10 Best Telenovelas to Learn Spanish
Are you a beginner or intermediate Spanish student? Then, watch the 10 best telenovelas to learn Spanish and sound like a native!
If you love binge-watching shows and movies from Netflix, Amazon, Paramount, or Hulu, these Spanish soap operas will quickly climb to the top of your favorites.
Learning a language is a huge task for anyone. Spelling, grammar, idioms, vocabulary. You have to understand a new tongue but, ultimately, a new culture.
And to pile up a little more, chances are you aren’t learning the way you did with your first language.
Watching telenovelas is a great way to simplify your process and improve your Spanish skills, including everyday language, common phrases and idioms, and cultural references.
Read ahead to find out what Spanish telenovelas are best for you, depending on your learning level or the accent you would like to master.
Try watching them with English subtitles to learn vocabulary or Spanish subtitles to improve your grammar.
Listen to the dialogues to improve your pronunciation and enjoy this tradition of adding drama to your daily routine.
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1. Cuando seas mía
Platform: Amazon Prime
Language level: Beginners, intermediate.
Cuando seas mía holds a special place in Mexican people’s hearts and lives.
Iconic actors Silvia Navarro and Sergio Basáñez star in a unique love story that was born on a coffee plantation but made them follow each other to Europe and back.
They swear to be together a year after they met, but her comeback is delayed, and she gets to the hacienda at the exact moment when Sergio gets married to someone else, to someone he doesn’t love.
Silvia is a beautiful young plantation worker who falls for the landowner’s grandson, and he comes from a very wealthy family.
The villains, interpreted by stunning Annette Michel and Rodrigo Abed, do everything they can to ruin their relationship and choose wrong, devious decisions for the company.
While back in the day, some of the gestures in here were considered romantic, today we can easily spot the macho attitudes and some red flags, but it’s incredibly worth it.
Watch the rest of the compelling, engaging characters and stories surrounding Silvia and Sergio as they fight circumstances to be together.
Due to the clarity in pronunciation, this can be one of the best telenovelas to learn Spanish for beginners and intermediate students.
Click here to watch the trailer.
2. Rosa Diamante
Platform: Hulu
Language level: Beginners, intermediate.
Rosa Diamante is one of the best telenovelas to learn Spanish. It’s a Mexican-American production of Argos for Telemundo.
This one’s an adaptation of Perla Negra, an Argentinian telenovela.
It tells the story of Rosa, a young lady whose mother abandons a boarding school in the beautiful colonial city of San Miguel de Allende in Mexico.
Rosa becomes a wild, rebellious woman but kind and noble at heart. Eva is her best friend and comes from a wealthy family but feels just as abandoned by them.
She gets involved with a man and gets pregnant, but her terrible family can’t know about the baby’s existence. Here’s where Rosa comes to the rescue.
Get to know the ups and downs of this story and love triangle full of intrigue, devious games, and revenge.
Even though it has the vocabulary and grammar for an intermediate student, it’s a great way to start for beginners due to the clear pronunciation of Mexican soap operas.
These themes appeal to Latin American audiences because even though these stories are fiction, listening to real-life ones from people around you in these countries is normal.
Believe it or not, they’re pretty relatable.
Click here to watch the trailer.
3. Tierra de Reyes
Platform: Hulu
Language level: Intermediate
Tierra de Reyes is one of the most successful Spanish telenovelas of the last decade. Telemundo produced it and adapted from Pasión de gavilanes, a Colombian soap opera.
When the Gallardo brothers realize that their little sister Alma has a relationship with a much older guy, they try to break them up at any cost, but he dies mysteriously.
Alma goes to the wake after discovering she is expecting his baby, only to find out he is still married. His wife Cayetana humiliates her in front of her daughters.
Alma is eventually found dead, and her brothers vow to seek revenge, but they get entangled in their plans to get it. A story about love, vendetta, and mixed emotions is what makes this such a remarkable soap opera.
This is one of the best telenovelas to learn Spanish, specifically for intermediate students, since it involves regional Mexican accents.
If you love binge-watching these shows, you already know that many telenovelas occur in haciendas, coffee plantations, and distilleries.
This has a huge cultural reference because many love stories in Latin America are considered more romantic and dramatic if they come from rural places.
Click here to watch the trailer.
4. La Patrona
Platform: Hulu
Language level: Intermediate
Aracely Arámbula is the only female miner working in San Pedro del Oro, carrying his father’s legacy. She has many altercations with her coworkers, and eventually, the mine explodes, leaving her and a few other people trapped inside.
A very powerful woman managed to put Aracely on trial. She was sentenced to life in a psychiatric hospital and accused of having a mental illness that caused her to provoke the explosion.
Follow her as she tries to escape, find her son David, and seek vengeance from the villain, interpreted by Christian Bach.
This one is in our top 10 best telenovelas to learn Spanish because of the clarity and rhythm of the actor’s voice and pronunciation. The cultural importance of this telenovela relies on the clash of social classes, a central topic in Latin American soap operas.
Click here to watch the trailer.
See next: 11 Best Free Spanish Language Learning Websites
5. La Casa de las Flores
Platform: Netflix
Language level: Intermediate
This is a gem of modern telenovelas; you need to see it only to stay current. La casa de las Flores is a high-end flower business owned by a wealthy Mexican family led by the iconic actress Verónica Castro.
Funny, clever, and full of turning points where nothing is what it seems. It’s full of local cultural references and witty winks and puns.
The well-built characters are very different and start doing unlikely things the minute you think you know them.
Manolo Caro, the creator of many storylines like this one, exposed the audiences to many controversial subjects and was acclaimed for the many jokes that quickly became part of Mexican pop culture.
After its premiere, people started to talk like Cecilia Suárez and her heart-heavy, extremely calm voice, who won everybody’s applause.
No one suspected that the perfect Verónica Castro was capable of so much after losing her husband to the authorities. And who could have thought about Cecilia’s ex-husband and Darío Yazbek’s change of path?
This engaging story makes it one of the best telenovelas to learn Spanish with a clear pronunciation but moderate rhythm, perfect for an intermediate Spanish student.
Click here to watch the trailer.
6. Pasión Prohibida
Platform: Hulu
Language level: Intermediate-advanced
Bianca is a beautiful young lady that has always hated her mother, Flavia, who is after Ariel Piamonte, a millionaire. But Ariel falls for Bianca and asks for her hand in marriage even though she is only interested in his money and ruining her mother’s life.
Once installed in Piemonte’s mansion, Bianca meets Bruno, Ariel’s nephew, and falls for him, starting a forbidden passion and relationship. Of course, their mission is to keep it a secret, which is very difficult.
Many Spanish soap operas address a money interest as the axis of further love stories.
This is a Miami production for Telemundo and is a new version of a Turkish soap opera. It stars Rebecca Jones, Mónica Spear, and Jencarlos Canela.
Many different accents appear during this show, making it best for intermediate and advanced Spanish students.
Click here to watch the trailer.
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7. Club the Cuervos
Platform: Netflix
Language level: Advanced
Funny, irreverent, one-of-a-kind. This is what modern-day telenovelas look like in Latin America.
This is a clever idea turned into entertainment: a soccer club lost their owner to a heart attack, and his two children, Luis Gerardo Méndez and Mariana Treviño, are fighting each other—like siblings do—to get the power, prestige, and money that come from managing a sports club at Nuevo Toledo, a made-up Mexican city.
Strategy, adversity, intrigue, and always trying to be ahead of each other are the cables that tie together this unparalleled screenplay that played a huge role in Mexican pop culture through memes and jokes.
It made such an impact that locals tried to imitate the Iglesias siblings’ northern accent and funny phrases.
Four seasons and two spin-offs are available on Netflix. The Northern Mexican accent is a bit “sung,” as we say here, and people from this region speak fast which is why it’s one of the best telenovelas for advanced Spanish learners.
Click here to watch the trailer.
8. Gata Salvaje
Platform: Amazon Prime
Language level: Advanced
Gata salvaje is an iconic Venezuelan telenovela from 2002. It has crossed borders and reached over 50 countries. It’s the fusion of three different radionovelas: La galleguita, La indomable, and La gata.
Here we see Mario Cimarro and top actress Marlene Favela. Gata Salvaje tells the story of Rosaura, a beautiful young woman whom people call Gata salvaje—Wild cat for her untameable attitude and great bravery.
Thanks to her personality traits, she can face adverse situations and evil people that cross her path.
She works three jobs to provide for her family. Both her father and step-sister never help her and appear to be terrible people.
But her life turns around when she meets Luis Mario, a member of high society. They finally get together, but he keeps thinking and suffering for his first wife.
But don’t worry about her because life has something for her along the way that will change her expectations and luck for good.
This is the best telenovela to learn Spanish if you want a challenge. Unfortunately, the Venezuelan accent tends to skip the letter “s,” which is hard for the untrained ear.
Click here to watch the trailer.
8. Cecilia
Platform: Paramount Plus
Language level: Advanced
Cecilia is trying her best to glue her family together. Everything changes at a birthday party where everything below the rugs comes up. She feels frustrated and tired of her family drama and decides it’s the perfect time to set boundaries and turn her life around.
The main character Cecilia is interpreted by talented comedian and actress Mariana Treviño who has participated in other many top international productions such as La casa de las flores, 101 días para enamorarnos, Club de cuervos, Perfectos desconocidos, and Amor de mis amores.
Other notorious actors in Cecilia are comedian César Bono, Marimar Vega—also in Amor de mis amores—, Erik Hayser, and Martín Altomaro, the main character of the cult series Soy tu fan.
We consider Cecilia one of the best telenovelas to learn Spanish because it’s relatable, modern, and engaging. In addition, due to its amount of slang, it’s great for advanced students who are focusing on Mexican soap operas and material to learn the Mexican accent.
Click here to watch the trailer.
Read more: Top 10 Best Books to Learn Spanish for Adults
10. Marido en Alquiler
Platform: Hulu
Language level: Advanced
Marido en alquiler is the Telemundo adaptation of a Brazilian telenovela called Fina estampa. It stars first actor Juan Soler, Kimberly Dos Ramos, and Gabriel Coronel. The theme song is interpreted by Mexican singer Ana Bárbara.
Griselda Carrasco, a strong, independent, hard-working woman, is the only support of her 3 children. She hasn’t been with a man in the last 15 years and now meets the perfect man: Reinaldo Ibarra, but he is married to Teresa Cristina, a terrible woman with a dark past.
A junction of many different Latin American Spanish accents and the quick rhythm of the speeches make Marido en Alquiler an excellent challenge for advanced students and one of the best telenovelas to learn Spanish.
Click here to watch the trailer.
The Best and Fastest Way of Learning Spanish
We hope you liked our curated list of the 10 Best Telenovelas to Learn Spanish! You can watch these Latin-American soap operas to train your ear, build your vocabulary, understand simple and complex grammar structures, adopt an accent, and internalize local idioms.
This is a great complement to advance your Spanish studies, but we firmly believe there is one technique that is the true game changer: native, authentic instruction.
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