Contents of each lesson in the Language Transfer Spanish course

Language Transfer is a great, free audio course that teaches Spanish from beginner level.

In the app Spoken you can practice the vocabulary and grammar that you cover in each Language Transfer lesson. (Go to the Playlists tab and scroll to the bottom.)

Track 1

We don’t learn any Spanish in this track. It explains the method for using a Language Transfer course.

It emphasizes learning through 'the thinking method', which focuses on understanding and constructing sentences rather than memorisation or note-taking.

Even though this track doesn’t cover any Spanish words, it’s very useful to listen to to get a good introduction for how to use the course.

Track 2

The first proper lesson.

It explains how English and Spanish share many Latin-based words, making it easy to convert English vocabulary into Spanish (e.g., normal → normal, metal → metal). However, stress patterns differ - Spanish often stresses the final syllable.

We learn the 5 correct vowel sounds for a natural accent.

The verb es means “is” (he/she/it/you formal are), and combining it with vocabulary allows phrases like "es normal" or "no es ideal".

We practice converting words ending in -al (legal, natural, cultural, etc.) and learn that guessing vocabulary from Latin roots helps build fluency.

Track 3

We build on es (“is”) to make sentences with more convertible words.

We see that English words ending in -ant or -ent usually become Spanish by adding -e (important → importante). Adding -mente forms adverbs like "constantemente" or "normalmente".

We learn that the English /j/ sound often becomes the Spanish /kh/ sound (general → general, generalmente).

Words ending in -able or -ible often convert too (possible → posible, probable → probable, probablemente).

We practice stress placement and pronunciation. Finally, we note that experimenting with these rules gives us thousands of usable Spanish words.

Track 4

We practice using quiero (I want) and no quiero (I don’t want) to form sentences.

Words ending in -ion convert directly into Spanish with the stress on the last syllable (opinión, pasión) and many of these nouns can be used to create verbs by replacing -ción with -r (preparar, confirmar, cancelar).

We also see how me attaches to verbs for reflexive forms (quiero prepararme = I want to get ready).

Track 5

We learn that yo means “I” but is only used for emphasis (yo quiero).

We practice building sentences with quiero and no quiero, including reflexive forms (quiero informarme).

We use the object pronounste (you) and lo (it/him) in sentences like no quiero obligarte or quiero salvarlo.

We explore words ending in -ción that form verbs by switching to -ar (celebración → celebrar, cancelación → cancelar).

We also study the rolled Spanish r.

Finally, we learn the -ence → -encia and -ance → -ancia rule (diferencia, influencia, existencia).

Track 6

We learn that intento means “I try” or “I’m trying,” and we practice sentences like Intento publicarlo and Intento imitarlo.

We learn that h in Spanish is silent except in ch, so words like hospital, horrible, and ahora drop the h sound.

We learn ahora means “now” and, for the first time, start to build much longer sentences like Quiero cancelarlo pero no quiero cancelarlo ahora.

We learn voy (“I go” or “I’m going”) and note the soft “b” sound of Spanish v, practicing words like vamos, visitar, visible, viral, virus, and conveniente.

Track 7

We think more about how to convert various English words to Spanish.

We build more sentences using the verbs quiero and intento, such as Quiero continuar and Intento continuar.

We learn how to use voy a (“I’m going to”) to talk about the future.

We learn pronouns that mean “it” and we use algo for “something”.

We note that verbs of movement like pasar need a afterwards.

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