Here are my most highly recommended resources for learning the Spanish language.
I frequently refer to them in many of the articles I write on this site either because I know they’re fantastic or they’ve been crucial to my own learning.
From time to time I use affiliate links for paid products on this site which means I get a small commission for referrals. It doesn’t affect the price of anything but doing so has helped me continue to maintain and improve this site over the last 15+ years as a helpful resource for language learners.
This is one of my favorite online courses which has some of the highest quality Spanish dialogue material available.
Rocket Spanish doesn’t follow a ‘cookie cutter’ approach like other well-known programs such as Rosetta Stone or Pimsleur, and it has a tonne of excellent audio content for all levels ranging from beginner to advanced.
An extremely well-made and very unique Spanish course aimed at teaching Spanish through a unique “story method” (StoryLearning).
If you’re looking for a full Spanish curriculum that leads you all the way through to fluency, and are facing difficulties getting your head around how Spanish works, this resource definitely help you.
This is an excellent Spanish course in the form of audio podcasts and downloadable lessons.
As well as podcast-style lessons, you’ll find videos, a vocabulary database and dictionary, grammar explanations and various other useful features.
Use code MEZZOGUILD for 25% off any of their course options.
Hotel Borbollón is a really unique and highly popular course for Spanish that offers ‘personalized’ lessons which adapt to your needs and skill level.
You receive corrections and exciting new content sent to you daily. Highly recommend this one.
This is another very unique product that improves your fluency through a highly repetitive ‘listen and repeat’ approach.
It is, in my opinion, one of the the most useful resources I’ve seen for training Spanish listening comprehension (read my Glossika review). Definitely not a conventional course but you’ll be amazed at how effective it is at improving your Spanish fluency if you use it daily.
Another very unique Spanish course that breaks from the ‘grammar rules first’ mold and instead gets you learning whole chunks and collocations.
This course is all about learning Spanish patterns over rules. Definitely one of the more practical Spanish courses online.
Pimsleur is a household name and one of the most famous Spanish courses ever made.
It’s a research-backed, proven method that is audio-only and gets you speaking quickly through spaced-repetition of situational phrases.
One of my personal favorites.
Read my Pimsleur review.
Not too long ago it was really difficult or impossible to practice Spanish without actually traveling to Spain or Latin America.
Thankfully, tools like italki have made it possible to connect with native speakers from all over the world to practice or to take personalized lessons over Skype (read my italki review).
The great news is, Spanish lessons over Skype through italki are incredibly cheap compared to most teachers in person (many are as low as $6-8 an hour depending on what language you’re learning!). All the frustration of payments and scheduling is handled brilliantly by italki too which makes it very easy and stress free to arrange sessions.
Lingoda’s an excellent alternative to italki if you’re learning Spanish and want more “structured” lesson control and feedback.
You have the option of choosing one-on-one lessons or small classes, and each lesson is topic-based and highly practical.
It’s very inexpensive too (monthly recurring subscription).
LingoPie is an outstanding library of high quality, interactive TV shows in 6 major European languages, including Spanish.
If you enjoy learning from your favorite sitcoms and other genres, this is your best option.
This is an excellent site for using video to learn Spanish where you can control the speed of playback and select words from the subtitles for definitions.
Yabla has recently had some major improvements and new video content added making it well worth a try (read my Yabla review).
This is a fantastic tool for learning Spanish using subtitled video (I reviewed FluentU here ).
It has many of the same features as Yabla but a wider array of video content to choose from.
Memrise: This is an outstanding online vocabulary training tool that lets you select Spanish ‘courses’ to study (or create one yourself). Many of the courses also include audio.
AnkiSRS: A highly versatile flashcard app.
Forvo: If there’s ever a Spanish word or expression that you’ve seen written but don’t know how to pronounce, you can search for it here (or request it) and hear a native speaker pronounce it for you.
Duolingo Spanish: Duolingo is a fun, free and effective way to study Spanish grammar.
Shaum’s Outline Of Spanish Grammar: By far, my favorite series when it comes to grammar study. The Shaum’s Outlines are comprehensive and detailed but very easy to read, comes with free audio and has handy perforated pages. It’s also inexpensive.
Spanish Short Stories For Beginners: Part of a series of unconventional short stories for beginners and put together by my friend, Olly Richards. It’s a great literary resource for improving your Spanish (now in two beginner volumes + intermediate).
