Reddit reviews Practical Spanish Grammar: A Self-Teaching Guide, 2nd Edition

Alrighty, if you want to learn Spanish, this is the method that I have been using so far... First off, I have to plug this book:

Fluent Forever by Grabiel Wyner - Amazon.com

I have read and tried a lot of different books on learning languages before I finally found this one, which I consider to be the holy grail. Nothing else has stuck before I read this book. The method is basically this:

1. Using Anki, a spaced-repitition learning (SRS) flashcard program, you start to learn the minimal pairs of your target language (words that differ by one sounds like "cat" and "cut"). This will help you later one when listening and learning words and will help you develop a better accent.
   
   
2. Using Anki, start to learn the most commonly used words in your language by gathering your own images and pronunciations to go along with them. Learn the base forms of verbs, you will learn to conjugate them in the next step. Here is the top 1000 words on a frequency list from Wiktionary and here is the 625 word list provided in the book. I suggest using the alphabetical word list rather than the thematic word list because if you start learning words thematically it can be harder to retain, explained within the book. Grab images from Google Images by typing in your target word after translating with SpanishDict and insert into Anki. Grab audio translations from Forvo.com if available.
   
   
3. Once you have plowed your way through 500-1000 words, you are ready to start learning to conjugate verbs and making sentences. He explains a great method for this in the book using mnemonics for different conjugations and provides a model deck you can install to use with Anki at this website. Also take a look at StudySpanish.com - Grammar Tutorial and start working your way through that at the same time. The reason you learn vocabulary first is so you have words to actually make sentences with, rather than using a smaller limited vocabulary to make the same sentences over and over.
   I suggest focusing on Linguasorb.com - Top 100 Spanish Verbs to start with conjugations that will be most commonly used.
   
   
4. Once you are able to construct basic sentences and have a decent vocabulary, you are ready to start really practicing. Find language partners or tutors on iTalki.com, write some short stories and stuff on Lang-8.com and get them translated by native speakers, practice whenever and wherever you can.
   
   
5. Start to acquire as much exposure to the language as possible. Watch TV Shows, read CNN en Español, listen to radio, watch movies, read books, whatever you can at this point to break through that intermediate fluency level.
   
   Other useful things:
   
   Books:
   
   

• Lonely Planet - Latin American Spanish Phrasebook
  
  
• Lonely Planet - Spanish Phrasebook
  
  
• Practical Spanish Grammar - A Self Teaching Guide
  
  Websites:
  
  
• 60 Insanely Useful Resources for Learning Spanish
  
  
• Spanish Linking Words - SpanishWithJudith.com
  
  
• Spanish Transition Words - TheSpanishBlog.com
  
  
• Palabras de Transicion
  
  
• Graaahh's Awesome Spanish Study Guide (for this one you have to make a free account, then go back to the page, click on "Share", then a download link will appear)
  
  This is all I can write for the moment, I am by no means fluent in Spanish but I am working on it. I have done a TON of research and this is some of the best stuff I have found, but my bookmarks folder is completely full of other resources if there is something in particular you are looking for.

Are you familiar with https://www.italki.com/ ? It's a pretty great resource to work on conversation in a way that's tailored to you.

Also, if grammar trips you up, this book is highly recommended: https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Spanish-Grammar-Self-Teaching-Guide/dp/0471134465/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1526487698&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=spanish+grammar&psc=1