Backstory
A little while ago, I was in the children's section of a library with my daughter and I noticed there was a world language's section of children's graphic novels. I grabbed a Dav Pilkney book (of Dogman fame) and from that book my joy in, and desire to learn, Spanish was rekindled.
Excelsior!
I have now read stacks of Pilkney books in Spanish, some of them more than once, and I think it has reactivated what I knew of the language. Now it is time to push forward. So here is are some resources I have gathered from my favorite domain -- the public one.
A First Spanish Reader (maybe too easy)
Modern Spanish Lyrics (poems)
Lecturas fáciles con ejercicios
An Easy Introduction to Spanish Conversation
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And since this is a blog of stuff chatGPT tells me at this point, here is a road map of what I should learn on a more explicit level, since I am hundreds of thousands of words read into an "input only, then look up some words" method -- which I do not recommend as the only thing you do.
1. The Core Sentence Skeleton
These are things you probably “feel” but can start labeling to lock them in.
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Ser vs. estar — essence vs. state (but really, identity vs. circumstance).
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Hay / tener / hacer — existence, possession, weather; easy to conflate early.
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Personal “a” — the hidden marker of agency and personhood.
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Direct vs. indirect objects — lo/la vs. le/les, plus the leísmo tolerance zones (esp. Spain).
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Double-object pronouns — se lo di, te la paso — where logic bends to euphony.
2. Verbal Time and Mood (The Big Gap for Input Learners)
Once you hit narrative prose, this is the minefield.
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Preterite vs. imperfect — event vs. background, or “photograph” vs. “video.”
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Present perfect and past perfect — he comido, había comido — easy to miss how common haber is in writing.
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Conditional and future — haría, haré, often used for politeness and inference (será verdad = “must be true”).
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Subjunctive moods — this one’s best approached later, once you’re seeing patterns like quiera que sea, aunque llueva, para que vayas. You’ll already recognize them by sound; you’ll just be learning why.
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Sequence of tenses (Si tuviera... habría...) — the crown jewel of backfill grammar once you’ve stabilized the rest.
3. Relative and Connective Tissue
The part that makes sentences “flow”:
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Que, lo que, el que, la que, cuyo — relative clause chaos.
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Porque / así que / sin que / aunque — where meaning hinges on conjunction choice.
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Se — reflexive, impersonal, passive, pronominal. Learning to label which se you’re seeing is a huge clarity gain.
4. Modifiers and Flow
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Adjective placement — una gran mujer ≠ una mujer grande.
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Adverbs of frequency and manner — ya, todavía, apenas, casi, siempre; these change sentence polarity subtly.
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Clitic placement with infinitives/gerunds — voy a decírtelo, estoy diciéndotelo.
5. Subtle Style and Register
This level is when you start tuning in to dialect, tone, and literary style.
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Vosotros / ustedes, tú vs. usted — and implied social distance.
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Diminutives / augmentatives — -ito, -illo, -azo; emotional tone coding.
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Nominalizations and abstract style — la búsqueda de, el hecho de que... — how written Spanish stacks prepositions.
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Verb choice nuance — saber vs. conocer, pensar vs. creer, parecer vs. resultar, etc.
6. Meta-layer (for future Latin overlap)
This is where Latin will make Spanish click retroactively:
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Agreement systems (number, gender, participles).
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Tense correspondence (pluperfect, subjunctive triggers).
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Infinitive clauses (al entrar, sin decir nada).
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Participial constructions (traces of Latin ablative absolutes).
Suggested “sentence method” workflow
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Pick a line from your input reading — preferably something that almost makes full sense.
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Translate it, but slowly, noticing each particle, preposition, pronoun.
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Ask “why that form?” one element at a time.
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Make a second sentence by swapping one element (aunque llueva → aunque nieva).
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Keep a little log of what you learned — not a grammar table, just “notes to future self.”
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