Spanish Rules Library
Resources for learning Spanish
A short, opinionated list of external references for Spanish and its regional varieties: courses and classes, dictionaries, usage guides, language academies, and listening material — general Spanish first, then country by country.
We keep this list deliberately short. Every entry is free to access, maintained by people who know what they are doing, and useful in a way this site is not — we document the rules, they document the words, the norms, and the sound of the language.
Classes & courses
We don't sell courses, so we have no stake in which one you pick. These are the ones we would recommend to a friend, with the price model stated up front and the weaknesses named where they exist.
Language Transfer — Complete Spanish
A complete audio course, free and ad-free, that teaches you to reason your way to Spanish rather than memorize it. The best starting point if you have never studied the language.
CourseFree tierDreaming Spanish
Graded comprehensible-input video, from absolute beginner upward, with speakers from several countries. Hundreds of hours are free on YouTube; the paid tier adds structure.
CourseFree tierCoffee Break Spanish
A podcast-shaped course in short episodes, taught in English. Well paced for commutes; the free feed alone covers a lot of ground.
CourseFree tierNotes in Spanish
Unscripted conversations between a Spanish and an English speaker, graded by level. Peninsular Spanish, and honest about being so.
TutoringPaiditalki
One-to-one lessons with tutors you can filter by country — the practical way to work on a specific variety, whether that's Bolivian, Paraguayan, or rioplatense Spanish.
CoursePaidAVE Global (Instituto Cervantes)
The Instituto Cervantes' own online course, aligned to the CEFR levels and to the DELE exams. The institutional option if you want your progress to map onto a recognized certificate.
CourseFree tierCoursera — university Spanish courses
University-run courses, several from Latin American institutions. Most can be audited free; you pay only for the certificate.
CourseFree tierDuolingo — Spanish
Good at building a daily habit and early vocabulary; weak at grammar explanation and effectively monodialectal (Latin American standard). Useful as a supplement, not as your only course.
CertificationPaidDELE — Instituto Cervantes
The official Spanish proficiency diploma, issued by Spain's Ministry of Education. Permanent validity, sat at exam centres worldwide on fixed dates.
CertificationPaidSIELE
A computer-based proficiency certificate, sat on demand and graded on a scale rather than pass/fail. Explicitly panhispanic: it accepts the norms of every variety.
General Spanish
Diccionario de la lengua española (RAE)
The reference dictionary of the Spanish language. Entries mark which senses are regional and where they are used — check here before assuming a word is universal.
UsageDiccionario panhispánico de dudas (RAE)
The place to settle an argument about correct usage. Explicitly panhispanic: it tells you when a form is accepted in America but not in Spain, or the reverse.
DictionaryDiccionario de americanismos (ASALE)
The single most useful free resource for regional vocabulary: every entry lists the countries where the word lives, and flags register. Indispensable alongside our regional rules.
UsageFundéu RAE
Daily, plain-language rulings on current usage — new words, anglicisms, punctuation. Written for journalists, which makes it unusually readable.
InstitutionCentro Virtual Cervantes
The Instituto Cervantes' free teaching and reference material: didactic articles, corpora, and the reference levels behind the CEFR labels we use.
UsageWikilengua
A collaborative wiki on Spanish usage, hosted by Fundéu. Good for the long tail of edge cases no dictionary bothers to cover.
ListeningForvo — Spanish pronunciations
Native recordings of individual words, tagged by country. The fastest way to hear how the same word sounds in Madrid, La Paz, and Buenos Aires.
ListeningRadio Ambulante
Long-form journalism podcast in Spanish, with transcripts. Each episode is a different country, so it doubles as sustained listening practice across accents.
By country
Spanish is not one language but many. These are the institutional and media references for each variety we cover or plan to cover. Where a country has no site of its own, we link to its academy's page at the Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española.
Bolivia
Bolivia Spanish Live
Live small-group classes with native Bolivian teachers, online and organised around a concrete goal — travel, a visa, housing, business, study. The closest match to what this site documents: Bolivian Spanish taught by Bolivians.
In personPaidSucre Spanish School
In-person classes in Sucre, the city foreigners most often pick to learn Bolivian Spanish — slow, clear highland speech with little s-aspiration.
InstitutionAcademia Boliviana de la Lengua
Bolivia's language academy within ASALE — the institutional authority behind the Bolivian entries in the Diccionario de americanismos.
Paraguay
El Poliglota
A language and culture centre in Asunción, and an accredited DELE and SIELE exam venue — the accreditation is why we list this one rather than another.
InstitutionAcademia Paraguaya de la Lengua Española
Paraguay's Spanish-language academy within ASALE.
InstitutionSecretaría de Políticas Lingüísticas
Paraguay's language-policy body, covering both Spanish and Guaraní. Essential context: Paraguay is officially bilingual, and that is why its Spanish looks the way it does.
Argentina
Laboratorio de Idiomas, Universidad de Buenos Aires
Spanish as a foreign language at the UBA's Faculty of Philosophy and Letters — a public university, and the obvious place to work on rioplatense Spanish and voseo.
InstitutionAcademia Argentina de Letras
Argentina's academy, with an active publications section on the Spanish of the Río de la Plata — the reference for voseo and rioplatense vocabulary.
Uruguay
Centro de Idiomas, Universidad ORT Uruguay
Spanish for foreigners in Montevideo. Uruguayan Spanish shares voseo with Argentina but not all of its intonation — a good place to hear the difference.
InstitutionAcademia Nacional de Letras del Uruguay
Uruguay's academy within ASALE. Uruguayan and Argentine usage overlap heavily, but the differences are real — start here rather than assuming rioplatense is one thing.
Chile
Español en la Chile, Universidad de Chile
Semester-long courses at Chile's main public university, across five levels. Worth the structure: Chilean Spanish is fast, and self-study rarely prepares you for it.
InstitutionAcademia Chilena de la Lengua
Chile's academy within ASALE — the institutional reference for a variety often described as the hardest for learners, mostly because of its speed and its own voseo.
Mexico
CEPE, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
UNAM's Centro de Enseñanza para Extranjeros has taught Spanish to foreigners since 1921, with campuses in Mexico City and Taxco. The reference programme in the country.
InstitutionAcademia Mexicana de la Lengua
Mexico's academy, with free online reference works. Mexico has the largest number of Spanish speakers of any country, so its usage carries far beyond its borders.
Peru
Curso de Español para Extranjeros, PUCP
Spanish for foreigners at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, in Lima and online. Useful exposure to Andean Spanish, which shares much with the Bolivian variety.
InstitutionAcademia Peruana de la Lengua
Peru's academy. Useful background for Andean Spanish, which shares much of its substrate with Bolivian Spanish.
Colombia
Español para extranjeros, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana
Courses from A1 to C2, in person or online, in Bogotá. Colombia also runs an official directory of accredited university programmes at spanishincolombia.caroycuervo.gov.co.
InstitutionInstituto Caro y Cuervo
Colombia's research institute for Spanish and the country's indigenous languages — unusually strong on dialectology and linguistic atlases.
InstitutionAcademia Colombiana de la Lengua
Colombia's academy within ASALE, the oldest in the Americas.
Venezuela
Spanish With Domingo
One-to-one online lessons from A1 to C2 with a Venezuelan teacher, accredited by the Instituto Cervantes and the Universidad de Salamanca as a DELE and SIELE examiner. An individual tutor rather than an institution — we found no Venezuelan school teaching foreigners that we could verify.
InstitutionAcademia Venezolana de la Lengua
Venezuela's academy within ASALE.
Central America
Spanish Panama
In-person school in Panama City. Caribbean-influenced Spanish: fast, heavily s-aspirated, and a useful contrast with the highland varieties we cover most.
InstitutionAcademia Panameña de la Lengua
Panama's academy within ASALE. Every Central American country has its own; ASALE lists them all.
Spain
Cursos Internacionales, Universidad de Salamanca
In-person courses at the university that has taught Spanish to foreigners longer than anyone. The reference point for study-abroad programmes in Spain.
InstitutionReal Academia Española
The Spanish academy, and the origin of the dictionaries above. Note that it now works within ASALE, not above it — Peninsular usage is one norm among many.
InstitutionInstituto Cervantes
Spain's official language institute: courses, the DELE exams, and centres worldwide.
ListeningRTVE
Spanish public broadcasting, free to stream: news and documentaries in Peninsular Spanish, with distinción and vosotros throughout.
External links. We are not affiliated with any of these organizations, and we don't get paid for listing them.