Spanish (Beginner)

What this covers

• The five pure Spanish vowels plus the sounds English speakers have to relearn: j, ll, ñ, rr, h (silent), and c/g before e and i
• Greetings, introductions and courtesy: hola, buenos días, ¿cómo te llamas?, me llamo, mucho gusto, and when to use tú with a friend
• Numbers 0-100, colours, days and months, and telling your age with tener rather than ser
• El/la/los/las and noun gender, plus adjectives that follow the noun and change ending: la casa roja, los libros rojos
• Present tense of regular -ar verbs (hablar, estudiar, caminar) with yo, tú, él/ella, nosotros, and simple negation with no
• Asking and answering questions with qué, quién, dónde, cómo, cuántos, including the opening ¿ and ¡ marks

Where learners get stuck

Saying "Yo soy nueve" for "I am nine"

Children translate word for word from English, where age uses the verb 'to be'. Spanish uses tener (to have): 'Tengo nueve años.' Until this is drilled as a fixed phrase, the English pattern keeps reappearing in every self-introduction.

Putting the adjective before the noun and never changing its ending

English fixes adjective order (red car) and never inflects them. Spanish reverses the order and makes the adjective agree in gender and number, so 'coche rojo' but 'casa roja'. Students often get the order right and forget the ending, or vice versa, for several weeks.

Guessing meaning from English lookalikes

Cognates such as familia and animal reward guessing, so learners over-apply the strategy and read 'ropa' as rope, 'sopa' as soap, or 'librería' as library. Sessions teach when a lookalike is trustworthy and drill the common false pairs directly.

What a session looks like

Sessions are spoken conversations. Evelyn models a phrase, the student repeats it, and the tutor gives immediate feedback on vowel length, stress and the sounds that carry meaning, such as the ñ in año. Each session mixes a short listening warm-up, new vocabulary in a themed set of six to eight words, a spoken pattern drill, and a short role-play like ordering food or introducing a family member. English is used to explain grammar so a beginner is never lost, and the Spanish share of the session grows as the student's confidence does.

Helpful to know first

• Comfortable reading aloud in English at roughly a grade 3 level
• Knows what a noun and a verb are, in English terms
• Willing to speak out loud and repeat sounds that feel unfamiliar
• No previous Spanish is assumed

Questions

My child has never studied Spanish. Is this the right starting point?

Yes. The first sessions begin with the alphabet sounds and greetings and assume no prior Spanish. If a child already knows colours and numbers, the tutor checks that in the first session and moves ahead to verbs and adjective agreement.

How can pronunciation be taught by voice?

The tutor speaks the word, the student repeats, and the tutor responds to what it hears, flagging things like a flapped r that needs to be a trilled rr, or an English 'ay' sliding onto a Spanish e. Rolled r often takes several weeks and is practised in short bursts rather than drilled to frustration.

Is this Latin American Spanish or Spain Spanish?

Vocabulary and pronunciation follow the Latin American standard most commonly taught in US elementary schools, so 'ustedes' rather than 'vosotros'. Regional differences a child would actually meet, such as computadora versus ordenador, are pointed out when they come up.

How long before my child can say something real in Spanish?

A student can usually introduce themselves, give their age and name a few family members after two or three sessions. Holding a short back-and-forth exchange about school or food generally follows once regular -ar verbs are secure, which takes most children several weeks of regular practice.