In par with the culture, festivals and holidays in the Spanish-speaking world are fascinating and lively! Here are some very famous festivities: -Sanfermines-"The Running of the Bulls" This 10-day festival in Pamplona, Spain, also features dancers, street performers, and actors in costumes. -Christmas Season Traditionally in the Spanish-speaking world, the Three Wise Men are who bring gifts to children, though nowadays most families follow the Santa Claus tradition. -Semana Santa - "Holy Week" Holy Week celebrations start on Palm Sunday through Easter Sunday. Every community has a unique Holy Week celebration. Most of the Spanish-speaking world has off days on Holy week and the following as well. -Día de los Muertos - "All... Show more

The Spanish-speaking world has some unique aspects we would like to share with you. See if you are aware of these cultural bits! 1) Greetings Have you noticed that usually, women are greeted with a kiss? And to avoid confusions, it is a general motion to let your right cheek get the kiss. 2) La hora latina "Latino time." It is believed that Spanish-speakers are always late, but there are cultural factors explain this tardiness. Many Spanish-speaking countries' transportation and communication system are not as reliable, making delays unavoidable;so people tend to be forgiving about lateness. However, this is a stereotype, as there are Spanish-speaking people that are often punctual as well. 3) Lunch Time In the... Show more

Unlike English, Spanish sentences are not so dependent on word order. Instead, Spanish uses a system of suffixes and particles to help mark the subject and object. Spanish verbs' tense suffixes, for example, carry information about the person and number of the subject. This system of verb tense suffixes is called "conjugation," and though it sounds challenging, don't give up!  After learning to conjugate, Spanish becomes a smooth sail! It is important to remember the following points: gender and number. "Gender" - Spanish nouns fall into two categories, "feminine" and "masculine" . Generally, feminine nouns end in an"  -a "vowel, and masculine nouns end in an " -o" vowel. "Number" - Check if the noun is singular or plural. ... Show more

Spanish and English are cognate languages; that is, many words in Spanish sound and look similar to their English equivalents. Because of these cognate words, and because of the similarity in alphabets, learners of Spanish can often guess the English equivalents of a Spanish word with a high degree of accuracy, and vice versa. The Spanish writing system is based on the Roman alphabet,though some features are specific to Spanish, like the letter -ñ (as in Español!) , as well as the digraphs -ch, -ll, and -rr, which we traditionally analyze as single letters. In addition to these peculiarities, a few Spanish words carry a written accent to distinguish homonyms, as in "él"  (definite article "el" vs. subject pronoun "él"). Thankfully... Show more

Having been developed from Latin and part of the Romance languages, Spanish was born in Spain, from where Spanish colonials spread the language to the western hemisphere, and to this day, remains the official language of the majority of Central and South America, and the Caribbean. However, you may have noticed that nowadays, people all over the world are studying Spanish in Brazil, the United States, and much of Europe. The Spanish spoken in most of the world is the "Castellano" type of Spanish (originating from the Castille region of Spain), and is usually the Español we are mostly familiar with. Today, Español keeps becoming more popular as a language for business, tourism, and travel. That is because Spanish is the native... Show more

How to Really Learn Spanish in Just Minutes a Day and Stick with it Get an Instant 10% OFF with coupon code FF2009 for a limited time. The Myth What if I told you mastering Spanish wasn't that hard. That actually learning the language itself is not nearly as difficult as you may have heard. And that the problem to progressing is an age old one...failure to execute. The Real Issue Said another way, "People don't progress 'cause they don't do! If you don't do the work, you won't reach your goals." It's a bold statement, but think about it. How many things have you tried, only to give up at some later point in time. Exercising daily, diets, hobbies, etc. Language learning is no exception. We tend to start out... Show more

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year from everyone here at SpanishPod101.com! We're grateful to have listeners just like you, and we're eagerly waiting for the upcoming year to learn Spanish together! And when the New Year comes around, be sure to make a resolution to study Spanish with SpanishPod101.com! Have a healthy and happy holiday season. From the SpanishPod101.com Team!