PART II - Low-effort things you can do to improve your Spanish

Agustina Rosa
Aug 05, 2024By Agustina Rosa

Disclaimer: None of my posts have been written using any kind of AI. AI is only used to check on grammar mistakes and word synonyms. 


Use the phrases and words you know on a daily basis

Practice makes perfect: if you are a beginner, stick to a reduced number of phrases and/or verbs that you can use in different contexts and with different uses. I start teaching beginners SER (to be) and TENER (have), because you can stretch those to talk about quality, quantity & content in different settings. 

Some phrases:
- ¿Cuánto es? ¿Dónde es? ¿Quién es? ¿Cómo es? ¿Cuándo es? ¿Cuál es?
- ¿Es... libre de gluten / vegetariano / grande / pequeño ?
- (No) tengo frio / sueño / hamper / dolor.
- (No) tengo mi pasaporte / mi maleta / mi comida / a mi amigo
 - ¿Tenéis (Spain) / tienen (rest of the world)... comida / platos veganos / sal / agua / baño/ leche de almendras?


Once you feel confident with them, switch them up for more complex phrases

This is not the most low - effort tip, but it's necessary to evolve your language usage, the variety of your vocabulary and the phrases you form. 
Keep doing this until you feel you have a couple of ways to express the same idea.

Greetings and goodbyes are a great start:  
A1: ¡Hola! ¿Qué tal?
But as you get more proficiency, you'll get to:
A2: ¡Buen día! ¿Qué tal la mañana? Yo bien, ¿y tú? ¡Me alegro! ¿Cuánto cuesta?
B1: ¡Buenos días a todos! ¿Que cómo estoy yo? Por aquí excelente, nunca estuve mejor. ¿Y por allí? Ah, qué dicha. ¿Me dices cuánto cuesta? 
B2: ¡Buenos días, qué gusto veros/verlos! ¿Cómo ha estado todo? Me alegro mucho. ¿Serías tan amable de decirme cuánto cuesta?
C1: ¡Buenos días! ¿Podrías indicarme el precio, por favor? Agradezco mucho tu ayuda

Use language apps to practice 

We know them: Duolingo is the most known app to learn languages, although is not my favorite App.
For my own learning, I like Memrise and Drops, and I've heard good things about Babbel as well. 
There are also many interesting apps that allow you to "talk" to and write to an AI-powered voice, which can be a useful way to prepare yourself for different settings and challenges.
I strongly believe that human interaction is preciously irreplaceable, but anything we can use to improve our knowledge, feel more confident and enjoy the process is very well welcomed. 
No kind of app will match real interaction, but they but they can be helpful and knowledge doesn't take up space.