How to learn Spanish fast?

Spanish is a language with a highly complex grammar, which may take years to handle in its totality. However, in daily situations (as in every language) people most commonly use certain structures, not all of them. If you learn what people use everyday, then you would be able to start making conversation in Spanish after little instruction. After being able to handle those highly frequent forms, the rest of the grammar just start adding up on a solid structure.

• Learn the basics of sounding out syllables (see syllables at the end of this article). That’s basically saying A as in doctor, E as in bed, I as in flee, O as in call, U as in rude. Don’t pronounce the U in QUE and QUI. CE CI=se si, GE GI=he hi, J sounds like the English h, LL and Y sounds like the English j. The H is always a silent letter.
• Learn the pronouns: Yo (=I) and tú (=you), mi (=my) and tu (=your).
• You start by learning ONLY yo (=me) and tú (=you) forms in the regular conjugation of the present indicative, the one that is used to state routines, ways of being, or ongoing present activities. Start by infinitives ending in AR and ER, since there are quite a few verbs ending in IR (only VIVIR=to live and escribir=to write). Hablar (to speak) is yo hablo / tú hablas, comer (to eat) is yo como / tú comes, and vivir is yo vivo / tú vives. You eliminate the R and the vowel of the infinitive reappears on the TÚ form.
• Then you must go ahead and learn the question words: qué (=what), dónde (=where), cuándo (=when), cómo (=how), and por qué (=why), as those are the basis to understand when someone asks something to you.
• Jump right into the future with the future voy a (=I’m going to) and vas a (=you’re going to), as this is followed by the infinitive, so you won’t have to learn to conjugate anything else. There’s a conjugated future in Spanish, but no one uses that anyway, so don’t waste your time learning that.
• Learn the YO and TÚ forms of TENER=to have, yo tengo / tú tienes.
• Start by learning the past tense called “preterit”, which is also quite easy and most of its words are regular (even more regular than the present indicative). Again, only learn YO and TÚ forms: yo hablé / tú habláste, and yo comí / tú comíste.
• Then go back to the present indicative and start learning some of the most common irregulars: PODER (=to be able to) and QUERER (=to want to), called stem changing verbs: yo puedo / tú puedes, yo quiero / tú quieres. The verb that goes after those verbs goes in infinitive, so you must say yo quiero correr or yo no puedo salir.
• After that, learn the YO and TÚ conjugations of SER (=to be) and ESTAR (=to be located, to be feeling): yo soy / tú eres, yo estoy / tú estás. Don’t worry about the multiple uses of ESTAR, they tell location and feelings and that’s it. You need to learn ESTAR mainly for listening and understanding, because if you make an error using SER instead of ESTAR, the speaker is going to understand you perfectly, and it’s never a big deal to make an error.
• Then try learning some of the G-adding verbs, that is to say, those that are a G in the present indicative, such as HACER (=to do) and TRAER (=to bring): yo hago / tú hacer, yo traigo / tú traes. Again, learn then only in the YO and TÚ forms.

About the subjunctive, don’t worry about it yet as it’s not needed to speak the language. Just know that the vowel changes to its opposite to mean wishes and commands, so you don’t get confused when someone says VIVA instead of VIVE, but you may use present as you please. Learn common expressions such as telling the time, telling the date, the numbers 1-10, and names of food. Practice saying information about yourself such as your phone number, home address, city where you are from, and identify your family members. More than the verb, you may need to spend some time learning vocabulary.

The third person singular and plural are most commonly use in narratives, when basically you gossip about other people, thus are most commonly used when you’ve achieved a level of intimacy with native speakers of Spanish. In the present indicative, you just drop the S of the TÚ form and you have the third person present singular. You just add an N for the plural (=ellos / ellas), and add MOS for the we (=nosotros) form. In any case, once you are at a point where you are really using these forms, you most likely won’t need to study Spanish as you are effectively using it with people.

For Spanish lessons, email me at adiazcoll@gmail.com, and I’ll help you go through these stages.