You first lesson in Spanish could be to learn the Spanish alphabet. The Spanish alphabet is called "el abecedario," a name derived from the first four letters, "a," "b," "c" and "d." The Spanish alphabet has 29 letters, three more than the English alphabet. Those three additional letters are "ch," "ll" and a special n-like letter, ñ, pronounced as the "ni" in the English "onion." This character started life when medieval scribes decided to write a small "n" above a bigger one. While most consonants are pronounced similarly to English consonants, the pronunciation of vowels can be different. For example, "a" is pronounced as the English "a" in "father," "e" sounds like the "e" in "bed" and "i" sounds like the "ee" in "see." Pronounce "o" as the "o" in "hot" and "u" as the "oo" in "zoo."
Spanish is a phonetic language. Accordingly, you read it as it's written, which makes Spanish an easier language to learn than French, for example. The easiest Spanish words and phrases include words and phrases like "hola" (hello), "adios" (goodbye) and "por favor" (please). Other useful expressions are "como esta?" (how are you?) and "muy bien, gracias" (very well, thank you).
Spanish pronouns, such as "yo" (I) and "tu" (you), are used in the same way as in English. However, the pronouns are often omitted For example, instead of "Yo quiero comer" (I want to eat), you can just say, "Quiero comer" (I want to eat), omitting "yo." "Quiero is the first-person singular form of the root verb querer (to want).
Asking for directions is an important lesson, as the phrases you'll learn can be helpful in any Spanish speaking country. For example, "Disculpe, ¿podría decirme dónde está la plaza de toros?" means "Excuse me, could you tell me where the bullring is?" Another useful expression is "¿Cómo puedo llegar ..." "How do I get ..." Then say what you are looking for, for example, al aeropuerto ( to the airport), a la estación de autobuses (to the bus station), a la estación de tren (to the train station), al centro (to the center of town). To ask "Is it far?" say "¿Está lejos?" "Can I/we walk there?" is "¿Se puede ir andando? "If you want the person to show you directions on your map, say, "¿Puede enseñarme/mostrarme en el plano?" ("Can you show me on the map?")