Spanish language: History, structure, basics and facts

Spanish is the fourth most spoken language in the world. It is spoken by over 548 million speakers, 474.7 million of which are native speakers. It is the official language of 20 countries — 18 in America, one in Europe, and one in Africa — as well as the territory of Puerto Rico. Spanish is the second most spoken language in the U.S., with over 59.6 million speakers. It is often referred to as “Castellano," because its origins date back to the language of the Castilian Kingdom in medieval Spain. However, the language became known as “Spanish” around the year 1500.

Spanish is part of the Indo-European language family. More specifically, of the Romance branch, which includes the languages that evolved from Latin, such as Italian, French, Portuguese, and Catalan.

Spanish has over 93,000 words that showcase the diverse origins of the language — from its Latin roots to the influence of various Indigenous languages, picking up words along the way from other languages like Greek, Arabic, and German. This diversity is also seen in the many dialects of the language, with two main branches: Peninsular (Spain) and Latin American Spanish. Within these branches, dozens of local dialects with distinct pronunciation and vocabulary items reflect the diversity of culture and geography within the Spanish speaking world. Despite the differences, all dialects of Spanish are mutually intelligible.

Spanish is one of the most useful languages to learn due to the wide variety of places where it is spoken. Many Spanish speaking countries have a wide range of activities that appeal to tourists, and individuals living in the United States will find Spanish speakers in nearly every city and town across the country. Furthermore, Spanish also boasts a rich literary tradition as well as a booming movie and television industry, so there is no shortage of content to explore. So if you’re already learning Spanish or thinking about starting, this guide will help orient you as you navigate your journey alongside this beautiful language.

The history of Spanish can be roughly divided in the following historical eras.

• Pre-Roman languages (3rd c. BCE - 2nd c. BCE)

• Late Latin (2nd c. CE - 8th c. CE)

• Hispano-Romance (8th c. CE - 15th c. CE)
  (The group of languages spoken in the Iberian Peninsula; they are predecessors of Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Galician, and others.)

• Modern Spanish (15th c. CE - present day)

The history of the Spanish language began in 218 BC, when troops from the Roman Empire made their way into what is now northeastern Spain. These troops were speakers of what is known as “Vulgar Latin,” which was the Latin spoken by the common people, as opposed to the Classical or Late Latin used in the church and government. As they made their way through the Iberian Peninsula, they established Latin as the lingua franca, or the common means of communication among the people that spoke the different local languages such as: Iberian, Celtiberian (a Celtic language), Lusitanian, Tartessian, Greek, Phoenician, and Basque (aka Euskara). During the initial period of Roman expansion, Vulgar Latin coexisted with the other languages native to the Iberian Peninsula, but eventually, dialects of Vulgar Latin replaced these languages, with the one notable exception of Euskara, which is still spoken in the Basque region of Spain today.

Nearly 600 years later, Roman power had waned on the Iberian peninsula, which was now populated primarily by individuals of Germanic origin. In 476 the Visigoths, another Germanic group, made their way into what is now France and the Iberian Peninsula. Although they spoke Latin, they also spoke an East Germanic language, which ended up contributing words to modern Spanish, such as guerra ("war") from "werra" and ganso ("goose") from "gans." Although the Visigoths were in control of the Peninsula for three centuries, Latin became the language of their elite, which weakened the use of their Germanic language and reinforced the use of Latin by the common people.

In 711, a Muslim army made its way from northern Africa into the southern Iberian Peninsula by crossing the Strait of Gibraltar. Within a decade, they had established control of the majority of the Iberian peninsula, ending Visigoth rule. Generally referred to as Moors, the new Arabic speaking residents of the peninsula established what is known as Al-Andaluz, which refers to the Iberian territory dominated by the Muslims. Here they coexisted with the Latin based Hispano-Romance speakers of the time, giving rise to a language called Mozarabic — a mix of Arabic and the different Romance varieties of the region. Mozarabic became the common language of the people of Al-Andaluz, which resulted in significant influence of Arabic on the languages of the Peninsula. Modern Spanish still uses over 850 words of Arabic origin. One of the most notable characteristics of this influence are the words beginning with "a-" or "-al," which is the equivalent of “the” in Arabic. In many cases, these words merged with the following noun into single words, which resulted in Spanish words such as: Al kaaddi → alcalde ("mayor"), Al qutun → algodón ("cotton"), and Ar ruzz → arroz ("rice").

Although the Moors occupied the majority of the Peninsula, the displaced Christian Kingdoms were still in control of the northernmost territories. In 722, they began what is called the “Reconquista,” a campaign to recover the lands they had lost. The beginning of the Reconquista roughly coincided with the appearance of the “Glosas Emilianenses,” or a series of notes written in a Hispano-Romance that can be thought of as the first written record of something resembling modern Spanish.

As the Christian armies moved south and established new kingdoms, the Hispano-Romance languages thrived in the Peninsula: Galician in the Western regions, Castilian (Kingdom of Castilla), Leones (Kingdom of León), and Aragonese (Kingdom of Aragon) in the central regions, and Catalan in the East. Of particular note, the Castilian language became widespread during this period, and was heavily promoted by the powerful King Alfonso X in the 13th century as the language of culture, law, and politics. His efforts to promote the language resulted in the first efforts to establish a standardized writing system, thus providing the foundations for the Spanish language. Two hundred years later, an alliance of marriage between Isabel of Castilla and Ferdinand of Aragon consolidated the power of the Christian Kingdoms. Granada, the last stronghold of Muslim power, was captured in 1492, ending a conflict that had lasted more than five centuries.

This marks a historic year for the Spanish language in more ways than one. Not only did the Catholic King and Queen retake control of the Iberian Peninsula and provide funding for Chistopher Columbus to embark upon his journey to the Americas, but 1492 also marks when the Spanish language began to be fully codified. Elio de Antonio de Nebrija published the grammar of the Castilian language “Arte de la lengua Castellana," dedicated to Queen Isabel, as well as the second (but most influential) Spanish dictionary "Diccionario latino-español." Notably, the title of Nebrija’s dictionary used the term “español (Spanish), not “Castilian,” like his previously written grammar. Furthermore, in his dedication to the Queen, he notes the importance of language in governance, suggesting that his works would prove useful to the Spanish as they sought to expand their empire to non-Spanish speaking peoples. This occurred in short order, as Christopher Columbus and his expedition arrived in the Caribbean that very same year. This event would go on to shape the evolution of Spanish over the next five centuries.

The Spanish first arrived to the island of Hispaniola — what today is considered to be Haiti and the Dominican Republic — where they made contact with the Taino people. Spanish, and later other languages, borrowed many words from the Taino language to describe things native to the Americas, including words like canoa ("canoe"), huracán ("hurricane"), iguana ("iguana"), and maíz ("maize"). As the process of colonization continued, the Spaniards gained control over the political capitals of the Aztec (speakers of Nahuatl) and Incan empires (speakers of Quechua) — where they established the capitals of the Spanish Viceroyalties in the Americas in modern day Mexico City and Lima. As the Spanish encountered the local people, who spoke many different Indigenous languages, they learned new words to describe new concepts — mainly plants and animals — native to the Americas. These words were also integrated into Spanish as borrowings, but they were typically adapted to make them easier for Spanish speakers to pronounce. For instance, the Nahuatl word xitomatl (pronounced "shitomatl") was adapted to fit the Spanish sounds as jitomate ("tomato").

Over the next 500 years, Spanish existed together with many Indigenous languages, both during the colonial period and in the new nations that formed as the colonies won their independence from Spain. To this day, hundreds of Indigenous languages are still spoken throughout Spanish speaking Latin America, with most of their speakers being at least partially bilingual with Spanish. Through this contact, the American languages continued to influence the local varieties of Spanish. Notably, Nahuatl and Quechua, two of the most widely spoken Indigenous languages, lent hundreds of “americanisms” of Indigenous origin to the standard varieties of Spanish, many of which were adopted by other languages as well.

• From Nahuatl: aguacate ("avocado"), cacahuate ("peanut"), chocolate ("chocolate"), jitomate ("tomato"), chicle ("chewing gum"), coyote ("coyote")

• From Quechua: alpaca ("alpaca"), cancha (originally "open space," currently "tennis court"), papa ("potato"), coca ("coca leaf"), puma ("puma")

• From Guaraní: jaguar ("jaguar"), tapioca ("tapioca"), tiburón ("shark"), zarigüeya ("possum")

• From Mayan: cenote ("sinkhole"), cigarro ("cigar")

Spanish uses the Latin script. The Spanish alphabet has 27 letters, 26 of which it shares with English, plus the unique character “ñ." All letters have an uppercase and a lowercase form.

• Although they are not part of the alphabet, Spanish also uses three digraphs, or combinations of two letters to create a new sound.

  • ch - same as English "ch"

    Example: chico ("boy")

  • ll - same as the "y" in yellow

    Example: llave ("key")

  • rr - rolled "r"

    Example: carro ("car")

• Spanish also uses diacritics (aka accents) on vowels to mark the prominent sound in the word if it breaks the normal stress pattern of words. Spanish uses only the acute accent (´):
  á, é, í, ó, ú.

  árbol

  tree

  miércoles

  Wednesday

  rubí

  ruby

  canción

  song

  iglú

  igloo

• Spanish uses the umlaut (¨) on top of the letter "u" to mark a non-silent "u" in the syllables "gue" and "gui."

  bilingüe

  bilingual

  pingüino

  penguin

The basic rules of Spanish grammar are related to the gender of nouns, adjectives, and noun-adjacent words, in addition to how verbs are conjugated and how sentences are formed. Here are eight basic rules of Spanish grammar.

• All nouns have a grammatical gender. In Spanish there are two genders: masculine (el libro ("the book")) and feminine (la casa ("the house")) The gender of nouns can be identified by the noun’s ending or the gender of the article.

  • The noun’s ending can indicate its gender (most of the time, but there are exceptions)

    • Nouns ending in -o are masculine:

      libro

      book

      castillo

      castle

    • Nouns ending in -a are feminine:

      casa

      house

      planta

      plant

    • For nouns ending in a different vowel or a consonant, you cannot determine its gender by its ending.

      el cine (masc.)

      cinema

      la noche (fem.)

      night

      el avión (masc.)

      airplane

      la canción (fem.)

      song

  • The article and other noun-adjacent words (demonstrative adjectives, possessive adjectives, some quantifiers) can also be used to determine a noun’s gender. For example: aquella noche oscura ("that dark night"); algunos de nuestros problemas ("some of our problems").

• Most words that accompany nouns (articles and adjectives) have to match the gender and number of the noun. For example, la casa roja ("the red door"); estos libros pesados ("these heavy books").

• Descriptive adjectives are usually placed after the noun.

  Llevaba un vestido largo y azul.

  She was wearing a long blue dress.

• Verbs have a different ending depending on the subject of the sentence. For example, “I eat” is yo como, but "we eat" is nosotros comemos; these are called conjugations.

• Subject pronouns (yo ("I"); tú ("you"); él ("he"); nosotros, nosotras ("we"); etc.) are usually omitted.

  Corrimos el maratón de 5 kilómetros.

  We ran the 5k marathon.

  Estudié toda la noche.

  I studied all night.

• To make a sentence negative, simply place the word "no" in front of the verb. There's no need for helping words like "do" or "does."

  No tenemos tarea hoy.

  We don’t have homework today.

• Spanish has two verbs that mean “to be”: ser and estar. They are not interchangeable!

  • Use ser for time, identifying people or things, events, and describing permanent qualities.

    Son las cinco.

    It is five o'clock.

    Yo soy Paco.

    I am Paco.

    Esto es un teléfono inteligente.

    This is a smart phone.

    El concierto es en el auditorio.

    The concert is in the auditorium.

    Juan Carlos es un gruñón.

    Juan Carlos is a grump.

  • Use estar for location and describing temporary qualities.

    Estoy en la oficina.

    I am in the office.

    Estamos muy cansados.

    We are very tired.

• Spanish has subject-verb-object word order, similar to English.

  El niño pateó la pelota.

  The boy kicked the ball.

  …but unlike English, Spanish is much more flexible!

  Mi jefe llamó muy enojado.
  Llamó mi jefe muy enojado.
  Muy enojado llamó mi jefe.

  My boss called very angry.

The Spanish subject pronouns are the following:

Spanish has different types of pronouns, just like English. Pronouns are substituted for nouns, often to avoid unnecessary repetition or to refer to unknown people or things. Depending on the function of the noun in a sentence, a different type of pronoun is used. Spanish has the following types of pronouns:

• Subject pronouns - replace a noun in the subject position.

  María estudia mucho.

  ⇩

  Mary studies a lot.
  

  ⇩

  Ella estudia mucho.

  She studies a lot.

• Object pronouns - replace a noun in either the direct object position or indirect object position.

  • Direct object pronouns: me, te, lo, la, nos, os, los, las ("me, you, him, her, us, them")

    Isela compra flores.

    ⇩

    Isela buys flowers.
    

    ⇩

    Isela las compra.

    Isela buys them.

  • Indirect object pronouns: me, te, le, nos, os, les ("to me, to you, to him, to her, to us, to them")

    Isela le compra flores.

    Isela buys flowers for her/him.
    

• Reflexive pronouns - refer to both the subject and the object.

  Nosotros nos despertamos tarde los domingos

  We wake up late on Sundays.

• Possessive pronouns - are used instead of a noun that shows possession or ownership.

  Esa es tuya y esta es mía.

  That one is yours and this one is mine.

• Demonstrative pronouns - are used for identifying objects, people, or ideas in space and time.

  Estos no son mis zapatos.

  These are not my shoes.

• Relative pronouns - replace a noun when linking two sentences that share a common noun.

  Me gustó la película.

  I liked the movie.

  +

  (tú) Me recomendaste la película.

  You recommended me the movie.

  =

  Me gustó mucho la película que me recomendaste.

  I really liked the movie that you recommended.

• Indefinite pronouns - refer to unspecified people, places, or things.

  Alguien tocó la puerta.

  Someone knocked on the door.

• Interrogative pronouns - are used for asking questions.

  ¿Quién habrá sido?

  Who could it be?

Spanish verbs are divided in three simple tenses: past, present, and future.

• Past Tense

  There are two main past tenses in Spanish:

  • The preterite - used for completed events and actions in the past.

    Ayer dormí diez horas seguidas.

    Yesterday I slept ten hours straight.

  • The imperfect - used for description and habitual or ongoing actions in the past

    Mientras dormía mi hermano veía la televisión.

    While I was sleeping my brother was watching tv.

• Present tense

  Mi perro duerme mientras yo cocino.

  My dog sleeps while I cook.

• Future tense

  Tendré vacaciones en cuanto tenga dinero

  I will go on vacation as soon as I have money

Verbs in Spanish take a different ending depending on “who/what” is doing the action (aka the subject), the tense (past, present, future), and mood (see below) of the verb. For example, the verb “to sing” is cantar and its conjugations in the present tense are:

Spanish also has compound tenses. They are formed with the auxiliary haber ("to have") plus a past participle:

• Present perfect (haber in the present tense)

  Hoy hemos comido demasiado.

  Today we have eaten too much.

• Past perfect (haber in the imperfect tense)

  Habíamos ido a la tienda antes de que llegaras.

  We had gone to the store before you arrived.

• Future perfect (haber in the future tense)

  Habremos cenado antes de salir.

  We will have eaten before leaving.

Spanish has four moods. These moods also each have different tenses.

• Indicative

  The indicative is the “default” mood; it’s used for facts.

  Santiago es la capital de Chile.

  Santiago is the capital of Chile.

  Rocio trajo arroz con leche.

  Rocio brought rice pudding.

  ¿Adónde ibas?

  Where were you going?

  The indicative has the following tenses:

  Simple	Perfect (haber + past participle)
  Present Preterite Imperfect Future	Present perfect (haber in the present) Past perfect (haber in the imperfect) Future perfect (haber in the future)

• Subjunctive

  The subjunctive is very common in Spanish. It is used to express wishes, desires, doubts, and possibilities.

  It is usually found in the second part of a sentence after the word "que":

  Quiero que vayas a la tienda.

  I want you to go to the store.

  No creo que sepan la respuesta.

  I don’t think they know the answer.

  After the word si ("if") in hypothetical sentences that express unreal situations:

  Si tuviéramos un millón de dólares, viajaríamos por todo el mundo.

  If we had a million dollars, we would travel the world.

  Or after the wish expression "ojalá ("if")":

  Ojalá estuviera de vacaciones

  I wish I were on vacation.

  The subjunctive has four tenses: present, imperfect, present perfect, and past perfect.

  • Present

    (yo) llegue

    that I arrive

  • Imperfect

    (yo) llegara or llegase

    that I arrived

  • Present Perfect
    (haber in the present subjunctive)

    (yo) haya llegado

    that I have arrived

  • Past perfect or pluperfect
    (haber in the imperfect subjunctive)

    (yo) hubiera or hubiese llegado

    that I had arrived

• Conditional

  The conditional is used for conditions in hypothetical sentences or to express wishes or desires.

  Nos gustaría tener una casa en la playa.

  We would like to have a beach house.

  The conditional has two tenses: present conditional (e.g. compraría ("I would buy")) and past conditional (e.g. habría comprado ("I would have bought")).

• Imperative

  The imperative is used for commands, suggestions, and advice; it is only used in the present tense.

  Pásame la sal.

  Pass me the salt.

  No hables tan fuerte

  Don’t speak so loud.

The most common words in Spanish are de ("of, from"), la ("the-feminine, singular"), que ("that"), el ("the-masculine, singular"), en ("in, at").

Here are the numbers in Spanish from 0 to 19, as well as the multiples of ten and one hundred.

Family members in Spanish are referred to based on the gender of the person, similar to most English terms for family members.

Unlike English, Spanish uses the masculine plural term for collective family members, for example: parents → padres, siblings → hermanos (both males and females or all males), tíos (aunts and uncles or all uncles), and so on. The term for "relatives" is parientes.

Some common words to talk about time in Spanish are horas ("hours"), minutos ("minutes"), segundos ("seconds").

Spanish boasts a particularly rich literary tradition that spans nine centuries, three continents, and a wide variety of literary styles. Familiarizing yourself with these works can help you learn a lot about the Spanish language and culture. Starting at the beginning, the medieval El cantar del mio Cid is widely regarded as one of the earliest Spanish texts, preserved in codices written in the Castilian Hispano-Romance some time during the 12th century. This epic poem lauds the exploits of Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, a warlord made famous by his role in the “Reconquista" of the Iberian Peninsula.

Later, during the Golden Age of Spanish literature, Baroque authors such as Miguel de Cervantes, Lope de Vega, and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz produced some of the most famous literary works of all time. Of particular note, Cervantes' Don Quixote is sometimes referred to as the first modern novel, and is widely considered to be one of the most important books of all time. Lope de Vega was an extremely prolific poet and playwright, composing more than a thousand plays during his lifetime, with over 400 being preserved in libraries today. In the Americas, Sor Juan Inés de la Cruz was by far the most influential author of her time. A child prodigy who was unable to receive an education due to the fact she was a woman, Sor Juana became a nun in order to pursue a life of study and writing. She is perhaps most famous for her poetry, and is regarded by some to be one of the earliest feminists, with poems like Hombres Necios that explicitly called out the hypocrisy of men in their treatment of women.

Later, as the American colonies began to win their independence, the Baroque aesthetic gave way to the enlightenment and later the famous romantic Spanish authors during the 19th century. The majority of the romantics were peninsular authors, and the themes of their work embraced the emotional connection of humans with the natural world. Authors in this category include Spanish author Gustavo Adolfo Becquer, and the Galician poet Rosalia de Castro. Social criticism through satire was also common during this period, such as Jose de Larra’s famous Venga usted mañana, a short story that criticized what the author perceived as a tendency for laziness and procrastination in Spanish society at the time.

The end of the 19th century and beyond developed an increasingly rich literary tradition in the Americas, with Latin American authors rising to prominence as some of the most well known and regarded Spanish language authors. Rubén Darío and José Matí, from Nicaragua and Cuba respectively, are particularly notable poets and essayists that emerged from the Latin American Modernism movement, and were some of the earliest Latin American authors to earn a level of international fame. Rubén Darío is perhaps best known for his high aesthetic poetry such as Azul, whereas Martí was prone to intense social criticism and was instrumental in Cuba winning its independence from Spain. Later, the Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges rose to prominence, who was particularly famous for his philosophical short stories, like those found in his collection Ficciones. During the 1960s, the “Latin American Boom” was a period in which many Latin American authors rose to fame, among them Mario Vargas Llosa, author of La ciudad y los perros, Julio Cortázar, author of Rayuela. Perhaps the most famous “boom” author is Gabriel García Márquez, whose novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude'' solidified the genre of magical realism in the international community. Moving towards the current time, there are a wide variety of Spanish language authors of note, with many works focused on political and social criticisms, as well as testimonials from underrepresented groups, like Rigoberta Manchú’s account of her experience as an Indigenous woman in Guatemala, “I, Rigoberta Manchú: An Indian Woman in Guatemala.”

Spanish is spoken in twenty countries (18 countries in Latin America, as well as in Spain and Equatorial Guinea) as an official language. Unofficially, Spanish is also spoken in the United States (about 53 million speakers), Morocco (7 million speakers), Brazil (6.7 million), and many other countries around the world.

Learning Spanish has many benefits — it makes travel easier and more rewarding, it opens the door to world famous movies, music, books, and TV shows, and helps you do business in more than 20 countries. As the largest minority language in the USA, many English speakers seek to learn Spanish to better communicate with a growing segment of the population for both business and recreation. As an added bonus, learning a new language can have many cognitive benefits such as delaying cognitive decay such as Alhzeimer’s Disease or even improving memory function! Find out more of the benefits of learning Spanish below.

Spanish is very important for business both in Europe and throughout the Americas — including in the US! In the United States, 18 percent of the workforce is Hispanic, and it is one of the fastest growing population groups, currently with 53 million speakers. By 2030, the US Labor Bureau projects that this number will rise to 20 percent, meaning that one in five workers will be of Hispanic origin. Worldwide, Spanish speakers are one of the fastest growing linguistic groups, increasing by over 70 percent over the last thirty years to represent 7.5 percent of the world population. Therefore, knowing Spanish will help businesses reach a growing customer base, no matter where you live.

Yes, Spanish is very important for travel. Spanish is the official language of over 20 countries, many of which are popular destinations for both business travel and tourism. Latin America boasts incredible cultural diversity, with influences from dozens of Indigenous American, European, and African cultures. It also spans a wide range of geographies, with everything from tropical beaches and jungle to high alpine zones with towering mountain ranges. Travelers visit Latin America for a wide variety of reasons, and there is literally something here for everyone: colonial cities brimming with museums and churches, a rich culinary tradition that includes everything from street food and market stalls to Michelin starred restaurants, and endless opportunity for outdoor adventures like Scuba diving, river rafting, and mountain climbing.

Likewise, Spain offers a rich cultural heritage that reflects the history of the Iberian peninsula, and offers world famous restaurants, museums, and architecture. Spain is also an outdoor mecca for trekkers wanting to follow the famous Camino de Santiago, or climb some of the most difficult rock climbing routes in the world!

But do you really need to know Spanish to travel in the Spanish speaking world? It’s true that in heavily trafficked tourist areas, there will be some people that speak English. However, once off the beaten track, it may be hard to communicate without at least some survival Spanish. Knowing how to ask for and understand directions, order food, and converse with the locals will make for a smoother experience, and may even lead to finding some hidden gems that most tourists miss! In general, the better you are at the local language, the more rewarding your experience will be. Even if you are a beginner, don’t worry, most Spanish speakers will appreciate any effort you make to communicate, so don’t hesitate, and do your best!

The most similar languages to Spanish are those languages that also derived from Latin, aka the Romance languages. However, due to the expansion and evolution of Latin across the European territories, the Romance languages evolved differently and were also influenced by other languages in the different regions. Because of this, Spanish is most similar to Portuguese, Catalán, and Italian, and less similar to French and Romanian (heavy Slavic influence).

The following list shows the percentage of shared vocabulary between Spanish and the most spoken Romance languages:

• Portuguese - 89%

• Catalan - 85%

• Italian - 82%

• French - 75%

• Romanian - 71%

So there you have it! This concludes our handy guide about the Spanish Language. Make sure to check out all the articles and resources on individual grammar topics (they include activities and handy tables for free!). And, if you’re ready to join the adventure, why not check out the Mango app – we have specific courses on Latin American Spanish and Castillian Spanish. Start speaking Spanish today!