Online Spanish Courses: First Thing’s First, Your A to Zs

Monday, August 29th, 2011 at 5:52 pm

Online Spanish Courses

Learn Your A to Zs before checking out Online Spanish Courses

Before you jump head-first into searching for online Spanish courses that will help you to learn Spanish, in fact before you do any course related to learning Spanish you must learn the Spanish alphabet.

Learning a language’s alphabet before anything else is an obvious step to take when you think about it, I mean what is the first thing a child learns in English, or in any language for that matter? This is how we must think of ourselves, as children, because we are at exactly the same stage of learning! Of course most, if not all online Spanish courses will cover the alphabet but it is always wise to get acquainted with it before you start a course, it saves time too!

Most of the letters in the Spanish alphabet are the same as they are in the English and we will go over the exceptions in a short while. The most important thing to remember when learning the Spanish alphabet is that it must be done so both visually and phonetically.

When you have mastered all the letters of the alphabet it will put you well ahead when you begin studying with your choice of online Spanish courses and the chances are that you’ll be able to pronounce words correctly more often than not.

As I have already mentioned the majority of letters in the Spanish alphabet are the same as those in English but there are three exceptions. These extra three letters are either accented letters or extended letters and in both cases they exist because they are different pronunciations of the mother letter. These letters are used to help differentiate the pronunciation of certain different, but similar, words, specifically when the word is read.

It may sound a little confusing right now, but you will be surprised to know that the Spanish alphabet is a great deal easier to learn and use than it’s English equivalent because letters and words are always pronounced as they are seen, there is no long and short ‘a’ as there is in English for example.

If you wish to learn how each letter sounds there are many free resources online that will provide audio for this purpose, simply enter the search term ‘Spanish Alphabet’ and I’m sure you’ll find something suitable very quickly. You could alternatively ask a native Spanish speaking friend to go through the alphabet with you, but as with everything else you will learn, it will take practice to learn correctly how to pronounce each letter.

You should also be aware that the Spanish dictionary is laid out differently to the English dictionary, the biggest confusion are with words that start with ‘Ch’ and ‘Ll’. In an English dictionary words beginning with Ch would be found under the letter ‘C’ whereas in Spanish these words have their own section and the same applies to words beginning with a double ‘L’.

When all is said and done, gaining a complete mastery of the Spanish alphabet is by far the easiest way to start learning and understanding the Spanish language. You can of course just wait until you have gone through all the online Spanish courses and chosen one, and then use their lessons on the alphabet. Though, sometimes it is a good idea to spend some time studying Spanish before you make an investment on a course, even if it is only the basics, just to make sure it is something you want to do.

Online Spanish courses will normally have a lesson relating to the alphabet right at the start and it is worth checking this out when working through all the online Spanish courses you’re considering using.

However, if you don’t want to work through loads of online Spanish courses before choosing one you could always check out my honest Rocket Spanish Review, in my opinion the most outstanding of all online Spanish Courses.

Hasta luego mis amigos!