How to learn Spanish

Most people stall in Spanish for one of two reasons: they learn grammar before they have enough words to use it on, or they try to sound perfect before they have said anything at all. This is the order that avoids both.

Start with the thousand words you will actually say

A small core of everyday words carries most ordinary conversation. Learn those first and grammar has something to hold on to. Learn grammar first and you end up conjugating verbs you have no nouns to use them with.

Learn the present tense properly, then stop

You can say almost anything you need with the present tense and a handful of time words. Add the past only once the present is automatic. Trying to hold three tenses at once is the most common reason people give up.

Meet ser and estar early, and expect to get it wrong

Spanish has two verbs for "to be" and English has one, so there is no shortcut: you learn it by using it. Getting it wrong is not a setback, it is the process. Everyone understands you either way while you are learning.

A few minutes every day beats an hour on Sunday

Vocabulary sticks through repeated short contact, not long sessions. Ten minutes a day for a month will leave you further ahead than four long weekends, and it is far easier to keep going when the daily ask is small.