I’m often asked for suggestions of good places online where people can learn and practice Spanish for free. In fact, I’ve been asked enough times to make me develop this short “The Best…” list of my recommendations.
Many of these sites also offer lessons in other languages, including English.
Feel free to offer additional suggestions.
I personally have found that going to a language school in a Spanish-speaking country (I went to ones in Mexico and Guatemala) and living with a family to be by far the best way to learn Spanish, but these sites can provide good initial exposure and be helpful for later development and practice.
Here are my choices for The Best Sites For Learning Spanish Online (not in order of preference):
BBC Languages Mi Vida Loca
The BBC also has several other sites for learning Spanish.
Panfu (a virtual world for kids where they can learn Spanish)
LingoHut looks like a pretty good place to learn the basics of multiple languages. Thanks to Philipp Jones for the tip.
Duolingo looks like it’s a pretty decent language-learning site.
Instreamia is a new site that helps you learn several languages.
Lingo Hut seems like a pretty impressive site for beginning learners of many different languages, including Spanish. Using a drop-down menu, you can easily select your native language and the language you want to learn, and then progress through a well-designed series of exercises including reading, listening and speaking.
If you found this post useful, you might want to look at previous “The Best…” lists and also consider subscribing to this blog for free.
November 26, 2009 at 7:44 pm
Thanks for your resources. Here are a few others I have found for my student site.
http://www.literacycenter.net/lessonview_es.htm
http://www.crickweb.co.uk/ks2spanish.html
http://www.fodors.com/language/spanish/
Widget for word of the day and games
http://www.transparent.com/languagepages/spanish/spanish.htm
November 28, 2009 at 9:21 am
A great, free too to help students learn Spanish, and ESL students learn English, is the “”On This Day” history feature from Dulcinea Media, offered in both English and Spanish, with the latter being a loose, conversational transliteration, rather than a machine-like literal translation:
http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news.topic__ss_categories_ss_on-this-day.html
http://www.encontrandodulcinea.com/articulos.html?topic=/categorias/Hoy-en-la-Historia
November 28, 2009 at 10:55 am
Awesome list.
One to add is my website Lenguajero – http://www.lenguajero.com
It’s a community for English-Spanish conversation exchanges and has a daily writing club where native speakers correct others writing.
December 13, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Natalie – thanks for lenguajero link – do you screen members? I just took a quick look & some member photos were too sexy for me to recommend the site to my 9th gr. students die to likley family concerns…
December 22, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Hi Mr. Louis,
Thanks for the comment and question. The answer to your question is that no, we do not screen our members.
That said, we completely understand your concerns, and do not think that Lenguajero is ready for use in a highschool classroom (unless the students have been given a lesson in internet safety).
We are currently working on a Classroom Edition for colleges and universities, that would allow teachers to monitor what their students are doing on the site (who they are talking to, what they are writing, etc.). This is the first step we are taking to build a classroom only tool for Lenguajero, and will be the framework for a highschool classroom version that will come a little later on.
You can check out the current classroom version here – http://www.lenguajero.com/classroom
October 1, 2012 at 5:08 pm
nice ))
thanks you )
December 1, 2009 at 4:30 pm
Really vaulable list, Larry! Just missing our own free site – Spanish Newsbites – http://www.spanishnewsbites.com – where you can hear the Spanish news and learn the language as you listen. Thanks!
December 13, 2009 at 12:35 pm
Thanks for the suggestions. My Spanish graduate students have been collected some resources too. Check our list: http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/sparesources
April 10, 2010 at 4:33 pm
Yuly – I visited the wallwisher – but all one gets is a preview of the resource. The URL is not given nor do I see a way to get one. Do you have all those sites bookmarked on delicious that you could share? por favor?
January 4, 2010 at 11:36 am
Thanks for the list. I would also like to add LingQ.com to the list. Spanish is one of the 10 languages offered at LingQ. There is a vast library of Spanish content with audio and transcript available free of charge and a range of learning opportunities with the members of the community.
January 4, 2010 at 5:27 pm
As a language teacher I have searched a lot of language learning sites on the net. By far the best I have found in concept and execution is
http://www.lingq.com
I works for Spanish and ten other languages. Check the site’s Help or the site’s wiki
http://lingq.pbworks.com/
for details.
January 4, 2010 at 8:59 pm
I’m not affiliated with the site in any way (other than being a user), but I would also recommend LingQ. They’re library of content is pretty impressive and constantly growing.
January 21, 2010 at 9:17 am
Thanks for these recommendations!
I’m using LiveMocha right now to learn Dutch and it’s absolutely wonderful. I love the user-generated and -supported aspect of it. Also, as a teacher I enjoy helping non-native speakers learn English. I’m planning to brush up on my Spanish once I’m done studying Dutch so intensely.
April 9, 2010 at 9:14 am
One site that I have used with both my Spanish students as well as my own kids at home is http://wordchamp.com
You can create sets of flash cards that you can require them to go through in many different ways. You can have the words read out-loud and then they have to write the English word or the Spanish word. You can have the Spanish word written and they have the write the English word (or vice versa). You can even add a picture to it (I haven’t played with that type yet).
I’ve used it with my own kids for their spelling words as well.
The cool thing about it is that if they get the flash card wrong they will have to do it three more times. I love using this site.
September 20, 2010 at 1:11 am
I have also found the resources on http://www.languagenut.com very useful. There are karaoke songs and stories, with supporting games. Well worth a look.
August 26, 2011 at 4:10 am
I have found a great website to learn spanish free, lenguage exchange, podcasts, spanish forum ….
http://www.lengalia.com/en
November 22, 2011 at 12:11 pm
Hello,
My name is Andrew Lawton and I am a Spanish teacher in Austin, TX. I have a free Spanish website for students to practice grammar at: http://spanishgrammarlessons.com. Please add it to your site if you think your users would find it useful. Thanks!
Andrew Lawton
November 22, 2011 at 8:53 pm
For some wonderful Spanish lessons for all levels, check out IDEL by Berta from Madrid and Albert from Barcelona.
These are original, witty, and come with audio and text.
http://spanish-lingq.blogspot.com/p/beginners-a1-a2.html
http://spanish-lingq.blogspot.com/p/intermediate-b1-b2.html
http://spanish-lingq.blogspot.com/p/advanced-c1-c2.html
These are also integrated with the LingQ system.
Steve
January 8, 2012 at 9:02 pm
I like to introduce my own site also: http://www.e-learn-spanish.com
Here you can practice on verbs, por/para, ser/estar, numbers, time, idiomatic, ….
and many more to be added soon.
The site is for those who know the grammar (or partial) and want to practice on it.
It is not a site for those who want to start learning Spanish.
kind regards,
SETKI
February 13, 2012 at 8:43 pm
If you’re a beginner I recommend this site : http://www.senorjordan.com/los-videos/
March 19, 2012 at 8:16 pm
Hi Larry –
I wanted to thank you for pulling this list together. I have been looking for something like this. I have been studying Spanish for 4 years through various means and am alwyas looking for other ways to supplement my learning. I have recently started a website to help others who like me are on a journey for Spanish fluency.
I have used many of the sites that you have listed here previosly. This is an excellent list.
Gracias!
April 10, 2012 at 6:54 am
This this is also very good with a lot of free resources to learn Spanish including Spanish Grammar, Pronunciation, Vocabulary, etc.:
http://www.livingspanish.com
June 11, 2012 at 6:25 am
What about http://www.babbel.com?
Similiar to Busuu but much cleaner and well structured.
Cheers,
Marvin
June 11, 2012 at 6:47 am
I’ve only listed sites that are free, and you have to pay for Babbel.
June 11, 2012 at 7:45 am
You have to pay for other services like busuu as well. At least if you really want to use their stuff and not only some trial courses.
June 16, 2012 at 7:47 pm
Does anyone know/heard of Spanish Hour 50 day program? Is it worth it?
September 30, 2012 at 8:25 pm
I have been using http://www.rocketlanguages.com/spanish/learn/pronunciation. The usability is average but there is a heap of audio there!
November 8, 2012 at 4:56 pm
http://www.lingohut.com is a fantastic site to learn a new language. It is 100% free.
November 26, 2012 at 9:00 am
This is my favourite Spanish page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Spanish-Word-a-Day/134102359998984?fref=ts
It is a word-a-day page that has activities and photos daily. There is also tutor who corrects your spelling/grammar daily.
Check it out, it’s a good way to make yourself practice everyday.
December 9, 2012 at 10:39 pm
I am spending some time looking through all of these links, it’s quite an extensive list. My current issue is that I have quite a bit of college level Spanish but still struggle to learn and understand new vocabulary. I also have difficulty creating my own intelligent conversation. In English I am very expressive but I have difficulty creating anything similar in Spanish. Any suggestions? If I were more fluent in Spanish I would have more job opportunities but I have yet to find a way to become more fluent that I can afford. I considered purchasing Rosetta Stone but according to their information on the web even their highest level would be review.
December 9, 2012 at 11:57 pm
Jenni,
I can only say that nothing beats going to language school for a month in Mexico or Latin America and living with a family there.
Larry
December 10, 2012 at 12:18 am
Yes, I have heard that before. The difficulty I have run into with that is the costs associated with it. Just transportation there and back would be more than I could afford.
January 18, 2013 at 4:53 pm
I recommend this website http://www.onlinespanish.org
they offer Spanish live lessons via Skype
Writing Lessons
Email lessons, Spanish DELE Preparation and much more
And the best is that you always have a tutor to assist you.
March 5, 2013 at 7:20 am
Free. Learn colors in spanish (android phones)
https://play.google.com/store/search?q=raagd&c=apps
March 24, 2013 at 6:51 pm
Hi all,
My Online Skype Spanish school: http://www.letsgospanish.com has a sister site that blogs about once per week on a new subject. We are getting good ideas from twitter-land and from our students, so please have a look! http://letsgospanish.wordpress.com/
Rgds,
Steve
March 29, 2013 at 10:39 pm
Thank you for the list. I would also like this: http://herewegospanish.com
April 2, 2013 at 11:05 am
I made a Spanish Learning Site called: “All Free Spanish.” This site teaches you Spanish really fast cause it starts out with the most commonly used vocabulary words. I made it in favor of someone interested in Learning Spanish for free at their own pace. If someone wants to learn Spanish, please try this simple site out! Gracias!
All Free Spanish Website
April 22, 2013 at 7:18 pm
We needed something that could be used to build vocabulary at home on the desktop or on a smartphone when on the go (or waiting in line or to see a doctor), so we created http://www.language-cards.com
It’s simple vocabulary building tool to supplement more complicated tools.
April 23, 2013 at 2:43 pm
http://www.vocabuflash is a new free website with lot’s of resources.