Do you want to learn Spanish? Then you'll quickly discover that it might be quite a bit trickier than you initially thought. Spanish is a fairly difficult language to learn. Learning words and their meanings isn't what trips people up when learning, but Spanish grammar is a frequent cause of frustration. All the different tenses add to the difficulty of learning the language. We can more than imagine needing a little help to learn Spanish. Well, you've come to the right place. This page is all about learning Spanish. Translation Agency Perfect has created a list of tips for learning this beautiful language, and why it's a very useful language to learn in the first place.

10 tips for learning Spanish

Because Spanish isn't the easiest language in the world, mastering it can take quite a bit of time and effort. Luckily you can get a head start by using the right approach. Most people don't really know where to start. Does this apply to you? Then take a look at the 10 tips below. We're confident that they will make your language learning journey a lot easier.

Go on holiday in Spain
If you want to learn Spanish, one solution is to go on holiday in Spain. It's definitely not the cheapest option, but it's one of the best ways to immerse yourself in the country's culture. Because people predominantly speak Spanish, you are forced to use the language as well. At first, communicating with Spaniards might be a little stilted, but you'll get the hang of it as you spend more time in the country. An added benefit is that street signs, maps, menus etc. are also all in Spanish. This is a great way to expand your Spanish vocabulary, and you'll be killing two birds with one stone.
Watch Spanish films and shows
Because a trip to Spain isn't exactly cheap, it might not be in the cards right now. Thankfully there are many alternative ways to learn Spanish. For example, you can start watching Spanish movies and TV shows. To start with, you can simply watch a Spanish movie or show with English subtitles. This will allow you to listen to the spoken language as you're reading what it means. This will gradually improve your Spanish over time, bit by bit. Another option is doing the reverse and turning on Spanish subtitles for movies and shows. Just keep in mind that words aren't always translated directly. If this was the case, a lot of jokes and expressions would get lost in translation.
Read Spanish books
In addition to watching Spanish movies and shows, you can also improve your knowledge of Spanish by reading books in the language. In order to understand what a book is about, you do need a solid foundation in Spanish vocabulary and grammar. You can make it easier on yourself by choosing a book you've already read in English. You will already be familiar with the story, which will help you immensely in better understanding the Spanish version. Do you happen to have the English version of the book as well? Keep it close while you're reading the Spanish version, so you can use it a reference if you ever lose track of the story.
Learn more about the pronunciation of the Spanish alphabet
Because the Spanish alphabet is basically the same as in English, you might think the letters are pronounced the same way as well. Some letters are indeed pronounced the same as in English, but this does not apply to every letter. The ‘u’ in Spanish is pronounced more closely to ‘oo’. The letter ‘h’ is never pronounced. Do you want to learn Spanish? Then don't limit yourself to just learning vocabulary and grammar, but learn about Spanish pronunciation as well. If you do, you will soon be able to express yourself masterfully in this language.
Spend time on your written language proficiency
When it comes to learning Spanish, most people think about vocabulary and grammar. But it's very important not to neglect your written proficiency. It's incredibly useful to know how to write a letter or an email in Spanish. Don't know how to properly spell Spanish words? Then this soon becomes an effort in futility. All the more reason to work on your written proficiency if we have anything to say about it.
Use sticky notes with Spanish words
Want to improve your Spanish? Then it's important to keep expanding your vocabulary in this language constantly. You can do this by rote memorisation, but this quickly becomes boring to most people. If this applies to you, you may want to consider using sticky notes. You can stick them to various objects around your home, like the door, refrigerator, oven, dustbin and so on. Then write the Spanish translation of the object in question on the note. Because you tend to see these notes several times throughout the day, you're constantly exposed to Spanish words. This will rapidly improve your Spanish vocabulary.
Use your smartphone
Chances are you're using your phone quite a lot on a daily basis. Why not use it to help you master the Spanish language? There are plenty of different apps available that can help you learn Spanish. If you consistently use one of these apps every day, your Spanish will improve rapidly. Already know a fair bit of Spanish? In that case, you may consider switching the language on your phone to Spanish. This may take some getting used to at first, but after a while you'll know exactly where to find everything you need.
Listen to and translate Spanish music
A lot of people love Spanish music. This is often because of the upbeat tempo and cheerful melodies in Spanish songs. If you love Spanish music, you can use this to your advantage when learning the Spanish language. When listening to a song, try to translate the lyrics of the song for yourself. The first few times you may only recognise a handful of words, but after a while you may be able to translate the entire song into English. Because you're listening to music you like instead of reading from a book or screen, this method is a lot more fun to many people.
Practice makes perfect
You aren't going to learn Spanish over night. The language is far too complex for that. If you want to master it, you need to persist. Don't practise a few words per week, but try to put in some practice every single day. If you keep practising, you will learn the language that much more quickly. And to keep things fun and interesting for yourself, try learning something new every day. Spend one day on expanding your vocabulary and the next day, focus instead on some Spanish grammar.
Take a Spanish language course
Need some additional motivation to keep you going when learning Spanish? Then you might want to take a Spanish language course. You can take in-person lessons, but this isn't strictly necessary. There are plenty of online Spanish courses you can take as well. The benefit of an online course is that you can usually decide the pacing for yourself. There might be in-person meetings or lectures, but beyond that you decide where and how to spend your time. As a result, courses like these can easily be combined with school or a full-time job.

Why learn Spanish?

Seeing as Spanish is a tricky language to learn, we can understand why you might wonder ‘why bother in the first place’? This has a fairly cut and dry answer and it's simply this: Spanish is a language spoken all over the world. Not only is it the official language of Spain, but also Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay and Venezuela. All things considered, there are hundreds of millions of native speakers of Spanish worldwide. It doesn't stop here, because there are millions and millions of people who speak Spanish as a second language. Other than Chinese (Mandarin), this makes Spanish the most widely spoken language in the world. It's even more widely spoken as a native language than English, Arabic, Portuguese, French and German.

Getting started in practising Spanish

Convinced that learning Spanish might be an excellent idea? Then you'll want to get started right away. Translation Agency Perfect is happy to help you get started on your language learning journey. Below we'll go over some popular expressions, proverbs and idioms in Spanish, as well as some fun tongue twisters.

Popular expressions

When you get started in Spanish, you are sure to run into a lot of different expressions. Spaniards use a lot of different expressions in everyday speech. Curious about what some of the popular Spanish expressions are? We've listed 10 of them for you below, including the literal translation and the actual meaning.

Mañana, Mañana
Literally: tomorrow, tomorrow
Actual meaning: it'll happen tomorrow, but often it's (much) later
Echar una mano
Literally: giving a hand
Actual meaning: lending a hand
Llueve sobre mojado
Literally: it's raining on something that's already wet
Actual meaning: something that is taken for granted and seen as self-explanatory
Ponerse las pilas
Literally: placing batteries
Actual meaning: doing your best or becoming more active
Mucha mierda
Literally: a lot of shit
Actual meaning: very lucky / good luck
Tranquilo
Literally: quietly
Actual meaning: don't worry
Echar agua al mar
Literally: throwing water in the sea
Actual meaning: something is pointless
Tiene más lana que un borrego
Literally: he's got more wool than a sheep
Actual meaning: someone has a lot of money
Se me hace agua la boca
Literally: this is making my mouth water
Actual meaning: I'm looking forward to it
Tener un humor de perros
Literally: having a mood like a dog
Actual meaning: being in a bad mood

Proverbs and idioms in Spanish

In addition to expressions, Spanish also features a lot of proverbs and idioms. Are you translating these from English into Spanish word for word? Then chances are the result is entirely unintelligible. And it makes sense, because proverbs don't lend themselves to being translated literally. To demonstrate this, we've included a few proverbs in Spanish below.

Caballo regalado no se le mira el diente
Literally: you don't look at the teeth of a gift horse
Actual meaning: don't look a gift horse in the mouth
Dime con quién andas, y te diré quién eres
Literally: tell me who your friends are, and I will tell you who you are
Actual meaning: birds of a feather flock together
Ojos que no ven, corazón que no siente
Literally: eyes that don't see, heart that doesn't feel
Actual meaning: out of sight, out of mind
El que madruga coge agua clara
Literally: the early bird drinks clean water
Actual meaning: the early bird catches the worm
Cuando el río suena, agua lleva
Literally: when the river makes sound, water flows
Actual meaning: where there's smoke, there's fire
Al mal tiempo, buena cara
Literally: in bad weather, put on a happy face
Actual meaning: make the most of a bad situation
Moro viejo nunca séra buen cristiano
Literally: an old Moorish person will never be a good Christian
Actual meaning: you can't teach an old dog new tricks
No hay mal que por bien no venga
Literally: there is nothing bad that doesn't lead to something good
Actual meaning: there's a silver lining to every downside
Quien fue a Sevilla perdió su silla
Literally: whoever has gone to Sevilla, has lost their chair
Actual meaning: you snooze, you lose
De tal palo, tal astilla
Literally: a chip off the old block
Actual meaning: a rare instance of the same meaning: like father, like son

Spanish tongue twisters

When we talk about tongue twisters, we mean sentences that are hard to say because your tongue almost literally trips on itself. This often happens when many words in a row start with the same letter. This phenomenon doesn't just occur in English, but happens in Spanish as well. In Spanish they're not called tongue twisters but ‘trabalenguas’. Want to experience what it's like to twist your tongue in Spanish? Then try to pronounce the sentences below. You'll find out very soon why they're considered tongue twisters.

Como poco coco como, poco coco compro.
Pepe puso un peso en el piso del pozo. En el piso del pozo Pepe puso un peso.
Poquito a poquito Paquito empaca poquitas copitas en pocos paquetes.
Pepe pecas pica papas con un pico, con un pico pica papas Pepe pecas.
Rosa reza por la raza rusa pero para porque para pura risa por la rusa raza reza Roza.