It’s possible you’ve wondered, “Is Spanish hard to learn?” To answer that, we first need to address the elephant in the room: every language will take effort to learn and what’s hard to one person may be easier to another. The great news is that any language can be learned, and some aspects of Spanish, such as pronunciation and the standard alphabet, make it easier to learn than others. Spanish may also take less effort for people whose first language is English or another Romance language like Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian, Catalan, or any other language spoken in Spain.
Another thing that can make learning Spanish easy is using a research-based method like Dynamic Immersion because how you learn a language can really make a difference. Immersing yourself through learning only in Spanish (or another language) solidifies that foundation. Soon you’ll be waking up in the morning saying buenos días (good morning) and thinking about some café con leche (coffee with milk) with ease.
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So, is Spanish hard to learn for English speakers?
If you’re thinking about learning Spanish, luck has come your way, because Spanish is one of the easiest languages to learn if you’re an English speaker. Spanish is a Romance language that originated from Latin, and English has many Latin roots. Compared to other languages, Spanish does have some similarities to English along with some innate aspects of the language that might be easier to learn than other languages.
Still, there are a few difficult elements that may make Spanish harder to learn for English speakers, but it’s not impossible! Let’s look at how hard it is to learn Spanish—and how easy it can be.
>>Learn 7 easy tips to speak Spanish with confidence!
How is Spanish similar to English?
There are two main ways Spanish and English are similar: Latin origins and cognates. It’s these elements that make learning Spanish a little easier, so let’s dive into each one.
Spanish shares some Latin origins with English
The origins of the Spanish language can be found in Latin, brought to Iberia (Spain and Portugal) by the Romans in the third century. By the ninth century, Latin started taking on more local characteristics until it evolved into what we know now, along with many Spanish dialects. The Spanish language was also impacted by Arabic due to the Muslim presence in Iberia (711-1492 A.D.), after which Spanish became more standardized.
Although English is a Germanic language, it has heavy influences from French, Latin, and Greek. Following Anglo-Saxon immigration to Britain from what is now Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands, two linguistically important invasions occurred: one by the Scandinavian Vikings and the other by the Normans. This latter invasion, occurring in 1066 A.D., brought with it Old Norman French, allowing Romance language words to enter the developing English language. Then around 1500 A.D., Latin and Greek words began influencing English during the Renaissance as it evolved to the English we’re generally familiar with today.
All this means that English has many words whose etymology is based either in Latin or French, a language originating in Latin, making it somewhat easy to recognize similar words known as cognates, which we will talk about in a moment.
Lookalike cognates really help
Cognates are words in one language that look or sound like words in another language. They usually have the same meaning but not always. There are at least 100 Spanish cognates that can help learners grasp Spanish more quickly.
Some words, called “perfect cognates,” are exactly the same in Spanish and English although the pronunciation may be different. Taxi and alcohol are two examples. Other words are similar, and once you recognize the prefixes or suffixes, you’ll get the hang of these cognates quickly. For example, salario is “salary” in Spanish and calendario is “calendar.”
Some “near-perfect” cognates like importante are very easy to recognize. And words called “loan words,” such as gol (goal), are words that come from English and are the same or nearly the same in Spanish.
All of this helps you avoid memorization, communicate sooner, and understand overall meaning. That said, there are some false cognates (also known as “false friends” because they appear to be your linguistic friends but they’re not) that look like a word in English but it has an entirely different meaning. In that case, if you’ve committed a faux pas, know that you’re not embarazada, which means “pregnant” not “embarrassed” as you might have hoped to say.
What makes Spanish easier than some other languages?
Aside from its similarities to English, Spanish has some innate aspects that make it easier to learn than some other languages: the pronunciation and the alphabet.
The pronunciation is straightforward
English has 26 letters in the alphabet, but 44 sounds, making it a difficult language to pronounce. (We hope you’ll remember that the next time you hear someone speaking English with an accent.) The five vowels alone have 19 sounds. No wonder even native speakers get mixed up about how to pronounce certain words.
Spanish, on the other hand, has 27 letters in the alphabet and 30 sounds. It’s easy to do the math: pretty much there’s one sound per letter. This means that for the most part, what you see is what you get when it comes to Spanish pronunciation.
Spanish uses a Latin alphabet like English
The Spanish alphabet uses a Latin alphabet and not a character-based one like Chinese, Russian, or Greek, for example. Also, in the case of some languages like Arabic and Hebrew, you would need to learn to write the alphabet from right to left.
There’s only one difference between the English and Spanish alphabets: the “ñ,” is pronounced “en-yay,” with the accent on the first syllable, as in piñata. Until recently, there used to be more letters in the Spanish alphabet—ch, ll, and rr—but they were eliminated by the official Spanish Academy of Language in 2010. That means it’s just a little simpler for you to learn the Spanish alphabet.
>>Understanding Spanish accents and diacritics will help your pronunciation.
What can make learning Spanish hard?
There are a few aspects of Spanish that can be challenging, especially if you’re an English speaker. But these challenges are not unsurmountable. If you pay attention from the start, it’s easier to overcome them as you go.
Pronunciation takes practice
Our comments about “easy” pronunciation would not be complete without a few exceptions. So while each letter of the alphabet mostly corresponds to one sound, some of those sounds, such as the “rr,” may be challenging to pronounce in the beginning for English speakers. With a little practice, and help from Rosetta Stone’s TruAccent tool, it’s possible to ace Spanish pronunciation like a native.
Some sentences don’t have subjects
English almost always requires a subject in a sentence, but Spanish has optional subject—as long as it’s clear who is being spoken about. This may seem easy to pick up, but it actually tends to confuse some students who are used to the typical subject and verb formula with corresponding verb conjugations. Spanish often relies on conjugation alone to express the subject of the sentence. This can often be the case in Italian too!
Subject and verb positions can be different
When subjects are used in Spanish, students may be surprised to see that the subject can be used before or after the verb. Here are some examples:
- ¿Cómo estás? = How are you? (with omitted subject)
- ¿Tú cómo estás? = How are you? (with subject first)
- ¿Cómo estás tú? = How are you? (with subject last)
- Como primero. = I eat first. (with omitted subject)
- Yo como primero. = I eat first. (with subject first)
- Como yo primero. = I eat first. (with subject after verb)
As you can see, Spanish can be fun and flexible, which makes it great for poetry. But for the English speaker who is used to a certain word order, it may be slightly confusing when they’re first starting out.
There are more verb tenses
Speaking of verbs, they can pose some challenges when it comes to learning Spanish. First, there are 18 Spanish verb tenses compared to 12 English verb tenses. However, most people can communicate just fine with three main tenses: past, present, and future. You’ll probably want to learn the imperative too for commands. Some verb tenses don’t correspond exactly to English, but there are equivalents.
Second, there are two verb forms in Spanish: formal and informal. This requires an adjustment in how we engage with people (knowing when to use each tense with certain people or groups), and it requires the use of different conjugations for each situation.
Finally, each pronoun (I, you, he/she/it, we, they, etc.) requires a separate conjugation, which often has the same conjugation for several persons (I eat, you eat, we eat, etc.). You can learn some basic conjugation when reading through common Spanish words and phrases before you start traditional lessons!
Build your Spanish skills quickly with Rosetta Stone
We’ve given you tips about how easy and hard it is to learn Spanish, but we’re convinced that anyone can learn this language with the Rosetta Stone app that has Audio Companion and Offline Mode for learning on-the-go. Audio Companion shows a written word that is also spoken, which you can then repeat, and Offline Mode allows you to download material to use anytime. Since regular practice is one of the most important aspects to learning any language, these features make it easy to practice pronunciation and conjugations. ¡Y ahora…a aprender! (And now…to learn!)
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