Practise Spanish with a native speaker, and give them English conversation practice in return. Roughly 486 million people speak Spanish natively, so partners are easy to find; the useful discipline is showing up on time.
Endonym
Español
Script
Latin alphabet, plus the inverted opening ? and !
Spoken in
Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Peru, Chile, the United States
First thing to learn
¿Cómo estás? — "How are you?"
US Foreign Service Institute estimate for an English speaker starting from zero
~24 weeks
Closest to English
The two verbs for "to be" - ser and estar - split one English idea in two, and which one you pick changes the meaning rather than the tone. Add the subjunctive mood and the rolled r, and the first months are spent unlearning habits English taught you.
Knowing this in advance changes what you do with a partner. Grammar drills on Spanishwill not fix a habit your first language gave you — only producing the sentence out loud and being corrected will. That is the specific thing an exchange gives you and an app does not.
A language exchange dies when nobody has anything to talk about. Take these into the call and you will fill the first half without silences.
Say ¿Cómo estás? (KOH-mo es-TAHS) as your first line, then ask your partner when they would use it and when they would choose something more formal.
Ask your partner to write your own name in Español, then explain which sounds in your name do not exist in Spanish.
Talk for two minutes about what you imagine daily life is like in Spain. Have your partner correct the parts you got wrong - in Spanish first, then again in English.
Talk for two minutes about what you imagine daily life is like in Mexico. Have your partner correct the parts you got wrong - in Spanish first, then again in English.
Ask your partner for one sentence that exposes the hard part: The two verbs for "to be" - ser and estar - split one English idea in two, and which one you pick changes the meaning rather than the tone.
Switch to English and ask your partner to explain their own language's hardest feature to you. This is the half where you pay for the practice, so take it as seriously as your own turn.
You are not here to improve your English — you already have it. Practise Spanish with someone who speaks it natively, and pay for it by answering their English questions properly. Fluent English speakers are the scarcest resource on an exchange, which is why you will match quickly.
Spanish is the language English speakers most often choose, and there are far more Spanish speakers who want English practice than English speakers who want Spanish - which is exactly the imbalance a swap fixes.
24 weeks of full-time study to working proficiency, on the US Foreign Service Institute scale - closest to english. The two verbs for "to be" - ser and estar - split one English idea in two, and which one you pick changes the meaning rather than the tone. Add the subjunctive mood and the rolled r, and the first months are spent unlearning habits English taught you.
Around 486 million native speakers, concentrated in Spain, Mexico, Colombia. English has already borrowed patio, ranch, plaza from it, so you are not starting from nothing.
Latin alphabet, plus the inverted opening ? and !. The alphabet will look familiar, which is exactly the trap - the letters are the same while the sounds behind them are not, so reading fluently is not the same as pronouncing accurately.
¿Cómo estás? (KOH-mo es-TAHS) - "How are you?". Use Hola with anyone. ¿Cómo estás? is the informal you; with someone older or in a formal setting, ¿Cómo está? is the safer form.
patio, ranch, plaza, tornado, mosquito and stampede all reached English from Spanish - 6 words you can use on day one.
Free matching, free voice calls, free video calls. One twenty-minute call is enough to know whether it works for you.
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