1. Spanish pronunciation is easy. Once you know how each letter is pronounced, it won't change. So learn the pronunciation of each letter as soon as possible. This way you will be able to pronounce every word perfectly.

2. Spanish nouns have two genders, feminine or masculine. Always learn a noun with its article. For instance learn 'el aceite', instead of 'aceite' (oil) alone. If you write new words down, use one color for feminine words and another one for masculine words.

3. Learn the numbers as soon as possible. We use numbers on many occasions (telephone numbers, the time, dates, buying things, etc). Do it in four chunks : one to ten; eleven to twenty; twenty-one to hundred; and two hundred to two thousand.

4. There are three types of regular verbs in Spanish. Learn them by using common verbs in English. I suggest 'speak' (hablar), 'eat' (comer) and 'receive' (recibir). Start with the present tense. You can also limit yourself to the 'I', 'we' and 'you polite' persons at the beginning.

5. Learn the basic verbs that we use in our own language all the time. I always suggest starting with twenty verbs: 'be', 'have', 'come', 'go', 'say', etc. All these verbs are irregular in Spanish: it's great to know you are learning difficult but useful verbs! Again start with the present tense and the 'I', 'we' and 'you polite' persons.

6. When you study new vocabulary, always associate a new word with a sentence. That way you will know in which context that particular word is used, and with a little chance you will have to look other words up in the dictionary. Remember : the more words you know, the better!

7. As soon as you can, start listening to texts in Spanish. It's one thing to know words separately, it's another to understand what someone tells you. The more you listen to the same text, the more sentences will get into your head. At the beginning you can watch dvd in Spanish with Spanish subtitles.

Patrick Wauthia
http://www.spanishwithpatrick.com