Once you have learned the basics of Spanish, you will want to improve your Spanish vocabulary. This will set you apart as a confident speaker. I will describe different approaches you can take and some tricks to make building your vocabulary easy.

The best way to learn Spanish is to spend a large amounts of time in a Spanish-speaking country. This is not practical, for the most part, but you can try to simulate this by exposing yourself to Spanish language media, such as books, television, or music. Television and movies are a good option, because you can often guess what words mean from context. If you can watch a movie with subtitles, this can further help you guess the meaning.

Reading a Spanish newspaper or simple websites are another good option. If you are reading an article about your favorite topic, such as a tennis tournament, you can pick up a lot of the specialized terms from the context of the article as well. Find a Spanish article related to a topic with vocabulary that interests you. Another trick is to find an English website, than use an online translation tool to view to site in Spanish. The translation is crude, but the side-by-side English and Spanish sites will help you learn new words.

The classic academic way to learn vocabulary is to use flashcards. You write the English word on one side of the card and the corresponding Spanish word on the other. You run through the stack looking at either the English or Spanish side, and try to guess the word on the other side. Then, shuffle the cards and repeat. This exercise (and practicing a language, in general) works well with a partner.

You can frequently use your existing vocabulary in English and Spanish to build up a new vocabulary as you encounter unfamiliar words. Pay attention to word roots, prefixes, and suffixes. For example, if you know that the verb "comer" means "to eat", you might guess that "comida" means "food" or "meal". Likewise, say you come upon the unfamiliar word "biblioteca". You might already know that a "discoteca" is a place for dancing. From English, you might know that the word "bibliography" has to do with books or works cited. Than, you might be able to guess that a "biblioteca" is a place related to books - in fact it means "library".

These techniques can expand your vocabulary very quickly. The most important point is to practice, practice, and practice. You will find that once you master a critical number of words, your fluency and confidence when speaking Spanish will reach amazing new levels.

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