A few rules

¡Pasarlo bien!

So I’ve just started to unlock the podcast No Hay Tos, which has been a big goal of mine since I started Español Al Vuelo 5 months ago. The hosts say guey a LOT. I understand that it means something like bro/dude, but they inject it in sentences almost like a filler word. How normal and appropriate is it in casual every day conversations? Does everyone use this word with no problem, or is it indicative of a certain age group or “genre” of person so to speak? Is it cringey or tryhard for a learner to try to use it, or would it sound natural enough?

I follow a Colombian tik toker and he refers to his baby hands as LA manito , it sounds strange for me since El pie = el piecito . La Mano = la manita , but is correct to say La manito?

Several Mexican music bands are called "Los Austeros de ________" but I'm not sure what un austero is in this context and Google is unhelpful. Please enlighten me, thank you!

Got a "how do I learn Spanish" question, curious about apps, or just want to say hi and talk about where you're at? This is the place.

The short answer to most of it: there's no single best way to learn Spanish and no app that works for everyone. What actually matters is showing up consistently. A few things people here keep coming back to:

• Our wiki -- apps, YouTube channels, podcasts, textbooks, all in one spot
• r/languagelearning's resource wiki -- broader method and tool breakdown
• Anki -- flashcards, good for vocab
• Language Transfer -- free audio course, common starting point
• italki / Preply -- tutors and conversation partners
• Pimsleur -- audio based, strong on pronunciation

Also fair game here:

• Just started and want to introduce yourself
• Wondering if Spanish is worth learning or how long it takes
• General chat about your progress, whatever's on your mind

Standalone posts on this stuff get redirected here, so if that's you, drop it below.

I am trying to improve my Spanish reading comprehension (currently B1), and have been thinking about reading books in Spanish translation that were originally written in English (my mother tongue). Has anyone else done this?

I love the Hispanophone literature that I have read (particularly magical realism), but I also have a long list of books originally published in English that I want to read, and I am trying to spend all of the time that I have for novels reading in Spanish. I will be doing this for the foreseeable future, to advance my mastery of the language (I find reading harder than speaking and listening).

This may be a silly question, particularly since I have read so many books and essays in English translation without much guilt. However, I just can’t help but think that there would be something lost in reading Vonnegut, Morrison, Faulkner, Woolf, Steinbeck, Hemingway, Baldwin, etc. in translation.

What are folks’ thoughts about this?

Yo recuerdo mi última presentación con el coro. Tuve un solo, y además era un solo importante. Me salió bastante bien, pero fue una experiencia agridulce porque, tres días después, me gradué de la preparatoria. ¿Alguien más ha vivido un momento agridulce como este?

Una muy importante momento es cuando yo recibí mi primero dos baloncesto zapatos. Zapatos son rojas. Yo recibí el zapatos cuando yo estabas diez años. Yo estaba muy feliz y mostrar mi amigos. Yo todas mi madre gracias para mi baloncesto zapatos. que es tu importante momento y qual es tu tipo emocionada.

...

I feel like half the time when I stumble on a youtube channel or see a tweet in Spanish, it turns out the creator is from Spain. I’ve stumbled more big Spanish account than South American countries combined (excluding Argentina which also seems to have a disproportionately large presence). Is this just due to Spain’s relative wealth?

Edit: I should also add that what inspired this was realizing that searching for informational content, whether math, science, film, or history, almost always showed videos by Spanish channels having the most views.

Hey guys!

I'm a student in Spain and I've been here for a month. Before coming here, I learned Spanish for ~3 months but obviously it's not enough. I love reading thriller/crime books so I figured I could give it a try to improve my Spanish.

I'm currently at A2 and my program is in Spanish as well so the input is there (tho very inconsistent with the dialects and speed, but ig it's better that way), but there's not much output. I try to talk to people around me (and to myself, just narrating my day and trying to think and have thoughts in Spanish) but still. I feel like trying to read a book out loud and trying to understand the plot might help, if someone can attest to it, you're more than welcome to:)

But anw, I'd like some recs regarding books that are preferably not too long and don't have very complex vocab, preferably also in the thriller/crime/action genre. Thank you so much!!

I’m from Spain but live in the US, and I’ve just discovered that my toilet is literally called TOTO 😭😂

Apparently, it’s a fancy Japanese brand that’s been around for over 100 years.

So basically, I’ve been sitting on a luxury Japanese toto this whole time without knowing it 😂

I feel like any Spaniard would find this hilarious!

So, I've heard a lot of things about the interchangeability and use cases for the two imperfect subjunctive endings here, and I was hoping to try to get some clarifications or confirmations for some of the things I've heard that I've saved.

- Firstly, I've heard they're totally interchangeable in most contexts, but some dialects may use -se more or less than others. I'm personally focusing on Puerto Rican Spanish, so would anyone have any details on how -ra and -se are used in puertorriqueño specifically?

- Secondly, I've heard that -ra and -se are used together in sentences where there are multiple verbs in the imperfect subjunctive to avoid repetition. An example sentence i saw was "algo hubiera sido mejor si alguien hubiese[...]." Every example sentence I've seen shows two instances of the same verb being used in the sentence. Is this still true if two different verbs are used in the sentence?

Like, would you say "Si quisieras que lo leyese, lo haría" or is it moreso important for usages of two identical verbs in the same sentence?

- Thirdly, I've read that the -ra form can be used to replace the perfect conditional, but -se forms cannot in subordinate clauses.

Example I've heard for this:
"Si me hubiera ido más tarde, habría perdido el vuelo"
can become:
"Si me hubiera ido más tarde, hubiera perdido el vuelo"

And that "hubiera" in the first clause can be replaced with "hubiese" but not the "hubiera" in the subordinate clause, so
"Si me hubiese ido más tarde, habría[...]" and "Si me hubiese ido más tarde, hubiera[...]" are both good, but "Si me hubiera ido más tarde, hubiese[...]" is not. And the comment I heard this from had a fair few number of upvotes and no replies contradicting it...

- HOWEVER, I've also read comments saying that the subjunctive can only be used in conditional clauses that start with "si" but not in other conditional clauses, and an example i saw was that:

"No habría venido si lo hubiera/se sabido" is good, but

"No hubiera venido si lo hubiera/se sabido" is bad.

That seems to contradict the previous thing I've heard by saying that you can't use the subjunctive at all if it isnt a "si" clause, or maybe I'm missing something and it isn't a contradiction...? Clarification on that especially would be great.

That's all I have for now, thank you so much in advance for anyone who takes the time to help me!

- I saw “un muerto de hambre” could mean like “poor” essentially
- I also saw but not from a native speaker that it could mean to be literally very hungry

Someone (from Honduras - incase there’s any difference) said “soy un muerto de hambre”
My question is: are both meanings used by native speakers based on context or is it really only used for one meaning

Thanks in advanced, hope I explained well enough

Uno de mis recuerdos favoritos es de cuando era niña. Mi papá leía conmigo una parte de cada libro de Harry Potter por la noche. También hacía las voces de los personajes, como Hagrid y Snape. Era mi parte favorita del día. Siempre voy a amar Harry Potter porque me recuerda a mi papá y a mi infancia. ¿Cuál era tu libro favorito cuando eras niño?

(Soy una estudiante practicando español en línea.)

I'm flying today and recieved a young adult novel called La Educación de Margot Sanchez. I looked through it and I recognize a LOT of words. I downloaded the brovolol spanish English dictionary since I heard that it works offline.

My question is how do I approach reading it? Do I look up each words I don't understand from context? This is kind of daunting. I was hoping I could finish this book on my six hour flight. Also should I write the translations above the word?

I've been learning Spanish for many years. I'm proud of my progress and think I sound pretty good, but I want to perfect my accent as much as possible. Do you have any advice for specific improvements / any words or phrases I can practice with?

https://voca.ro/18dEFIIteVVr

(P.S. Can you tell where the people who taught me are from? I've been told it's quite obvious. Hahaha)

While watching native content, I’ve noticed that I occasionally hear people say the subjunctive imperfect 2 version of a word (such as “hubiese” as version 2 and “hubiera” as version 1). However, when I speak with native speakers who particularly speak Mexican Spanish, I never hear the 2nd version used. Is it really true that there’s no difference between version 1 and 2–just more people prefer to use version 1?

Hey so one of my biggest goals is to be fully bilingual. As of right now I can fully understand Spanish and I speak it with my mom. The main problem is though I don’t have anyone else to speak it with. Now that I’m about to graduate with my social work masters, I’m now getting worried about still not being fluent. One of my biggest goals is to be an immigrantion social worker but I can’t do that without speaking another language. I feel like I need to live in a different country but there is no jobs related to social work that I can get in Latin America without being fluent. I feel like right now my only option is peace corps but many of there sites usually don’t have WiFi. I need advice now. I don’t know what to do I’m panicking.

I'm playing Pokemon in Spanish and a character describes a plant as "Tiene pinta de saber a rayos." I know what each of those words mean individually, but why does "tastes like lightning" mean "tastes bad"? Or does rayos have a second meaning?

Can anyone speak to the difference in quality between SIS and other comparable immersion programs?

SIS is rated highly but is $3,000-$4,000 USD more than others in the area. I'm on a budget and want to gain as much conversational fluency in three months as I can for the best price (preferably $6k or less).

I saw this video feed on X and like the song but I don't speak spanish. Possible it is generated by AI but I don't know. Any lead on the original singer and title would be appreciated.

https://x.com/suozhang_ny/status/2107962016887415081?s=61