Whether you’re right at the beginning of your journey to mastering Spanish or you’re an advanced learner who’s preparing to take an exam, these resources will contain opportunities for you to practise and improve your Spanish at all levels.

 

To help you get started, we’ve organized the learning resources according to categories. Whether you want to work on your pronunciation, listening, vocabulary or reading, there is a resource just waiting for you.

 

Happy learning!

 

Catching up on the news

The Spanish daily newspaper El Pais is possibly the best known Spanish language newspaper in the world. Its articles cover a wide range of topics, so you should find something that interests you.

 

If you’re a lower level learner, try to work your way through one of the news articles on the homepage, as they tend to be short and succinct. If you’re a more advanced learner, the opinion pieces on culture, economics and science are more challenging

 

Alternatively, you can watch the 24 hour news channel on TVE 24 horas or watch news clips on the Spain’s national TV station’s homepage.

 

Listening

Coffee Break Spanish

This podcast helps you practise your listening in Spanish. Each episode lasts around 30 mins – literally enough time to sit down and have a coffee while listening!

 

The best part about this is that it helps you not just with your listening but also with your grammar and vocabulary! Each episode is centred around a conversation and then it is broken down part by part, working its way through the vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation.

 

For advanced learners, this is an opportunity to try to understand the conversation at natural speed and then use the slowed down part to check your understanding. For beginners, it’s an opportunity to expose yourself to authentic Spanish but using the slowly spoken part to really come to grips with the language.

 

Notes in Spanish

Organized into beginner, intermediate and advanced levels, this is a series of short podcasts covering a wide range of topics. Each episode centres around a topic, followed by discussion as well as a look at some vocabulary and grammar. What’s more, there are worksheet packs to go with every episode!

 

El Pais Video

El Pais isn’t just about reading the news – it’s also about watching the news! The video page contains a series of short news items. There is always an accompanying article to help you get to grips with the context and topic. But the best part is that many of the videos are subtitled: you just need to turn the captions on and you can follow as you listen, practising matching the sounds to the written word.

Grammar

121 Spanish

Organized according to grammatical topic and level, this site gives you the opportunity to practise your Spanish grammar through a series of online exercises. Just chose the topic you want to focus on, enter your responses and then hit the ‘check’ button to see how you’ve done!

Lingolia

This site offers a simple, clear and informative overview of Spanish grammar. Organized according to grammatical topic, choose an area and then choose a sub area to find a detailed explanation, concrete examples as well as tables of reference. What’s more, at the bottom of each page there is an exercise for you to practise putting that aspect of grammar into use!

Professor Jason

Not many of us enjoy working our way through grammar books. So instead you can access short videos explaining the ins and outs of Spanish grammar thanks to Professor Jason.

 

He has organized his videos into playlists for beginner, intermediate and advanced levels. Jason clarifies and exemplifies Spanish grammar in a short and easy to digest format, helping you to get a better understanding.

 

 

Pronunciation

Study Spanish

Like with learning any language, mastering Spanish pronunciation can be a challenge! This excellent resource has every sound of the language mapped out over 50 units, each containing plenty of pronunciation exercises where you can listen, repeat and repeat until you get it right.

 

Reading

Reading A – Z

Regardless of your level or whether you want to read fiction or non-fiction, you’ll find something for you here. Organized from A to Z, there are just under 30 levels of graded readers here for you to read. So whether you’re an absolute beginner or you’re mastering Spanish, there will be a library of appropriate books for you. So select a tome, download the PDF, and sit back and enjoy reading.

 

El Pais Semanal

For advanced learners, the weekly magazine which comes with El Pais is renowned for its notoriously difficult sentence structures, frivolous language and finer nuances. If you’re after reading a detailed report on the state of culture while working your way through unusual tenses and eloquent phrases, then look no further then El Pais Semanal.

 

Dictionaries

Word Reference

Possibly one of the most underrated dictionaries online, WordReference should be bookmarked by all Spanish learners. Not only is this dictionary free and contains heaps of examples to help you understand how a word is used in context, but it also has its very own verb conjugator! You just type in the verb, hit conjugate, and you’ll get every form of the verb in every tense, mood and aspect!

 

SpanishDict Translator

If you prefer to have a downloaded dictionary in the form of an app, rather than online, then you can download the SpanishDict Translator. It’s already trusted by 10 million users worldwide. Not only does it function as an exhaustive dictionary of the Spanish language but it also provides you with pronunciation, verb conjugations and a plethora of examples.

Apps

Duolingo

One of the most popular language learning apps, Duolingo is famous for the quirky sentences it makes you read, say and complete. The idea is that the stranger the sentence is, the more chance you’ll have of committing the word or phrase to memory. New vocabulary is taught with flashcards, grammar is explained with little speech bubbles, you practise and repeat throughout the unit and then at the end of the level there’s a test. If you pass the test, then you can move on to the next level. There’s some gamification, as you’re encouraged to score points, maintain your daily language learning streak and compete against your friends.

Memrise

Less of a language learning app and more of a memory aid, Memorize can be used to learn just about anything! However, it’s most popular with language learners, some of which have made some of the courses available for free in this app! There are also courses prepared by Memrise. Whatever course you go for, what they all have in common is the memorize method: you see a few words or phrases, you repeat them and reproduce them, and then you’re quizzed on them. There are several built in tools to help you know how many times you’ve come across a word and how often you need to see it to commit it to memory.

Busuu

This app breaks learning a language down into bite sized chunks. In each unit you learn a small amount of vocabulary, apply it to a conversation, practise listening, reading and pronouncing the word, then you finish off by completing a small conversation, which is recorded and sent off for community feedback. The material has been professionally prepared by McGraw Hill Education, so you know you’re getting good quality stuff. The levels covered are from A1 to B2, so perfect for anyone who’s an absolutely beginner to an upper-intermediate learner and all inbetween.

Comments are closed.