Spanish Resources

There are many great resources online to help improve your Spanish. First and foremost, BBC Languages has many resources available, such as free online courses for beginners, post-beginners and intermediates, which include videos, games, grammar tips, as well as articles, which contain missing words for you to fill in to reinforce the grammar lessons. The site also has a list of Spanish slang with audio, as well as radio and TV suggestions. In addition, the site contains worksheets you can print out, a test to gauge your level of Spanish and news articles with quizzes.

Livemocha is another great site, which offers free beginner and intermediate courses. There are reading, listening, flashcard, writing and speaking exercises available. The writing and speaking exercises are corrected by real native speakers, who you can also chat with to help improve your language skills.

If you are looking for online reading, you can go to Project Gutenberg to access free ebooks online in Spanish, as well as in many other languages. Another great place to read articles is wikpedia or any Spanish news site.

Word Reference has a great dictionary and verb conjugater, as well as forums, so you can ask questions about word usage and idiomatic expressions you are unfamiliar with.

I have also come across a rhyming dictionary online, which can also be used for many other languages.

If you are looking to build your vocabulary, Byki Languages offers free software that you can download, along with many flashcard list, which include audio, and pictures. They also have an area on their site called "List Central" where you can access many other lists created by other users. Another great feature of this site is access to a word of the day, which you can get sent to your email, or put on your google, yahoo, or myspace pages. Additionally, Flashcard Exchange has many flashcard sets available, and if you are a student, you can often find flashcards specifically for the book you are using, such as Pasajes or Puntos de Partido.

Youtube is a great source for Spanish content. There are often episodes of telenovelas, news clips, cartoons and a variety of other shows. If you are just starting out, you might want to try watching a clip or an episode of something that you have seen before in your native language, and then try to watch it in Spanish. I've seen a lot of Spongebob episodes, so I usually try to watch them in French or Russian.

Study Spanish is another good site, which offers free Spanish courses. The site guides you through grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary and even offers verb drills. The site includes a cultural corner, where you can read articles in Spanish, which contain the English translation, as well as Spanish audio.

SpanishFree offers an amazing amount of resources for Spanish learners. There are videos, articles with audio, Spanish verb, spelling, pronunciation, grammar and practice links. There is also a test, a free book, expressions, phrases and even recipes.

There are many books available that help you learn Spanish. I have found that the Practice Makes Perfect series is great for improving grammar. Complete Spanish Grammar, and Advanced Spanish Grammar are incredibly helpful books from that series. The series also offers books in many other languages, including French and Italian. 501 Spanish Verbs is another great book which includes 501 Spanish verbs and all of their conjugations. Barron's 501 Spanish Verbs is also good, as well as Mastering Spanish Grammar and Complete Spanish Grammar.


Rosetta Stone is another great way to learn Spanish, and they have added levels four and five to their software. You can sign up to learn Spanish online, instead of purchasing the software, which makes it a bit cheaper, and offers access to more content.