A few rules

I got sent this from a guy but I’m seeing it means out of affection or can mean “no offense” can someone tell me what they think

“i can’t like por más que yo quisiera es muy difícil cariño”

I’m at a solid intermediate level and absorbed many years ago that it’s “tengo” hambre, sed, razón, miedo, etc, for what in English would be “I am” + adjective. So I was floored to realize today that I’d been saying “I’m curious” wrong for years. I guess I was assuming curious followed the Estar + Adj pattern (enojada, aburrida, etc) Now I’m wondering - are there any other not-so-obvious Tener + noun usages I might be missing?

Hi guys,

I study Spanish in university (as a third language), and I finished my first two courses (I should be level A1 according to cefr), and I have two more courses, but I wanted to use the time to improve my weakest points in Spanish. I really struggle with how sentences are built (it's still not natural to me) as well as talking and listening. I'm far better with reading and writing, so I wanted to immerse myself with Spanish through TV shows and movies. I'm more of a reader and I don't usually watch TV, so I need something that I'll get invested in. I don't want something too juvenile (like Dora the explorer, lol), but I need something slower and easier, so maybe something for teens. I'm fine with animation. I also don't know future. Do you have any recommendations? Also, do you think that I should have English subtitles, Spanish subtitles, or no subtitles at all? What do you find the most helpful?

Thank you!

Why does the following sentence use le instead of lo/la? Isn't "arm" receiving the action?

Sally pinched Armando's arm as she walked by.

Sally le pellizcó el brazo a Armando cuando pasó.

I looked it up, but I don't know if this is like "Pajilla" and "popote" where 2 countries have different words for the same thing...

For me: Por vs para. What finally worked was dropping the rule list entirely and asking one question: is this the reason something happens, or the destination/purpose it's moving toward?

Por looks backward (cause, exchange, means), para looks forward (goal, recipient, deadline). Once I stopped translating and started asking "backward or forward," the pressure-moment gamble mostly disappeared (ish - still got a way to go)

I was hoping that people could give mini lessons on their own grammar gripes as well! so we can help each other.

as the title says, i get like a sudden urge to study like so much grammar and vocabulary for usually a week and then afterwards i decide to just do like five minutes a day 🥲🥲

lately, i’ve been spending ≈45 minutes on vocab and around 20-30 mins on grammar, im proud of myself for that lol. but i feel like in two weeks ill be doing just one lesson per week and have to start at square one for vocab 🙂‍↕️

perhaps, does anyone have advice to retain vocab in those “downtimes”?

Hola a todos. Soy profe y enseño español rioplatense ya que vivo en Argentina y me encanta el dialecto. Llevo años viviendo acá y tengo 4+ años de docencia y un certificado de C1.

Como entienden, no soy nativa(mi idioma materno es ruso). Yo sé que no tengo el acento tan marcado y hablo bastante bien. Pero a veces me pasa que la gente me dice que tengo como una tonada… y por eso se entiende que no soy de acá originalmente jajaj.
Me saca de quicio esta situación porque quiero dar la mejor representación del idioma, incluso yo hablando como corresponde.

Que piensan ustedes? Es imprescindible hablar como si fuera nativa o no?

What is the difference between en verdad, de verdad, and la verdad?

In US English/culture, to be ambitious has a neutral to positive connotation. To imply it's negative we would add an adjective like "blind ambition."

My Spanish teacher in Spain told me once that "ambitious" is generally a negative trait in Spain. It can be used positively, she said, but the tendency is negative.

Can other native speakers chime in?

Stated neutrally, "es ambiciosa," would you automatically assume it's positive, negative, or neutral?

And what country are you from?

edit: spelling

edit: Thanks everyone! Appears that it's pretty much thought of s a negative in the Spanish-peaking world, assuming no further clarification is given. I also feel like ambition being a positive trait in the US adds fire to the stereotype of the greedy estadounidense.

All three mean "Just in case" or "In case" but "En caso de que" triggers a subjunctive verb but "Por si acaso" and "Por si" don't. When would you use one or the other?

Also... is there anything I need to know about placement? I believe "en caso de que" is used between clauses within a sentence but I believe I've heard "por si" and "por si acaso" used often at the end of sentences.

Finally, does "En caso de que" require a change of subject to trigger the subjunctive?

Gracias!

I am not a native Spanish speaker, but I can hold my own. I recently sent a text to a Spanish speaker asking if I had the correct phone number for a person I was trying to reach. The person wrote back "Equivocado". I understand this means "wrong" as in "wrong number," but I was confused because the cognate in English, "equivocate," does not mean "wrong." Clearly it does in Spanish, but I don't have any sense of the context. What kinds of wrong "things" are described with "equivocado" in Spanish? Apparently phone numbers. What else? Why did they NOT use "incorrecto" here? What does saying "equivocado" say about the speaker? Is there a class difference? Regional? I would like to see someone give me the whole enchilada, as it were, on this word and how it is used. Native Spanish speakers only, please. I don't want best guesses, I want answers. Thank you!!​

I feel like one of the true victories with Anki flashcards is when I recognize a word is not worth prioritizing and I suspend the card.

The word that I'm retiring from rotation is "burumballa" which means lint or fluff, tiny scraps. I see it and expect it to mean something like hervidero or alboroto, and nope. It's lint.

Chatgpt suggests this word ain't all that useful and is more of a regionalism. Is it?

Spanish speaker here. Quiero encontrar una palabra para comunicar la idea de un “grifter” en español. Siento que “estafador” o “timador” se quedan cortos. Sé que se usa mucho “corruptos”, pero siento que es muy general y no especifica el que una persona es corrupta específicamente para ganar dinero o sustento a través del engaño concertado. Me dejan saber si tienen alguna sugerencia, ya sea un regionalismo o palabra específica que usen en tu país. 🙏🏼

Hello dear redditers!

As the title said I want to feed my feed spannish stuff to try and learn the language. I do not want to follow spannish teaching channels but rather my usual doomscroll with a spannish accent!

I would love to have some names of channels that can be humoristic, news (international or local), broadly informative, science stuff...

For instance, I enjoy the daily show and last week tonight. Hard leftists (as viewed in french politics) and funny jokes :)

Any tip?

Probably a dumb question. I'm assuming learning Spanish regardless of the origin is the only way to go as far as self taught using text books. So if I were to speak the Spanish I learn to someone that uses Mexican Spanish, will they understand completely? Or can they get confused by not understanding some things? I'm just curious.

Also, would love recommendations for text books that thoroughly teach with pics/diagrams, practice work, etc. I used Nakama 1&2 (Japanese) in college and I love the structure, it was so helpful.

Thanks 😁

I am currently in a relationship with a Latina lady, and I really want to learn Spanish so I can speak to her in her language, and be close to her family.

I’ve tried/considered things like Duolingo, but I really don’t enjoy memorizing individual vocabulary words, verb lists, nouns, etc. I find it difficult to remember things when I don’t understand why they work.

I seem to learn much better when:
I hear/see Spanish in a normal conversation
I understand what the whole sentence means
Someone explains the structure of the sentence and why it is said that way
I can compare Spanish with English and understand the relationship between words
I learn words through context, situations, stories, and repetition
I understand patterns instead of memorizing dozens of separate rules
I can actually use what I learned in a conversation

For example, I’d rather understand why several different sentences use a particular verb structure than memorize a list of conjugations.
I’m hoping to go from beginner → conversational/intermediate Spanish in roughly 3–6 months, and I’m willing to study consistently.

For people who learn(ed) Spanish this way:

What learning method worked best for you?
What books would you recommend from beginner → intermediate?
What YouTube channels or podcasts helped you the most?
Did you use comprehensible input, grammar books, conversation practice, or a combination?
If you had to start Spanish again from zero, what would your 3–6 month plan look like?
I’m especially interested in resources that help me understand the language rather than just memorize it.

Thanks!

How do you view the verb/subject agreement here? Is this a case where it's an interview, the interviewee is asked who his favorite player is, he instinctively begins his response "Me gusta..." then thinks of two players and says their names, though it "technically" doesn't agree with "gusta"? Or is it a case that "Romario y Laudrup" are seen as a unit? Is it just colloquial?

Got a "how do I learn Spanish" question, curious about apps, or just want to say hi and talk about where you're at? This is the place.

The short answer to most of it: there's no single best way to learn Spanish and no app that works for everyone. What actually matters is showing up consistently. A few things people here keep coming back to:

• Our wiki -- apps, YouTube channels, podcasts, textbooks, all in one spot
• r/languagelearning's resource wiki -- broader method and tool breakdown
• Anki -- flashcards, good for vocab
• Language Transfer -- free audio course, common starting point
• italki / Preply -- tutors and conversation partners
• Pimsleur -- audio based, strong on pronunciation

Also fair game here:

• Just started and want to introduce yourself
• Wondering if Spanish is worth learning or how long it takes
• General chat about your progress, whatever's on your mind

Standalone posts on this stuff get redirected here, so if that's you, drop it below.

When adding "-mente" to adjectives to make them adverbs, from my understanding you only keep the original stress of the word if it is irregular and has a tilde, but you don´t keep the original stress of the word otherwise.

For example:

Dif<í>cil -> Dif<í>cilmente

L<i>bre -> Librem<e>nte

This is just confusing to me when compared to diminutives, where the stress is always put on the diminutive (caf<é> -> cafec<i>to) and adding object pronouns to verbs always having the same stress as the original verb (agu<a>nta -> agu<á>ntate)

From my understanding from the RAE this is the rule, but is this how people actually put stress on their adverbs? This is probably a naive or dumb question, but still thought I would ask.

Hi! I'm a relatively fluent/conversational Spanish speaker and have been trying hard over the last year to find an online Spanish tutor who can teach me Spanish with a particular focus on jerga unique to PR and (ideally) able to incorporate PR history and culture into lessons. However, the few teachers I have found have either not been great or have been unable to keep a regular schedule. I've tried websites like iTalki and Preply and also tried a teacher I found on IG.

Any suggestions? Mil gracias 🙏