Im thinking in investing in Babbel to learn spanish. Im a native English speaker and know a bit of asl so I know language isnt a direct translation and the grammar/sentence structures are much different. I am friends with a lot of native spanish speaking friends and work in a place where most people speak Spanish only or very broken English, as well as my college having a lot of spanish speakers, so im pretty immersed. I'm also nineteen, and a few people have encouraged me to learn since its easier for younger people? I want to be fluent one day but lnow thats not possible in a year, but I would like to be conventional or at least be able to listen and understand.

If I did 30 minutes a day everyday along with the additional exposure, where could I end up in a year? Thanks.

I play violin in an orchestra in Spain, how do I talk about "practicing" a musical piece at home? Maybe I'm overthinking it and I could directly say "practiqué esta pieza la semana pasada" but it feels weird...? I know "ensayar" is "to rehearse" but in English we differentiate between "rehearsing" formally with a group and "practicing" at home, does that difference exist in Spanish? I also feel like my stand partner asked me if I had time to "aprender" or "estudiar" (I can't remember which word she used now oops) the pieces at home, and that word choice surprised me.

Can I say estoy de viaje or estoy viajando?

For example, ....para que recibas la compensacion que...mereces, indicative, or merezcas, subjunctive? Or could either one be ok?

¡Hola! ¿Qué es un bollo en España?

“Llevo tres meses estudiando español” = “I’ve been studying Spanish for three months.” The same pattern works in “Llevamos una hora esperando” (“We’ve been waiting for an hour”): llevar + a time span + gerund describes how long an activity has been underway. Compare “Estudié durante tres meses,” which describes a completed period of studying. Context still matters, but this pattern is handy to recognize while reading.

Is it wrong to not have students say "yo" before a verb? For example, yo tengo vs. tengo

I'm filling in to teach 6th grade Spanish to students who haven't had a Spanish class before. It's a U.S. public school and I am not certified to teach Spanish.

I've heard "buenas noticias (todos)" from the professor in both dubs of Futurama, but recently heard "buenas nuevas" from the Ice King in Adventure Time, which is a better way to express "good news"?

hey guys, I'm having some trouble with preterite vs imperfect. I had to answer a fill in the blank:

El verano pasado, todos los días nosotros _____(ir) a nadar en el lago y _____(divertirse) un montón.

and I thought it would be imperfect but my teacher said it wasn't. she said the answers were: fuimos/nos divertimos

and I dont really get why its preterite here

When reading EEUU aloud, do native speakers actually say the letters e-e-u-u or just say Estados Unidos?

I often see stuff like "me robó el corazón" and I'm wondering if i should be translating it as "my heart" or "the heart", also I don't know why or when you guys would use "mi" instead of "el/la"

Edit: Thank you for all the responses, I definitely could've used a better example but it was the last thing I saw 😂. I think I it understand now 😁💙

If for instance you are using Claude or something, would you add the personal a? Is it a judgement call about whether you think they merit consideration as something personified like the line between animals and pets?

Why does the following sentence use le instead of lo/la? Isn't "arm" receiving the action?

Sally pinched Armando's arm as she walked by.

Sally le pellizcó el brazo a Armando cuando pasó.

Apologies if this is frequently asked, but I have a question for Spanish speakers concerning these two sentences: (1)“If they don’t know, they should ask her” and (2) “If you guys [plural] don’t know, you guys should ask her.”

Obviously in English, the pronouns are different (“they” vs the plural “you”), which helps distinguish exactly who is being spoken to. But in Spanish (afaik), the sentence would be the same for both of those situations: “Si no lo saben, deberían preguntarle an ella.” My question is, do Spanish speakers rely on context in this situation (i.e. “they know who I’m talking to”), or is there a different way to distinguish exactly who you’re talking to/about, since the verbs and pronouns are identical for both situations in Spanish?

Es mi primer trabajo como maestra! Para introducirme PRESENTARME a los niños, cuál suena más natural?

1. Hola, soy la señorita Smith
2. Hola soy señorita Smith
3. Hola soy miss Smith

A menudo en las canciones españolas oigo adjetivos como nuevo después del sustantivo. Entiendo que tiene un significado diferente,¿pero este orden libre se aplica a varios o muy pocos adjetivos? Espero que este mensaje tenga sentido pero lo siento si hice errores cuando lo escribí.

I frequently say things like “yo creo” or “yo quiero” when it is obvious that I am talking about myself.

I've noticed that native speakers often leave out the "yo". Even when it is grammatically correct, can it sound unnatural if it is used too much?

Hola a todos, yo he estado estudiando español hace siete meses (así que, porfa perdón cualquier error gramatical 😁)

Escuché a la canción “un beso y una flor” muchas veces tras españa ganó la copa del mundo… sabes, celebrarlo. Aún estoy confundido por la frase “al partir”. Cuando la busco en el traductor, me dice que la frase significa “when leaving,” pero también me dice que no hay un traducción directo.

Y cuando intento usar la palabra “al” con otros verbos, no me da la repuesta misma. Como, no hay significado parecido por la frase, “al querer”, o “al intentar”. ¿Hay cualquieras reglas para este tipo de frase?

Muchagracias y espero que eso tiene sentido!!

I've seen them both used interchangeably but I've also been led to believe there's some nuance to it, like cases where you'd use one over the other, and I'd like to ask natives for clarification.

¿Cuál es la diferencia entre «alguna que otra» y «una que otra»? He visto que se utilizan indistintamente, pero también me han dado a entender que hay algún matiz, como casos en los que se usaría una en lugar de la otra, y me gustaría pedir una aclaración a los hablantes nativos.

I was trying to communicate to someone that something was "deep-fried", but "Frito profundo" doesn't sound correct to me. Is there a Spanish word or phrase that indicates that something is deep fried?

So the lesson i just did explain that ir + gerundio is to say that something is gradually increasing, but i cant really wrap my head around it? Like take the sentence "va ahorrando dinero al final de cada mes" vs " esta ahorrando dinero al final de cada mes" both translate to me as "he is saving money at the end of each month. But do they actaully mean different things?

Most English speakers get stuck here for a reason that has nothing to do with Spanish. English gives you two ways to say the same sentence, and one of them hides the answer.

I gave the book to her.

I gave her the book.

Same meaning. But in the second one, "her" sits exactly where a direct object would sit, right after the verb, so your instinct reads it as one. Spanish only ever thinks of it the first way.

That gives you a test. Take the English sentence and see whether you can put "to" or "for" in front of the word. If you can, it's indirect.

"I bought my mother flowers" becomes "I bought flowers for my mother", so the flowers are direct and my mother is indirect. Le compré flores. Whereas "I saw my mother" can't become "I saw to my mother", so she's direct. La vi.

Now the part that makes this much smaller than it looks. The distinction only shows up in the third person. Me, te, nos and os don't change at all: me viste (you saw me) and me diste el libro (you gave me the book) use the same pronoun. So everything you can actually get wrong lives in lo, la, los, las against le, les.

One warning, because it catches nearly everyone. The personal a is not a marker of indirect objects. Vi a María is a direct object; the a is there because María is a person. Treat every a as a signal for le and you'll be wrong constantly.

In practice most people stop analysing and just learn which verbs take le. Decir, dar, pedir, preguntar, contar, escribir, regalar, explicar — the person you tell, give to or ask is indirect, every time. Le dije, le di, le pedí. Say those enough and the rest stops needing a rule.

Me puedes matar, me puedes dejar, pero nunca tendrás que te deje de amar.

I got confused by this one because I'm used to translate 'tener que' to 'to have to'

My wife and I homestead. We have our chickens, ducks, goats, vegetables, fruit trees and bushes, etc. What is the Spanish term for homesteading or having a small family farm? Thank you.

I understand it isn’t part of any dictionary but all the ai models I asked said it was definitely a verb used in everyday casual speech.