spanish-tv/
BBC’s guide to watching Spanish television: www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/tv/
TV stations in Spain:
wwitv.com/television/191.htm
TELEMUNDO – msnlatino.telemundo.com/ Lots of TV shows, soap operas, and printed news in Spanish
UNIVISION – www.univision.com/ Lots of TV shows, soap operas, and printed news in Spanish
SOAP OPERAS (NOVELAS)
videos.univision.com/novelas
In many episodes, you can click CC (closed caption) and choose to have subtitles in Spanish or in English. Watching the subtitles in Spanish can often be more helpful, because you can see the words that you might otherwise have missed in the conversations. NOTE: sometimes the choices seem backwards…. click Spanish and you get English subtitles, and vice-versa. You have to watch some commercials in order to view entire episodes, but watching commercials in Spanish can be fun, too!
THE SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD – LESSONS AND QUIZZES
The Spanish subjunctive mood still trips me up after decades of speaking Spanish, especially when expressing certain things in the past. The pages below on SpanishDict.com have some great explanations, plus interactive quizzes to practice what you’ve learned.
www.spanishdict.com/topics/show/68
www.spanishdict.com/topics/show/69
www.spanishdict.com/topics/show/70
www.spanishdict.com/topics/show/71
www.spanishdict.com/topics/show/72
www.spanishdict.com/topics/show/73
www.spanishdict.com/topics/show/74
www.spanishdict.com/topics/show/75
www.spanishdict.com/topics/show/76
www.spanishdict.com/topics/show/98
www.spanishdict.com/topics/show/99
www.spanishdict.com/topics/show/102
www.spanishdict.com/topics/show/105
www.spanishdict.com/topics/show/106
Browse other grammar topics at
www.spanishdict.com/topics
GUSTAR – How to Say You “Like” Something in Spanish – the Verb “Gustar”
languageslynx.com/how-to-say-you-like-something-in-spanish-the-verb-gustar This page on LanguagesLynx includes my explanations of how to use the verb gustar (like).
THE TWO SOUNDS OF THE LETTER “D” IN SPANISH:
Pronunciation of the letter “D” hard, when it should be soft, is something else that gives a person a foreign accent when speaking Spanish.
1) HARD “D” SOUND: At the beginning of a word and after the letters “l” y “n”, the “d” sound is harder, very similar to the English pronunciation of the letter “d,” but pronunced with the tongue touching the front teeth, so it’s slightly softer sounding than the English “d.”
2) SOFT “D” SOUND: When the letter “d” is between two vowels or a the end of a word, it sounds much softer, very similar to the “th” sound in English.
You can listen to some sample words with these links to SpanishDict.com by clicking on the speaker icon on each page.
Soft “d” sound:
Nada: www.spanishdict.com/translate/nada (This pronunciation is important to reduce a person’s foreign accent because “de nada” is said so often… hard “d” for “de” and soft “d” in the word “nada”.)
Voluntad www.spanishdict.com/translate/voluntad
Libertad www.spanishdict.com/translate/libertad
Edificio www.spanishdict.com/translate/edificio
Hard “d” sound:
Dar www.spanishdict.com/translate/dar
Donde www.spanishdict.com/translate/donde
Aldea www.spanishdict.com/translate/aldea
Diente www.spanishdict.com/translate/diente
This interactive lesson with audio is fantastic to learn the different “d” sounds: www.studyspanish.com/pronunciation/letter_d.htm
This video has a very good explanation:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmKCFlPQiXo