The SECRET to Speaking Spanish Fluently in 30 Days

What if I could show you a way to drastically improve your Spanish fluency in just 30 days? I'm talking about understanding almost everything that you hear in a Spanish conversation without years of study. Well, today I'm going to show you exactly how to do this just by focusing on 20% of Spanish. But what does that even mean? It means this, by the end of this video, if you work on just the topics that we covered today, you'll be able to hold your own in daily conversations. So let's get into it. On this channel, I make learning Spanish super simple so that you can speak it right away and with confidence. In today's video, we're going beyond boring textbooks and directly into an easy-to-follow workout that will even have you amazed at yourself just 30 days from now. You're going to learn the essential words, the grammar shortcuts, and powerful phrases that actually matter. So if you follow this five-step outline, you'll be finally speaking Spanish in real-life situations quickly and effectively. Up first, we've got high-frequency words. Here's a little-known fact. You don't need tens of thousands of words to be conversationally fluent in Spanish. I mean, do you know tens of thousands of words in English or whatever your native language is just to be able to hold on a day-to-day conversation? And you most definitely don't need a book of 500 verbs to be conversationally fluent in Spanish. Research shows that you only need to master about 1,000 words to be able to cover 80% to 85% of everyday conversation. I want you to think of these as your conversation superpowers. So the first thing I want you to make sure you know are your articles, definite, indefinite articles. Your el, la, los, las, un, una, unos, unas. If you know those first, that's a good foundation for you to start off at. El, la, los, and las are equal to the or the in un, una, unos, unas are equal to a, an, and some in English. I actually did a video on this and I'll link it up in the description below so that you can go and study that up as you follow these five steps to get you to that fluency level that much faster. And although these words are tiny, they show up everywhere. Next up for our high-frequency words, tenemos las preposiciones. Yes, those words that above a cloud, under a cloud, through a cloud, around a cloud, to the left of a cloud. You get the point. You got to know these words in Spanish to get the fluidity of your conversation going and to make sure you can connect your sentences that much easier. Estamos hablando de las palabras como a, de, en. These are the glue that connects your sentences. Once you master those, then we're moving on to our pronouns or more specifically, personal pronouns or aka subject pronouns. We're talking about yo, tú, él, ella, usted, nosotros, nosotras, ellos, ellas, ustedes, y no vamos a usar vosotros o vosotras porque ellos usan solamente en España. By using these pronouns, they let you talk clearly about yourself and others. Now, I know as we're going through this list, you're starting to rack up things and like say, oh, this is a lot. No te preocupes. At the end of this video, I've got a special surprise for you and I want you to stick around so you can find out what that is. Now, check this out. Just by adding over 800 common nouns and adjectives, and I'm talking simple words like familia, día, grande, you'll be set for most conversations. But here's the kicker. You must practice or better yet, find a way to implement what you're learning on a daily basis. I'll link it up in the description below so that you can check it out. So that way you can balance what you do in your normal daily routine and tie in using and practicing Espanol. But here I've got some quick ways for you to practice these words. You can use a flashcard system electronically or manually, whichever one you prefer, but you can use an electronic flashcard system like Anki or DuoCards. And make sure you commit to reviewing at least 25 new words each week. Check it out. Consistency in real life application will always outweigh quantity when it comes to speaking Spanish. If you're serious about learning Spanish and you want to become conversationally fluent, I want you to make sure you take into account I'm doing the same exact thing in my Spanish Made Simple Challenge, which is five days of five tiny steps that give you five big results. So make sure you click the link in the description below so that you can join us immediately. Up next, we've got the one constant everyone loves to hate, the essential grammar. But we're going to look at it from a standpoint of So in the beginning, you only need to know these six essential grammar capsules. The point of emphasis here is understanding the objective. And our objective is to become conversationally fluent or to get better at fluency in just 30 days. I want you to forget the complicated grammar rules and the conjugation charts that you see all over YouTube and that you see in the boring textbooks. We don't need any of that right now. Our point of emphasis is trying to get in the game of speaking Spanish as quickly as possible. If you focus on those complicated rules and those conjugation charts, it's going to do two things. It's going to confuse you and it's going to delay the outcome of you being able to speak Spanish fluently that much longer. So if we put the complicated rules and conjugation charts to the side, I want you to focus on these things right here. Present tense for everyday activities. Por ejemplo, yo hablo español. Tu habla ingles. El habla francés. Nosotros hablamos español. Ellos hablan japonés. Notice how we do everything in context because I don't want you looking at a chart and trying to remember, oh, this ending goes with that ending. I want you to be able to utilize what you see in a sentence or in chunks. So when you see yo hablo español, I want you to see it all the way through from left to right. The same with the other ones that we just went through. Chunk this information as opposed to trying to remember, okay, the yo goes with oh, the tu goes with us. You don't need all that. Just learn the entire sentence. You're old enough to do it. I know you can do three words. Yo hablo ingles. You can do that. There's no problem. In my eight strategies to becoming a better Spanish speaker ebook, I talk a lot about how to master this one concept that helps you become that more confident and that much of a better speaker in espanol. I'll link it up in the description below as well so you can check it out if you want to. Next up, we've got the simple past el pretérito for things you did or what I like to say completed actions in the past. Por ejemplo, ayer comí tacos. Tú comiste hamburguesas. Ella comió pizza. Nosotros comimos papas fritas. Ustedes comieron espagueti. Después del pretérito tenemos el imperfecto. Right after the preterite, we have the imperfect tense and we use the imperfect tense to talk about ongoing or habitual actions even for narrating stories in the past. A little bit different from el pretérito and I've got two videos on each of those separately that you can also use as backup to help you understand how to talk about el pasado en español. Entonces, con el imperfecto, miremos unos ejemplos con el imperfecto. Tú hablabas por teléfono cuando. You were speaking on the phone when and then of course something happens. Siempre yo comía panqueques para el desayuno. Cuando era niño, jugaba a fútbol. These are all examples of how you can use el imperfecto to talk about actions that occurred in the past or they're habitual or they're ongoing or you're describing something that occurred. There's also some key words that we have here in these sentences which we call adverbios or adverbs in inglés. Por ejemplo, siempre, always and then we have cuando era niño. That's a key phrase, a trigger phrase to know I need to talk about el imperfecto or use el imperfecto when I'm getting ready to tell the story. Cuando era niño, cuando era niña, when I was a little boy or when she was a little girl or if she's talking about herself when I was a little girl. So that phrase, cuando era niño or cuando era niña or de pequeño, de pequeña, as a child, when I was a kid. That's one of those chunk phrases that you have to remember and it gives off that notion of oh I need to use el imperfecto. Real quick, two things. I want to thank you personally for taking time to watch this video but did you know that over 76 percent of people who watch the videos here on Speak Spanish Now are not subscribed and there's a good chance that you could be one of them. So make sure you subscribe so you catch all of the fun tips, the creative strategies and easy to follow lessons. The second thing is that my Spanish Made Simple Challenge is coming up very soon and I want to make sure that you are a part of it. It's a five day challenge where I guide you through some of the basics of learning Spanish, key tactics and strategies I've used with my clients and students for over the last 24 years. But more importantly, I want to encourage you to register for the VIP experience where we will spend an additional hour addressing specific questions you may have as well as hands-on practice on how to properly listen, comprehend and speak the language. So use the link below to get registered for the Spanish Made Simple Challenge and I'll see you there. Now let's get back to the rest of the video. So if you think about order of operations, PEMDAS, remember that in math? I don't know if you're not, doesn't matter. But next up, we're going to talk about the near future or immediate future, things that are going to happen. Not necessarily I will eat spaghetti tonight, I'm going to eat spaghetti. There's a slight difference. Check it out. Near future basically talks about what you're going to do. Whichever word you use, there's a slight difference in regionalism Spanish where we use platos and just a little key thing for you to know. But I think everybody understands The fifth grammar capsule that we're going to cover is the present perfect. Now this may seem complex when you hear those words present perfect. It's basically you saying I have done something, you have done something, she has done something, we have done something, so on and so forth. Let's Yo he visto esa pelicula. I have seen that movie. This is a big one for me. Como has estado. Como has estado is like saying, how have you been? And that was one of the things that tripped me up when I studied abroad in Guadalajara many, many moons ago. And I went to a friend's house and her parents had said, Como has estado? Because I had never heard that as far as a greeting right after Hola o que onda. He said, Hola, como has estado? And I was, you know, deer in headlights. I don't even know what that means, but I had to put it together. How have you been? And so now I was able to understand that. Tu hermano se ha comido la pizza entera. Your brother has eaten the entire pizza. So we can understand that. Now that goes, there's a little bit more going into that one, but you'll work your way into that grammar capsule and understand it as you continue to focus on these different grammar capsules. So focus on the first one and go in order. Don't hop around. Start with the first one and then work your way down to the number five one, which is the present perfect. Up next, we have the last grammar capsule that you need to really focus on, which is el presente subjuntivo, which is a different mood. So we have a presente indicativo, which is the first grammar capsule, which is talking about statements and facts, things that definitely are going to occur. Y tambien tenemos presente subjuntivo. It's a mood. It's that gray area, that doubt, that denial, the uncertainty aspect. That's when you use el presente subjuntivo. It's very important that you understand this one and you can work your way into it if you work on these capsules in order. So what do we have here? Un ejemplo. Quiero que practiques tu español cada dia. I want you to practice your Spanish every day. How is this subjunctive? It's a subjective statement being made. Just because I want it to happen doesn't mean that you necessarily are going to do it. But I want you to. Quiero que practiques tu español cada dia. Now these grammar capsules are the meat and potatoes right here. I want you to practice just one capsule each week. If you use this gradual approach, it will keep you from being overwhelmed. But at the same time, your conversation power is going to rise. Up next, we've got my favorite power chunks and sentence frames. Don't get me wrong. Words are great, but phrases get you to fluency faster. I want you to think of it like this. Your phrases are like your Lego bricks. With just a handful, you can build endless sentences. Here are some power chunks that can get you started or some sentence frames that will help you understand what it is I'm talking about. Número uno. Quiero aprender más. Número dos. ¿Dónde está el baño? Número tres. Me encanta la música latina. Learn a few of these phrases each week and you'll soon notice your ability to converse skyrocketing. For the moon, baby! Now, let's supercharge your speaking and listening skills with three simple daily routines. I want you to listen daily to two short Spanish clips and then repeat them out loud. Y número dos, mi rutina favorita. Quick swap drills. This is basically your secret weapon for mental flexibility. All right, this one gets me super excited. It's only because you take a series of phrases, right? Por ejemplo, I have to or I want to blank. And then what you're going to do is you're going to figure out in your mind as many verbs in the infinitive form, el infinitivo, the basic form of the verb, and attach it to the phrase and then complete the sentence. Por ejemplo, quiero aprender, quiero estudiar, quiero escuchar, quiero vivir, quiero comer. You're going to go through those as quickly as possible in 60 seconds and do that on a daily basis. What that's going to do is to be able to let your mind go here, there, and everywhere. It's kind of like Neo in the Matrix, baby. Yeah. The game plan is essentially you want to be able to do at least 10 verbs in less than 60 seconds and do that on a daily basis. And you want to always use different frames like quiero and then an infinitive. Tengo que in an infinitive. Another one, me gusta in an infinitive. Me encanta. Find your frame and then work 10 verbs in so that you can understand how to do this and increase your mental flexibility. Let me know in the comments below, what are some sentence frames that you could use in this type of activity? Doing these quick swap drills helps to train your brain on understanding the plug and play of language in conversation. So over time, you'll be able to improvise without actually having to think of a phrase in Espanol, just like in real conversations, right? Now this next step is what I would call the Usain Bolt of all the steps. It's what we call fluency sprints. Now listen very closely. I only want you to do this once a week and most definitely work your way up to this. So I want you to start out small and then increase over weeks until you get to the point where you can do this 30 minutes straight. The idea in these fluency sprints is that you can speak nonstop for 30 minutes straight in Espanol. But what if I make mistakes? So the what? It doesn't matter. Who used to say that? Like the rock? It doesn't matter if you make mistakes. That's the point. Stay in the target language, which is Espanol. Some people call it stay in your lane. That's going to be your lane, staying in Espanol, no matter what. Even if you make a mistake, jump back in your lane and continue on your journey in Espanol. Always remember this, the mistakes don't matter. It's the fluency and flow, baby. So everything that we've gone through is essentially what I cover in our Spanish Made Simple challenge. In those five days that you're working with me, these are the same things that we're going through on a day one to day five situation. So you can get your strong, solid foundation and understanding how to work this out and then be able to do it on your own or continue to work with me, whichever one you want to do. So make sure you click the link below if you want to find out more information about my Spanish Made Simple challenge and I'll get that to you. So next up, we've got what we call cultural touch points. So to give you a more native and authentic sound in Spanish at a quicker rate, I want you to add in some cultural expressions. Como que onda wey, or que lo que, or chevere, or que lo que hay, or polite phrases like muchas gracias, or mil gracias, or no hay problema. These tiny touches of culture dramatically improve your perceived fluency and coincidentally improve your confidence in speaking Spanish. But before we land the plane, let's address some possible questions that you may have based on the information that we've covered today. Up first, tenemos la pregunta, how long will it take me to reach fluency using this method? Break down realistic timelines for daily or weekly commitment levels. For example, three months of consistent use equals confident conversations. Pregunta numero dos, where can I find the high frequency word list of the top 1,000 words in Spanish? I'm glad you asked. I've actually created a list for you and I'll link it up in the description below so that you can get the list plus everything that we talked about today. Pregunta numero tres, how do I know if I'm using the grammar capsules correctly? There are three key ways that you can make sure that you're using these correctly. One of my favorites is SpanishDick.com. I'll link it up in the description below, but you also, you can use tutors or tutors online. But the number one best effective way is to join my Speak Spanish Now community where we engage in these types of things on a daily basis. So I'll link that up in the description below as well. Pregunta numero cuatro, what's the best way to shadow Spanish if I'm a complete beginner? I recommend you start out with slow YouTube videos, songs with subtitles, or your own micro input clips that you find somewhere on the internet. Or you can work with me in the community and we'll work on that together. Pregunta numero cinco, how can I tell if I'm actually improving each week? If you haven't heard me talk about this before, I've often talked about using a one minute selfie video. Basically what you do in this video is you record yourself for about 60 seconds saying whatever phrase that you say in Espanol and then come back and do it each week or tack on a new phrase each week. As you go through this, your fluency and your flow will increase. Pregunta numero seis, what app or tools should I use for the quick swap drills? I would suggest using your notes app or some type of e-flash cards. But the number one best way is by clicking on the link below that's going to have not only the high word frequency list of the 1000 words, but it'll also have the quick swap drills and example of those as well for you. Pregunta numero siete, can I do this with only having 10 or 15 minutes a day of free time? This outline, this five step outline is exactly for that type of busy adult. Yes, 15 focused minutes is enough. Pregunta numero ocho, so what's the difference between this and traditional Spanish classes? Well, just like you remember us talking about it earlier, traditional classes focus on memorizing grammar rules and conjugation charts, not on real fluency. By doing it this way, you're output driven, not input driven. Pregunta numero nueve, how do I pick the right sentence frames to practice each week? You're in luck. I've actually got 20 to 30 there to get you started. In that link below with the word list, quick swap drills, you'll find that those sentence frames as well. Pregunta numero diez, what should I do if I feel stuck or frustrated halfway through? The first thing I want you to do is understand that that is a normal feeling. Don't let that feeling overwhelm you. Always go back and understand why it is that you're trying to become fluent in Espanol. Revisit your reason why and that's going to help you continue to press forward. Or just take a break. There's nothing wrong with taking a break. Just make sure you come back. But the number one way to stay encouraged and to stay on the right path to fluency is by joining Speak Spanish Now community. Make sure you click that link in the description below so you can find out more information about what it actually is. So what I'm prescribing to you after watching today's video is what I like to call the Rapid Fluency Action Plan. But before I give you the actual plan, I want you to do me one small favor. If you're finding value in today's video, make sure to give it a like and be sure to share it with someone that you know that may be able to benefit from what we've talked about today. So let's break down your Rapid Fluency Action Plan. Numero uno, learn, practice, and most importantly, implement 25 essential words on a weekly basis. Numero dos, drill one simple grammar capsule each week. Numero tres, memorize useful phrases consistently. Numero cuatro, spend 15 minutes each day on listening and speaking exercises. Numero cinco, reflect weekly with short videos tracking your improvement. But as we land the plane today, I want to leave you with a Profe Power Tip. And the Profe Power Tip is this. First off, I want you to treat your vocabulary, grammar, and phrases like the main ingredients. Use them repeatedly, mixing and matching them whenever possible. By doing this, it speeds up your fluency dramatically. And of course, at the end, when you take it out of the oven, you've got your fluency masterpiece. But if you want to add some sides to your main dish, check out this video right here that shows you how to start a conversation in Spanish from scratch. And I'll meet you over there. Soy Profe Don Omar, your guide on how to speak Spanish now. Nos vemos.