Course Overview

Each lesson is one short, natural conversation in Spanish with an English translation: everything you need to learn by understanding, without pressure.

The course is meant to be followed in order, but there's no rush. You can move forward when you're ready or revisit previous lessons as often as you like. Repetition is part of the process: it helps your brain internalise the language over time.

Spanish changes the way it speaks with the people talking: family, friends, children and young people among themselves say tú, while strangers, customers, officials and many older people get the polite usted, and more than one person is always ustedes, as Mexicans say it. Every lesson says who the speakers are, women and men, children, teenagers and grandparents, so you pick up the right forms along with the words.

New to Spanish? Take a few minutes with the sounds of Spanish first: its spelling is very regular, so once you know the letters you can read most lines aloud.

If you've finished today's lesson but want to keep the input going, the Resources page lists free Spanish podcasts, YouTube channels and other tools.

Lessons are grouped into levels on the CEFR scale, the European standard that runs from A1 (beginner) to C2 (near native). They follow the Common European Framework of Reference and the Instituto Cervantes' Plan Curricular, which describes each of the six levels for Spanish. Each level has its own page: Newbie (A1), Pre-Elementary (A2), Elementary (B1), Intermediate (B2), Upper-Intermediate (C1), Advanced (C2).