Spanish Language

Search Engines and Web Directories for Latin American and Iberian Sites, in Spanish

Search Engine Colossus and Search Engine Guide are comprehensive global master directories of local search engines for regional, country, or language-specific searches. Yahoo! provides country-specific, regional, and official government site search options. Google offers a comprehensive Language Tools Page to search in specific languages or countries, translate text, change language interfaces, or link to country-specific Google sites. Many Spanish language Internet broadcasts are accessible through the International Radio and Television Broadcasts page of this WWW Virtual Library: International Affairs Resources.

Other Sites

• Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes-- "La Biblioteca de las culturas hispánicas." Major virtual library of  Spanish-language classic works of literature available free online, with commentary and analysis of the authors and their works, supported by many Spanish and foreign entities. Also has a collection of links to academic centers, digitalization projects, libraries, publishers, and bookstores, especially of the Spanish-speaking world, and more.

• Bitácoras-- "La mayor red social para bloggers existente en español con más que 250.000 usuarios a los que ofrecemos multitud de recursos y servicios gratuitos. El sistema recoge la información de miles de bitácoras y la organiza, cataloga y distribuye en tiempo real convirtiéndose en un instrumento fundamental para conocer lo que ocurre en la blogosfera hispana."

• Destinos: An Introduction to Spanish-- "A video instructional series in Spanish for college and high school classrooms and adult learners; 52 half-hour video programs, audiocassettes, music CD, video and audio scripts, and coordinated books." Produced by WGBH Boston.  Entire series is viewable online with free registration.

• Dictionary of Spanish-- Online English/Spanish/English dictionary with tens of thousands of entries, plus audio pronunciations for many of them.

• E-Spanish-- This free educational site includes online grammar tests, interactive vocabulary practice, games, song lyrics, audio with transcripts, a database of several hundred Spanish-speaking webradio links, and more.

• Learn Spanish-- Excellent free online tutorial to help you learn Spanish through interactive grammar, verb, and vocabulary exercises with a large selection of audio. Also has a premium level, but the free level is quite comprehensive.

• Learn Spanish-- Audio-visual site with pronunciations and study sheets to "help you learn new Spanish words easily. There are 40 learning topics to choose from with over 1,400 Spanish words and phrases."

• Learn Spanish Feel Good-- Over 100 free quizzes on various aspects of Spanish grammar (for beginning and intermediate levels), image and topic-based vocabulary quizzes, advanced vocabulary-training exercises, a list of English phrasal verbs translated into Spanish, and "Spanish for travelers."

• Lenguaje.com-- "El sitio de la ingeniería del lenguaje," excellent site about Spanish language generally, with online essays, expert linguist consultants, thesaurus, synonym and antonym dictionary, verb conjugator, spell checker, hyphenator, other helps, links to Spanish language search engines and sites about the language.

• Liceus.com-- Fine academic portal site pulling together a large compendium of high-quality and full-text Spanish-language contributions to many fields of the humanities for cost-free access online.

• Living Spanish-- "Aims to become a valuable resource to Spanish students and teaching communities throughout the world. Our goal is to create a space where students and teachers develop a community based on communication and the exchange of ideas, to improve the experience of teaching and learning Spanish." From Spanish teachers in Spain and offers much useful cost-free learning content.

• Loquella's Learn Spanish-- Free online Spanish language course for students at any level, based on materials originally created by the Foreign Service Institute of the U.S. Department of State. Lessons focus on proper pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar, through listening and repeating audio and reading the corresponding sentences in English and Spanish.

• Mansion Spanish-- Free online basic Spanish course with other useful educational resources for teachers and students, accessible without registration.

• Medical Spanish for Health Care Providers-- "This site is presented as a free medical Spanish immersion, with vocabulary including greetings, history, examination, and everyday speech, all with translation and audio. It is designed to be helpful for a variety of medical personnel."

• NoComprendo.es-- Free online Spanish course and teaching resources available in English and several other languages, visual and interactive, with choice of several subject areas.

• Página del Idioma Español-- Interesting notes on Spanish language usage and role in world, plus links to Spanish dictionaries, culture sites, radio stations, periodicals, search engines.

• Prensa Escrita-- Links to newspapers throughout the Spanish-speaking world.

• Real Academia Española-- Website of the Academy that sets standards for the Spanish language, featuring an authoritative online dictionary; orthographic, usage and verb conjugation guidelines; and an online service for linguistic consultations.

• Sí, España-- Information on Spain's current affairs, and its historical, linguistic, and cultural development, done by a team of volunteers, in several languages.

• Spanish/English/Spanish Dictionary-- "Free service of Word Magic Software Inc.,... the most complete online English to Spanish / Spanish to English dictionary on the web; it's free and the most powerful tool you can find that will help you with its huge amount of translations: idioms, phrasal verbs, plus other parts of speech, both simple and compound."

• Spanish Language-- About.com's colorful and helpful guide to things Spanish.

• Spanish NewsBites-- Free online resource for students and teachers which offers regularly-updated news stories from Spain and Latin America, written for language learners at beginner, intermediate and advanced levels. It features selected mouse rollover glossary and grammar, audio, exercises and useful links.

• Spanish Proverbs and Sayings, with Their English Equivalents-- Hundreds of idiomatic proverbs and sayings, compiled by Berta Alicia Chen and posted by the University of California, Los Angeles.

• Spanish-test.net-- "Created according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages... [so] it provides a reliable method to determine your Spanish skills." Helpful interactive usage and grammar tests provide scores, correct answers, and re-tests with new questions at levels A1 to B2.

• Tomísimo-- "English-Spanish, Spanish-English Dictionary that makes finding words easy by automatically searching in both languages... aims to provide an unabridged, bilingual dictionary for the English and Spanish languages."

• TypeIt.org-- This site allows you to type unique characters in Spanish easily, even if you don't have a specialized keyboard, then to edit your text in the box and copy it to your document, e-mail message, etc.