Learning Spanish can be difficult and intimidating. However, in a society that is becoming increasingly multicultural, being bilingual can be one of the most rewarding tools that your child can have in his or her arsenal. From being able to interact with a more diverse set of friends to having a skill that sets them apart on job applications, knowing Spanish should be a priority for today’s young people.
When teaching kids Spanish, it is essential to immerse them in Spanish-speaking situations from a young age to help them attain basic conversational skills. Mixed in with this passive absorption of the language, you can perform countless drills and activities to help them master proper grammar.
Fortunately, learning Spanish for kids tends to be much easier than for adults. Just as their bodies are growing at an accelerated pace, so too are their minds developing and digesting information like crazy. Therefore, by following the helpful hints outlined in this article, there is every reason to believe that your child will be a fluent Spanish speaker by the time he or she reaches adulthood!
Immerse Your Child in Spanish at a Young Age
One of the reasons that learning Spanish is difficult for adults is that we inherently make it more complicated than necessary. At the end of the day, language is all about communication, and children are more likely to be adept at using all of the tools at their disposal to communicate than adults.
Children are willing to use any combination of hand gestures, body language, sounds, slang, and gibberish to get their point across—which is an excellent thing when learning a language and something that adults do not like to do.
Therefore, by immersing your child in Spanish-speaking situations, they will be able to employ these basic skills to communicate in the language, which will open up a whole world of possibilities in terms of language development.
As adults, we often think of immersion in a foreign language in terms of packing our bags and going to live in a foreign country. Luckily, we do not need to send our children abroad to immerse them in a language at a young age. Immersion is simply the concept of needing to use Spanish as a primary means of thinking, interpreting, and communicating. Some creative ways to immerse your children in Spanish include the following:
Have Them Play with Spanish-Speaking Children
Without the ability to play and pretend using their English vocabulary, children’s Spanish skills will be sharpened at warp speed when using Spanish to get their point across. Even after a simple play date, you will be surprised at the new Spanish phrases that your children come home with.
Watch Popular Shows in Spanish
Many popular children’s cartoons, such as SpongeBob and Peppa Pig, have Spanish episodes on YouTube.
As children are more attracted to the animation and characters, they will not be as thrown off as adults by the strange words and phrases (after all, there are likely plenty of words and phrases in the English versions that are still foreign to them) and will likely view the Spanish version as having other names for their favorite characters and not Spanish names for the characters.
Listen to Spanish Songs
When listening to music, most of us are not actively trying to learn the lyrics. However, after listening to our favorite tune dozens of times, we realize that we know every word of the song.
Popular and catchy Spanish sing-alongs, such as “Agua” by Jarabe de Palo, “Qué Será de Ti” by Roberto Carlos, and “Yo Te Amo” by Chayanne are all likely to be favorite tunes of your kids regardless of whether they know any Spanish, allowing them to passively absorb dozens of new words and phrases in the process.
Make Spanish a Daily Priority
The popular saying, “If you don’t use it, you lose it,” definitely applies to learning a new language.
By being immersed in English from a young age, children are forced to learn how to communicate. As such, you must make Spanish a daily priority for your kids. If they have to use and practice their skills daily, children will build quite an impressive Spanish lexicon over time and be able to employ it in their communication naturally.
Eat Out at Authentic Mexican Restaurants
This is a classic way to immerse your children in Spanish easily. If you have a bilingual server, request that he or she serve your table strictly in Spanish. This is a fun way to develop applicable Spanish-speaking skills in your children, and the servers are often very impressed that you are learning about their language and culture!
Encourage Children to Make Mistakes in Spanish
Learning Spanish for adults is often a struggle because we have completely unrealistic expectations. We start out not knowing anything, yet after three months of study, we want to be able to speak Spanish as well as we do English.
When we do not attain this goal and are thrust into a situation in which we could easily use our Spanish, we freeze up at the prospect of making a mistake or getting tongue-tied in a situation in which we cannot think of the perfect word. As a way out, we revert back to English as a crutch and miss out on a golden opportunity to hone our Spanish speaking.
No matter what language you are speaking, mistakes are going to happen. No one is a master of any language. In fact, we make mistakes all the time when speaking our native language but are so comfortable with our ability to communicate that we do not get hung up on our imperfections. You should strive to get your children to this place in their Spanish-speaking journey.
As mentioned, children generally have a leg up on adults in this regard, as they are more attuned to using multiple channels to express themselves. However, if you notice your child starting to develop some perfectionist tendencies and avoiding using their Spanish skills as a result, it is vital that you take some actions to remind him or her that mistakes are perfectly okay. Some great ways to foster this approach include:
Have Your Child Tell a Story in Spanish
Even if they have an extremely limited vocabulary and cannot put together sentences, give them a chance to entertain you in Spanish. Even if what they say is littered with mistakes and makes no sense, just smile, and do not correct them. This gives them the confidence that what they are doing in Spanish is actually working
Have Your Child “Show Off”
Kids love to impress adults. Go into a class of first graders, and there are 20 little hands in the air begging to answer the question—even if they do not know the right answer.
Similarly, when you are visiting relatives, encourage your child to show off their Spanish skills. “Tell Grandma how to say ‘dog’ in Spanish” or “Tell your uncle ‘goodbye’ in Spanish and see if it confuses him” are great ways to get kids to test out their Spanish skills and form meaningful associations with the vocabulary. If they make a mistake, gently correct them and have them try again.
Set the Example Yourself
Children love to play games. When they see you engaging in fun activities, they will quickly follow suit. Even if you do not know much Spanish yourself, try to mix in situations where you speak Spanish in your day-to-day life. Even if the conversation is riddled with mistakes, your children will likely jump in and try to put their skills to good use.
A Structured Approach to Spanish Grammar for Kids
Spanish immersion and encouraging mistakes are the two most vital factors in teaching your kids Spanish. Again, being able to converse in the language is the goal everyone wants to reach, and there is no way to make this a reality if your child is never in Spanish-speaking situations or is too afraid to try.
However, using the old “drop a kid in the pool and watch them learn how to swim” approach is not the best method, either. There needs to be some structure in the teaching process for the child to become competent in all forms of Spanish discourse: speaking, listening, reading, and writing.
Fortunately, this should be the easy part for most English speakers. When learning our native language, we learn how to communicate first and then develop literacy and grammar as we move through the education system. On the other hand, when we learn Spanish, we typically learn “rules” before we ever develop a sense of how to express ourselves.
Nonetheless, these grammar and literacy rules are important and essential to any holistic Spanish education program. Additionally, Spanish is a diverse language, with large populations of Spanish speakers throughout Europe, South America, Central America, the Caribbean, and North America, so learning the basic rules of the language can better help your child identify and differentiate any regional dialects they encounter throughout their Spanish journey.
Start with Pronunciation
Just like in English, learning Spanish starts with your ABCs. The good news is, the Spanish alphabet should look familiar to English-speaking students:
| Letter | Letter Name | Sound | Letter | Letter Name | Sound |
| a | a | ah | n | ene | eh-nay |
| b | be | bay | ñ | eñe | en-yay |
| c | ce | say | o | o | o |
| ch | che | chay | p | pe | pay |
| d | de | day | q | cu | koo |
| e | e | eh | r | ere | er-ay |
| f | efe | effay | rr | erre | ar-ray |
| g | ge | hay | s | ese | es-say |
| h | hache | ach-ay | t | te | tay |
| i | i | ee | u | u | ooh |
| j | jota | hota | v | ve | vay |
| k | ka | ka | w | doble u | do-blay ooh |
| l | ele | el-lay | x | equis | ay-kees |
| ll | elle | eh-yay | y | i griega | e-gree-ay-ga |
| m | eme | eh-may | z | zeta | say-ta |
The nice aspect of the Spanish letters is that they all have one sound and never change their sounds from situation to situation. This is especially important for vowels. There are no long vowels or short vowels, like in English. An “i” in Spanish will always make the “ee” sound, regardless of what other vowels it is paired with or what consonant it follows.
It is also important to remember that every letter in Spanish is pronounced. There are no “silent” vowels like there are in English. For example, the name “Sadie” would be pronounced “Say-dee” in English, with the “i” and “e” at the end of the name combining to form one sound. However, the same “Sadie” would be pronounced “Sah-dee-ay” in Spanish, with both the “i” and “e” at the end of the name having distinct pronunciations.
The following are some other important notes about how the Spanish alphabet compares to the English alphabet:
- Do not get confused by the special Spanish letters (ch, ll, ñ, and rr). They are mostly added to the alphabet due to the frequency that they appear in the language.
- The “ll” will always be pronounced like an English “y” (tortilla).
- The “ñ” will sound like an English “n” and “y” right next to each other (piñata).
- The “rr” is when the speaker should emphasize rolling their tongue on the top of their mouth for a more intense “r” sound (¡Arriba!).
- The vowels are extremely important in Spanish.
- The “a” will always be pronounced like a short English “o” (ah).
- The “e” will always be pronounced like a short English “e” (eh).
- The “i” will always be pronounced like a long English “e” (ee).
- The “o” will always be pronounced like a shortened version of the long English “o” (oh).
- The “u” will always be pronounced like two English “o’s” together (ooh).
- The consonants are generally pronounced the same in both English and Spanish. Exceptions are the “h,” which is always silent in Spanish; the “j,” which sounds like an English “h;” the “q,” which sounds more like an English “k;” and the “z,” which is not as harsh and sounds more like an English “s.”
While many other comments can be made about the Spanish alphabet, these general points should allow your child to pronounce most Spanish words adequately.
A fun activity to work on Spanish pronunciation is to take two words that look the same and mean the same in both languages (known as cognates) and notice the difference in how the words are pronounced. Some examples include capital, auto, and chocolate.
Learn the High-Frequency Phrases
After your child understands Spanish pronunciation, it is time to put these skills to use by forming simple phrases. Some people may think: “Wait, how do we jump from learning our letters to learning phrases without learning words in between?”
The simple explanation for this is that Spanish and English do not translate back-and-forth word-for-word. In fact, one of the major hang-ups to people ever achieving Spanish fluency is that they spend too much time trying to make this word-for-word translation and speak in a manner that is not very natural and makes little sense to native Spanish speakers.
For example, one of the most common things we ask a new person as a conversation starter (What is your name?) is translated into Spanish as “¿Cómo te llamas?” However, “¿Cómo te llamas?” does not translate literally to “What is your name?” The actual translation is, “How do you call yourself?”
This translation seems awkward to English speakers, and the literal translation of “What is your name?” (Qué es tu nombre?) is equally confusing to Spanish speakers.
Therefore, it is good for kids to practice using high-frequency phrases and commit them to memory before worrying about their word-for-word translation. While there are too many of these idiosyncratic translations to ever list, some of the most common that a child will need to know at the beginning of his or her Spanish journey include:
| English Phrase | Spanish Phrase | Actual Translation |
| What is your name? | ¿Cómo te llamas? | How do you call yourself? |
| My name is __________. | Me llamo __________. | I call myself ______. |
| How old are you? | ¿Cuántos años tienes? | How many years do you have? |
| I am _________ years old. | Tengo ______ años. | I have ______ years. |
| I am hungry. | Tengo hambre. | I have hunger. |
| I am thirsty. | Tengo sed. | I have thirst. |
| Where is the bathroom? | ¿Dónde está el baño? | Where is the location of the bathroom? |
| Pleased to meet you. | Mucho gusto. | Much pleasure. |
| Where are you from? | ¿De dónde eres? | From where are you? |
| I am from _____. | Soy de _____. | I am from _____. |
Although this is just a brief list, learning high-frequency phrases such as these can give your child a correct understanding of how to converse naturally without getting bogged down in translation.
Build Vocabulary
After your child understands how to pronounce Spanish words and has a working knowledge of some basic Spanish phrases, it is time to build that vocabulary to make their communication skills more robust.
Although there are many different approaches to building vocabulary in a new language, most of them will use situational grouping. This helps children form associations that can allow them to communicate in many specific settings. Some common situational groupings and vocabulary used in each are:
- School – maestro/a (teacher), pupitre (student dusk), escritorio (teacher desk), silla (chair), mochila (backpack), libro (book), lápiz (pencil), bolígrafo (pen)
- Household – sala (living room), baño (bathroom), cocina (kitchen), cocinar (to cook), comer (to eat), mesa (table), fregadero (sink), cuchillo (knife), tenedor (fork), cuchara (spoon)
- Family – padre (father), madre (mother), hermano/a (brother/sister), tío/a (uncle/aunt), abuelo/a (grandpa/grandma), familia (family), mascota (pet)
- Time and Seasons – lunes, martes, miércoles, jueves, viernes, sábado, domingo (Monday through Sunday), primavera (spring), verano (summer), otoño (autumn), invierno (winter), ¿Qué hore es? (What time is it?), Son las _____ (It is _____)
These are just a few of the groupings of Spanish vocabulary and represent just a handful of the vocabulary words used in each. Spanish flashcards are a great way to drill this vocabulary. If you have older children adept with devices, Tinycards and Duolingo are great resources that clump an extensive array of vocabulary together.
One final note about Spanish vocabulary is that all Spanish nouns are either masculine or feminine in gender and are combined with an accompanying article. Generally, any noun that ends in an “o” is masculine. For example, el maestro (the male teacher), el regalo (the gift), and el verano (the summer). Nouns that end in “a” are typically feminine, such as la maestra (the female teacher), la sala (the living room), and la primavera (the spring).
There are some exceptions to this rule and some nouns that must be committed to memory, such as those that end in a consonant, but for the most part, looking for the “o” or “a” at the end of the noun can give beginners an understanding of the noun’s gender and which article to use with it.
Verb Conjugation
As in most languages, things start getting a bit complicated when it comes to verbs. While root verbs themselves are easy enough to commit to memory, conjugating them into the correct form is the real challenge.
In the case of Spanish, there are 14 different tenses in which a verb can be conjugated. Within each tense, there is a specific conjugation for each of the six subject pronouns. This means that there are 84 different forms of each verb that one must know to speak Spanish correctly!
While this seems a bit overwhelming, take heart: many of the tenses are used infrequently, and conjugation within each tense follows a specific pattern based on the verb’s ending. Therefore, if you know this pattern and the tense you are trying to conjugate, it is possible to correctly conjugate any verb without memorizing notable exceptions.
All Spanish verbs will end in either “-ar,” “-er,” or “-ir.” Some of the most common verbs in each ending are:
- -ar: cocinar (to cook), caminar (to walk), hablar (to talk), manejar (to drive), nadar (to swim)
- -er: comer (to eat), beber (to drink), correr (to run), leer (to read), romper (to break)
- -ir: abrir (to open), recibir (to receive), vivir (to live), sufrir (to suffer), escribir (to write)
As mentioned, there are 14 different tenses in which to conjugate these verbs. However, the most common, and the one that all Spanish learners must first master, is the present indicative tense. When conjugating regular “-ar” verbs in the present indicative, you will drop the “-ar” from the root and use the following formula:
| Subject Pronoun | Verb Ending | Verb | Conjugation | Meaning |
| Yo (I) | -o | Cocinar (to cook) | cocino | I cook. |
| Tú (Familiar you) | -as | Cocinar (to cook) | cocinas | You cook. |
| Ella/él/usted (she/he/formal you) | -a | Cocinar (to cook) | cocina | She/he/you cook. |
| Nosotros/as (We) | -amos | Cocinar (to cook) | cocinamos | We cook. |
| Vosotros/as (You all in Spain) | -ais | Cocinar (to cook) | cocináis | You all cook. |
| Ellos/ellas/ustedes (they/they/you all) | -an | Cocinar (to cook) | cocinan | They/you all cook. |
It is important to note that this same formula is used to conjugate any regular “-ar” verb in the present indicative tense.
A similar concept is used for conjugating regular “-er” verbs:
| Subject Pronoun | Verb Ending | Verb | Conjugation | Meaning |
| Yo (I) | -o | Comer (to eat) | como | I eat. |
| Tú (Familiar you) | -es | Comer (to eat) | comes | You eat. |
| Ella/él/usted (she/he/formal you) | -e | Comer (to eat) | come | She/he/you eat. |
| Nosotros/as (We) | -emos | Comer (to eat) | comemos | We eat. |
| Vosotros/as (You all in Spain) | éis | Comer (to eat) | coméis | You all eat. |
| Ellos/ellas/ustedes (they/they/you all) | -en | Comer (to eat) | comen | They/you all eat. |
Like with “-ar” verbs, this same formula is used to conjugate any regular “-er” verb in the present indicative.
Finally, the “-ir” verbs are incredibly similar to the “-er” verbs, with the only differences in conjugation in the “nosotros/as” and “vosotros/as” subject pronouns:
| Subject Pronoun | Verb Ending | Verb | Conjugation | Meaning |
| Yo (I) | -o | Escribir (to write) | escribo | I write. |
| Tú (Familiar you) | -es | Escribir (to write) | escribes | You write. |
| Ella/él/usted (she/he/formal you) | -e | Escribir (to write) | escribe | She/he/you write. |
| Nosotros/as (We) | -imos | Escribir (to write) | escribimos | We write. |
| Vosotros/as (You all in Spain) | -ís | Escribir (to write) | escribís | You all write. |
| Ellos/ellas/ustedes (they/they/you all) | -en | Escribir (to write) | escriben | They/you all write. |
Although there are many different tenses of verbs and some verbs that have irregular conjugations, by mastering the present indicative rules for each verb ending, children can communicate well enough that Spanish speakers will have a general sense of what they are trying to say.
Final Thoughts
Learning Spanish can be a lifelong undertaking, with Spanish speakers themselves still learning the language’s subtle nuances.
Nonetheless, there is no better time than childhood to start a language journey. Not only are young brains more capable of absorbing information, but they naturally lack some of the inhibitions that prevent adults from becoming conversational in the language.
By immersing the child in Spanish-speaking situations from a young age and making him or her comfortable with their imperfections as Spanish speakers, adults can effectively combine activities to improve pronunciation, memorize high-frequency phrases, build vocabulary, and conjugate verbs to give cultivate the gift of the Spanish language in the child.