What each letter sounds like
Five vowels that keep one sound each, and fourteen letters that catch an English reader out. Learn those and the rest of the alphabet reads the way you already read it.
Spanish lessons
Learn to read Spanish.
We’ll start with the sounds, then some useful words, and how a sentence holds together.
Then you can try two short stories and see how much you follow.
13 core chapters · 3 optional references · Free, at your own pace
Starting from scratch
Start with the sounds, read your first nine words, then move on to sentences. The cards below let you try a greeting or look at the letters first.
Start with the sounds →Try saying helloA first hello
A first hello
in Spanish.
Start with hello, then say what something is and where it is. The pronunciation and English are there to help.
Try the lesson A reading-first approachFive vowels that never move.
Each Spanish vowel keeps one sound wherever it turns up. Fourteen letters are the whole difficulty, and this is where you meet them.
See how the letters workChapter 1 of 16 · Explore the Spanish path
Start here · Chapter 1 of 16
How these lessons work
Read a word, then check how it is said and what it means. Every chapter sets the Spanish, the pronunciation and the English out the same way, and you meet the four animals the stories are about.
≈ 1 min of reading · Practise at your own pace
What’s in this chapter
- This path starts from no Spanish and ends with a short story whose pronunciation and English begin hidden.
- You attempt a word before revealing how it is said and what it means.
- Spanish is spelled almost exactly the way it is said, so the sound work is short.
- What stops an English reader is the small words and the missing subject, not the nouns.
- Stop after any checkpoint. The three lookup sections are for looking things up, not memorising.
This is short preparation for reading a book, not a grammar course. It teaches how the letters sound, where the pieces of a sentence sit, and enough recurring words for a first page. Four characters run through it — Mina the mouse, Tobi the rabbit, Tika the yellow bird, Dara the fox — the cast of the fable collection this path hands you at the end.
forest
bosque
BOHS-keh
The large word is the spelling. BOHS-keh
How to use a checkpoint
Look at the Spanish first and try to say it. Then reveal.
- bosque
Two beats. The u after the q is not said at all.
Show answer +Hide answer −
bosqueBOHS-keh “forest”. Say “BOHS-keh”.
The chapters
What do you want to work on?
If you’re starting from scratch, follow the chapters in order. Otherwise, pick the bit you need. You can skip the reference pages and come back to them.
Ser and estar: say what something is, and where it is
English has one word for is, and Spanish has two. Learn which one says what something is and which says where it is, then say hello and give your name.
The words the two stories are made of
A short list of nouns and describing words that both stories lean on. Learn each noun with the little word in front, and you have learned whether it is masculine or feminine too.
Say what you have, want and where you go
Having, wanting, being able, going, coming, walking, falling. Learn the plain name of each verb and the forms a story uses, then see what happens when two small words fuse into one.
Read a story with help
Nine lines between a mouse and a fox, with the pronunciation and the English under each one. Spanish books mark speech with a dash, and this is where you meet it.
Come back to these chapters whenever you need them.All Spanish chapters ↗