When learning a new language, it is always useful to be familiar with its main grammatical units. This constitutes the first necessary step in order to understand and create meaningful speech.

Here are the main grammatical elements in Spanish and some useful information about them:

Nouns:

A noun is a word which is mostly used to refer to a person or thing. All nouns in Spanish have a gender, meaning that they are either masculine or feminine. For example, “niño” (boy) is masculine and “niña” (girl) is feminine. The best way to identify gender is undoubtedly experience, although here are some general guidelines which may be useful at the beginning: usually nouns ending in ño are masculine and nouns ending in ña are feminine. Of course there are always exceptions.

For example, “mano” (hand) and “radio” (radio) are feminine. On the other hand, words of Greek origin ending in ñma, such as “dilema” (dilemma) or “problema” (problem) are masculine. When you are learning new vocabulary, it is recommendable that you learn a noun together with its corresponding article. That will help you to remember their gender. For example “la niña”, “la mano” or “el problema” and “el niño”.

Adjectives:

Adjectives are used to qualify a particular noun, to say something about it. It is important to remember that in Spanish they are usually placed after the noun. Since adjectives are always related to a noun, they have to agree with them in gender and number.

This means that if you want to say something about the noun “niño”, which is masculine and singular, the adjective that you use will also have to be masculine and singular. Thus, you can say “niño alto” (tall boy), “niño pequeño” (small boy), etc. If, on the other hand, if you were talking about a girl, you would have to say “niña alta” and “niña pequeña”.

Pronouns:

Pronouns substitute for nouns. For example, you can say “la niña est· aquÌ” (the girl is here) or “ella est· aquÌ” (she is here). In this case “ella” is substituting for “la niña”. The subject pronouns in Spanish are “yo” (I), “t?/usted/vos” (singular you), Èl (he), ella (she), nosotros (we), vosotros/ustedes (plural you), ellos (they).

The singular and plural “you” are used differently depending on the dialect of Spanish that you are using. It is important to remember that subject pronouns are frequently omitted in Spanish, since the ending of the verb already indicates this. Thus, native spears would say “estoy aquÌ” (I’m here) rather than “yo estoy aquÌ”.

Verbs:

Verbs indicate actions. Usually when you enumerate a verb, you use what is called the infinitive, for example “hablar” (to speak). In Spanish there are three different types of verbs, depending of how their infinitive ends. These different categories are called conjugations.

Thus, there are verbs ending in ñar, such as “hablar”, in -er “comer” (to eat) and in ñir “dormir” (to sleep). As mentioned before, verbs in Spanish have different endings depending on who the subject of the action is. These endings will vary from one conjugation to the other. For example, with the verb “hablar”, the singular “you” is “(t?) hablas”, whereas with “comer” it is “(t?) comes”. This can obviously be complicated for learners at the beginning, but once you get used to it, you will have no problem communicating effectively.

Of course, if you have time to take a full Spanish course, that’s preferable. Learning to speak conversational Spanish will make your stay among the locals much more pleasant. You can communicate most ideas if you learn Spanish in this way.

However, you may not have the time to learn Spanish thoroughly. You may have been invited on the holiday unexpectedly. You may have won the holiday and have to take it in a short amount of time. Or, perhaps you had plenty of notice, but had too busy of a schedule to fit in a full course to learn Spanish properly.

It doesn’t matter why you’re in this position; the crux of the matter is that you need to learn Spanish enough to handle your basic needs. You will probably find English speaking people somewhere on your journey to speak with. However, there will be times when you must depend upon Spanish speaking people to answer important questions.

You can find phrasebooks to help you find the words to ask for basic needs. They will tell you how to introduce yourself and say please and thank you. You will learn Spanish phrases for asking the time and weather.

Phrasebooks can also be helpful with the hotel you’re staying at. They can tell you how to ask for clean linens. You can learn Spanish phrases that make it easier to order room service. You will also know how to check into and out of your hotel.

More importantly, these books will tell you how to ask where the restroom is. You will learn Spanish phrases like “Ayudame!” meaning “Help me!” Most of the books will also tell you how to ask where you can find a doctor or dentist.

The books will tell you the basics of how to order food in a restaurant. They will tell you any number of words to use in different situations. A book like this should also contain valuable information like how to ask where the US embassy is.

If you are concerned about your pronunciation, you can get the same type of phrase manuals on CD’s. Just pop them into your CD player and repeat after the speaker. You can do this in your car, at your computer, or in your living room. Wherever you find comfortable will do. Or you can convert the CDs to MP3 format so that you can play it on a MP3 player such as an iPod.

A book or CD like this can help you learn Spanish phrases. What it can’t do is help you understand the answers. You will have to rely on a lot of pointing and gesturing. Also, never forget, if you think you might be able to understand the person, if they would speak slower, just say, “mas despacio.” It works wonders.

Since learning Spanish would increase the general ability to communicate with the large amount of immigrants that come into the country each year, some wonder if requiring Americans to learn Spanish would be the solution to keeping up with the increasing needs of the Hispanic culture.

Most people don’t know that over 91% of fortune 500 companies and Forbes international 800 companies cannot meet the needs of people who speak a foreign language because they do not have the ability to respond correctly to a foreign language.

There are two different sides to this issue. Some believe that Americans should learn Spanish because if Americans learn Spanish, they would mostly help themselves in the long run. When people learn Spanish, they are able to have a more competitive resume when they move into the work force. Such an edge in the job market would then allow Spanish learners to demand higher pay than other job searchers who can only speak English. Furthermore, if fortune 500 companies are not able to satisfy the needs of Spanish speakers, the Americans who learn Spanish will become like precious jewels among these types of companies.

Also, when people learn Spanish, they are learning about another culture. Learning about other cultures decreases the likelihood of discrimination not only in relation to the Spanish culture, but other cultures in general. People will become more aware that other types of people exist, and that these people have needs and wants that may be different from their own. An increase in cultural awareness cannot help but be beneficial to the general mindset of Americans.

On the other hand, many people believe that since the amount of Hispanic immigrants is so large, Hispanics often get very comfortable when they come to the U.S., and often they don’t feel that they have to learn English. It is not rare for immigrants in the United States to either never learn English or remain in America for many years without even trying to learn the language.

It seems that if Americans were required to learn Spanish whether by their jobs or schools, Hispanic immigrants would find even greater comfort and feel that they do not have to learn English. Americans that learn Spanish would continue to experience all of the benefits of the language. However, Hispanics would experience many negatives.

A Hispanic living in the US who does not learn to speak English would experience a lack in the number of jobs they are eligible for. Therefore, such a person may experience high levels of unemployment or poverty and may only be able to obtain jobs that require manual labor. Other workers will be able to pick and choose where they would like to be employed.

With the increase in Hispanic businesses many companies may push their employees to learn Spanish. However, it does not look like it will be a requirement any time in the near future.

One thing people don’t realize is that English verbs are, in many ways, similar to Spanish verbs. For instance, you will often hear the complaint that it’s difficult to learn Spanish verbs because you have to conjugate them. Conjugating verbs just means matching up the right verb form for each pronoun like I, you, he, she, we, or they. What people don’t seem to understand is that we conjugate English words as well. So, for instance, we say “I have,” but we say “she has.” When you learn Spanish, you will conjugate verbs in the same way.

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The only difference is that you have diverse forms for more of the “persons.” When you learn Spanish verbs, you will learn a special form each for “I”, “you”, “we”, “they”, and another form for “he”, “she”, or “it.” Another thing that makes it easy to learn Spanish verbs is that these verb forms are just based on mostly standard endings. Once you know the endings, you can apply them to the infinitives.

Infinitives are the most basic forms of the verbs. All verbs in English have an infinitive form, but most people aren’t aware of this. The English infinitive starts with the word “to,” as in “to have.” Spanish infinitives are single words, like “tener,” meaning “to have” also. If you learn Spanish infinitives, you will have a good start when you learn Spanish verbs.

As you learn Spanish, you will find that some of the words are different. Just as in English, there are irregular verbs. The English verb “to be” is conjugated “I am,” “you are,” “she is,” “we are,” and “they are.” Since these forms are not the usual infinitive with an ending, they constitute an irregular verb.

When you learn Spanish, you will learn verbs that follow similar patterns. Using the same example, for the Spanish verb “ser,” the forms are “yo soy,” “tu eres,” “ella es,” “nosotros estamos,” and “ellos estan.” These are also irregular verb forms.

The final set of forms you will need to learn Spanish are the tenses. In English, the past tense for “jump” is “jumped”. This is a regular past tense. An example of a verb with an irregular past tense is “go.” Its past tense is “went.”

As you learn Spanish, you will find out how to make the endings for each tense: present, past, past perfect, and so on. You will also learn Spanish irregular endings for verbs in the different tenses. With all this in mind, along with information on the other parts of speech, you should be able to carry out an intelligent conversation with a Spanish speaker.

Certainly, there is a lot to understand as you learn Spanish verbs. There are numerous words and verb forms to remember. However, if you remember that English has many similar structures, you will find that it’s not so confusing.

As soon as you enter the room for the first time, begin to get to know the other people. You might not think this is necessary to learn Spanish. After all, you didn’t come to socialize, right? The truth is that knowing these people will make it easier to interact and communicate with them, especially when you need a partner to practice your conversations. You will make your learning experience much more pleasant.

If the class goes in the traditional way, the teacher will start with a few basic Spanish words. To learn Spanish, begin thinking correctly about these first few words and you will set a precedent that will carry through all your language learning.

To do this, look at the object and think the Spanish word. Don’t think the English word and then translate it in your head. That’s a bad habit to get into and it won’t help you learn Spanish much either. If you start out learning correctly, the rest will go much smoother. This is called the direct association method, and it eliminates the translation phase, which makes it a lot faster.

Some things when you learn Spanish are just easier than English. Your teacher will soon get into going through the alphabet. Pay attention to the sounds. The sounds of the Spanish alphabet go by very strict rules that rarely change, which makes it very consistent. If you want to learn Spanish, it’s easy to spell if you have mastered the alphabet rules.

To learn Spanish, you must learn to conjugate verbs. Learn the standard conjugations once. As you learn new irregular verbs, write down their conjugations. Then, assume that every verb is a regular verb unless you know otherwise.

Many classes these days, especially adult classes, are conversational classes. It is an advantage to learn Spanish this way because you are prepared for dealing directly with people when you finish. There are some ways to make your conversational class go better.

Listen to the other speakers when it isn’t your turn to talk. People often make the mistake of thinking so hard of what they want to say that they get lost to the conversation that is going on. If you listen, you will have to speak without premeditation, but this may help you to think faster in any situation as you learn Spanish.

Remember, even though it’s a conversational class, it doesn’t mean that you can’t take notes. You won’t want to spend much time with them. Focus on the conversation to learn Spanish, but do take the time to scribble words or phrases that you want to remember. You can write them down later, or better yet, speak them into a audio recorder.

Merely being enrolled in a Spanish class doesn’t guarantee that you will learn Spanish. You need to bring your whole self into the process and be ready for anything your teacher throws at you. If you are, you will no doubt learn some Spanish by the end of the class. Learn with passion!

A nifty book to have as you learn Spanish is 1001 Most Useful Spanish Words (Beginners’ Guide), by Seymour Resnick. With only 55 pages, this book provides you a good collection of vocabulary. This book lists words by categories such as food, time, and family. The words are also in a dictionary type listing alphabetically. The words are defined and used in a sentence. Popular phrases using the words are given. It is helpful to anyone trying to learn Spanish.

Sticking with the numbers theme, there is another book you can get tremendous help from as you learn Spanish. It is called 2000+ Essential Spanish Verbs: Learn the Forms, Master the Tenses, and Speak Fluently, put out by Living Language. This book makes it so easy to learn Spanish verbs; you’ll wonder why you ever thought it would be difficult. It covers conjugations, irregular forms, and teaches you to form tenses. It has answers to many tricky questions on verbs.

If you’re a busy type, perhaps you have free time in your car or sitting in a taxi or while you are commuting to work. Learn in Your Car Spanish Complete Language Course is a tool to help you learn Spanish, written by Henry N. Raymond and Oscar M. Ramirez. You just play the CD’s in your car, or anywhere else you’d like to, and repeat after the speaker. The CD’s progress from the easiest to the most advanced. You will learn enough about basic Spanish dialogue to begin to join in conversations with Spanish speaking people. Alternatively, you could convert the CD into MP3 format and play it with and iPod or any MP3 player.

If you’re a stickler for details, you might be interested in a book called Spanish Grammar for Independent Learners, by Arie Vicente. This book covers everything you need to know about grammar. It has all the information neatly arranged for easy access. As you try to learn Spanish, you will come across sentences you just know you don’t have right. This book has a system to troubleshoot your language and help you figure out what you mean to say.

For a taste of Spanish literature, try First Spanish Reader: A Beginner’s Dual Language Book, edited by Angel Flores. You will find stories old and new within its pages. You can learn Spanish almost effortlessly by reading these short stories and proverbs. The easiest ones are first, and more difficult verb tenses are used later on. The stories are interesting and make it fun to learn Spanish.

The Language Heretic’s Super Crash Course in Spanish Conversation and Culture: GET BY in Spanish in One to Three Weeks is a unique book by L. Adams. It cuts through all the technical aspects of language learning in short order. The focus of the book is simply to give you enough language skills to get you into conversations so that you can learn Spanish from there. It never claims to make you a scholar.

With all the books and CD’s on how to learn Spanish, you should be able to find books that will make your study easier. You can check them out at a library, but to get the most good out of them, you usually need to purchase them. However, that’s not much to spend if you want to learn Spanish.

In addition to books and CDs, you should also consider watching Spanish movies, hopefully with English subtitles, so that you will get the gist of the movie. By watching these movies, you will get a feel of how the language is spoken. It’s advisable to get the DVD of that movie, so that you can watch over and over again, and listen carefully to words that are spoken.