Spanish Language Learning Strategy

Due to a plan of migrating to an english-spanish speaking country, a sudden realization of the need to learn their street language came upon me. Being  able a filipino which has a lot of borrowed words from spanish, i thought it would be an easy learning adventure. I was wrong. Although some words are quiet familiar, i still cannot understand a whole spanish sentence, much more speak it.

To start with my language learning, I bought a book called “Basic Spanish” by Dorothy Richmond and a spanish-english dictionary. Since this is a self spanish language learning, a learning strategy would be a good idea.

First  thing was to search the internet and start by memorizing some basic spanish greetings and counting.

Hello – Hola
Good Morning – Buenos Días
Good Evening – Buenas tardes
Good Night- Buenas noches
How are you? – Cómo Estás?
I’m fine, thanks! – Estoy bíen, gracias! Or muy bíen, gracias
And you? – Y tú?
Thank you very much- Muchas Gracias
Your Welcome(thank you) – de nada
See you later – Hasta Luego
Goodbye- Adiós
What is your name?- Cómo te llamas?
My name is…- Me llamo…
Nice to meet you – Medio Gusto Conocerte
Where are you from? – De dónde eres?
I am from – Soy de…
Where do you live? – Dónde Vives?
I live in.. – Vivo en
One- uno
Two- dos
Three- tres
Four- cuatro
Five- Cinco
Six- seis
Seven- siete
Eight- Ocho
Nine – nueve
Ten – deiz

Second is to be familiarize with the definite and indifinite articles. There are four forms of definite and four forms of indifinite articles. Devided in Masculine and feminine form and also in singular and plural forms.

Definite article

Masculine singular – El
Masculine Plural – los
Feminine singular – la
Feminie plural – las

Indefinite article

Masculine singular – un (a)
Masculine Plural – unos (some)
Feminine singular – una (a)
Feminie plural – unas (some)

Third strategy is to be able to memorize as many verbs as I can. Verbs are action words and are very important in building some sentences. Here are some verbs

Bailar- to dance
cantar- to sing
comprar- to buy
hablar – to speak
beber – to drink
comer- to eat
correr- to run
leer – to read
abrir – to open
escribir- to write
vivir – to live
cubrir- to cover

The next stop is to be able to memorize the subject pronouns:

Yo- I
tú – you(singular, familiar)
él – he
ella – she
usted – you (plural, formal)
nosotros – we (masculine)
nosotras- we (feminine)
vosotros- you (plural, familiar, masculine)
vosotras- you (plural, familiar, feminine)
ellos – they (masculine)
ellas – they (feminine)
ustedes – they (plural, formal)

The last part of the strategy is to be able to conjugate. Conjugation is easy if you are familiar with the verb endings.  The verb endings can be ar, er, and ir

Conjugation of an ar ending verb
hablar – to talk
yo- hablo
tú- hablas
él – habla
ella – habla
usted – habla
nosotros/nosotras- hablamos
vosotros/vosotras- habláis
ellos – hablan
ellas – hablan
ustedes-hablan

Conjugation of an er ending verb
comer – to eat
yo- como
tú- comes
él – come
ella – come
usted – come
nosotros/nosotras- comemos
vosotros/vosotras- coméis
ellos – comen
ellas – comen
ustedes-comen

Conjugation of an ir ending verb
escribir – to write
yo- escribo
tú- escribes
él – escribe
ella – escribe
usted – escribe
nosotros/nosotras-escribimos
vosotros/vosotras- escribis
ellos – escriben
ellas – escriben
ustedes-escriben

To help you with conjugating verbs, you can go to www.conjugation.org and www.spanishdict.com for an online translation