Is it easy to learn to speak spanish if your first language is English?

Answer 1

Spanish is a beautiful language, but it can be hard for people who only know English to learn. It is easy for Portuguese and Italian speakers, since the languages are quite similar, but if you are only familiar with English then as well as learning new vocabulary you will have to learn new grammar rules - the way tense is handled in Spanish, and the order of verbs in a sentence is quite different. Still, it is a popular and useful language, spoken in a lot of countries in the world, so it is well worth learning! Actually only part of the above is true. The same tenses that exist in Spanish also exist in English (and likely most other languages as well, at least the Romantic ones). Our education system just isn't as concerned with teaching the names of tenses (which are taught to us at very young ages, and at least in my case, not repeated in further studies) and we learn by hearing because English is our language. Any Spanish Instructor worth their salt will teach and continue to teach grammar lessons because grammar is even difficult for most English-speaking individuals. Oh yes, the Present, Preterite, Imperfect, Future, and even the subjunctive mood exists in English. As well, all of the future perfect tenses exist in English, and the conditional, etc. It is correct that Spanish and English are not derived from the same sources and this person obviously knows a little about the Romance languages (i.e. those derived from Latin). In fact though, Italian is not similar to Spanish in that it is derived almost exactly as Latin. Of all the Romance Languages, Italian is by far the closest derivation to Latin. Again, the verb placement is different in "spoken" Spanish, but it is not incorrect grammatically to place the verb after the subject of the sentence. Just because it is not "customary" in speech does not make it incorrect grammatically. However, placing the verb before the subject is a great habit to form if fluency is your goal. Don't be fooled, a native Spaniard, Mexican, or any other Hispanic would understand you even if your verb seemed out of place. The key is to communicate, communicate, communicate. Especially, when traveling in Spanish-speaking countries, don't allow yourself to be held to any rule. Use your hands, make motions, whatever it takes to get your point across. Just communicate.