Can You Learn Spanish in 3 Months? And In 1 Month?

Learning a Language is Scary

Leaning a new language can be highly intimidating no matter who you are, as there are so many new words, grammatical structures, and unique pronunciations that one has to take into consideration.

One of the most intimidating factors of learning a language is the time commitment; it takes some people a year or sometimes years to become fluent in a language and in today's hectic world most people do not have years to give to learning one skill.

So what if you do not have that kind of time? Maybe you are going on a trip to Spain in just a few short months and need to be able to communicate with the locals.

Perhaps you want to know another language but can not see yourself giving up that kind of time. Is it possible to learn a language in three months? Or even a month?

The quick answer is yes.

Now let me explain.

Can You Learn Spanish in 90 Days?

In almost every language there are about 2,500 that make up 95% of words you would hear in day to day conversations, and you really only need to know 1000 to have a 90% understanding of Spanish

To put that into perspective, in the Oxford Spanish Dictionary there are over 300.000 words and phrases, you only need to know 2500 of those for conversational fluency.

All of a sudden that 2500 is not sounding too bad. The task of learning a language becomes a lot less daunting with those statistics.

 You do not need to buy a Spanish or French or German dictionary and memorize every word from A to Z to become fluent enough in a language.

Instead, you can browse around our site and find resources that will make learning a language a much more time-efficient activity, teaching you the most common words first.

How To Learn Spanish in 3 Months

So 2500 words standing between you and communication with a whole new group of people. What does that look like when trying to learn a language in three months, or even less time a month?

If you have three months, dive right in. Begin to put to memory those 2500 words. You need to learn a little more than 25 words a day to memorize all 2,500 words in three months.

If you want to understand 95% of all daily spoken Spanish in 3 months, you would need to learn 27.8 words per day.

You may be thinking about all those words you try to learn in your native tongue that do not stick. A word you read or heard that you looked up and then tried to put to memory for future reference, and then the word comes up again later, and you have no memory of what it meant.

So how are you going to learn over 25 new words, in a new language every day if you struggle to put one word in your native language into your long term memory?

The good news is, it is a very different memory act you are completing.

When trying to learn a new word in English, or whatever your native language is, you not only have to put the spelling or pronunciation of the word to your memory, you have to learn an entirely new meaning.

When learning the most common 2500 words of a language, you already know the meaning; all you have to do is memorize the spelling/pronunciation. It is half the work and so much easier.

For example, if you wanted to learn the word voluptuous in English, you not only have to memorize what the spelling of the word is and what it sounds like, you have to learn the meaning. Two separate things to put to memory, twice the work as one thing.

On the other hand, if you wanted to learn Spanish and were trying to learn red, you already know what red is, you do not have to learn that.

Your child/toddler self already did that for you. All you have to do is learn the new pronunciation for the same meaning: rojo. Because of this, learning 2500 words in three months is totally doable, you can do this.

Can You Learn Spanish in 1 Month?

For those of you who want to learn a language in one month instead of three, you have a few options.

You can sit down and put in the work to learn the top 2500 most common Spanish words, but you could also sacrifice 5% of communication and learn the top 1000 words instead.

You will still have to do a little more work than the people who have three months, about 33 words per day, but it is totally possible for you to do.

No matter the time frame you have, you have the ability to learn enough words to make communication simple.

Beyond Words (A Bit On Learning Grammar)

You will need to know some grammar. But is a fact, widely recognized by everyone but your high-school language teacher, that grammar is not nearly as important as vocabulary.

Try having a conversation while knowing almost all grammar rules perfectly and knowing little vocabulary, versus holding a conversation while knowing little grammar but with sufficient vocabulary knowledge.

If you’re not a native speaker, no-one is going to care that you messed up a preposition or used the wrong auxiliary verb. You’ll figure it out later anyway, or you won’t.  

If you have lots of extra time or if you are just a really scheduled and determined learning, you may want to take your initial language acquirement passed the first 2500 words.

While if you have this kind of time or determination, you could just add more words, learn more of them, and increase your communication percentage, there is another option beyond the words.

Once you have enough of the words and their meanings memorized, it is possible to move beyond the words into grammar and syntax.

This will set you apart from other newbie speakers as you will not only have the words for effective communication but know how to string them together into a grammatically correct and sensical sentence because every language's grammar is different and knowing them significantly aids in communication.

If you do not have the time, do not worry. Grammar is not required to understand someone and native speakers or other people you may try to communicate with will be able to figure out what you are saying, but if you do have the time, learning just a tiny portion of a language's grammar will upgrade your speaking significantly.

In conclusion, no matter your time availability, you have the ability to learn how to communicate in a whole new way! You got this, so why not start today. If .you are looking for an excellent place to begin, take a look at our Spanish frequency dictionaries.



Do you have any questions or comments? Let us know below!