Spanish is really easy to learn.
One of the most common questions people have when starting out with Spanish is:
“what’s the hardest part about learning Spanish?”
Or perhaps they come with the expectation that Spanish is indeed a really difficult language.
Well, I’m here today to tell you that it’s not!
There are many reasons why the language has a reputation for being exceptionally difficult with potential students (native English speakers).
From pronunciation to grammar, the Spanish language presents a lot of initial challenges and confusion.
This post will take a look at some of these notoriously “difficult” aspects of the language from the perspective of a native speaker of English.
1. Subjunctive
This might be one of the hardest things about learning Spanish. After being bombarded with tens of new tenses (in the indicative), you learn there’s a whole other dimension of tenses called the subjuntivo. Use it when… you want to express a desire or a doubt, when one action depends on another, or following some fixed expressions with “que“. The uses are many and understanding them is really difficult. Being able to speak naturally using the subjunctive takes time and once you realise you’re doing it, it feels amazing!
2. Ser and Estar
The Spanish language has three verbs to express “to be”:
ser, estar, and haber.
As you use the verb “to be” frequently, you need to tackle this issue right at the beginning of your learning journey.
Estar refers to locations and states, ser is used to describe inherent characteristics, haber is used like the English structures “there are” or “there is.”
Matters complicate if you try to use them in practice.
For example: you use ser not estar if you’re referring to the location of an event. You should say La reunión es en el aula 3 (“The meeting is in room 3”).
In addition, some adjectives change their meaning depending on whether they are used with ser or estar.
Estar listo means “to be prepared,” whereas ser listo means “to be clever.”
3. Understanding Natives
In a sheltered classroom setting, everything is set up to be understood easily. The teachers speak slowly and annunciate carefully, the listening exercises are also slowed down for new learners and classmates are still taking time to think and formulate a sentence before getting it out. Throw yourself into a group of natives and all the words sound as if they’re one big long song – you have a hard time finding where one ends and the other begins! Accents from different countries also make it difficult to understand what someone is saying. Sometimes, letters and sounds are omitted or pronounced in a different way.
4. The R and J and G Sounds
For English speakers, the Spanish ere and erre are hard to pronounce. It’s a sound that native speakers have been perfecting all their lives and it’s the reason it sounds so effortless for them. The Spanish jota and ge are two other sounds that can’t be found in English so a lot of non-natives use the closest they have and make it sound more like an h. In this case, practice (and hard work) makes perfect.
5. All The Tenses
Sometimes it feels like so many tenses can make you tense! Trying to remember the correct vocabulary, making sure all your adjectives agree with your nouns and on top of all that, choosing between pretérito indefinido and imperfecto is enough to drive you crazy. It’s a lot, and it’s one of the hardest things to get used to. If you want to sound fluent and more like a native, the use of different tenses is something you have to learn.
6. Irregular Verbs
Spanish irregular verbs are like revenge for English’s impossible spellings. There are so many to remember it can be quite overwhelming. Again, the more you practice, the better it gets. Committing to memorising some of the more common ones – especially in the pretérito indefinido – will help a lot.
7. Por y Para
Some people simplify por and para as using it like “to” and “for”, but there are other uses for these two conjunctions, too. Just as with memorising verbs and continual practice, they can also be mastered. Check out our blog post about por and para.
8. False Friends
There are so many true friends, or cognates, between Spanish and English – hotel/hotel, accident/accidente, construction/construcción, map/mapa. You get comfortable and think “OK, I’m getting this. It’s not that bad”. Then, when you want to go to the library you assume you can just say librería but that means bookstore! If you feel embarrassed about something and say estoy embarazada you’re telling someone that you’re pregnant. Get educated on false friends before you make these mistakes!
9. Gendered Words
For an English speaker, learning that nouns have a specific gender can be really hard to wrap your head around. Casa is female while sofá is masculine. Once you remember which ones use which, you have to make sure that all the other adjectives surrounding the nouns agree. For example, to say “the house is pretty and clean”, you must remember that house is feminine, therefore the adjectives also have to be feminine: la casa es bonita y limpia.
It can be really hard when you’re in a conversation and telling a story and remember to make agreements all the time. Then, there are the rules and exceptions! All feminine words end with “a“, right? Wrong! To get familiar with the basics you can check out our blog post on feminine and masculine nouns that goes over how to decipher which are which.
10. Slang and Regionalisms
If you are studying in a Spanish-speaking country, then you’ve probably picked up on a few slang words or expressions or things that are repeated often. These can vary depending on the city, country or even circle of friends. They might be difficult to understand at first but with more exposure, they become second nature. It can even be fun to learn slang words from different countries!
Our Methodology
Island Learning La Gomera has been developed with our unique learning style that combines real life situations and practical lessons to help our students achieve communication fluency quicker. Our courses use La Gomera’s heritage and cultural as a gateway to learning Spanish which builds a richer connection to the language. We believe students are best motivated to learn and activate new language when they are given real life situations to interact with. This is why our Island Partners are key to our courses as extra activities in an area of your interest will provide opportunities to speak with local Native speakers and to use new language immediately. Our objective is for students to finish a course feeling more confident in their language abilities and to be able to use functional language in everyday situations.