Ok, I’m going to start a list of YouTube Spanish lessons I recommend, that is to say YouTube channels that teach Spanish and, in my opinion, do a good job of it.  This list will be continually updated and maintained (as it will need to be in order to remain current and useful) in the same vein as my list of websites where you can watch Spanish videos that have Spanish subtitles (or transcripts).  That list was first published back in 2012 but has been updated many times since then to include new sites and remove old, defunct ones.  This will work the same way.

These will be channels specifically designed and intended to teach Spanish or at least to help people learn Spanish.  This includes not just

channels directly teaching Spanish (e.g. grammar lessons) but also those where the Spanish is intentionally spoken in such a way as to make it easier for non-native speakers to understand (slower than normal, avoids complex, less common words and syntax).

These channels will not be ordered in any particular way.  I’ll provide a short description and reason for why I like them along with a single video from their channel that I think does a good job of representing them.  Let’s get started.

Señor Jordan

This is a long-time favorite of mine, and what’s nice is that he’s been around forever and still consistently puts out videos.  The amount of content he offers is enormous.  He’s a Spanish teacher (no idea what level, I’m guessing middle/high school) who just makes videos over his summer break.  He’s been doing this so long (since 2007) that at this point he’s covered the overwhelming majority of commonly used Spanish.  Nearly any topic you’d like to learn about, he’s got a video on it.

He picks a single topic for each video and does an excellent job of explaining it.  His explanations are clear, slow, and include lots of examples and visuals to help you remember the material.  Check out his video below about the present perfect in Spanish to see what I mean:

Since YouTube’s not great at organizing large volumes of videos like what he has, I strongly recommend you go to this page on his website where he’s done it for you.  The videos are primarily organized by level – for the student – such as “basics”, “advanced”, and “more advanced”.  Oh, and I should point out that his Spanish is almost entirely Latin American (principally Mexican), where that makes a difference (rarely, except in pronunciation).  If you’re a beginner it doesn’t much matter which dialect you start with because the basics of a language are almost completely the same throughout the various dialects (if there were major differences then they wouldn’t be two dialects of one language but two different languages altogether).

Spanish Sessions

She’s a teacher at a Spanish school (that is, a school for foreigners that teaches Spanish) in Madrid.  She’s a native speaker (unlike Señor Jordan), and obviously the Spanish she teaches is the Iberian dialect, specifically that from Madrid.  What I like about her is that she not only speaks slowly and clearly, and provides Spanish subtitles for all her videos, but especially that she makes most of her videos out of lessons with actual students.  That is, you learn a concept along with the student she’s teaching who is also learning it, that way the tempo of the instruction is matched to that of such a student, plus they tend to ask the same questions and have the same problems that you likely will have.

Check out her video about tan/tanto to see what I mean:

SpanishDict

Yes, the dictionary.  They have their own YouTube channel where they’ve put a lot of fairly high-quality content, mostly about various grammar concepts and common phrases.  I will warn you that most of their videos are fairly old and as such the audio and video quality is not so great, but the explanations are pretty good.  The below video illustrates this (yeah, that’s 240p):

Butterfly Spanish

These are much more recent/modern, and very well-made.  God does she love her whiteboard, though (not criticizing).  She’s a native speaker, Latin American, though I’m not sure from which country.  She’s covered a ton of topics already, explains things slowly and comprehensively, and does so mostly in English (though I notice that subtitles are provided for when she speaks Spanish!  excellent!).  Check out this video on describing how you feel in Spanish:

SpanishWithPaul

He’s a native English speaker living in (I believe) Spain at the moment.  He makes fairly long videos (30-45mins) explaining various Spanish concepts, principally using very simple, Powerpoint-like graphics.  He does a good job of explaining things though and people seem to think he’s a very good teacher.  See his explanation of the preterite tense in Spanish below for an example:

SpanishPod101

Yes, the professional podcasting company.  For what it’s worth, by the way, I think their podcast lessons are excellent and it’s absolutely worth the money to get a membership.

They tend to focus more on how to say various common phrases, expressions, how to talk about certain subjects and events (New Years, your birthday, vegetables, vehicles, “kitchen vocabulary”, etc.), than grammar – if you’re looking for YouTube Spanish lessons for beginners this is an excellent choice.  This is what some people prefer so it’s a nice change from most of the rest that do largely focus on grammar.  Check out their video below on fruit to see what I mean:

Professor Jason

I’ve just spent nearly an hour watching this guy’s videos and I’m pretty impressed overall, but I will add the significant forewarning that his style definitely will not suit some people: it’s very grammar-oriented and he presumes that you already know all the relevant grammatical terminology that he uses (e.g. “dependent clause”, “relative pronoun”, “modal verb”, “imperfect tense”, etc.).

Other than that, I must say that he does an excellent and thorough job of explaining the concepts that he does.  His videos tend to be long (20-40 minutes) but given what they’re about that’s a good thing, even a necessary one I would say.  The concepts he discusses are complex and cover a lot of ground, they need time and plenty of examples to be explained properly.  When you finish one of his videos you’ll feel like you not only have a good understanding of the topic discussed but also like it’s had a chance to sink in fairly well, not like it wasn’t just crammed down your throat as quickly as possible.

Check out his video below about the differences between aquí, acá, allí, and allá for an excellent example of what I’m talking about: it’s thirty minutes long but is probably the best video you can find online about this topic.

 Español en Episodios

This is one of those series like Destinos or Extr@ that’s formulated to help people learn Spanish, so they speak slowly and clearly and at a level slightly below what adults normally would.  They do seem to offer a transcription they’ll email you, but they want a small donation for it.  Have a look at the first episode:

Spanishland School

This is a channel run by a Colombian lady who operates a Spanish school specifically for intermediate and advanced students.  The videos are very well done with explanations in English, e.g. the following about Colombian slang:

Dreaming Spanish

This is a really interesting channel, his method reminds me of that of Ramses who used to do a blog called “Spanish Only”: he really emphasizes listening first, that is to say a sort of “silent period”, as it’s been called, where you just listen to the language and don’t try to speak it.  Whether you agree with this or not (I don’t), you should really give his channel a shot because he speaks very clearly and only somewhat slowly (not so much that it’s silly or annoying).  The topics of his videos range from language-learning advice and techniques to history to scenarios such as how to deal with a taxi in Spanish.

The sample video is below but if you’re interested in learning more about this method, here’s a blog post on it by a redditor who commented on the submission of this channel in the /r/LanguageLearning subreddit (highly recommended if you’re on reddit).

An excllent Spanish course based on video and audio lessons, focuses on teaching you to speak conversational Spanish…

I really recommend you check out my review of Rocket Spanish, it might be a good choice for you considering the article you just finished reading: it’s quite affordable given what you get, it’s online so you just log into their site from your web browser and start the lessons, the lessons are based on videos and audio recordings of native speakers who teach natural, everyday, conversational Spanish, not some boring, technical textbook.  I also talk about who it isn’t for, what some of its problems are, etc., so if you’re considering it and want a critical review please have a look.

Additional Resources and Further Reading

I have a whole category devoted to learning Spanish from YouTube you should check out, it’s full of posts you’ll find useful: Learn Spanish on YouTube: Recommended Channels, How to Do It, Lessons Based on YouTube Videos.

I particularly recommend you have a look at the following related posts:

• Spanish-Speaking YouTubers Who Are Excellent for Intermediate Spanish Practice (not lessons, intended for native speakers, great for improving listening comprehension)
• List of Sites Where You Can Watch Spanish Videos with Spanish Subtitles or Transcripts Online
• List of Best Sites to Watch Spanish-Language TV/Videos Online (most are free to use)

Also see:

11 Awesome Channels to Learn Spanish on YouTube, by FluentU (good blog, excellent language-learning service, check it out).

The 17 Best YouTube Channels to Learn Spanish.  Solid list, a few that are present here and few that aren’t.

Ok, hope that was helpful to you all.  Please, if you know of a YouTube channel that wasn’t on this list and you think it should be, tell me in the comments!  I’m happy to check it out and add it to my list of YouTube Spanish lessons if I think it ought to be here.  Also…  If you thought the above was at all useful and you want to learn (or are learning) Spanish, please give me a chance and read what I have to say about my book below!  Thank you so much for checking out my blog and I hope you’ve enjoyed my writing.

I learned to speak conversational Spanish in six months using TV shows, movies, and even comics: I then wrote a book on how you can, too

I have a whole method and a book I wrote about it called The Telenovela Method where I teach you how to learn Spanish from popular media like TV shows, movies, music, books, etc. that you can all find online for free.  It was the #1 new release in the Spanish Language Instruction section on Amazon for nearly a month after it came out and currently has 17 reviews there with a 4.9/5 stars average.  It’s available for $7.99-$9.99 for the e-book version depending on who you buy it from (Kindle version on Amazon is now $7.99) and $16.99 for the paperback (occasionally a bit cheaper, again, depending on who you buy it from).

It’s currently available in both e-book and paperback from:

• Amazon
• iBooks (the iTunes store)
• Kobo
• Barnes & Noble
• Google Play Store
• Goodreads
• Scribd
• Ciando

Cheers,
Andrew

I couldn’t find a picture that related to what I was writing about (I always try to do that), in this case the Spanish subjunctive, so here’s a picture of my idea for an anti-gravity device based on a cat with some buttered toast on its head – what do you think?

The subjunctive in Spanish is one of two other moods besides the ‘normal’ Spanish mood (and it is a mood, not a tense) that you’re used to, which is called the indicative mood (in short, it’s used to state things the speaker believes to be facts as opposed to opinions or hypotheticals), and the other one is the imperative mood which is solely used to give commands. The Spanish subjunctive is used with impersonal expressions and expressions of emotion, opinion, doubt, disagreement, denial or volition – essentially, it’s used for anything uncertain or emotional. The indicative is used for expressing things that are objective, truthful, unemotional, and not in doubt.  I should also note that the subjunctive, though essential to becoming fluent in Spanish (or even moving beyond the beginner’s level), is note often used and shouldn’t be bothered with until you’re on the tail end of learning beginner’s Spanish (that is you’re just finishing up with A2 on the CEFR scale).  If you’re not sure, or would like to learn more about which verb tenses/moods you should focus on depending on your level, please see my article entitled, What Spanish Verb Tenses You Should Learn First, and Why They’re So Important.

If you wanted to say that the cat is on top the refrigerator, you would just use the regular indicative: “El gato está encima de la nevera”, however, if you wanted to say that the cat would prefer that you not put him on top of the refrigerator, you would use the subjunctive and say: “El gato desea que no lo pongas encima de la nevera”, where “pongas” is the present subjunctive form of “poner“.  You’ll notice that the first verb is in the normal indicative mood, whereas it’s the second verb that’s in the subjunctive and that’s how it always is, which brings me to…

Requirements

There are three requirements that usually must be met for the Spanish subjunctive to be needed.  These are not always necessary, they’re more like “characteristics that are present 95% of the time”, but as this is an introductory article for people who have never delved into the subjunctive before, that’s good enough for our purposes.  They are:

1.  Two different subjects

2.  A relative pronoun (“que”, “como”, “cual”, “donde”, or “quien”)

3.  Two different verbs – the first will always be in the indicative and the second will always be in the subjunctive.  The first verb will signal that the second verb needs to be in the subjunctive by the very nature of that first verb and the context it’s used in (it expresses emotion, doubt, etc.).

There must also be two Clauses, though this is an automatic consequence of requiring 2 subjects so it doesn’t get its own rule.

W.E.I.R.D.O.

This is a brilliant little system for figuring out when you need to use the subjunctive in Spanish (I don’t know who originally invented it, but it wasn’t me).  Like I said above in the third requirement: the first verb, which is almost always in the indicative, will tell you if the second verb needs to be in the subjunctive or not.  As you already know, you’re looking for verbs that express emotion, uncertainty, desire, etc.  Well, there’s a nifty little acronym you can use to help you remember all of these with ease.  All you have to do is remember to look for W.E.I.R.D.O. verbs:

Wishes
Emotions
Impersonal Expressions
Recommendations
Doubt/Denial
Ojalá

Wishes: This includes all wishes, wants, demands, desires, orders, expectations, and preferences.  Examples include things like “Espero que él me llame” which means “I hope that he calls me”, or “Todos quieren que vengas” which means “Everyone wants you to come.”

(note: all subjunctive verbs in these example sentences are bolded)

Verbs in this category that commonly indicate the need for the subjunctive to follow include mandar (to order), insistir (to insist), necesitar (to need), preferir (to prefer), querer (to want), desear (to wish or desire), pedir (to request), etc.

Emotions: Any time someone is expressing the fact that they’re annoyed, angry, happy, sad, scared, surprised, etc. you will almost always see the subjunctive used due to this being considered an expression of emotion.  Examples include the above example I gave with the angry cat, or something like: “A Benny le molesta que la gente coma animales aunque ellos son muy sabrosos.” which means “It annoys Benny that people eat animals even though they are very tasty.”

Verbs that commonly fall into this category are alegrarse (to be glad), gustar (to like), encantar (to love in the sense of really liking something), lamentar (to regret), enojar (to be angry), sorprender (to surprise), temer (to fear), quejarse (to complain), and molestar (to annoy).

Impersonal expressions: These express someone’s opinion or judgment on something and are subjective in nature.  Examples include things like “Es extraño que el gato esté volando” which means “It’s strange that the cat is flying”, or “Es bueno que hayas decidido darme todo tu dinero” which means “It’s good that you’ve decided to give me all your money.”

Common expressions in this category are things like “es agradable” (it’s nice), “es necesario” (it’s necessary), “es raro” (it’s rare), “no es cierto” (it’s not certain), “es increíble” (it’s incredible), “es malo” (it’s bad), etc.

Recommendations: Whenever someone is recommended, suggested, or told to do something, this falls into the recommendation category.  Things like: “Mi doctor recomienda que no beba tanto vodka” which means “My doctor recommends that I not drink so much vodka”, or “Ellos sugieren que no juegues en el tráfico” which means “They suggest that you not play in traffic.”

Verbs commonly seen in this category include aconsejar (to advise), sugerir (to suggest), recomendar (to recommend), rogar (to beg), ordenar (to order), and proponer (to suggest or propose).

Doubt/Denial: Whenever someone wants to express doubt or denial, they use the subjunctive.  Examples include things like: “Dudo que tengas un burro morado” which means “I doubt that you have a purple donkey” or perhaps “No creo que él diga la verdad sobre su coleccíon de arbolitos” which means “I don’t believe he’s telling the truth about his shrubbery collection.”

Verbs commonly used to express doubt include dudar (to doubt), creer (to believe), pensar (to think), negar (to deny), “no estar seguro” (to not be sure), suponer (to assume or suppose), etc.

Ojalá: “Ojalá” is an interesting word you’ll hear very frequently in Spanish, particularly Latin American Spanish.  It is one of several Spanish words that has Arabic origins.  It comes from the Old Spanish oxalá, which comes from the Arabic لو شاء الله (law sha’a Allah) and means something like “if God wills it”.  So ojalá means “If only…” or “I hope to God…” or, basically, “I really hope…”, so you can see why it requires the subjunctive because it’s expressing a desire in a special sort of way. Examples include things like: “Ojalá que lleguen pronto las mujeres desnudas”, meaning “I hope to God the naked women arrive soon”, or “Ojalá que no me dispare en el culo” which means “I really hope he doesn’t shoot me in the ass”.

Bonus: Hypotheticals

To describe hypothetical situations Spanish speakers frequently employ the subjunctive, often in conjunction with the expression, “como si”, e.g. “como si fuera”, “como si estuviera”, etc.  This makes perfect sense as the subjunctive is used to describe, generally, something that doesn’t exist or isn’t the case but maybe could be.  Here are some examples from real-life contexts:

Deberían tratarla como si fuera sagrada.

“They should treat it as if it were sacred.”

Me gritaba como si fuera niño.

“She’s was yelling at me as if I were a child.”

Siento como si estuviera dormida aquí.

“I feel as if I were asleep here.”

Estás mirándome como si estuviera loco.

“You’re looking at me as if I were crazy.”

Searching Reverso Context for “como si” yields tons of examples of this in practice, definitely have a look for more examples of this phenomenon in the wild.

Further Reading and Additional Resources

Reading an explanation of grammar concepts like the Spanish subjunctive won’t make it so that you can use such grammar concepts, it’s just the first step on that journey: you have to apply what you’ve learned, you have to practice.  The best way to do this, of course, is by communicating with actual native speakers, using the grammar you’ve just learned, and having them help and correct you.  An excellent way to go about this is with an online course called GoSpanish that I recommend: it’s much cheaper than a one-on-one tutor but you’re still working with a native speaker, class size is 3-5 students each, and you get unlimited (yes, a dozen a day if you like) classes starting at just $39 per month.  Check out my review here of GoSpanish.

Definitely check out this post’s parent category, Basic Spanish Grammar Rules: Lessons & Explanations, for more similar articles such as:

• Why learning verb conjugations is important and which ones you should learn first, or
• A brief guide to regional variation of the forms of address in Spanish (usted, tú, vos, etc.) or even…
• A list of YouTube channels that teach Spanish (much of it consisting of grammar lessons)

SpanishDict also did an excellent video on the Spanish subjunctive where they go through the W.E.I.R.D.O system if you’d like to have a look at that, it’s 2 parts and about 12 minutes long in total:

Part 1

Part 2

I hope that was interesting, let me know what you think in the comments (and would like me to write about in the future).

Cheers,

Andrew

I learned to speak conversational Spanish in six months using TV shows, movies, and even comics: I then wrote a book on how you can, too

I have a whole method and a book I wrote about it called The Telenovela Method where I teach you how to learn Spanish from popular media like TV shows, movies, music, books, etc. that you can all find online for free.  It was the #1 new release in the Spanish Language Instruction section on Amazon for nearly a month after it came out and currently has 17 reviews there with a 4.9/5 stars average.  It's available for $7.99-$9.99 for the e-book version depending on who you buy it from (Kindle version on Amazon is now $7.99) and $16.99 for the paperback (occasionally a bit cheaper, again, depending on who you buy it from).

It's currently available in both e-book and paperback from:

• Amazon
• iBooks (the iTunes store)
• Kobo
• Barnes & Noble
• Google Play Store
• Goodreads
• Scribd
• Ciando

Cheers,
Andrew