One of the best resources for learning a language is books. Old-fashioned, I know, but books really are some of the most valuable tools you can use while learning any language, including Spanish.
Our team here at fluentu is full of avid Spanish learners who have come to realize the value of books on our journeys of learning. this list compiles our personal recommendations for the best books available in 2022 to help you learn Spanish.
You are reading: Best books to learn spanish
Keep these bad boys on your shelves for when you need a good study session or a quick fact check.
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- grammar
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- 1. the best for a complete grammar education: “practice makes complete Spanish grammar perfect”
- 2. best for intermediate to advanced learners: “advanced spanish step by step”
- 3. best for advanced learners: “practice makes perfect: advanced spanish grammar”
- 4. best for visual learners: “oxford english-spanish illustrated dictionary”
- 5. best for absolute beginners: “see it and say it in Spanish”
- 6. best for building a basic vocabulary: “2000 most common Spanish words in context”
- 7. the best to dominate everyday conversations: “practice makes perfect: conversation in Spanish”
- 8. best for audio-enhanced learning: “living language spanish, complete edition”
- 9. best for conversation practice: “collins easy learning: conversation in spanish”
- 10. best for quick reading starts: “short stories in spanish for beginners: easy stories in spanish”
- 11. best for beginners: “Spanish novels: death in Buenos Aires“
- 12. Best for Advanced Readers: “Spanish Novels: Judgment Day“
grammar
Yes, grammar is probably the least fun part of learning any language (although you can use some unconventional techniques to make the process a bit easier).
For example, did you know that there are more than 10 different tenses in the Spanish language? don’t be afraid all it means is that you need patience and great reference books to help you learn what you need to improve your grammar-related skills over time.
Let’s take a look at the best books on the market that will help you do just that.
1. the best for a complete grammar education: “practice makes complete Spanish grammar perfect”
The “practice makes perfect” series is well known in the language learning community for the high quality of its books. This edition of the series is a 350-page workbook that covers the most important grammar rules you need to understand in order to communicate better in Spanish. features clear explanations along with lots of realistic examples and free online audio recordings to practice your listening skills too.
what’s great about this book is that it offers a wide variety of exercises for different learning styles such as multiple choice questions, fill-in-the-blank games and creative writing exercises among other things.
The structure of the book is quite easy to follow as it is well organized, I would recommend that you choose what you want to learn and then focus on that by practicing with the exercises.
2. best for intermediate to advanced learners: “advanced spanish step by step”
This book reviews intermediate to advanced Spanish grammar in an easy and progressive way.
You’ll first start with a review of the basics (which you should know before choosing the book) before diving into the grammatical rules necessary for confident communication. Lessons cover important Spanish grammar topics like complex tenses, parts of speech, sentence structure, and more. Along the way, you’ll be taught a ton of vocabulary words that you’re likely to use in real conversation.
Before you decide to use this book, you should make sure that you have reached at least an intermediate level of understanding of the Spanish language. otherwise you may feel a bit overwhelmed by the content and exercises as they are quite detailed and extensive.
3. best for advanced learners: “practice makes perfect: advanced spanish grammar”
This is kind of a version 2.0 of the previous “practice makes perfect” book. this is one that really digs into the intricate details of the Spanish language and is aimed at intermediate to advanced learners of Spanish (if you’re just starting out, this version might be too specific for you).
features a host of practical exercises specifically aimed at helping you communicate more naturally. these break free from the ready-made sentences found in other books and encourage you to create your own more sophisticated sentences as you go.
If you already have a good command of the Spanish language and want to go beyond the fundamental principles, this edition of the “practice makes perfect” series is a great option for you!
vocabulary
One of the things that beginners complain about the most when they start to learn a new language is the lack of vocabulary. Of course, sitting down with a dictionary to learn it all by heart isn’t always an option. So how can you increase your vocabulary as quickly as possible without spending endless hours reciting words from a dictionary?
Reading Spanish regularly is a great way to learn new vocabulary, but there are also books that focus on Spanish vocabulary in particular.
4. best for visual learners: “oxford english-spanish picture dictionary”
This book is a bilingual illustrated dictionary. this means that each term in this dictionary is illustrated with contextual drawings (it’s quite useful, believe me!).
is organized into 12 thematic units that cover a wide variety of different aspects of life (people, housing, food, recreation, etc.).
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The dictionary features stories, role-play, clear visual word descriptions, and dialogue to help you learn new vocabulary quickly. The good thing is that this is not a classic dictionary, so you can easily read one page per day and get a lot of use out of it. Plus, it’s all visual, so it’ll take you three to five minutes to do!
5. the best for absolute beginners: “see it and say it in Spanish”
This is not exactly a picture dictionary, but this book teaches level 1 Spanish vocabulary through pictures. uses two very specific techniques to help you integrate your new vocabulary into your existing knowledge of Spanish.
first, it uses the words and pictures method: each new word or sentence is accompanied by a line drawing that instantly explains its meaning.
Second, the ready-made vocabulary introduces you to everyday Spanish words and phrases that look and sound like their English equivalents to make conversational Spanish easier for you. These two methods together have a great impact and are quite effective.
As you read the book, you can immediately tell that it doesn’t focus on your typical tourist phrase. instead, it gives you the vocabulary you need to start expressing yourself quickly and meaningfully in Spanish.
6. best for building a basic vocabulary: “2000 most common Spanish words in context”
You’ve probably heard of the idea that once you learn a specific number of words in a language, you can understand most text or speech at a native level. this book focuses precisely on that by teaching you the 2000 most common words of the Spanish vocabulary.
each word comes with example sentences that show how you can use it in conversation. this is a critical feature that will likely serve as the most useful asset to your learning. It’s one thing to learn words and their meanings in isolation, but it’s a different (and much needed) matter to learn how you can apply them in speech.
The format of this book is very simple, making it easy to read and understand. can work well to establish a foundation for your Spanish vocabulary before moving on to more advanced terms and phrases.
conversation
If you are fully committed to learning Spanish, you definitely want to be able to have a basic conversation with someone in Spanish as soon as possible.
Now, sometimes it can be a bit tricky to improve your speaking skills if you don’t have someone to speak Spanish with every day, but with the right tools, you can still gain the knowledge and confidence you need to have conversations.
fluentu is an example of a tool that can improve your ability to speak Spanish. fluentu exposes you to the language as used by native Spanish speakers through videos such as movie clips, inspirational talks, music videos, and more. These clips that native speakers consume regularly are accompanied by tools to enhance their learning, such as interactive subtitles and personalized quizzes.
but believe it or not, you can also improve your speaking skills by reading specific books that were designed to help learners of Spanish with their conversation skills. let’s take a look at how these books work.
7. the best to dominate everyday conversations: “practice makes perfect: conversation in Spanish”
another “practice makes perfect” book included in this article. The goal of this edition is to help you develop a confident and spontaneous speaking style by training you with real-world examples and engaging exercises.
is organized into 12 units that present realistic conversation situations, such as making introductions, giving opinions, going on a date, or telling a story. each chapter begins with a dialogue (which is rare for books in this series, but makes sense for a book on how to have conversations!), followed by a variety of exercises to put what you’ve learned into practice.
This edition is packed with clear instructions on correct pronunciation, syntax, word usage, and how to use conversation-ready phrases. Note that an English to Spanish and Spanish to English glossary is also included to help you.
This book is intended to help intermediate Spanish learners, though you can greatly benefit from having it, even if you are just a beginner, or an advanced learner with lagging speaking skills (which is quite common).
8. best for audio-enhanced learning: “living language spanish, complete edition”
This product is a great multimedia Spanish learning program that features three books (beginner, intermediate and advanced) along with nine CDs to follow with the books (three CDs for each level). If you want to be able to speak Spanish quickly, this edition of “Language Viva” is for you.
The product is well organized with topic-based chapters (rather than lesson-based chapters like in most courses) and the goal here is to teach you conversational Spanish more than anything else.
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the cds work together with the books: they are really the main feature of this course, instead of a simple gimmick (as is the case with some products). they are high-quality, clear, well-modulated recordings with the rate of speech set to a rate appropriate for the learner. things get better as you progress through the chapters and cds until you learn more fluent conversation.
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You will learn new words, sentence structures and conjugations in each chapter. and here’s the icing on the cake: it’s pretty cheap (cheap) for the amount of material you’ll get. jump on it!
9. best for conversation practice: “collins easy learning: conversation in spanish”
The book is divided into 12 units, each one focused on a certain situation and the Spanish (whether formal or informal) typically involved in it. They include contexts such as school, home, social media, and business. all key phrases are compiled at the end of each unit, forming a quick-access, accessible glossary.
Of course, when you learn to converse, you’ll need to do more than just memorize sentences. The book also provides quick grammar and verb lessons to help you break down the sentences. many example sentences are also provided to illustrate the points.
The book can be a great resource to get you comfortable with the essentials and expectations of conversational Spanish. It can work well as a stand-alone reference book or as a companion to any other learning books you use.
reading
Finally, getting your hands on a Spanish reader or two is an absolute must if you want to dramatically improve your reading skills. Readers have a couple of advantages over typical Spanish books that are written for native speakers.
In a nutshell, the readers are designed specifically for learners of Spanish, making it easy to acclimatize to the language of the text. secondly, most of the time they include a glossary which saves you from having to carry a huge dictionary (or having to constantly open a dictionary app and get distracted) every time you want to read some Spanish.
Finally, Spanish readers often employ different techniques to help integrate the Spanish language into their minds in the best possible way. this can be done through short, direct sentences, vocabulary lists, grammar footnotes, and practice exercises, to give you some examples of what to expect.
now which spanish reader should i get? recommendations below!
10. best for quick reading starts: “short stories in spanish for beginners: easy stories in spanish”
Narrative texts can give you the engagement and context you need to improve your comprehension skills. That’s why stories are such an incredibly fun way to practice reading. This book features 20 short stories that aim to make studying Spanish seem less of a chore!
Each story in the book is formatted to teach you specific concepts of the Spanish language. Spanish and English summaries are provided to give you the basic plots. At the end of each story, a glossary and quizzes are provided to help you review and practice what you’ve learned.
Although the title indicates that the book is for beginners, it may actually be more suitable for intermediate level students. the Spanish used in some stories can be a bit challenging, so the book may not be the best first choice for those new to the language.
11. best for beginners: “Spanish novels: death in Buenos Aires”
This reader tells a police story that takes place in Buenos Aires. It features many short chapters written with grammar, vocabulary and simple sentences to make everything really easy to read. you will learn a lot of useful vocabulary on different topics (such as greeting or talking to friends and strangers, etc.).
read a chapter a day and you should improve, real fast! (very quickly!) If you are getting bored of studying isolated sentences in Spanish, this book has your name. Put all your known Spanish vocabulary in a natural context and learn new words through the surrounding context. amazing, right?
12. best for advanced readers: “Spanish Novels: Judgment Day“
yet another paco ardit story, this reader is more geared towards advanced students. is another mystery story, but contains more advanced Spanish that requires the reader to be able to read longer passages and understand more complex sentence structures.
This reader will challenge the more advanced reader, but still be simple enough to understand the story.
While more difficult, this reader still has shorter chapters that make it easy to integrate Spanish reading into your daily routine without being too time consuming.
so, there you have it! Choose a few books to start with from our list or your own picks based on your top learning concern, and use the tips in this article to get the most out of each title. Don’t be afraid to branch out and also read books written in Spanish that are not specifically for students to broaden your horizons!
Best of luck in your efforts to learn Spanish, and never stop reading!
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