How many words are there in the Spanish language?

November 30, 2020 Off By Christina

More than 572 million people across the world speak Spanish and it is the official language of over 20 countries. So, it’s fair to say that learning some basic Spanish words or adding some extra Spanish words and phrases to your existing vocabulary is a useful exercise. There are 93,000 words in the Spanish dictionary :

(roughly half of the amount that there are in English)
with 75% of them descending from Latin
and others taking influence from Arabic, Italian and French.
There are also modern words such as ‘wi-fi’ and ‘internet’ which are broadly the same across the globe.

How to begin learning Spanish words | How to learn Spanish words and phrases

So, with 93,000 words to choose from, where do you begin to know which ones are most important to learn? The best place to start is with the most common Spanish words and phrases.

Learn basic Spanish words online. Useful Spanish phrases.

Greetings and basic questions. Phrases you would use for a weekend in a Spanish city to order food and drink. Questions and vocabulary to get around are a great place to begin learning Spanish. But it’s important to understand exactly what you are saying and how it is different from your language so that you begin to understand the structure of Spanish sentences.

Simply repeating phrase in its entirety without embedding its component parts will hinder your learning. So, for example if you break down ‘Quién es ese?’ which translates as ‘Who is that?’ you’ll realise that:

‘Quien’ means ‘Who’,
‘es’ means ‘is’
and ‘ese’ means ‘that’.

By understanding each word that makes up the phrase you broaden your knowledge of the language. Thus, you can apply ‘Quien’ to other Spanish phrases. So, if somebody asked you ‘Quien se sentó ahí?’ you already know that this is a question about a person.

The more words you learn, the more you are able to piece things together and understand new phrases you hear or read. If you’re planning a trip to a Spanish speaking country for work you might want to learn some other Spanish words and phrase for the workplace.

Common Spanish words — 300 Words Every Spanish Beginner Must Know

Do I need a tutor to learn Spanish words and phrases?

Of course, finding a Spanish tutor is the quickest way to learn the Spanish language. Also, apart from simply spending time in a remote part of Spain, it’s also the most reliable way of learning Spanish fast.

The internet has opened up language learning in a way that couldn’t have been comprehended 20 years ago and there are countless apps and websites that claim you can learn a language in just a matter of weeks. This is partly true and you can pick up some useful Spanish words in innovative ways. Nevertheless, with 93,000 of Spanish words to learn and practice, any more than the basics is ambitious bordering on being naïve.

Trying to learn more advanced Spanish phrases in context without the support of a professional Spanish tutor is likely to result in you making mistakes without even realising it. Self-studying is a great way up to a certain level, at which you start teaching yourself something that you don’t really know how it works.

How to learn Spanish with a tutor online. Spanish with native tutor. — Individual Spanish lesson by Skype with a native Spanish tutor.

A tutor will help you to learn the most common Spanish words and to understand how sentences are formed. This foundation is crucial if you want to grow your Spanish vocabulary to include more phrases and work ever closer to that magical 93,000 words!

Finding a Spanish tutor online

Why should I learn a language with a tutor?

Knowing how to pronounce Spanish words correctly is important for speaking and listening. If you teach yourself incorrectly, not only will you be difficult to understand, you won’t recognise Spanish words and phrases when they are spoken. A Spanish tutor will help you to pronounce Spanish words correctly. They will speak slower so that you start to understand the flow and rhythm of Spanish.

Spanish is considered difficult to learn, not because it has lots of words like Italian (which has 260,000!)! And not because it has complicated and illogical rules like English! But because when you actually visit a Spanish speaking country, the natives often speak so quickly that you find it difficult to process what they are saying. And yes! This is true.

Gaining a good understanding of the rhythm will help you in these situations and a tutor will gradually increase the pace at which they speak so you probably won’t even realise that you are becoming increasingly perceptive in picking up the language.

Online tutors can work around your schedule so you get the benefit of fitting studies into your hectic life while still receiving tuition from an expert.

Ana Belen Quesada – professional native Spanish tutor on Lonet.Academy

Spanish idioms | Surprise Spaniards

One of the most fun parts of learning any language is finding those idiosyncratic phrases which make no sense out of context. An example of this is ‘Comiendo moscas’ which translates directly as ‘Eating flies’ but is used colloquially to mean ‘Going off topic’.

Every language has them and Spanish is no exception. These types of strange Spanish phrases can’t be learnt any other way than by rote as the rules don’t apply to them. A Spanish tutor will introduce you to these phrases. Sure it’s a special moment when you are able to slip one into a conversation with a native speaker when you’re visiting Spain. Operating with idioms is a sign of high level of the language skills.

Spanish language is the second most popular language in the world, second only to Mandarin. But as Mandarin is not really spoken outside of China, Spanish is obviously the most important second language to learn. With a good grasp of basic Spanish, there are over 30 countries which become more pleasurable for you to visit. As Spanish language is either the first or second language, so you will be able to communicate with people, understand signs and generally feel more confident in yourself while abroad.

Book a trial lesson with one of our professional online tutors – they know how to learn Spanish Language fast.

Register here and go to your goals in interesting way with our Spanish language tutors. You’re not sure which tutor to take? Book a free consultation!

Want to try, but have no idea how it works? Read “How It Works“. It is so easy to register on Lonet.Academy and start learning Spanish language.