The fastest way to learn Spanish is to spend most of your study time on Spanish you can mostly understand. That kind of Spanish is called comprehensible input. What you read and listen to should change as you improve, so the plan below shows what to do at each level and how to split an hour of study.
What to Do at Each Level
Find the level that sounds like you. Its bar shows how to spend an hour of study.
- Level 1
I'm just starting out or know only a few words.
Read and listen 35 min. Review 15 min. Speak 10 min.
Read short dialogues with audio and a translation, and listen to each one twice. Dreaming Spanish's Superbeginner videos help too, because they explain new words with drawings and gestures.
- Level 2
I can handle simple exchanges.
Read and listen 40 min. Review 10 min. Speak 10 min.
Hide the translation and look up only the words that stop you. Listen to the ¡Cuéntame! podcast, which tells stories in basic Spanish, and retell each story out loud in a few sentences.
- Level 3
I follow conversations on familiar topics.
Read and listen 40 min. Review 5 min. Speak 15 min.
Read the easy news on Planeta Fácil, and listen to each lesson once more without reading along. Talk about what you read for longer.
- Level 4
I understand most content but miss some nuance.
Read and watch 45 min. Review 5 min. Speak 10 min.
Watch Easy Spanish street interviews with the Spanish subtitles on, and add Hoy Hablamos, a podcast for intermediate learners.
- Level 5
I read complex topics but rare words slow me down.
Read and watch 50 min. Speak 10 min.
Listen to podcasts made for Spanish speakers, like No Hay Tos and Radio Ambulante, and look up only the words you need to follow along.
- Level 6
I read at near-native level.
Read and watch 50 min. Speak 10 min.
Read novels and the news from Spain and Latin America, and talk about them, for their own sake.
Move up a level when your lessons start to feel easy, and move back down if you lose the thread by the third line.
How Long Does It Take to Learn Spanish?
Spanish takes about 690 class hours to reach professional fluency, according to the U.S. Foreign Service Institute. That puts Spanish in its first group, the languages it calls close to English.
| Language | FSI group | Full-time weeks |
|---|---|---|
| Spanish, French | Category I | 30 |
| German | Category II | 36 |
| Russian | Category III | 44 |
| Japanese | Category IV | 88 |
Instituto Cervantes, Spain's official language institute, teaches levels A1 to C1 online in sixteen 30-hour courses, 480 hours in all. Its center in Salvador, Brazil, gives A1 and A2 120 class hours together and B1, B2 and C1 120 hours each, so reaching B2 takes 360 hours. Here is how long those take at different amounts of study a week:
| Study per week | Cervantes A1–A2 (120 hours) | Cervantes A1–B2 (360 hours) | FSI professional fluency (690 hours) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3½ hours | About 8 months | About 2 years | About 3¾ years |
| 7 hours | About 4 months | About 1 year | About 23 months |
| 14 hours | About 2 months | About 6 months | About 11 months |
| 28 hours | About 1 month | About 3 months | About 6 months |
These are class hours, so treat them as a rough guide. Time you spend understanding Spanish on your own counts too.
What Slows Learners Down
- Verb Tables AloneYou can recite hablo, hablas, habla (I speak, you speak, he or she speaks) and still lose the thread when a waiter talks at normal speed.
- Every Accent at OnceA bus is an autobús in Spain and a camión in Mexico, so start with the Spanish of the place you care about most.
- Content Far Too HardA telenovela where you know one word in five teaches you very little.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which Spanish app should a beginner choose?
If you are serious about learning Spanish, start with Bubblegum. Poppy writes lessons at your level about things you like. Our Spanish app comparison covers courses, tutors and speaking apps too.
Can I learn Spanish in three months?
You can get through A1 and A2. At 14 hours a week, three months is about 180 hours, which covers Instituto Cervantes's 120 hours for those two levels and half of its 360 hours to reach B2.
How much should I study Spanish each week?
Aim for three to five hours a week of Spanish you understand, in sessions of at least 15 to 30 minutes. A longer session lets you get lost in a story, which teaches more than five minutes a day, and steady time each week matters more than a daily streak. Our post on deep sessions over daily streaks explains why.
Is Spanish hard for English speakers?
Not by the Foreign Service Institute's measure: Spanish is in its first group, with French, Italian and Portuguese. Spanish also uses the Latin alphabet, so most of your time goes into words and verb forms, which you pick up fastest from Spanish you understand.
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.
The Spanish lessons on this site are also free and need no account.
Sources
- Instituto Cervantes, What is AVE Global? (sixteen 30-hour courses, A1 to C1)
- U.S. Department of State, Foreign Language Training (FSI language categories)
- Instituto Cervantes Salvador, Cursos de español 2026.2 (class hours per level, A1 to C2)
- Real Academia Española, Diccionario de la lengua española: camión (Méx. autobús)
- Dreaming Spanish, Frequently Asked Questions
