All is well and good with speaking real proper Spanish. That’s true of any language. But what happens when you get out into the street in Madrid and suddenly you can’t understand a word anyone is saying because the Spanish they’re using is as far from text-book Spanish as you can get. Or maybe you’re Spanish is so good that you could pass for a native… almost… if only you could only drop those little giveaways that let everyone know you’re a foreigner and add some authentic Spanish tricks to your repertoire. Check out this list of little nuances (well, actually, some of them aren’t really so nuanced) you’ll need to know if you want to sound like a true Spaniard.

1. Don’t be afraid to put your tongue between your teeth (and other key pronunciation tricks in Spain):

These are all a little tricky – different aspects of them for people from different countries and native languages (one of these pronunciation keys is actually considered a speech impediment in the English language for example). So let’s jump right in.

“D”s sound like “TH” – Yep it’s true (even if it is sort of subtle). You won’t find one madrileño out there who doesn’t say something that sounds similar to “MaTHriZ” (although the “Z” sound at the end sometimes drops off and is not enunciated very clearly) or “MaTHri” (without the last D at all), when they’re saying what you or I might call “MaDriD.” The “D” sound in Spain is never a hard “D” like it is in English, it is a softer, subtler sound.

“C”s and “Z”s sounds like “TH” – When “C”s sound like “S”s in Spanish (that is to say when they come after an “e” or an “i”) they are pronounced as “TH”; the same goes for “Z”s (this is known as distinción, or distinction, in linguistics). This one is a real toughie for native English speakers – no, not all Spaniards have a speech impediment – this lisp sound is actually on purpose. So if you want to sound like a real Spaniard get used to going to “THaragoTHa” (instead of “Zaragoza”) and asking for a “THerBeTHa” (instead of a “Cerveza”) at the bar (note: the “V” sound is a cross between the “V” and “B” in Spanish – it falls somewhere in the middle).

The “-ADO” suffix sounds like “-OW” – You may wonder what a “hela-OW” is when what you’ve learned to ask for in Spanish class is a “hel-ADO” (an ice-cream). But get used to it. This is a relaxation of correct pronunciation that is omnipresent in Spain. And if you’re not aware that this is a common way to sling together the very common “–ADO” suffix you may get hung up when trying to understand just about everyone in Spain (and some in Latin America too).

2. Say “vale” a lot:

If you ever listen to Spaniards speaking on the phone you’ll have heard them say, “vale, vale, vale” about a million times. You may try to make sense of the word, but if you’ve never been taught this most basic word in previous Spanish classes, it will be quite difficult. In reality it couldn’t be simpler. It simply means “ok.” Once you get used to it, you’ll see this one really rolls off the tongue, and is particularly sounds nice in threes: “vale, vale, vale.”  This is a must to pass as a true Spaniard; “OK,” just won’t do on the Iberian Peninsula (although everyone there will understand what it means). ¿Vale?

3. Swear a lot (joder, it’s just not that big of a deal here)

In other languages swear words are usually considered vulgar and used with care (at least in settings like the work place or at the university). Not in Spain however. No need to hold ‘em in here; let those four letters fly. There are a few words in Spanish that can be translated to truly offensive swears in English, but which have become completely innocuous in Spain. The best example is “joder” (which translates to F*** in English) one of the rudest and most shocking of words in English. In Spain, however, it is just another way to punctuate a sentence. We won’t go so far as to say it is used in very formal settings, because it is not, but hearing people calmly add “joder” to the beginning, middle or end of a sentence on a lunch date or in an office meeting certainly wouldn’t raise any eyebrows here.

Looking for more naughty words that aren’t so naughty in Spain? Try out “La madre que lo parió," more or less “damn” or “what the hell” to express surprise; "Cabrón," more or less “bastard” or “asshole” but again, can be used in a completely inoffensive way; or "Gilipollas," also translated to “asshole” more or less. But the list goes on and on… 

Other markers are also used very commonly in colloquial speech in Spain. Although they are not swears you’ll hear just about all young people talking to friends punctuate with “tío” or “tía” (literally “uncle” and “aunt” but used in Spain as an American would use “man” or “dude”); “chaval” (“little guy”/“kid”) or “coleguis” (“friend”/“buddy”).

¡So get to it chaval, joder!

4. Use diminutives and augmentatives.

You’ll probably have heard the use of the diminutive suffix “-ITA” to make Spanish words small and cute. But what about “-ICO/-ICA” “-INO-/INA” “-ETE/-ETA” or “ÍN/-IÑA”? All of these different regional uses of the diminutive accomplish the same thing: “pequeñito” (small, little thing) is the same as “pequeñino,” “pequeñete,” and “pequeñín.” And if you want to make something extra-large, add an augmentative like a good Spaniard would: “-AZO/-AZA,” “-ÓN/-ONA,” “-OTE/-OTA,” “-UDO/-UDA.” Go from being “grande” when you speak Spanish to “un grandote,” drink an enormous “copazo,” or go home to your really nice “casona.”

5. Give orders. It’s not rude, we promise!

The way Spanish people order at bars, or make simple requests can be a little shocking for people from other countries at times. It can be hard to jump right in like a Spaniard and yell to the bartender “ponme un café” (literally “give me a coffee”). In a lot of cultures this would be rude, but no worries, it’s not in Spain! It’s just the way you order (that goes for beer, bread, or really anything else you get standing at a counter). You may feel temped to timidly ask, “¿Me pondrías un café, por favor?” (“Could I have coffee please?”) and although the barkeep will understand you, he may find it strange or you could even come off as a little condescending or sarcastic, as if you’ve been waiting for long time, since this overtly polite manner is simply not the cultural norm. Orders are also given in many other contexts (such as at the dinner table, in the street and in other service sectors). So don’t worry and order away, if you feel rude, just make sure to punctuate with a big smile!

Put these five easy steps into practice and you’ll be speaking like a Spaniard in no time. Better yet, come to Spain, experience them all for yourself and blend right in as just another español in the crowd. 

Travel to Spain

One of the best travel opportunities you can have as a tourist is coming to a country like Spain and living in a house or flat just like a typical Spaniard. This kind of experience is unique and incredibly gratifying since you get a perspective that a regular tourist can only dream of. Not living in a hotel means that you’ll have the chance to go to the different neighborhood stores to buy your meat, produce, bread and groceries. You’ll meet and talk to people from the neighborhood in the corner bar while you’re having a coffee and churro for breakfast. But not all is sidewalk cafes and roses…there is a downside to all of this greatness (as there usually is). One day you will have to use the oven, dishwasher or washing machine. It’s then when things start to get a little sketchy and you'll begin to question the wiseness of not staying in that 4 star cubicle.

Los Animales

Discover “Los Animales”- Animal names in Spanish. The following infographic is the ideal tool for learning Spanish animal names. It can be used by teachers in classrooms, as a poster in your office, or to teach children the names of animals in Spanish.  Use this tool to help you memorize all of the most important animals in Spanish. Each animal is accompanied by an image that will make it easier to remember the animal names and memorize them. Within a few days you will be an expert at the most common Spanish animal names!

Spanish in numbers infographic

Incredible world-wide growth and intriguing linguistic features help make Spanish an important and fun language to learn. Check out this fact-packed infographic we’ve created that illustrates a collection of curious stats on everything from how many people you can practice your Spanish skills with to how many palindrome words learners can expect to discover.
What’s unique about the Spanish words pomposo, chiquitín and alpargata? How about abuelito, murciélago and simultáneo? Ever wonder what the longest Spanish word is?

Read on and explore Spanish in numbers…

False friends are every language learner’s nightmare. It takes a huge amount of linguistic competence, let alone confidence, to express yourself in a foreign language, and these tricky words don’t help. While hoping for the best and adding an o onto English words flukily works sometimes, false friends will stop your Spanglish becoming fully fledged español.

False friends are words that are similar to a word in your language, but mean something completely different.

Here are some false friends you want to be very wary of!

So I’m hoping everyone knows that once is the number 11, and not the number of times you should watch the Eurovision song contest (which is una vez, unless you’re a sadist). ¿Vale? Now then; while you’re enjoying your holiday to Honduras, or your vacation to Venezuela, and you’re out for dinner in un restaurante BE WARNED! If you ask the waiter for some tuna, you’ll be treated to a glee club or an edible cactus, instead of the atún you wanted.

If you’re unfortunate enough to need to see a doctor while away, you might want a dictionary consultation as well. Constipado doesn’t mean what you’d think it would; estreñido is that unfortunate ailment, whereas those suffering from a cold are (hilariously) constipado. But whatever your illness, don’t be embarrassed! If you tell the doctor that you’re embarazada, you will be offered all sorts of prenatal vitamins; avergonzado is the adjective you need to explain that you’re not actually pregnant, just victim to a false friend!

Now, for any argumentative readers, when making your point in español, make sure you’re saying what you mean. En absoluto confusingly means ‘abosolutely not’. Inconsecuente isn’t the best way to dismiss an argument, as it means ‘contradictory’; de poca importancia would be more effective. Don’t take offence if someone uses desgracia, as it simply means a ‘mistake’ or ‘misfortune’, unlike vergüenza or deshonra which mean disgrace. The word compromiso means a promise, obligation or commitment; it does not usually convey the sense that you have reached a mutually satisfactory conclusion, which the verb transigir implies. And for goodness sake, don’t get confused by this false friend or your argument could start up all over again; to apologise is disculparse, but apologia means defence!

If you find yourself in a police station in Peru, be careful what you confess to. Delito means a petty crime, which you shouldn’t take deleite (delight) in. The verb molestar may sound scary to the non-Spanish speaker, but it simply means to annoy. Decepción means disappointment, but for deception, use engaño or fraude. Misery in Spanish (conjugation jokes aside) is sufrimiento or tristeza, whereas miseria means poverty. Don’t let linguistic mistakes cause you tristeza (or miseria either, but that seems less likely)!

I always get mixed up with false friends, especially since salida = exit, yet éxito = success, and suceso = an event or happening! Learning languages can be very extraño, and you have to be bizarro to keep it up! (extraño means bizarre, and bizarro means brave in case you’re wondering!) So keep calm, carry on and learn from your mistakes!

In Spain, people speak with many different types of Spanish accents. These Spanish accents have even become official regional languages over the years. In Galicia Galician, in the Basque Country Basque, in Catalonia Catalan, in the Valley of Aran Aranese and Castilian in the rest of the country. Castilian (Spanish) is the official national language in Spain; the other 4 are official regional languages. In areas where these languages (accents) are spoken, some take precedence. The many differences in the Spanish language often cause confusion abroad. In addition to the official regional languages, there are 2 unofficial languages, Asturian and Aragonese.

The Spanish alphabet has 27 letters:
A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, Ñ, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z. The letter Ñ is different from that in the Dutch language. The Ñ is widely used and is therefore also on the Spanish keyboard, to the right of the L.

Castilian:
Spanish or Castilian is a Romance language and is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. For 329 million people, Spanish is the mother tongue, while another 170 million speak Spanish as a second language. The historical origins of the language are in Spain, but most speakers today can be found in Latin America.

The four official regional languages of Spain are:

Galician:
In the region of Galicia, in the northwestern part of Spain above Portugal, the population speaks Galician. Galician is one of the four official languages in Spain and is spoken by a total of about 3 million people. Galician is also spoken in some parts of South America. The Spanish accent is more similar to Portuguese than to Spanish.

Basque:
Basque is spoken in the Basque Country, the Spanish-French border region on the west coast, and by emigrants from this area elsewhere in the world. Basque is the native language of about 800,000 people worldwide. Of these, 700,000 live in the Basque Country itself, where they make up a quarter of the population. The total number of people proficient in Basque is estimated at nearly 2 million.

Catalan:
Catalan is spoken in Catalonia, Andorra, southern French Roussillon, Valencia, eastern Aragon, the Balearic Islands and in a small part of Mucia. In total, about 10 million people speak Catalan. The Catalan accent has major differences from Castilian (official main language). The Catalan accent prevails here more than Castilian. Catalan sometimes resembles the French language.    

Aranese:
Aranese is spoken by only 4,000 people in the Valley of Aran in the region of Catalonia. The Aranese language and Spanish accent is also considered a dialect of French Occitan.

In Spain, about 25% of the total population speaks one of the four official regional languages, that is over 11 million people. Compared to the Netherlands, where the only official regional language is Frisian, where some 400,000 people speak this regional language, we can say that Spanish accents play a relatively important role.

There are many Spanish Sayings, which can also be found in Dutch (part of a sentence, to clarify a situation), below you will find some well-known ones.

"Afición, ciega razón" 
"Amateur, blind reason."

"Dime con quién andas y te diré quién eres." 
"Tell me who you hang out with and I'll tell you who you are."

"Si no hay pan, no hay pan" 
"No bread, no bread."

"Las apariencias engañan"
"Appearances can be deceiving."

"Al buen callar llaman Sancho"
"Good silence is called Sancho."

"Mi casa y mi hogar cien doblas val." 
"My house and my home a hundredfold val."

"Quien fía o promete, en deuda se mete." 
"Who trusts or promises, gets into debt."

"Quien mal intenta, pagará la cuenta" 
"Whoever tries wrong will pay the bill."

"Mientras haya vida, habrá esperanza" 
"As long as there is life, there is hope."

“Nunca es tarde si la dicha es buena”
“It's never too late if it's too late.”

“Dame pan y dime tonto.”
“Give me bread and call me a fool.”

“Solo se vive una vez.”
“You only live once.”

“El mundo es un pañuelo.”
“The world is a handkerchief.”

“Más vale pájaro en mano que ciento volando.”
“A bird in the hand is better than a hundred in the air..”

Doing a job or internship in Spain is a great way to practice your Spanish in a real Spanish-speaking environment. Your CV (curriculum) and cover letter (carta de presentación) are key to helping you get the job that you want, so here are a few tips on how to put them together and some vocabulary that you might find useful:

Datos personales

The first section of your CV should be 'Datos Personales' (Personal Information). It’s best to include:

• Nombre: Name
• Dirección: Address
• Teléfono: Telephone
• E-mail: Email address
• Fecha y lugar de nacimiento: Date and place of birth
• Nacionalidad: Nationality

You could also include whether you have a 'carnet de conducir' (driver’s licence) and your estado civil (marital status).

It is also common in Spain to include a professional looking passport photo on your CV.

Formación académica

The next section is 'Formación académica' (Education). Write the qualification you received, the institution, the city and country, as well as the dates when you were studying there.

Afterwards you can also add a section on 'Formación complementaria' (Complementary training) for other qualifications you may have, although don’t include computer skills or languages as these will come later.

Experiencia profesional

Next is 'Experiencia profesional' (Work Experience). List the dates, the job you did, the company and the location.

In the 'Informática' (IT skills) section state what you can use and how competent you are.

Similarly, under the heading 'Idiomas' (Languages) you can state each language that you know and your level, i.e. básico (basic), intermedio (intermediate) or avanzado (advanced). You can learn more about Spanish language levels here. It’s also worth putting your 'lengua materna' (mother tongue).

Datos de interés

The final section is 'Otros datos de interés' (Additional Information), where you can put down anything you think is interesting to the employer but doesn’t fit into any other category. Don’t write too much though, as the whole CV should ideally fit onto one A4 page.

Write a cover letter

An important accompaniment to the CV is the cover letter (carta de presentación).

Start your letter with 'Estimados Señores', remembering to put the date and your address at the top of the letter. There are also other options for starting a letter, depending on how formal you want to be.

You should start by stating exactly which post you are applying for and how you found out about it in the first paragraph.

Next move on to explaining why you would like to work for the company or organisation and what assets and skills you think you have that would make you good at the job. Express interest in having an interview or further contact with the employer and state your availability for work.

There are various ways to end a letter in Spanish, but a good one to use is 'Les saluda atentamente', on a separate line, then sign and print your name underneath.

For more ideas for your cover letter and some great business vocab on how to sell yourself, take a look at our Spanish courses designed for professionals.

¡Buena suerte!