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The passive voice in Spanish is one of those strange grammatical expressions that strikes fear into the best of us. The truth of the matter is that one of the challenges of learning a language, be it Spanish or any other, is actually understanding your own grammar.

We have found over the years that around 80% of our beginner students are confused about verbs, nouns and adjectives. Imagine what happens once they begin to stumble across the imperfect subjunctive, the pluperfect and the conditional! ¡Flipan en colores!

The ironic thing is that we all use these tenses every day of our lives without thinking twice about it. All that we are really missing is to recognise what we are saying and to put a name to it.

The Passive Voice is one of these ways of speaking that is VERY English and although Spanish speakers do use it, it rarely appears in spoken speech.

Listen in to this podcast to firstly find out what the passive voice in Spanish is and then to discover how to avoid using it. As this is probably one of the most common mistakes made by English speaking students, it’s “imprescindible” that you get to grips with how it works and the tricks that exist to get around it.

With every podcast we offer additional information and guidance in the comprehensive Spanish help-sheets that have been designed to give you a deeper understanding of the subjects we discuss. You can download a free sample to see if they are value for money. You won’t be disappointed.

Video for This Spanish Lesson

Audio for This Spanish Lesson

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:38 — 9.7MB)

In this free Spanish lesson online, we look at “se”.

Well, what can we say about “se”? If you’ve spent any time studying the Spanish language you will have noticed that it quite literally pops up all over in the Spanish language.

It has been said that SE is a little overused and, for students, it can cause a great deal of confusion looking at it in a sentence and trying to decide if it’s being used as a reflexive pronoun, an indirect object pronoun or simply one of the many other little jobs it has been given.

In this podcast we run through all the uses of this pronoun and offer you some practical examples of how you can successfully use it in conversation.

Of course, in ten minutes it isn’t so easy to go into the depth that this subject demands and so we have worked hard to include all the additional information and guidance in the comprehensive Spanish worksheets that can be downloaded from our website. Esperamos que os gusten.

Video for This Spanish Lesson

Audio for This Spanish Lesson

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:21 — 9.5MB)

In this episode of the podcast, we offer you the listeners some incredibly useful tips for learning Spanish.

If you have been learning the language for any length of time, you will have realised that there is so much more involved in becoming fluent than many people realise. In fact, many of the people who begin learning Spanish have the naive idea that within a handful of months they will have it totally “dominado”.

What makes matters worse is that the internet is filled with incredible claims of becoming “fluent in a weekend”, or they tell you that to be fluent you just need to learn 500 words. All of these promises rarely deliver and often leave you feeling inadequate and “not as good” as the others who became fluent in 48 hours.

We suggest that the word “fluent” is totally subjective and that learning to be “fluently crap” in Spanish is useful to “nadie”.

Take it from us, although there are ways of speeding up your learning, anyone who tells you that in a matter of hours you can learn to speak like a native any language is “mintiendo descaradamente.”

Listen in to this podcast as we offer you some genuine ‘consejos’ that will really speed up your learning. The fact is, if you really want to speak Spanish well there are some things that you just have to do!

Of course, all the additional information, guidance, and tips for learning Spanish can be found in the comprehensive Spanish worksheets that we have here on the site.

Video for This Spanish Lesson

Audio for This Spanish Lesson

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:38 — 9.7MB)

So, what are the direct and indirect objects in spanish for goodness sake? And how on earth do you use them? All good questions, these.

You might just know some of them already: ME, TE, NOS, OS, LE/LO etc.

Well, firstly, it’s important to highlight that there are many differing opinions on the correct usage of these pronouns. In mainland Spain, the majority of Spanish speakers are what are called “leístas” and to make matters worse, they are “laístas”, too.

Don’t worry, however, it’s not as bad as it seems. In this free Spanish language podcast we walk you through the practical ways in which these are used.

So, come and join us in this lesson as we run through the correct way to use these pronouns. And we’ll tell you what they are, of course.

Bear in mind that you can’t speak Spanish without them! Or rather, you can, but you wouldn’t want to.

In just ten minutes it’s virtually impossible to do justice to as broad a subject as direct and indirect objects in Spanish and for that reason we have included a wide range of clear and concise explanations in the comprehensive Spanish help sheets. Esperamos que os sirvan.

Video for This Spanish Lesson

Audio for This Spanish Lesson

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:16 — 9.4MB)

Following on from the previous podcast on indirect object pronouns (IOPs, for short) and their use, we now cover double pronouns in Spanish, or the redundant use of IOPs. What, we hear you ask, is that? Well, unknown to most students are a list of verbs that require the IOP even when the name of the person receiving the action is mentioned.

Because this is not as commonly known as it should be it often causes massive confusion to students. (This is what happened to me, Gordon, when I heard sentences like, “Le dije a mi madre que…”)

Listen in to this free Spanish podcast and discover what this is all about and take your abilities with the language to new levels. Until you understand this fully and can incorporate the rule into your spoken Spanish, it’s probable that you will frequently make this mistake.

“Venga”, let’s get this sorted “¡de una vez!”

Of course, a full transcription, translation and lots of useful notes about this podcast can be found in the ever-useful Spanish help-sheets that also include a list along with working examples of the verbs that require the IOPs.

You won’t be disappointed! Have a listen!

Video for This Spanish Lesson

Audio for This Spanish Lesson

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:09 — 9.3MB)