Some people learning Spanish seem to do fine until they have to start learning the verb form known as the subjunctive mood. This introduction to the subjunctive mood explains how ... Read More

Atrás and detrás can be easily confused: Similar in sound, both conveying the idea of "behind," the adverbs are sometimes (especially in Latin America) interchangeable. But they also have distinct ... Read More

Spanish continues to be the No. 3 language on the Internet, according to a report, La Sociedad en Red, presented at a press conference in Madrid under the auspices of ... Read More

It's a question that has come up in e-mail and on our forum: If you're talking about an e-mail address in Spanish, how to you say @? The answer comes ... Read More

Go to just about anywhere that Spanish is spoken, and if you start talking using measurements such as pulgadas (inches) and pies (feet), you very likely won't be understood. Before ... Read More

It's common knowledge that Spanish is the main language of Spain and of most of Latin America. However, there are a few other countries as well that use Spanish, either ... Read More

Here's some trivia for you: The Ñ is the only letter in the Spanish alphabet that originated in Spanish. From there it has spread to at least four other languages: ... Read More

The Spanish future tense isn't always used to talk about events that will or might happen in the future. As in English, it also can be used to give stern ... Read More

From the forum: "I was wondering if people could share what has helped them to improve their listening comprehension. I find that mine fluctuates and I get frustrated ... Read More

If you're a beginning Spanish student, you learn fairly early about a verb's properties such as tense, its person (first, second or third) and number (singular or plural). One of ... Read More

Verbs that don't stand alone, ones that need another verb to function, are known as auxiliary verbs. For example, the he in "he hablado" is an example of an auxiliary ... Read More

Most clauses that begin with si (the equivalent of "if") are what is known as conditional clauses. Which verb you use as part of that clause depends a great deal ... Read More

Pensar is the verb that is used most often to mean the same as "to think." However, it also has other meanings — such as to hold an opinion and ... Read More

Both the verbs estar and haber can be used to indicate the presence of a person or thing. However, they are seldom interchangeable. The difference is that haber, typically in ... Read More

In some words, such as maestro, two vowels next to each other form separate syllables. But in others, such as muestro, they form a single syllable. The difference is one ... Read More

The gerund is sometimes defined as a verb form that can be used as a noun, such as the word "smoking" in the sentence "smoking is bad for your health." ... Read More

Like many common verbs, volver has more than one meaning. Its most common meaning is "to return," but it can also mean to turn something, or even to ... Read More

Although you might know that the Spanish prefix con- typically means "with," that doesn't necessarily mean you can readily figure out how it changes the meaning of a word. A good ... Read More

Gustar is one of those verbs that can be confusing to Spanish students, mostly because they want it to behave like an English verb. What makes gustar unusual is that ... Read More

Like many other verbs, dejar has a basic meaning — in this case, to leave something somewhere — that has broadened over the centuries to be used under a wide ... Read More

Would you want your daughter to grow up to be a diva? Perhaps not: Although in English the word "diva" originally referred to a leading opera singer, and frequently still ... Read More

Not everything we say is used to convey information directly. Often, we use phrases to introduce what we're about to say, to help give the language a natural flow. Today's ... Read More