Take a Class! Top 10 Free Spanish Language Courses Online
One language sets you in a corridor for life, but two languages open every door along the way.
— Frank Smith
Learning Spanish is a process that requires discipline, passion, and creativity. It feels amazing to reap the fruits of your labor, when after hours of study, you start speaking it! How can you reach that point efficiently and for free? Thanks to a plethora of websites, apps, and learning platforms that provide lesson-based Spanish courses, you can jumpstart your Spanish fluency today. Let’s take a look at 10 of the best free Spanish language courses you’ll find on the internet. It’s time to focus on your language learning goals and find the right courses for you! Let’s check them out!
Free Spanish Language Courses
1. edX
edX is an education and learning platform founded by Harvard and MIT. They offer all kinds of subjects, from language to economics and medicine. They believe that education barriers have to be removed, which is why they give people the opportunity to educate themselves on their own terms, without cost, location, or access impediments. Roughly 20 million people learn through this platform, utilizing courses and specific lessons from over 140 institutions. Some of the big names you’ll recognize include Berkley (University of California), Brown University, Columbia University, Georgia Tech, Dartmouth College, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
edX Free Spanish Language Courses
They offer four Spanish programs. The first one is a professional certificate program, and the other three are verified programs; all of them ensure that you’ll be able to communicate with native Spanish speakers once you finish them. The three verified programs (and self-paced) are completely free. These free options divide into:
- Basic Spanish 2: 4 weeks long, 4 to 5 hours per week, an introductory level, and it’s focused on language.
- Basic Spanish 3: 4 weeks long, 3 to 4 hours per week, an introductory level, and it’s focused on language.
- AP Spanish Language and Culture: 12 weeks long, 3 to 4 hours per week, and with an intermediate level. This program is not focused on language but in preparing people for an AP exam.
Note that these courses will lead you through the process, so you won’t have to worry about taking track of what you’ve already taken.
At the end of these three courses, you can get a verified certificate for $40 to $50 USD. And if you’re interested in the first course (professional certificate program), you’d have to pay $126 for the full program experience.
2. Duolingo
Duolingo is a popular website and app for language learning that you’ve likely already heard of, if not used. In Duolingo, everything is for free; however, if you’d like to get an upgrade to avoid ads, you can pay for the Plus version. With more than 300 million learners, this language-teaching platform has built unique interactive systems based on new insights about the nature of language and learning. Overall, Duolingo makes the process fun and effective for most learners.
After creating an account and selecting the language you want to learn, the platform gives you the option to choose basic, intermediate, or advanced levels. Depending on which level you choose, the lessons will be shorter or longer. Duolingo’s philosophy is to make clients feel like they’re playing a game and having fun, instead of reading a textbook, which can be boring sometimes. However, Duolingo is not just a game for kids; it offers to help you achieve real-life language goals, moving through levels of increasing difficulty. A major plus is that the methods they use include writing, reading, speaking, and listening; and it’s not necessary to take track of what you’ve done, because Duolingo does it for you and leads you through the process.
3. Udemy
Udemy offers a wide range of courses on different subjects. Their mission is to improve people’s lives through learning, which is why they offer more than 1500 courses imparted by experts, that include videos, slideshows, texts, and additional resources.
Their free Spanish language courses are for beginners and include concepts like gender and numbers, to nouns and adjectives. However, these free Spanish courses are limited to less than ten available courses, and what’s more, they’re only for beginners. Here are some of the free courses:
- Spanish Course for Beginners
- Spanish Language (Basic)
- 3 Minute Spanish – Free Taster Course
- Spanish Cactus – Learn Spanish ASAP
- Fast, Easy and Practical Spanish for Beginners
If you want to have a deeper learning experience, they offer courses between $11.99 and $13.99 USD. According to their website, more than 640,000 people are currently learning Spanish with Udemy, proving that it’s a popular platform and worth $11.99 per class!
4. No Comprendo – Beginner Course
This website offers free Spanish courses for beginners on the topics of sports, music, food, fashion, films, and general. Their idea is to provide easy learning courses for beginners that include sections of culture, grammar, texts, and exercises to practice what you learn. Actually, this site is very easy to use, but you have to take track of what you’ve already learned because they won’t do it for you.
Once you enter the page, you’ll find two options: Lesson by Lesson and Search for Lesson. If you’re learning Spanish for the first time, the Lesson by Lesson option will be better because you can start from scratch on the topic you prefer. You just have to click on it and the courses will show. On the other hand, if you’ve already taken these courses and just want to find or revise a particular theme, you can find the lesson by clicking on the “Search for Lesson” button. Here you’ll just have to select your theme of interest and the activity you’re looking for, and the website will lead you to all the possible options. Also, if on any of the courses you find a word you don’t understand, you can write it on the Spanish Dictionary box and you’ll be able to see what it means.
5. Bussu
Bussu offers more than 1,000 lessons in 12 languages, created by experts in foreign language teaching with additional functionalities, such as study plans and exercises with voice recognition. Their lessons go from beginner A1 to upper intermediate B2. Each lesson focuses on a useful topic, and contains vocabulary, grammar, and practice exercises which gradually build conversational and writing skills. Also, it’s possible to visually track your progress by watching as your percentage-completion score increases and observing the color change of each unit you complete. Their courses include four end-of-level tests certified by McGraw-Hill Education.
Once you get on the website, you have to sign up and create an account. They’ll ask you a series of questions that include how familiar are you with Spanish, what are your goals, the level you want to achieve, the time of the day and the amount of minutes in which you’d like to learn, and then they’ll offer you a personalized study plan (which you’d have to pay, but if you don’t want it you can just click on the “I don’t want it” button). After this, the page will lead you through your process and it will take track of your learning. Everytime you enter your account, the site will tell you what’s next and will show you what you’ve already accomplished.
However, if you want to have full access to all the Spanish courses without any restrictions, you’ll have to upgrade to the premium version, which goes from €5.41 to €11.66, depending on the amount of months and learning you want.
6. StudySpanish
StudySpanish.com offers different free Spanish tutorials that are divided in: pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, verbs, tips for traveling, cultural notes, and a directory of Spanish schools. When you enter the website, you just have to scroll down a little bit and you´ll find those options (as “Free Spanish Tutorials”). Each tutorial has at least five units or topics you can learn about, and every unit has around ten (or more) subjects inside. So in the end, you’ll have more that 100 lessons in total! You just have to select the title you’re interested in (pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, verb drills) and the site will lead you to a page filled with important information and with an audio soundbyte that will help you with what you want to learn. At the end, there are quizzes and tests to check for understanding. Note that once you finish a lesson, you have to click on the next one and have your own record of the ones you’ve already taken, because the website won’t “cross them out” for you.
This site also has a premium membership option for those who want to have full access to vocabulary lessons, podcasts, record grades and monitor progress, and quizzes and tests.
7. Audiria
This website offers free podcasts for all levels of Spanish and every episode covers different real life situations. It allows you to choose topics of your interest, that way you can learn about what you like (songs, grammar, culture, movies, history, art, etc.). It also includes audio, vocabulary, and grammar tests so you can make sure you understand what you’re learning. Once you enter the page, you´ll see a bunch of topics you can click on. After selecting what you want, it will lead you to all the podcasts, and each one of them includes the audio and at least four exercises. There’s also a tests section, if you click on it you’ll see all the vocabulary and grammar tests that will make you see if you really got what you just learned.
Note that this is a self-directed process, which means that the website doesn’t save what you’ve already learned and it’s on you to take track of it. Also, it’s not personalized and it doesn’t have teachers, but it’s completely free and it would definitely help you practice your pronunciation, improve your grammar, and get better at Spanish conversations.
8. Practical Spanish
They offer completely free courses for persons who are studying Spanish on their own or are taking a class and need another resource to enrich their learning. The courses focus on conversational Spanish and give examples for each topic, plus, they have audios and videos too!
When you enter the website, you’ll find three levels on your left: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Each one of them has different lessons: from basic sentences, nouns, verbs, and possessive adjectives, to subjunctive, por vs para, and advanced readings. You just have to click on the links they provide and follow their instructions. Note that on this website you’d have to take track of what you’ve already learned. The links you press might change color, but if you close the page it’d probably lose the record of your learning. However, this website is full of useful topics that will make you absolutely better at Spanish!
9. SpanishDict Video Lessons
These free, high-quality videos will help you get motivated to learn tons of Spanish! They offer four volumes with around 10 videos each, and every video has a different topic that will help you improve your comprehension. For best results, take notes in your language journal while you watch each video. The only downside is that it’s not personalized and you can´t see your progress throughout the process.
10. Lengalia
Lengalia is a language school that specializes in Spanish language and culture. They have many lesson options covering grammar, vocabulary, business, videos, and podcasts. Even though most of the courses have a price, there are free options that can help you improve your Spanish. These free courses include beginner A1 all the way to advanced C2. You’ll see that each one of these includes an introduction, a short audio with a text, grammar explanations, a practice section, vocabulary, a communication section that asks questions for you to answer, reading exercises, and a listening segment. The website is very user-friendly, however, it doesn’t take track of your progress in the free courses, meaning you’d have to have your own record in order to remember what was the last thing you learned and what comes next. It should be noted that this site has helped people in 144 countries around the world, so it will help you, too!
If you’d like to buy one of the paying courses from Lengalia, the prices go from $4.99 to $29.99 USD.
Live Classes with a Native Spanish Speaker
You just saw some of the most recognized free Spanish language courses. If you’d like to expand your experience to include a native Spanish-speaking teacher, here at Homeschool Spanish Academy we offer live classes with certified Spanish teachers from Guatemala and a tailored curriculum to suit your needs. We enhance the quality of your progress to fluency through homework, quizzes, exams, and even report cards that you can transfer for credit! Sign up for a free class with us and see how amazing your Spanish can get!
Want more free Spanish resources? Check these out!
- A Kid’s Guide to the 5 Senses in Spanish - June 10, 2021
- A Vocabulary Guide: Talk About Your Pet in Spanish - June 5, 2021
- The Ultimate Traveler’s Guide to Flores, Petén, Guatemala - May 27, 2021
