Easy-to-Learn
"Talk sometimes in a foreign language, not to forget how bad you know it."
- Boleslav Paszkowski
Languages
SPANISH
The Coat of Arms
of the Kingdom of Spain
The current coat of arms of Spain, although it has its roots centuries ago, was approved by law in 1981.
"They say you fear what you don't understand. Maybe that's why every time I'm in South Florida, and I hear someone talking in Spanish, I always shit my pants."
- Jarod Kintz, It Occurred to Me
Spain is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea and Gibraltar; to the north and northeast by France, Andorra, and the Bay of Biscay; and to the west and northwest by Portugal and the Atlantic Ocean.
A few Funny Facts
about Spain
and the Spanish language
1. Only 72% of Spaniards speak Spanish as their first language.
2. The name Spain diverged from the word Hispania, which means the land of rabbits.
3. The Spanish national anthem has no words.
4. In September 2010, a middle-aged housewife from a nowhere town in Spain claimed legal ownership of the sun.
5. The Eiffel Tower was originally intended for Barcelona but the project was rejected.
6. There are no laws against public nudity in Spain.
7. The Spaniards aren’t known for very many inventions…but they did invent the mop and Chupa Chups.
Content
Pronunciation
of Spanish Vowels and Consonants
A Table of Vowels with pronunciations
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A Table of Consonants with pronunciations (from b to r)
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A Table of Consonants with pronunciations (from s to tz)
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Spanish (Español)
With 329 million native speakers, Spanish ranks as the world's No. 2 language in terms of how many people speak it as their first language. It is slightly ahead of English (328 million) but far behind Chinese (1.2 billion).
Although there is no clear boundary defining when the Latin of what is now the north-central area of Spain became Spanish, it is safe to say that the language of the Castile region became a distinct language in part because of efforts by King Alfonso in the 13th century to standardize the language for official use.
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