Native Spanish Online

What is Spanish?

Spanish is a Romance language, one of the languages that developed out of Latin sometime after the fall of Rome. That's why if you ever try to compare French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese or Romanian, you're bound to see striking similarities. If we move further out, Spanish belongs to the Latin (or Italic) branch of the much larger Indo-European language family tree. This means it ultimately shares a common ancestry with English, Greek, Russian, Hindi, German and many other languages spoken from India to Europe.

There are more than 330 million native speakers of Spanish, mostly in the Americas (from Mexico and the U.S. down to Argentina and Chile) and Spain. Equatorial Guinea in Africa has Spanish as an official language. On top of that, Spanish was official in the Philippines for more than four centuries, where there are still native speakers. Whew, just think how many people you'll get to talk to in your new language!

Differences in location also translate to differences in dialect. There are many different dialects of Spanish, but the largest commonly recognized split is between Spain (or "Castilian") Spanish and Latin American Spanish. We'll cover major differences as we move along, but this course is primarily in Latin American Spanish, with references to how a Spaniard might do things differently.

Spanish speakers call their language español Spanish or castellano. The first word sounds a bit like España and comes from the Latin name for Spain (Hispania). The second is related to Castilla, home to Madrid and the Castilian dialect of Spanish that became dominant several centuries ago. Since Castilian is the source of all modern standard Spanish, castellano doesn't just refer to the prestige dialect of Spain, but the whole Spanish language, even in Latin America. As for castellano and español, you'll learn how to say those words soon enough.

Latin American or European Spanish?

There are a number of important differences between the Spanish of Spain and the Spanish of North America, Central & South America, and the Caribbean. Your first choice, then, is which dialect to start learning.

Most likely, you've come to this page with some idea of why you want to learn to speak Spanish. Is it to go to Spain or to study the history and culture of the Spanish-speaking world? It might be best to start with European Spanish. In that case, pay attention to any notes about "Spain Spanish" I give you throughout the lessons. On the other hand, if you're travelling to Latin America, or you live in the United States or Canada, Latin American Spanish is more likely to be useful to you. Differences between Latin America and Spain are noted in the text, usually in a casual remark.

How to use this site

Pronouncing Spanish is probably the best place to start. The lessons are called lecciones and teach the language through events or situations, like a casual run-in on the street, using those as a window to further understand grammar and other features of the language.

We'll go through each lesson in a straightforward, casual way. The formatting on lessons pages is intended to make everything easier to read, understand, move on and come back when you need it again. Formatting includes:

• When you see color text, it's a word, phrase or sentence in Spanish.
• When you see italic text, you'll know it's an English translation of colored Spanish text.
• Bold text tells you that you're looking at a key term, or a piece of a phrase we're focusing on.
• >>in-depth lets you know you need to pay attention. The material in these sections is often tougher for learners.
• >>example introduces an example to help clarify a point we're discussing.

The lessons take many cues from Portuguese Online, our free online Portuguese learning site, which received welcome acclaim from around the world.

You will find new vocabulary scattered throughout the lecciones. Nouns are given in the form noun (gender) translation. After you learn about gender, it will be abbreviated, masculine as (m.) and feminine as (f.). Verbs are cited in the infinitive "to do" form, like the verb hacer to make, to do. Nouns are given in their singular form, like casa house. Adjectives are in the masculine singular form, like the word alto tall, high. If something deserves a note or even more explanation, I mark it with an asterisk (*). Other words are invariable in Spanish, like cómo how. This paragraph about nouns, verbs and the like will make more sense once you've begun learning the language.

I wish you the best of luck as you begin your viaje journey.