The best way to learn Spain Spanish is to build your week around Spanish from Spain that you can follow, listen while you read, and then use what you've read with a person. Material like that is called comprehensible input. Keep Spain audio on from the start, because Spain has sounds you won't hear in most Latin American Spanish, like the "th" in gracias.
Bubblegum, a language app, gives you that reading and listening. Poppy, your AI tutor, writes Spain Spanish lessons at your level about things you care about, and each one is read aloud in a Spain accent. A tutor or a partner from Spain gives you someone to talk with.
Which Ways of Learning Spain Spanish Work Best?
Reading with audio deserves the biggest share of your week, and the other methods below each fill a smaller gap. A review of 49 studies by Jeon and Day (2016) found that reading a lot of easy material improved reading in English as a second or foreign language. Those studies were about English, so they tell us less about Spanish. Choose texts where about one word in each sentence is new and you can still follow what's going on.
| Method | What It Builds | Use It For |
|---|---|---|
| Reading with Spain audio | Words, grammar, and the Spain accent | Most of your time |
| A course set to Spain | The basics, one step at a time | Your first months |
| A tutor or a partner from Spain | Answering out loud, with vosotros | Trying out what you just read |
| Review in sentences | Words you can recall when you need them | The last few minutes of a session |
| Podcasts and TV from Spain | Spanish at the speed people talk in Spain | Once learner material feels comfortable |
How Should Your Plan Change With Your Goal?
Your goal decides what you read about and who you practice with.
- Talk With Family or FriendsRead and hear conversations about family meals and weekend plans. Then try a question on a friend from Spain, and notice when they answer with vosotros.
- Travel in SpainRead and hear Spanish about ordering tapas and buying train tickets. Practice ordering out loud with a tutor before you go.
- Live in SpainRead Spanish about the things you deal with each week, like renting a flat or seeing a doctor. Ask a neighbor to check an important email before you send it.
- Use Spanish at Work in SpainRead and hear Spanish about your own field. With a tutor, practice explaining one task and asking a colleague to repeat a detail.
- Pass the DELEInstituto Cervantes runs the DELE exams. Keep reading at your level most of the time, and practice the exam tasks near the date.
- Follow Shows and News From SpainStart with a slow news podcast from Spain. Move on to RTVE Play programmes about topics you already know from English.
To see how the hours add up week by week, read the fastest way to learn Spain Spanish.
Which Resources Fit Each Part of Your Study?
| Part | Free Option | App or Service |
|---|---|---|
| A course for the basics | uTalk's free starter words, in Spain Spanish | Babbel, with a course for Spanish (Spain) |
| Reading and listening at your level | The Notes in Spanish Inspired Beginners podcast, recorded in Madrid | Bubblegum, where Poppy writes Spain Spanish lessons on your topics at your level |
| Real conversations | Deep Spanish, a podcast by Notes in Spanish | News in Slow Spanish, with a Spain edition |
| Grammar | Ask a partner why they chose a form | Ask Poppy about a sentence in the lesson you're reading |
| Review | A notebook of whole sentences you want to keep | Bubblegum's Regenerative Review™, which brings saved words back in new lessons |
| Conversation | A partner in Madrid on Tandem | A tutor from Spain on italki |
What Should You Avoid When Learning Spain Spanish?
- Mixing Two Accents by MistakeMany Spanish apps and podcasts are from Latin America, so check each one's settings and keep most of what you hear from Spain.
- Leaving Vosotros for Later and LaterFriends in Spain say vosotros all the time. Learn its endings once the basics feel easy, so you can follow a group chat.
- Memorizing a Top 500 ListA list of the 500 most common words gives you meanings, but it doesn't show how each word is used or how it sounds when people talk. It won't tell you that Spain says "vale" for okay, either. Save words from what you read and hear, and review them in those sentences.
Learn Spain Spanish Easily With Bubblegum
Bubblegum
For serious learners, Bubblegum is the best app to learn Spain Spanish. You learn from Spain Spanish you can mostly understand, which is called comprehensible input.
- Spain Spanish is its own journey, and lessons are read aloud in a Spain accent.
- Verb tables show the vosotros forms and mark them as used in Spain.
- Lessons fit your level, interests, and goals.
- Regenerative Review™ brings saved words back in new lessons, and you can export them to Anki.
- Clear, expressive AI voices read every lesson aloud, with a different voice for each speaker.
- A book you bought in Madrid can't become a lesson. Send Poppy a photo of a page you're stuck on, and she explains it.
- A new custom lesson costs us real money to make, so your first one is free, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons. The lesson library is free for everyone, because we believe everyone should be able to learn.
- Regenerative Review™
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Frequently Asked Questions
Should I Use an App or a Teacher?
Use both for different jobs. An app gives you Spanish to read and hear whenever you have time, and a teacher hears you speak and corrects you. Even one tutor session a week gives you a place to try out what you've read.
Is Spain Spanish Very Different From Latin American Spanish?
The grammar is almost all the same, so what you learn works everywhere. Spain uses vosotros, says the "th" sound for z, ce, and ci, and has some words of its own, like ordenador for computer. People in Spain understand Latin American Spanish, and the other way around.
Which Spain Spanish App Should a Beginner Choose?
If you are serious about learning Spain Spanish, start with Bubblegum. Poppy writes lessons at your level about things you like. Or start with Babbel's Spanish (Spain) course if you'd like lessons in a set order. Our page of the best ways to learn Spain Spanish puts every option side by side.
Is Bubblegum Free?
Yes. The lesson library is free for everyone, because we believe everyone should be able to learn. It holds lessons that other learners asked Poppy for. A new custom lesson costs us real money to make, so your first one is free, and Bubblegum Pro gives you unlimited custom lessons.
Sources
- Duolingo Blog: Spanish dialects (Spain Spanish: the th sound for z, ce and ci; vosotros)
- Jeon and Day (2016): The effectiveness of extensive reading, a meta-analysis (Reading in a Foreign Language)
- Babbel: Learn Spanish (Spanish (Mexico) and Spanish (Spain))
- Notes in Spanish: conversations recorded in Madrid
- News in Slow Spanish: Spanish (Spain) edition
- uTalk: Learn Spanish (Spain)
- Tandem: Learn Spanish in Madrid
- italki: Spanish teachers
- RTVE Play
- Notes in Spanish Inspired Beginners (Apple Podcasts)
- Deep Spanish, by Notes in Spanish (Apple Podcasts)
- Instituto Cervantes: DELE diplomas
- Wiktionary: ordenador (Spain: computer)
- Wiktionary: vale (Spain: okay)
