So, you have decided to learn Spanish! Spanish is a beautiful and incredibly useful language to study and use. It has an interesting history and has secured a solid place in the business world of the near future. Indeed, by 2050, there are predicted to be 600 million Spanish speakers worldwide. Hopefully with a bit of patience and dedication you will form part of this Hispanic phenomenon. If you want Spanish classes, ¡is a good idea, and this is the best school!
Here are some fun facts and curious figures to get you thinking and inspired un poquito….
- Spanish is the second largest native language in the world.
- It´s also the second most studied language in the world right now… so you have made an excellent choice… ;)
- According to leading experts in linguistics, Spanish is one of the easiest languages to learn for English speakers. With a 22 to 24 weeks intensive course it is indeed possible to achieve general professional fluency. So open that libro!
- Luckily, Spanish is a phonetic language. You will sure be glad of it! This basically means that words in the Spanish Language are written (nearly) exactly as they are pronounced. You will be able to pronounce words in Spanish excellently during the learning process without even knowing their meaning! Spanish pronunciation also only contains 10 vowel sounds, half of that of the English language. Simple and sweet. Vamos!
- Things aren’t that simple though… ;) The largest word in Spanish, a medical term, is that of esternocleidomastoideo. No, gracias!
- In addition, 70 % of Spanish words are of Latin origin. Spanish forms part of the Romance languages group…
- However, that said…Spanish has a pertinent Arabic influence! Due to the Moorish invasion that lasted for around nine whole centuries, it’s not surprising the español has an exotic side… After Latin, Arabic is the language with the most influence on the Spanish language with around 4,000 words of Arabic origin which makes up around 8% of the language as a whole. Increíble, you say?
- Spanish words often also contain accents. This is for two reasons. Firstly, accents can be used to mark the emphasis of a particular word. Moreover, accents can be used to differentiate between identically-spelled words.
- Grammar, grammar and much más grammar! Taking into account the indicative, subjunctive and imperative moods, there are a whopping 17 verb tenses in the Spanish language!
- The letter ñ is also the only Spanish letter of the alphabet with Spanish origin.
- English and Spanish share plenty of false friends that could lead to a sticky situation and give you a good dinner party tale to tell. (Embarazada means pregnant, not embarrassed) but you might end up with a red face either way if you mix them up)!
- The Spanish verb ending -ear is used for technology-based anglicisms to create a Spanish equivalent (chatear for internet chat…skypear for Skype)….
- Interestingly, Spanish isn’t the only language spoken in Spain. There are three other languages; Basque, Galician and Catalan!
- All-in-all Spanish has an abundance of uses in the workplace and for leisure. Get learning and make the most of this unique language with an ample size of curiositie.
