Learn Spanish by reading what you love
Otto swaps a share of the words you read into Spanish: on any website, in books and in podcasts. You still follow everything, and the Spanish you understand grows a little every day, without setting aside time to study.
The same sentence at all seven levels
This is the sentence Otto uses to show its levels, taken straight from the app. At A few words only the most common words are Spanish; at Confident the sentence takes Spanish word order too; at Native it is all Spanish.
El city council va a repair el old bridge este winter, y el mayor promised que pedestrians y cyclists pueden still cross la footbridge.
El city council va a repair el old bridge este winter, y el mayor promised que pedestrians y cyclists pueden todavía cross la footbridge.
El ayuntamiento va a repair el viejo bridge este invierno, y el mayor promised que pedestrians y cyclists pueden todavía cross la footbridge.
El ayuntamiento va a reparar el viejo puente este invierno, y el mayor prometió que pedestrians y cyclists pueden todavía cruzar la footbridge.
El ayuntamiento va a reparar el puente viejo este invierno, y el alcalde prometió que los peatones y cyclists todavía pueden cruzar la footbridge.
El ayuntamiento va a reparar el puente viejo este invierno, y el alcalde prometió que los peatones y los ciclistas todavía pueden cruzar la footbridge.
El ayuntamiento va a reparar el puente viejo este invierno, y el alcalde ha prometido que los peatones y los ciclistas podrán seguir cruzando la pasarela.
The most common words come first
A few hundred words make up most of what anyone reads, so that is where Otto starts. In this sentence, the first Spanish you would meet is:
How you learn Spanish with Otto
- Pick your level. Start with a few everyday words, or most of the page.
- Read as you normally would. A book in the app, a podcast, or any website in Chrome, Safari or the app's own browser.
- Tap any word you don't know. See what it means and hear it. Save it with one tap.
- Practise and move up. Short games in Learn use the words you saved, and as you learn more, Otto shows you more Spanish.
A Spanish grammar course, A1 to C1
Otto teaches Spanish grammar in 102 short topics, each with a clear explanation and exercises, practised with the words you have met yourself. A few of them:
Everything you read, in Spanish at your level
Any website
News, blogs, Wikipedia, recipes: Otto weaves Spanish into the page in Chrome, in Safari and in the app.
Books and podcasts
A library of classic books, and podcasts in which some of the words you hear are Spanish, both at your level.
Your word bank
Every word you save goes to Learn, where quick games bring it back until it sticks.
Your tutor
Working with a tutor? They can set your reading and see the words you looked up.
Questions
Can you learn Spanish just by reading?
Reading things you can mostly understand, with a few new words each time, is one of the best-supported ways to build vocabulary. Otto keeps your reading at that point, and pairs it with short practice games for the Spanish words you save.
What level of Spanish do I need to start?
None. At the first level Otto swaps only a handful of the most common words into Spanish, and it adds more as you learn them, all the way to reading entirely in Spanish.
Is Otto free?
Yes. Everything Otto does is free, with a daily limit. Otto Pro (£3.99 a month) lets you read five times more and work with a tutor; Otto Max (£9.99 a month) five times more again.
Where does Otto work?
On iPhone, iPad and Mac, and as an extension for Chrome and Safari, so it works on the websites you already read.