How Hard Is It To Learn Spanish?

Learning Spanish isn't as difficult as you probably think. Like many people, I did poorly in Spanish class. As I grew older and increased my knowledge of learning languages in general and Spanish in particular, I realized the main reason I never managed to learn Spanish in class wasn't because I was bad at it or learning Spanish is a particularly difficult feat, but that learning a language in a classroom is a poor method in general. Studying on your own with the right materials and methods, learning Spanish is much less difficult than it has the reputation for being.

Learning any language can be pretty hard if you've never done it before and don't know what works and what doesn't. That said, Spanish is one of the easier languages for a native English-speaker to learn because there are a very large number of cognates (words that are substantially similar in both languages). For example, most English words ending in -tion are almost identical in Spanish except for a slight change at the end where -tion becomes -ción. So attention becomes atención, liberation becomes liberación, etc. Thus, vocabulary will probably be fairly easy for you to learn. On the other hand, learning Spanish grammar will likely prove to be more difficult. Many Spanish grammatical concepts, such as the subjective and having to choose between two different past tenses, will be difficult to grasp in the beginning. Luckily, Spanish grammar is extremely logical and regular, so you should be able to master even these difficult and foreign concepts with a little practice.


Learning to understand the spoken language will definitely take some real-world practice: you won't learn that from a book. Speaking will likewise be difficult at first, but learning Spanish is mostly a question of time and effort rather than difficulty. If you are dedicated and practice daily, it's only a matter of time.
Want to learn to speak spanish but don't know where to being? Check out my beginner Spanish guide.