How to Stop Confusing Similar Words in Spanish - Intermediate Spanish

Experience the language. Become the language.

It’s very easy, but it goes against traditional language learning common knowledge.

At Dreaming Spanish, you will learn Spanish the way you learned your native language, namely, through immersion. Simply start watching content at a level that is comprehensible to you, and gradually work your way towards more and more advanced videos.

As researchers like Dr. Stephen Krashen have shown over the past 40+ years, receiving comprehensible input, that is, messages that you can understand in the target language, is what actually results in language acquisition.

By listening to our stories, cultural expositions, conversations and games, you will get used to real Spanish as it's used in context, and develop a native-like intuition for the grammar and the vocabulary, together with a clear pronunciation.

Experience the language. Become the language.

[СтивС-кф]

Excellent video. "Confusing similar words" also illustrates another piece of advice you give: don't speak too early / don't speak before you have the sounds of the language firmly in your head. In the 1970s (yes, I am that old) I briefly went to a Spanish language school in Guatemala. The students (mostly from the USA) each lived with a Guatemalan family. One day a female student came downstairs. She wanted to tell her host family "No puedo encontrar mi peine" but what she actually said was "No puedo encontrar mi pene." Of course all of the other students heard about this. I laughed with the rest until, two weeks later, I lost MY comb. As I walked to the market I was practicing the whole time: "peine, pene; peine, pene." And of course, exactly what you said happened. The words became more tightly linked in my head, not less. When I got to the market, the person selling combs was a 16-year-old girl wearing the biggest wooden cross I have ever seen a person wear. Nervously I began "Me gustaria comprar ... me gustaria comprar ... me gustaria comprar un cepillo!"

[mitchcohen]

i love watching the videos where you talk about language learning and the theory behind comprehensible input!

[spanishdownload]

Ugh. Language learning vids from Pablo are my FAV

[charlemos-chat-in-español]

Consejos tan útiles Pablo. For me it's "llegar" y "llevar" which is not helped by the sounds of "ll" and "v" being so different to the spellings. I belong to an online community of Spanish learners and Dreaming Spanish is popular amongst us and we highly recommend it to new members of our group. Please accept this donation on our behalf.

[matttrimble]

I did this to myself with por and para at first. Then I found DS I gave up the Grammar/vocab and now I hardly think of them because it just sounds right. I heard someone say gracias para algo and it just sounded wrong without thinking of why so I guess comprehensible input works!

[muffinandspotty]

Estoy completamente de acuerdo con Pablo. Si el profesor de un video en Youtube empieza a dar ejemplos del usos incorrectos comunes de un palabra, lo salto.

[malj]

Thank you Pablo! Videos like these bring so much reassurance especially after spending dozens of hours getting input. Even with your detailed roadmap and what to expect along the way it's easy to get frustrated and wonder if this is actually working but it is 💪🏾 I started in January and I'll be on level 5 soon!

[darksword]

Gractias por tu video. La barba se ve muy genial!

[TyreeceGreen]

Thankyou Pablo this was the perfect way to reinforce the comprehensible input method, as I'm sure many of us have started to feel that this may not be working after a while as its a process that takes a long time to acquire. I have definitely seen a lot of progress in my comprehension and when I have spoken people have said my accent has been good! I'm just over a month away from level 5 so currently debating whether to wait till level 5 or 6 to actively speak as you've said level 6 is the perfect time for the best chance of pronunciation but I am feeling eager to start soon. Thanks again!

[julieo]

Eso tiene mucho sentido Pablo! Muchas gracias!

[carlosdecorea]

Yo he esperado mucho nuevo video en corea!!

[tedc]

Entiendo bien la diferencia entre wa (は) y ga (が). Queda claro cuando usas varias oraciones juntas. Todavia, japonesa y español son muy differentes.

[AaronFreeman]

Gracias Pablo entendi casi todas tus fraces!

[prestonthayer]

Muchas gracias, Pablo y los otros profesores!! Tu canal ha mejorado mi nivel de español! Tengo una pregunta importante. ¿Planeas hacer otro canal de Dreaming para francés u otros idiomas?

[emilybh]

This is such a great observation! Based on your videos of the wide variety of teachers you have with different accents, I rarely hear them use any of the idioms I was forced to memorize when taking traditional Spanish in school or later when wasting time with "Duolingo" as a "refresher" where the same phrases were taught. What a waste of time. Perhaps it helps a little if you are reading Spanish but even then, knowing the overall context of what is being said almost always is enough to help a person understand an idiom and if not, it probably isn't that important nor will not understanding it detract from understanding the majority of what is being said. It seems most of them aren't even used in everyday language.

[scojo]

Very interesting video! I'm learning Spanish on your Dreaming Spanish website after a false start using more traditional learning methods. It's nice to know that over time any bad habits I picked up from the traditional approach may go away after getting lots of input. I do wonder if my accent may be worse when I eventually start to speak because I "studied" the sounds of the Spanish alphabet. I suspect that having lots of input in my brain may lessen the impact in that regard too. I have around 430 hours of input right now and I'm really enjoying all of the diverse videos you've assembled. Thanks!

[M-kh]

Gracias Pablo por tu consejo. sí, intentar comprender las mismas palabras en un texto o en la historia es efectivo. ❤

[smack]

I’m really glad you made this video. Unfortunately, I have this problem with the words fiber and fever in Spanish. I learned these words before finding Dreaming Spanish. I know you said not to think about it, but I just wanted to make that confession lol. I’ll no longer focus on it and just keep receiving comprehensible input.

[d.lawrence]

Me has ayudado mucho! Gracias, Pablo!

[stevenc]

Is epic beard Pablo making a comeback?