Explore languages.im
HOLA · HELLO

Say hola.
Then say
a lot more.

Say Buenos días, count from uno to veinte, meet the letter ñ and find the Spanish behind American place names. Every word here is copied from the Cambridge Dictionary’s English–Spanish pages or BBC Languages’ guide to Spanish, and linked so you can check it.

Start with hello Meet the ñ
Free to explore. No account needed. Learn at your own pace.
SCROLL TO EXPLORE FIRST WORDS, EVERY ONE SOURCED
✳ A LITTLE SPANISH FOR TODAY
HolaHello
WHY START HERE?

You already know
more than you think.

Spanish is español, and Spain is España. BBC Languages: Spanish is also known as Castilian, from its origins in the Castile region of Spain, and it is the official language of Spain. BBC Languages: A Guide to Spanish: 10 facts about the Spanish language (archived page) ↗

BBC Languages: it is also spoken across Central and South American countries that were once Spanish colonies, and more recently in the USA. BBC Languages: A Guide to Spanish: 10 facts about the Spanish language (archived page) ↗ BBC Languages: in Africa, Spanish is spoken in Equatorial Guinea, and in Asia there are still remnants of the language in the Philippines.

BBC Languages: because English and Spanish share many words of Latin origin, you will already be able to recognise more than 3,000 Spanish words. BBC Languages: A Guide to Spanish: 10 facts about the Spanish language (archived page) ↗

The Instituto Cervantes yearbook “El español en el mundo 2026” counts 640 million people with some command of Spanish. Instituto Cervantes press release, 24 October 2026: the yearbook «El español en el mundo 2026» ↗ More than 24 million people are learning Spanish, according to the Instituto Cervantes.

Read the story
13BEGINNER LESSONS
117WORDS & PHRASES
640 millionWITH SOME SPANISH, INSTITUTO CERVANTES 2026
24 million+LEARNING SPANISH, INSTITUTO CERVANTES 2026
LEARN

Your first words
in Spanish.

YOUR JOURNEY0 of 13 lessons
Progress stays on this device.

Short lessons with flip cards and a quick check of what you’ve learned. Each card links to the source it came from. We don’t write our own “sounds like” spellings: to hear Spanish, ask a Spanish speaker or teacher, or try the BBC’s archived Mi Vida Loca video course for beginners.

Loading the lessons… If they do not appear, reload this page or open BBC Languages’ guide to Spanish.

✦ New to Spanish? Start with hello and work your way along.
WORDS & PHRASES · PHRASEBOOK

Something to say.

Search the English or the Spanish, then tap a card to turn it over.

TÚ · USTED · POR FAVOR

Two ways to say you.

BBC Languages: there are different ways of saying “you”: tú for people you can be on first-name terms with, and usted in other cases. The plurals are vosotros and ustedes. BBC Languages: A Guide to Spanish: 10 facts about the Spanish language (archived page) ↗

CAMBRIDGE AND BBC

How are you?

How are you?
¿Cómo estás?
How are you?
¿Qué tal?

¿Cómo estás? uses tú. ¿Qué tal? is from BBC Languages’ alphabet guide.

CAMBRIDGE DICTIONARY

Please and thank you

Please
Por favor
Thank you
Gracias
No, thank you
No, gracias
A LITTLE PRACTICE

Ready to put your
Spanish to the test?

Twelve quick questions from all the lessons. No pressure, no scores shared.

NÚMEROS · 1 TO 20

Uno, dos,
tres…

Slide from 1 to 20 to see each number in Spanish, then try the quick game. Every number word is from the Cambridge Dictionary’s English–Spanish pages.

THE NUMBER MACHINE

Slide from 1 to 20

1
IN SPANISHuno

Each number links to its own entry in the sources, from Cambridge: one ↗ to Cambridge: twenty ↗.

QUICK GAME

Which number?

Here’s a number in Spanish. Which one is it?

…

0 of 0 right

EL ABECEDARIO · THE ALPHABET

Ñ, ¿ and ¡
and a few accents.

BBC Languages: the Spanish alphabet is called el abecedario, from the names of its first four letters, a b c d. BBC Languages: A Guide to Spanish: The Spanish alphabet (archived page) ↗ BBC Languages calls Spanish a phonetic language: the way it’s written is the way it’s pronounced.

BBC LANGUAGES

The letter ñ

BBC Languages: Ñ is a letter in its own right, separate from n. It started life when medieval scribes wrote a small n above a bigger one, and today it has its own key on Spanish keyboards.

Ñ has become a symbol of the language, because it appears in the name of the language itself, español. BBC Languages: A Guide to Spanish: The Spanish alphabet (archived page) ↗

BBC Languages: it’s probably the rolled r sound, as in ferrocarril (railway) and carretera (road), or dr as in cocodrilo (crocodile), that makes the language seem tricky at first. BBC Languages: A Guide to Spanish: 10 facts about the Spanish language (archived page) ↗

A BBC tongue twister: Como poco coco como, poco coco compro. (Since I don’t eat much coconut, I don’t buy many coconuts.) BBC Languages: A Guide to Spanish: 10 facts about the Spanish language (archived page) ↗

BBC Languages: in 2010 the Academy of the Spanish Language agreed that ch and LL would no longer be counted as separate letters. BBC Languages: A Guide to Spanish: The Spanish alphabet (archived page) ↗

THE STORY OF SPANISH

From the margins
to the world.

BBC Languages: Spanish is a Romance language, of Latin origin. Romance languages share a similar grammatical structure and often have similar vocabulary. BBC Languages: A Guide to Spanish: 10 facts about the Spanish language (archived page) ↗

If you learn Spanish, the BBC says, you’ll have a head start with other languages, including French, Portuguese, Italian and Romanian. BBC Languages: A Guide to Spanish: 10 facts about the Spanish language (archived page) ↗

THE ROMANCE LANGUAGES

Spanish and some of its cousins.

LATIN
ROMANCE LANGUAGES (SOME OF THEM)
SpanishFrenchPortugueseItalianRomanian
Introductory highlights only, each from the source linked with it.

“La diligencia es madre de la buenaventura”: diligence is the mother of good fortune. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547–1616).

BBC Languages: A Guide to Spanish: 10 facts about the Spanish language (archived page) ↗

It says the community with native command of Spanish is more than 520 million, still the third largest in the world after those for Mandarin Chinese and Hindi.

Instituto Cervantes press release, 24 October 2026: the yearbook «El español en el mundo 2026» ↗

BBC Languages: the differences between the Spanish spoken in Spain and Latin American Spanish mainly lie in pronunciation and intonation, and they won’t get in the way of communication.

BBC Languages: A Guide to Spanish: 10 facts about the Spanish language (archived page) ↗

More first words from languages.im:

PLACE NAMES

Spanish on the
American map.

BBC Languages: many familiar American place names date back to the times of the Conquistadors. BBC Languages: A Guide to Spanish: 10 facts about the Spanish language (archived page) ↗ Here are the 5 it gives, with the meanings it gives. Pick one to see it.

CHOOSE A PLACELos Ángelescity of angels

Every name and meaning comes from the BBC page linked with it.

Read BBC Languages’ 10 facts
PLACES

These are the meanings BBC Languages gives. We don’t add place-name meanings of our own.

CONTINUE THE JOURNEY

Learn from the
people who know.

spanish.languages.im is an independent introduction, not a replacement for teachers or the organisations below. Go to them for real voices and for anything beyond first words.

01 · FACTS

BBC Languages · 10 facts about Spanish

An archived BBC guide. We used it for the story, place names, tú and usted, and the tricky words.

Read the guide ↗ 02 · ALPHABET

BBC Languages · The Spanish alphabet

The ñ, accents, the upside-down marks and the two r sounds.

Open the alphabet guide ↗ 03 · LISTEN

BBC Languages · Mi Vida Loca

BBC Languages’ archived Mi Vida Loca is a video course for beginners in basic Spanish.

Open BBC Languages ↗ 04 · LOOK UP

Cambridge Dictionary · English–Spanish

From Cambridge University Press. We used it for the greetings, numbers, colours, days, months, animals and food.

Open the dictionary ↗ 05 · FIGURES

Instituto Cervantes · El español en el mundo 2026

The press release (in Spanish) for the 2026 yearbook, with the speaker and learner numbers.

Read the release ↗

Our promise: every Spanish word on this site is copied from a source linked beside it (checked 31 October 2026), and words we couldn’t source were left out. For pronunciation, please listen to real voices. We don’t offer our own audio or invented sound-alike spellings. See all sources.

PRINTABLES · SUPPORT

Take a little Spanish off the screen.

spanish.languages.im is free, with no adverts. Our Spanish printables (worksheets, puzzles and colouring in A4 and US Letter) help keep it going, and there’s a free sample to try first. Every Spanish word in them comes from the same sources as this site.

Visit the shop
Free sample

Free Spanish printables sample, 7 pages. Pick your paper size:

A4 275 KBUS Letter 275 KB
Support this site

Every language is a way of
seeing the world.

ADIÓS · GOODBYELearn your next word
LEARN SPANISH