Some 437 million people in the world speak Spanish as their first language, and about 567 million people name Spanish as their first or second language. It is the second most spoken language in the world. Approximately 21 million people are currently studying Spanish as a second language.

Spanish is the official language in 22 countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, México, Nicaragua, Panamá, Paraguay, Perú, Puerto Rico, Spain, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

Spanish (Español) is a Romance language that originated in the Castile region in Spain and it is also referred to as Castilian (Castellano).

We have compiled the most comprehensive list of high-quality FREE language resources to help you to learn SPANISH. Check them out below:

Free Resources to Learn Spanish

Free Learning/Studying Apps

Duolingo iTunesGoogle Play – Duolingo has become a leader in the language learning world and for good reason. It’s fast, fun, well designed, suitable for all ages, and turns learning a foreign language into a challenging and pretty addictive game.

MemriseiTunesGoogle Play – Memrise is a really fast, fun, and free language learning app/website that is sure to get you hooked. There is a visual flashcard component that also incorporates audio from a community of native speakers. Memrise uses spaced repetition and is really effective at drilling vocabulary and phrases into your memory.

Drops – Learn SpanishiTunesGoogle Play – This simple but powerful app is entertaining, educational, and free. With a focus on visual learning and 5-minute lesson limits, this app is easy to integrate into your daily language learning regimen and is very effective.

Clozemaster iTunes Google Play – This popular app uses gamification and is a great addition to your language learning regimen, no matter what your level. It is very effective for vocabulary acquisition and billed as a great app to use after Duolingo.

Phrasebook iTunesGoogle Play – A handy little app to have on hand when traveling to Spanish-speaking countries, which helps you to easily access basic phrases and vocabulary.

Learn Spanish by 50 Languages iTunes – Google Play – This app is great for beginners (A1-A2) to increase practical vocabulary which is useful for managing everyday situations (at a store, restaurant, bank, doctor, etc). With the free version, you will have access to 30 complete lessons.

LingvistiTunes – Google Play – A free Spanish language learning app that is helpful to use in conjunction with Duolingo.

Learn Spanish Phrasebook iTunesGoogle Play – This useful app will help you learn French words and sentences with recordings made by native speakers. The free version has 200+ practical phrases.

HelloTalkiTunes Google Play – HelloTalk is a global language learning social network that connects you with native speakers of other languages so that you can practice your speaking and listening skills with native speakers via text/audio messages and free audio and video calls. The free version allows you to choose one native language and one target language.

Internet Polyglot – iTunes – Google Play – This free app uses lessons, games, and pictures to teach foreign languages to beginners. Although Internet Polyglot is far from a standalone language learning tool, it is a useful supplement to help you to learn and retain vocabulary.

Tandem Language ExchangeiTunesGoogle Play – This app matches you with language exchange partners from all over the world, providing the opportunity to practice those essential conversation skills that are necessary to take your language skills to the next level.

Learn Spanish Words With LokasiTunes – This app teaches Spanish vocabulary and verb conjugations using spaced repetition and focusing on high-frequency words.

Free Spanish Dictionary/Translation Apps

Spanish English Dictionary & Translator iTunesGoogle Play – This free app works offline and provides detailed definitions, example sentences, and pronunciation guidance for Spanish & English words, as well as flashcards for learning.

SpanishDict – iTunesGoogle Play – This popular free Spanish translation website/app features in excess of 1,000,000 words and phrases.

Dictionary Linguee iTunesGoogle Play – This fast and free Spanish translation app works offline, is accurate and trusted by millions of people.

Dict CC iTunesGoogle Play – Dict.CC is a bidirectional dictionary offering 51 language combinations. The app can be used offline and vocabulary lists can be downloaded.

Spanish Dictionary & Translator By Ascendo iTunesGoogle Play – This free Italian dictionary & translator app works offline, offers a sentence translator, phrasebook, verb conjugator, vocabulary quizzes, and flashcards.

Google Translate iTunesGoogle Play – Google Translate offers online text translation between 103 languages by typing, offline translation for 59 languages, camera translation for 38 languages, image translation for 37 languages, conversation translation in 32 languages, and translation of handwritten characters in 93 languages. The app also has a phrasebook that allows you to save translated words and phrases for future reference in all languages.

Word Reference iTunesGoogle Play – The Word Reference app allows you access to the world’s most popular and powerful dictionary translation website, including forum discussions.

iTranslateiTunesGoogle Play – iTranslate is a leading free translator and dictionary app that provides translations for text in over 100 languages. Other functionality includes transliteration, sharing, favorites, history, and audio in both male and female voices. Voice to voice translations and the use of offline mode is not available with the free version.

The Free Dictionary By Farlex iTunesGoogle Play – This dictionary and thesaurus app provides millions of precise definitions, drawn from the most trusted industry publications and sources, including idioms, slang, and etymology of words. The Free Dictionary works offline and offers additional functionality like voice search, sharing, games, word of the day, and more.

Reverso Dictionary iTunesGoogle Play – This app serves as a dictionary and translator for millions of words and expressions, accompanied by contextual examples. Other features include a powerful linguistic search engine, natural pronunciation, phrasebook, flashcards, and more.

BBC Talk SpanishThis BBC language series is a wonderful and practical introduction to Spanish. It is aimed at beginners and focuses on really useful vocabulary and phrases. Learn how to introduce yourself, order food, and have everyday conversations with ease.

Mi Vida Loca – Practically a classic, Mi Vida Loca is an intrigue/mystery/adventure series by the BBC which is geared towards teaching Spanish to beginners. It is an interactive video drama and Spanish course that packs a ton of learning into each of its 22 episodes. At 10 minutes each, they cover basic vocabulary and grammar and include a complementary learning section with activities.

Spanish Sessions – These free video lessons are taught by Pilar González Manjavacas, co-founder of Tilde Madrid. The lessons are in Spanish but are subtitled so that it is easy to follow along.

VideoEle – This course is organized into four levels (level A1, level A2, level B1, and level B2) which makes it easy to jump to the video that best matches your current level of competency. The related activities (episode transcripts, work booklets, and answer booklets) can be found here.

  1. VideoEle Level A1
  2. VideoEle Level A2
  3. VideoEle Level B1
  4. VideoEle Level B2

Professor Jason Spanish – With millions of views and fantastic reviews, Professor Jason’s high-quality video lessons have been lauded for providing a very clear, structured and successful approach to learning Spanish. His free Spanish video lessons are organized by level (beginner, intermediate, and advanced) and by topic (grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation).

  1. Spanish – Beginner Level
  2. Spanish – Intermediate Level
  3. Spanish – Advanced Level

Master Spanish – Beginning Spanish Lessons – This set of 40 free Spanish video lessons offers a very basic start for beginners.

Learn Spanish with SpanishPod101.com – This is a fun and helpful set of videos to add to your regular Spanish language learning regimen.

Edupedia World – The Edupedia World YouTube channel offers a very comprehensive set of free Spanish language video lessons.

  1. Basic Spanish – 41 Video Lessons
  2. Intermediate Spanish – 55 Video Lessons

Destinos: An Introduction to Spanish – This TV program was created in the early nineties by university professor Bill VanPatten as a way to teach Spanish to beginners. This Spanish educational program has 52 episodes over 2 seasons and follows the fictional story of lawyer Raquel Rodríguez who travels the world in an attempt to solve a mystery for a dying man.

Nuevos Destinos – Nuevos Destinos is a series produced in the late nineties as a follow up to Destinos: An Introduction to Spanish. The story picks up six years later as lawyer Raquel Rodriguez sets off on a journey to solve a new family mystery. This Spanish educational series features 15 episodes that are each 15 minutes long which are geared towards intermediate level learners.

Travel Linguist Spanish 101 Video Lessons – This series of 20 short videos covers basic introductory vocabulary.

Easy Spanish – These YouTube videos are the work of a non-profit project which uses lighthearted street interviews as a method to teach languages. Each video has a topic and the host asks questions to native Spanish speakers on the street based on the theme. Each video contains subtitles in both Spanish and English.

LangMedia – LangMedia provides language learning resources, including videos, audio, study guides, etc. LangMedia is run by the Five College Center for the Study of World Languages and their mission is to share examples of linguistic and cultural diversity with language learners. In the “Language by Country” section of the LangMedia website they provide videos which focus on practical aspects of everyday life (For Ex: Basic Communication, Shopping, Transportation, Culture and Social Life). The conversations often include colloquial language and all videos are accompanied by translations and transcripts. LangMedia highlights Spanish in Argentina, Ecuador, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Spain in this section.

Learn Spanish for Beginners by Mawuood Academy – This YouTube channel offers 113 concise Spanish lessons for beginners.

Why Not Spanish – On this YouTube channel, your teacher Maria focuses on helping her co-star Cody become a confident Spanish speaker. Viewers learn alongside Cody in a fun and engaging way. Spanish videos are subtitled in English.

Butterfly Spanish – Your teacher Ana provides helpful Spanish lessons, focusing on grammar and vocabulary.

Extra En Espanol – This fictional series is perfect for Spanish language learners as it uses simple language and features entertaining dialogue.

Dreaming Spanish – This YouTube channel focuses on teaching real Spanish as it’s used in context, thereby helping students to acquire Spanish grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation skills in an intuitive and natural way. There is a huge variety of videos to keep you busy, but Beginner Dreaming Spanish and Intermediate Dreaming Spanish are a great place to start.

Practiquemos by Catalina Moreno EscobarYouTube – This channel features a relatively small number of good Spanish videos focusing on Spanish grammar and vocabulary.

The Spanish Dude – Jordan teaches Spanish on this YouTube channel in a way that is fun and effective. Drawing on his personal experience and his own Spanish learning journey,  he brings a fresh perspective to teaching.

Senor JordanYouTube – This popular high school Spanish Teacher has done an incredible job of creating hundreds of fun and educational Spanish video lessons, which have become quite a hit on YouTube.

Aprender Idiomas y Cultura General con Rodrigo Video Course – This course on YouTube is very substantial, with 17 videos that are each about 2 hours in length. Lesson notes and quizzes for this complete Spanish language course are also available.

Hablamos Today – This daily slow Spanish podcast is entirely free and features a new news story every day. Listeners can improve their Spanish listening comprehension skills by subscribing to this podcast which delivers regular news stories at a slow pace and with clear annunciation, making it easy to understand and highly beneficial for Spanish language learners.

Learn Spanish in Your Car by Henry N. Raymond – This free Spotify podcast runs about 9 hours in total and provides comprehensive grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation instruction while covering all of the fundamentals of Spanish.

  1. Learn Spanish in Your Car Level 1 on Spotify
  2. Learn Spanish in Your Car Level 2 on Spotify
  3. Learn Spanish in Your Car Level 3 on Spotify

Learn Spanish on Spotify – Whether at home or in your car, it makes sense to fill idle time with language learning. This is a nice, comprehensive and free playlist of Spanish lessons put together by Spotify.

Vocabulearn Spanish This free program on Spotify is divided into three parts, each of which is approximately three hours long and teaches more than 2500 vocabulary words and useful phrases.

  1. Vocabulearn Spanish Level 1 on Spotify
  2. Vocabulearn Spanish Level 2 on Spotify
  3. Vocabulearn Spanish Level 3 on Spotify

Vocabulearn Spanish Word Boosters Spotify – This program aims to supercharge your vocabulary by teaching you 500 of the most essential Spanish words and phrases.

Rhythmic Spanish by The Third Ear – These audio lessons teach key Spanish vocabulary and phrases in a way that they say is “guaranteed to stick”.

  1. Rhythmic Spanish Volume 1 on Spotify – 230 Core Words and Phrases.
  2. Rhythmic Spanish Volume 2 on Spotify – 350 Core Words and Phrases.

Learn Spanish Fast by Language Superstar Spotify – This podcast on Spotify has many hours of Spanish language instruction spread over 9 lessons.

Spanish Audio Course for Beginners – This free audio course on Spotify offers 154 lessons spread over 3 volumes which teach basic vocabulary for beginners.

  1. Spanish for Beginners Volume 1 on Spotify – 44 Spanish vocabulary lessons.
  2. Spanish for Beginners Volume 2 on Spotify – 56 Spanish vocabulary lessons.
  3. Spanish for Beginners Volume 3 on Spotify – 54 Spanish vocabulary lessons.

Learn Spanish by Complete Language Lessons – Spotify – 10 free Spanish lessons on Spotify.

Learn Spanish Survival GuideiTunes – Straightforward, focused and above all, very useful, David Spencer’s podcast will be really helpful in preparing you for a trip to a Spanish speaking country and will provide a language survival guide, as the title suggests.

One Minute SpanishiTunes – Yep, that’s right, each lesson includes just over a minute of language instruction, so it’s a breeze to fit this into your busy schedule! In this podcast, you will learn Spanish with Mark and Victor who will teach you the basics to prepare you for an upcoming trip to Spain. Although you won’t become fluent with the One Minute Spanish program, it is the perfect way to boost your confidence and to help you make a good impression when speaking Spanish on your trip.

Learn Spanish with SpanishPod101.com iTunes – This is a fun and informative podcast to add to your regular Spanish language learning regimen. Every lesson is free for a period of time; each new audio and video lesson (3-5 lessons are published per week) is free to access for 3 weeks before being locked into their library, which can be accessed only with paid membership.

One Minute Latin American Spanish iTunes – Listen to this free podcast, produced by the Radio Lingua Network, to learn Spanish as it is spoken in most parts of Latin America. In this podcast, Mark and Carolina will teach you valuable basics so you can feel comfortable and confident speaking with locals when visiting a Spanish-speaking country in Latin America. At just over a minute per lesson, it is easy to fit this free language learning program into a busy schedule, and it covers the basics, focusing on the pronunciation used in most parts of Latin America.

Coffee Break SpanishiTunes – Coffee Break Spanish lessons will be a really convenient and low-stress addition to your free Spanish learning regimen. Created by the Radio Lingua Network, these language lessons can be used by absolute beginners and increase in difficulty as you progress through the program. Mark and Kara teach in both an entertaining and encouraging way.

Show Time SpanishiTunes – Show Time Spanish is the perfect follow-up course to Coffee Break Spanish, which will help you put your Spanish to use in real situations. Also created by the Radio Lingua Network, Show Time Spanish is at once professional and creative and will teach you Spanish in the same relaxed way as their other programs, all the while building upon the skills you have already acquired. Get ready to become more expressive, begin to master Spanish grammar, and experience increased confidence in your conversations with native speakers.

Insta Spanish LessonsiTunes – Insta Spanish lessons, a free interactive podcast by Stacey Tipton Reiman, is a great course that features listening comprehension exercises and grammar lessons suited for students at any level in their Spanish language studies. It is a very high-quality podcast both in its level of instruction and its production value. With great sound and a nice pace, this innovative podcast provides a fun and entertaining way to learn Spanish.

Learn Spanish with La Casa RojasiTunes – Luis Rojas created these podcasts for the Intermediate and Advanced Spanish Speaker who would like to sharpen their Spanish skills. Using a myriad of topics like music, history, culture, literature, and food, the Spanish language is presented and taught in context.

Learn to Speak Spanish with Discover SpanishiTunes – This language course podcast is designed for beginners wanting to learn Spanish in a fast, fun and easy way. It is well suited for both adults and kids. The pace allows you to repeat after your teachers, Johnny and Kristina, and the course only asks for a 15 minutes a day commitment to see good results.

Spanish Obsessed – Spanish Obsessed is a popular language learning podcast taught by a Spanish speaking couple. Rob is a language instructor from London and Liz comes from Colombia. The program is thoughtfully put together and features more natural sounding Spanish conversation than typical classroom Spanish. The series is broken down into 4 courses: Spanish from Scratch, Beginner Spanish, Intermediate Spanish and Advanced Spanish. The podcasts are free, as are the first 5 notes and transcripts from each series, the first 5 exercises from each series and the first 5 vocabulary sets from each series. To access the complete transcriptions, vocabulary, and exercises a site membership is required.

  1. Spanish from Scratch
  2. Beginners Spanish
  3. Intermediate Spanish
  4. Advanced Spanish

Finally Learn Spanish – Beyond the Basics – “Finally Learn Spanish” is a free Spanish language learning podcast designed for those of you who have completed a course and who have a bit of knowledge under your belt but don’t have the skills to make conversation with ease. The podcast will help you to more quickly and accurately understand spoken Spanish and of course, help you to practice speaking Spanish. In this course, you will hear dialogue by experienced teachers and native Spanish speakers from Mexico, which will teach new vocabulary in context, and is formatted to help you quickly progress in your Spanish language learning journey.

Notes in Spanish – The Notes in Spanish podcast is designed to teach you “real Spanish” using natural conversations as opposed to textbook Spanish. The course is divided into four levels: Inspired Beginners, Intermediate, Advanced, and Gold. The series is taught by a couple living in Madrid, Ben and Marina, and with over 31 million worldwide downloads, they have quite a following.

Spanish SurvivalPhrases iTunes – These fun and innovative audio lessons teach basic Spanish and are accompanied by PDF guides.

Learn Spanish Words Spotify – Learn 1000 vocabulary words and 80 useful phrases from native speakers over the course of 23 lessons using this free Spotify Course.

Complete Spanish Course by Language Transfer YouTube – This free beginner Spanish audio class uses an unconventional approach called language transfer, which they refer to as “the thinking method“. Rather than focusing heavily on grammar, vocabulary, and memorization, this course teaches the structure of the Spanish in an exploratory, interactive and conscious way.

Spanish 101 Audio Course by HACC iTunes – This beginner Spanish podcast includes 30 episodes and is taught by Judy Dibert at HACC (Harrisburg Area Community College). The courses cover the fundamental elements of learning Spanish, such as grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation.

News in Slow Spanish – These free audio lessons teach listening comprehension, build vocabulary skills, cover Spanish grammar and improve pronunciation. The course covers the weekly news in a simplified way and uses it as a teaching tool.

  1. News in Slow Spanish Spoken in SpainiTunesGoogle Play
  2. News in Slow Spanish Spoken in Latin AmericaiTunesGoogle Play

Dialogues for Spanish Learners: Beginners LeveliTunes – This audio course was created by the University of South Wales. The dialogues were designed to help you practice your Spanish language skills and primarily present Spanish in a work-related context.

Spanish with KeilansAppleGoogleSpotifySound Cloud – Keila from Argentina hosts this Spanish language podcast. She talks about all sorts of topics relating to regular life, all in slow Spanish, and she offers transcripts, too.

Quick Vocab Spanish Vocabulary Builder on Spotify – These audio lessons will teach you the most common Spanish vocabulary words and each word is pronounced by a native speaker.

  1. Spanish Vocabulary Builder – Common Vocab 1 on Spotify
  2. Spanish Vocabulary Builder – Common Vocab 2 on Spotify
  3. Spanish Vocabulary Builder – Common Vocab Business on Spotify
  4. Spanish Vocabulary Builder – Common Verbs on Spotify
  5. Spanish Vocabulary Builder – Common Vocab Food and Restaurant on Spotify
  6. Spanish Vocabulary Builder – Common Vocab Animals on Spotify
  7. Spanish Vocabulary Builder – Common Vocab Household on Spotify
  8. Spanish Vocabulary Builder – Common Vocab Music on Spotify

Colloquial Spanish: The Complete Course for Beginners Book 1 and 2 – This collection of audio files, each a few minutes in length, provides concise and clear Spanish language instruction for beginners. These free audio lessons were made to accompany the Colloquial Spanish: The Complete Course for Beginners textbooks (Book 1 and Book 2), which are aimed at teaching Spanish to beginners in a practical way to prepare them to effectively communicate with confidence in everyday situations.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Open Courseware – MIT offers a ton of free classes, several of which are in Spanish. Spanish I – IV and Spanish Conversation and Composition I and II are a great place to start. If you already have a strong foundation in Spanish, you can move on to several other courses in the Spanish language.

  1. MIT Spanish I – This MIT undergraduate university level course was taught in 2003 at MIT. It covers the basics of the Spanish language (vocabulary and grammar), provides an introduction to Spanish culture and is taught in Spanish.
  2. MIT Spanish II – This MIT course is an undergraduate university level course that was taught in 2004 at MIT. It should be taken following Spanish I and will explore more Spanish vocabulary and grammar, Spanish culture and is also taught in Spanish.
  3. MIT Spanish III – This MIT course is an undergraduate university level course that was taught in 2006 at MIT. It should be taken following Spanish II, will focus on grammar review, additional vocabulary, writing of essays in Spanish and enhancement of cultural awareness and is also taught in Spanish.
  4. MIT Spanish IV – This MIT course is an undergraduate university level course that was taught in 2005 at MIT. It should be taken following Spanish III and is also taught in Spanish. It will focus on improving communication skills (both oral and written) with an emphasis on literature and the culture of Spain, Latin America and Hispanic communities in the United States.
  5. MIT Spanish Conversation and Composition – This MIT course is an intermediate undergraduate university level course designed to improve speaking and writing. The language of instruction is Spanish.
  6. MIT Advanced Spanish Conversation and Composition – This MIT course is an intermediate undergraduate university level course designed to improve oral and written communication by studying and discussing topics related to the social and cultural impact of science and technology in certain Hispanic societies. It should be taken following Spanish Conversation and Composition and is also taught in Spanish.

Spanish 1, 2 and 3 courses from the University of Arkansas – These three highly regarded, self-paced courses by David Nance at the University of Arkansas focus almost entirely on Spanish grammar. To enhance the courses, you can access David Nance’s free Spanish textbook here.

  1. Spanish 1 from the University of Arkansas
  2. Spanish 2 from the University of Arkansas
  3. Spanish 3 from the University of Arkansas

5 Minute Spanish from the University of Arkansas – This self-paced video course offers a clear and concise introduction to beginner Spanish grammar. To enhance the course, you can access David Nance’s free Spanish textbook here.

Spanish MOOC – These three basic Spanish courses are college level, self-paced moocs that include interaction with real teachers, fellow students and language coaches. The courses are also interactive, using Instreamia technology to periodically test your comprehension.

  1. Spanish Starter Course 
  2. Spanish Basics 1 Course
  3. Spanish Basics 2 Course

Foreign Service Institute (FSI) Spanish Basic Course – The Foreign Service Institute (U.S. Department of State) originally created this and many other language learning courses to train government employees and members of the foreign service in preparation for a post abroad. This course was designed to train participants to speak Spanish effortlessly with native speakers, while exuding confidence and using an accurate accent. Using the Latin American dialect, it focuses heavily on pronunciation and preparing students for real life conversations. 60 units are encompassed over the four volumes and include textbooks in PDF format and audio lessons as MP3s.

  1. FSI Spanish Basic Course Volume 1
  2. FSI Spanish Basic Course Volume 2
  3. FSI Spanish Basic Course Volume 3
  4. FSI Spanish Basic Course Volume 4

Foreign Service Institute (FSI) Spanish Programmatic Course – The FSI Spanish Programmatic Course differs from FSI Spanish Basic Course in that it is less intensive and relies on a certain amount of on paper preparation before each session. 35 units are encompassed over two volumes and include textbooks in PDF format and and audio lessons as MP3s.

  1. FSI Spanish Programmatic Course Volume 1
  2. FSI Spanish Programmatic Course Volume 2

Foreign Service Institute (FSI) Spanish Headstart for Puerto Rico – This course is divided into four modules, each of which includes self evaluation quizzes. The course is also accompanied by a student text and glossary in PDF format.

Foreign Service Institute (FSI) Spanish Headstart for Spain – This course is divided into four modules. The course is also accompanied by a student text, cultural notes and administration manual in PDF format.

Foreign Service Institute (FSI) Spanish Headstart for Latin America – This course is divided into 15 sections. The course is also accompanied by a student text in PDF format.

Defense Language Institute (DLI) Spanish Language Basic Course – The DLI Spanish Language Basic Course is an intensive program that was created with the adult learner in mind. It is accompanied by 6 e-textbooks with a combined total of 911 pages, and 39 audio files with a combined running time of 17 hours and 23 minutes. This Spanish course is part of the language learning program developed by the U.S. Department of Defense as a means of training employees for foreign assignments. As a result, a good portion of the material focuses on military related content, however on the whole there is a lot of value for all.

Defense Language Institute (DLI) Spanish Language Modular Basic Course – This Spanish modular course is a self-study/self-evaluation course intended to be taken in conjunction with the Basic Course, and which is designed to improve listening comprehension and facilitate vocabulary practice. It is accompanied by 27 e-textbooks with a combined total of 4721 pages, and 148 audio files with a combined running time of 47 hours and 50 minutes. This Spanish course is part of the language learning program developed by the U.S. Department of Defense as a means of training employees for foreign assignments. As a result, a good portion of the material focuses on military related content, however on the whole there is a lot of value for all.

Defense Language Institute (DLI) Spanish SOLT Language Course: Textbook – The DLI SOLT Language course teaches Latin-American Spanish basics and is designed to improve conversational Spanish skills. It is accompanied by 6 e-textbooks with a combined total of 1580 pages, and 76 audio files with a combined running time of 32 minutes. This Spanish course is part of the language learning program developed by the U.S. Department of Defense as a means of training employees for foreign assignments. As a result, a good portion of the material focuses on military related content, however on the whole there is a lot of value for all.

Defense Language Institute (DLI) Spanish SOLT Language Course: Workbook – The DLI SOLT Spanish workbook should be used with alongside the SOLT Spanish textbooks. It should be used with the guidance of a Spanish teacher since there are no answers provided. It is accompanied by 1 e-textbook with a total of 136 pages, and 182 audio files with a combined running time of 1 hour and 7 minutes. This Spanish course is part of the language learning program developed by the U.S. Department of Defense as a means of training employees for foreign assignments. As a result, a good portion of the material focuses on military related content, however on the whole there is a lot of value for all.

OpenLearn Spanish – The Open University is a UK based, online university providing free educational resources. It offers six free Spanish courses.

  1. Beginners’ Spanish: food and drink – This free beginner Spanish course centers around the basic vocabulary and phrases needed when ordering food at a restaurant and drinks at a bar.
  2. Spanish: espacios públicos – This free course aims to improve your Spanish while informing you about Hispanic societies and cultures with an emphasis on public places and navigating in Spanish speaking cities.
  3. Ciudades con historia – This free Spanish course teaches about the importance of Arab and Jewish cultures in Spanish history as well as the history of Spain in general.
  4. Spanish: Con mis propias manos – This free course centers around the subject of art in the Spanish speaking world. You can expect to learn very practical Spanish language skills while learning about culture and society.
  5. Spanish: Perspectivas porteñas – This free course focuses on listening comprehension skills by way of analyzing a documentary about artists in Buenos Aires.
  6. La canción protesta – This free course uses the study of the “protest song” musical genre, which was influential in Hispanic society, to teach practical Spanish language skills.

3 Minute Spanish: Free Taster Course on Udemy – The 3 Minute Language series gets students speaking from the beginning by providing a solid foundation in the language so they can easily start to communicate their thoughts. Includes 17 Spanish lectures and 1 hour of video.

Learn Spanish Effortlessly Course on Udemy – This beginner Spanish course takes a light-hearted approach to learning Spanish. Includes 21 Spanish lectures and 1.5 hours of video.

A-Z Guide to Mastering Spanish Pronunciation Course for Beginners on Udemy  – This beginner Spanish class will help you master correct enunciation and eliminate your accent so you sound like a native Spanish speaker. Includes 30 Spanish lectures and 1 hour of video.

Past Tense Spanish Verbs Mastery Course on Udemy – This beginner Spanish course centers around the mastery of past tense verb conjugations and the usage of the Spanish preterite and imperfect verb tenses. Includes 12 Spanish lectures and 2.5 hours of video.

Improve your Spanish Listening Comprehension Course on Udemy – This intermediate level Spanish course focuses on teaching students how to improve their understanding of spoken Spanish. Outside of the classroom, “real world” spoken Spanish can be fast and full of colloquialisms and abbreviations, making it difficult for learners to decipher, and this course tackles that learning obstacle. Includes 17 Spanish lectures and 28 minutes of video.

Speak Spanish from Scratch: Foundation Speaking Course on Udemy – This course provides foundational knowledge of the Spanish language and its grammar to beginners. This beginner level course features 40 lectures and 1.5 hours of video.

Fastbreak Spanish: Save Time and Memory Course on Udemy – This course does not require any prior knowledge of Spanish. It covers 5 main areas: Spanish pronunciation, basic grammar, Spanish irregular verbs, basic sentences and useful phrases and basic dialog with drills. Includes 20 Spanish lectures and 3.5 hours of video.

Elon.io Spanish Mini Course – This comprehensive language course employs spaced repetition as a learning tool and consists of 63 lessons. Students can also learn from the extensive vocabulary lists provided as well as create their own word lists.

BBC Languages: Spanish – The BBC Spanish Language website is a treasure trove of wonderful resources and information. It is high-quality, comprehensive and provides a lot of intelligently presented and produced materials. All BBC language learning pages were “archived” a few years back due to cost-cutting measures, which means they are no longer adding new information or updating the pages. However, you should have no problem accessing the existing information.

123 Teach Me – This language learning website offers hundreds of free resources including lessons, games, videos, activities, and quizzes that will help you learn Spanish.

Spanish Learning Objects by the University of Cambridge Spanish Learning Objects are independent resources that can be incorporated into a course or simply used for self-study. These particular Spanish objects are intended to improve academic reading skills.

Medical Spanish for Healthcare Providers – This site provides medical Spanish immersion and features related medical vocabulary and conversation instruction complete with translation and audio. If you are in the medical profession, this site is an amazing resource not only to improve your knowledge of Spanish medical terms but also to improve your overall fluency.

VeinteMundos – This free online Spanish language magazine and podcast aims to improve your Spanish while teaching you about life and culture in the Spanish speaking countries of the world. They publish a new, informative article every other week, which helps to improve your vocabulary, grammar, comprehension, and listening skills. This holistic approach provides audio versions of the articles so that you can listen while you read, which helps you to learn the correct pronunciation.

Audiria – With over 800 podcasts and free corresponding transcripts, Audiria is a powerful resource. It is a nonprofit website dedicated to providing free Spanish learning resources. Their podcasts are organized by difficulty level and they offer exercises to accompany the podcasts.

LanguageGuide.org – Explore the world of Spanish by learning an abundance of vocabulary in a sound integrated, animated guide. After learning the vocabulary you can take part in games to test your comprehension.

Lingolia – This website has a number of useful exercises and provides helpful explanations about grammar.

Babadum – A free language learning website that features fun flashcard games to help you brush up on your vocabulary.

Learn101 – This website features free beginner lessons to guide you through learning Spanish, step by step, starting with the Alphabet, moving on to grammar, vocabulary, and phrases, and finally offering simple quizzes to test your progress. These lessons are a basic introduction to the language and have images, text, and audio.

OnlineFreeSpanish – Activities, games, printouts and more make this a great Spanish learning tool, particularly for children.

Ielanguages.com – This website offers free basic language learning text and audio instruction.

StudySpanish.com – Launched in 1998, this website is a pioneer in educational websites and language learning online. Millions of students and teachers make use of their extensive Spanish learning materials.

Conjuguemos – Conjuguemos is a go-to site for over 14,000 schools that has helped millions of people learn their verb conjugations in Spanish. Created by Alejandro Yegros, a high school Spanish teacher from the USA, it is described as a self-grading, self-timed conjugating and vocabulary-building program for learners of all ages that offers over 300,000 activities created by language teachers from around the globe.

Shortcut to Spanish – Marcus Santamaria offers free Spanish Lessons that share his proprietary method for learning Spanish. He teaches how to instantly remember 1,066 Spanish Words and emphasizes the 100 most common words that make up over 50% of all written Spanish.

Spanish Proficiency Exercises – The Spanish Proficiency Exercises consist of an extensive set of videos and podcasts created by The University of Texas at Austin Spanish department. The videos and podcasts, featuring native speakers, are divided into the following levels Beginning, Intermediate-A, Intermediate-B, Advanced-A, Advanced-B, and Superior. All videos and podcasts are accompanied by transcripts, vocabulary/phrases lists, brief explanations of the grammar used and complete transcripts.

Spanish Grammar Exercises – This website is another great, free Spanish learning resource originally created by the University of Texas for its students, but made available for all to use. You will find exercises and drills to help you to learn Spanish.

Spanish Grammar in Context – Brought to you by the University of Texas at Austin, the goal of this innovative website is to help people learn and practice real-world Spanish grammar. Detailed explanations accompany grammar lessons and videos showing Spanish as it is spoken in Texas are used as examples.

Actividades de Práctica con Aprendices del Español – This website is a University of Texas at Austin Spanish learning resource featuring Spanish language videos and exercises.

Cultural Interviews with Spanish-Speaking Professionals by UT Austin – In addition to touching on various cultural issues and business topics, these interviews with Spanish executives provide a variety of examples of natural spoken Spanish, which is helpful to language learners. This free educational resource is brought to you by the University of Texas at Austin.

Ilanguages – This site is designed to teach Spanish with free vocabulary, phrases, grammar, and flashcards while focusing on highly used words and phrases necessary for everyday living.

Polly Lingual – This website offers some fun games, exercises and beginner level instruction with lessons that include text and audio.

CoolJugator – CoolJugator is a verb conjugator website that makes conjugation easy and straightforward.

Spanish Stories by BookBox – Cartoons have always been a wonderful asset to language learning, particularity for children. These animated children’s stories are great because the viewer can read along with the narration, which is shown on-screen as “Same Language Subtitles (SLS).” Each word is highlighted in time with the audio, which helps with comprehension and retention.

Omniglot – This site specializes in providing information about languages and their alphabets and writing systems.

First Spanish Words by Oxford University Press – The Oxford First Words book series is a language learning tool for children. This First Words book features over 400 words in Spanish and the interactive online interface allows you to click on the pictures to hear the audio in Spanish along with the English translations. Though this book is intended for children, the fact is that it is a very effective tool for adults to build vocabulary as well.

Digital Dialects – This website makes learning vocabulary fun with interactive games.

Hello World – Hello World has created hundreds of free language learning games and activities that cater to the way children learn best. The goal is to teach languages using cognitive immersion and to keep the process fun in order to increase learning potential. Approximately 1,300 vocabulary words are introduced over 70 different categories.

Goethe Verlag – This website offers 100 Spanish lessons for beginners, each with words, phrases and corresponding audio files.

Loecsen – Loecson offers a free mini-course consisting of fun lessons that provide a basic introduction to Spanish with the help of text, audio, simple illustrations, and quizzes to test your progress. You will learn high-frequency vocabulary words and commonly used phrases relating to 17 themes which are relevant to everyday life.

Verbix – Online Spanish verb conjugator.

The Spanish Experiment – With select children’s stories and beginner Spanish lessons with text and audio, this website has a nice amount of introductory information available.

Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center Spanish Tutorials – These Language Survival Kit Modules for Spanish contains basic vocabulary with audio. Both the audio files and the PDF text can be downloaded.

  1. Mexican Spanish Language Survival Kit Module
  2. Venezuelan Spanish Language Survival Kit Module
  3. Colombian Spanish Language Survival Kit Module

Spanish Grammar – This website offers an immense number of lessons (with a huge focus on grammar), video and audio clips, exercises and more to help you along with your Spanish language studies.

Quiz Tree – This website offers educational games and simple quizzes to test your Spanish language skills. In addition to the general Spanish quizzes, you will find tests for Regular Verbs and Irregular Verbs.

NativLang Spanish Lessons – This site features a handy Spanish pronunciation guide.

I Love Languages Spanish Lessons – This site provides 17 beginner Spanish lessons designed to help you improve your speaking, reading, and writing skills. Supplementary resources include vocabulary, grammar tips, and phrases.

Sounds of Speech by The University of Iowa – This website is dedicated to helping students to learn how the sounds of Spanish are formed using animations, videos, and audio samples to explain each consonant and vowel.

Learn Basic Spanish Skills Program by the Goodwill Community Foundation – GCF is a nonprofit organization that has created a wealth of free resources for adult learners and students including these introductory Spanish lessons.

Spanish Academy – On this Spanish language learning blog, you will find some Spanish grammar and spelling resources that cover ranging from basic to more advanced Spanish topics.

Italki – A community of over 2 million language learners that facilitates free language practice with native speakers. You simply exchange time teaching your native language for time learning a foreign language, making it mutually beneficial and free.

MyLanguageExchange.com – This online language learning community connects you with other learners so that you can practice speaking in your second language with a native speaker and vice-versa.

Lang-8 – This free network is a nice tool to support your language learning. Native speakers are available to make corrections to your text and provide feedback. In return, you provide help to others.

HiNative iTunesGoogle Play – HiNative is an app brought to you by the creators of Lang-8 that allows you to ask questions to native speakers from around the world using your smartphone. HiNative was created to be used alongside Lang-8 and is different from Lang-8 in that it focuses on a Q&A type of learning while Lang-8 is a journal writing experience.

RhinoSpike – RhinoSpike is an interesting website that connects language learners from all over the world allowing them to exchange audio files to help improve pronunciation skills. It allows you to submit text that you would like to hear read aloud by a native speaker, and in turn, you receive the audio file. In exchange, and to speed up the process you can, in turn, provide audio files in your native language for other learners.

Univision Entretenimiento – Univision is an American TV network featuring extensive Spanish language programming including soap operas, sports, news, comedy shows and more.

El Pais – This is the most popular newspaper in Spain and it also features an English edition.

Telemundo Youtube – After Univision, Telemundo is the second largest American TV network providing Spanish language programming, including news, sports, films, reality shows and more.

Spanish Language TED Talks – TED is a nonprofit organization with the mission of spreading ideas. Most Ted talks are less than 18 minutes, but all are informative, powerful and thought-provoking.

EuroNews – EuroNews is a news broadcasting and media company that features news from a European perspective and offers the news in 12 different languages online.

United Nations – Live and On Demand news and media from the United Nations.

CNN – Read CNN articles in Spanish.

Deutsche Welle – German broadcasting company DW provides news in Spanish.

Google News – Read the world news in Spanish with Google News.

VOA News – Voice of America is an American broadcasting company that creates radio and television news in Spanish.

SBS Radio Spanish Program iTunes – SBS is an Australian broadcasting company that targets non-native English speakers and creates programming in many languages. This podcast allows you to listen to interviews, features and community stories from the SBS Radio Spanish program, including Australian and world news.

RT en Español – Russia Today offers news in Spanish on YouTube.

Royal Spanish Academy – This online dictionary of the official Spanish language dictionary governed by the Real Academia Española (RAE).

WordReference – There is no need for a Spanish-English dictionary if you have WordReference. Featuring good translations of words and solid definitions, this site also has helpful forums where Spanish speakers from around the world contribute to explaining subtle nuances or more obscure words.

Forvo – This crowd-sourced site is a great tool to help with pronunciation as it allows you to listen to words and phrases spoken by native speakers.

Dict.cc – A go-to Spanish dictionary and translation website which also offers crowd-sourced recordings by native speakers.

LearnWithOliver – In addition to a dictionary, this site offers games and flashcards to support your Spanish Language learning.

Bab.La – This “language portal” boasts 44 dictionaries for 28 languages, as well as a wealth of other language learning resources, such as helpful articles, games and quizzes, verb conjugations and phrase books.

Tatoeba – Tatoeba is a large, crowdsourced database of sentences and translations. This free resource allows you to search for a word and get results showing that word in sentences with translations.

Talkify – This free, multilingual website is a very interesting and valuable resource that allows you to listen to text in foreign languages. Simply insert a URL into the search field on Talkify and it will automatically detect the language and read the text of that website aloud in a natural sounding voice.

Spanish For Technical Jobs Course – This Spanish language course teaches basic vocabulary, grammar and communication skills. It does not have audio or visual aids but consists of an e-textbook. This language learning material was developed by the United States Peace Corps to train their volunteers prior to sending them around the world on their missions. More courses can be found here

Glossary of Environmental Terms – Spanish to English – This dictionary was developed to alleviate communication barriers for Peace Corps volunteers carrying out their work in Spanish speaking countries. This e-textbook contains 4,300 terms in two glossaries (English-Spanish and Spanish-English).

Espanol 1 – This Spanish textbook by David Nance of the University of Arkansas is a wonderful resource for beginners which provides a great foundation in the Spanish language, covering valuable vocabulary, important phrases, and grammar.

Learn Spanish the Fast and Fun Way – Barron’s Fast and Fun Way series of language learning books is designed for beginners and great for travelers. This book includes helpful illustrations, quizzes, puzzles, and exercises.

501 Spanish Verbs – This Spanish grammar textbook by Christopher Kendris and Theodore Kendris teaches readers how to use the 501 most common and useful Spanish verbs in all 15 tenses and moods.

Transparent Language – Free online language level testing is offered by this language learning software company.

Bridge Online Language Test

Goethe Verlag – Free tests in 25 languages and 600 language combinations. You will find 200 Spanish vocabulary tests and 20 Spanish crossword puzzles.

Syvum – Free Spanish translation games, quizzes, printables, activities and more.

Cervantes

123TeachMe

Speak7 – In addition to proficiency tests, this site features a variety of Spanish learning resources.

Cactus Language – This UK based language study abroad organization offers free online language level testing.

Language Trainers – This language training company offers free online language level testing.

Sprachcaffe – One of Europe’s leading language school organizations, Sprachcaffe offers free online language level testing.

What Are Your Favorite Free Spanish Language Learning Resources?

We have done a lot of research to bring you the best, free resources that the internet has to offer and we want to make sure our list is always comprehensive. Please share your favorites in the comments below!

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6 COMMENTS

  1. You really make it seem so easy with your presentation but I find this topic to be really something which I think I would never understand. It seems too complicated and extremely broad for me. I’m looking forward for your next post, I’ll try to get the hang of it!

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