SpanishPod101.com Blog

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

Every month, we are giving away great SpanishPod101.com prizes to 4 lucky listeners. Sign up to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or SpanishPod101.com to be eligible to win. Increase your chances of winning by following us on all three sites! Here are February's winners: Facebook: Ashley Gelpi Youtube: HeartlessAngelD Twitter: travelojos SpanishPod101: ysolberg See your name here? Email us at contactus@spanishpod101.com to claim your prize. Check back next month for March`s winners!

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

Every month, we are giving away great SpanishPod101.com prizes to 4 lucky listeners. Sign up to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or SpanishPod101.com to be eligible to win. Increase your chances of winning by following us on all four sites! Here are January's winners: Facebook: Sara Schaub Youtube: nKATHY7 Twitter: zonjineko SpanishPod101: serena07 See your name here? Email us at contactus@SpanishPod101.com to claim your prize. Check back next month for February's winners!

Every month, we are giving away great SpanishPod101.com prizes to 4 lucky listeners. Sign up to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or SpanishPod101.com to be eligible to win. Increase your chances of winning by following us on all four sites! Here are December's winners: Facebook: Rosalind Derksen Youtube: erinachan413 Twitter: AnnaMarie6695 SpanishPod101: plojer See your name here? Email us at contactus@SpanishPod101.com to claim your prize. Check back next month for January's winners!

Every month, we are giving away great SpanishPod101.com prizes to 4 lucky listeners. Sign up to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or SpanishPod101.com to be eligible to win. Increase your chances of winning by following us on all four sites! Here are November's winners: Facebook: Mohamed Beko Youtube: migfer82 Twitter:  gorillachild SpanishPod101: hanabi See your name here? Email us at contactus@SpanishPod101.com to claim your prize. Check back next month for December's winners!

1. Get serious about Spanish with The Ultimate Getting Started Spanish Package - Limited Time Offer! Stop by SpanishPod101.com/ULTIMATE to find out more. 2. Happy Thanksgiving! We want to say "Thank you" for listening to SpanishPod101.com! Use coupon code THANKS09 by November 26th and save 26% off any basic or premium subscription today! Click here to redeem this incredible, limited time offer today! 3. Best Lessons and Blog Entries for November!  - Find out what’s popular this month! The blog has some great content for you to see. Welcome to the SpanishPod101.com newsletter. These periodic newsletters will deliver  to  you  all  the  exciting developments that are going on at SpanishPod101.com.  With  each  issue,  you ... Show more