Chat GPT is scary! It will take your job! It will turn on humans and try to kill us! Ok, not really...
Did you know that when writing began to be a common practice, the same type of people said: “Now the scribes will have no job because anybody will be able to write!"
They also predicted that if everyone learned to write, we would become dumb and wouldn't remember things anymore.
While people may have their suspicions about AI, that doesn’t change the fact that it can help us out a lot, - it’s just another tool to serve us.
Chat GPT has unlocked another level of interaction between humans and computers that cannot be undone. Currently, I am studying French, and I find myself getting more practice with the Chatbot than with real speakers.
ChatGPT is far greater in many ways than any language partner or teacher you could come across. This website can produce for you in 1 minute what would take a human 2 hours - and for free!
In this article, I am going to tell you everything that I am doing with ChatGPT to get my French for an A1 to a B1! Let’s start (¡Empecemos!)
Table Of Contents:
Summary: How To Study Spanish With ChatGPT
There are many ways that we can use Chat-GPT to study languages in ways that were never before possible. The best ways to use Chat-GPT to study Spanish are:
Generating Frequency Lists
Finding Synonyms And Antonyms To Broaden Vocabulary
Generating Topic-Specific Vocabulary Lists
Translating Stories, Articles, Song Lyrics, And Our Own Writings
Getting Our Sentences Corrected
Finding More Creative Ways To Say Any Sentence
Finding Well-Known Spanish Idioms To Use In Conversation
Getting Explanations, And Examples Of Spanish Grammar
Generating Stories Using Our Newly Learned Spanish Words/Conjugations
Within every paragraph, we go deeper into how I use ChatGPT to achieve incredible results with these approaches. If you don’t feel ready to speak to a native Spanish speaker, ChatGPT might just be the best tool out there for you.
Now let’s do a deep dive into these methods. Are you ready to leverage AI to learn Spanish? Let’s go!
Learn Spanish Vocabulary With ChatGPT
I have been using ChatGPT to generate lists of words that are most relevant to me, and it never fails.
Whether you want a list of “Kitchen Vocabulary” or “Vocabulary for Musicians”, ChatGPT will produce a perfect list in under a minute. Let’s take a look at some of the most common commands that I have been giving to my “language bot” in recent weeks.
Ask For Frequency Lists
At the beginner stages, it's super important to make sure you get a solid foundation in the language. Before ChatGPT I used to find frequency lists for the languages I was learning on Wikipedia.
Now, I just write to ChatGPT “Can you give me the 500 most frequently used words in French with their definitions?” - and BOOM!
If you do this and you find that you know all of the words, great, maybe you can ask for “200 most frequent verbs” for example. In any case, you can always use ChatGPT to generate really valuable lists of vocab as long as you can put into words what you need.
Ask ChatGPT For Synonyms Or Antonyms
Just like we did with the frequently used words, just go to our friendly Chatbot and ask “Can you give me 10 synonyms for the word bueno in Spanish”.
This is a wonderful way to broaden your vocabulary so that when you do speak with a human you don’t sound repetitive with your use of adjectives. By searching the same thing but with the word Antonym, you can get a list of words that mean the opposite and learn more adjectives!
Use ChatGPT To Teach You Topic Specific Vocabulary In Spanish
If you have a specific topic you are passionate about, or that you just think might be useful - you can use ChatGPT to generate a list of topic-specific vocab.
For example, if you ask “Can you give me the 30 most important Spanish words about cars”
Use ChatGPT To Translate
ChatGPT so far has proved itself to be a bit better than Google Translate. Not only does ChatGPT have access to all of the information that Google Translate does, but its algorithm is more complex and malleable.
Not only this, but you can ask GPT to translate things that you write with a certain mood - for example: “Can you translate this for me and make it sound professional” and GPT will use more formal vocabulary, more advanced connecting words/phrases.
Not to mention the lack of the dreadful Google Translate word limit - have you ever wanted to translate something and Google said “You exceeded the word limit”? That’ll never happen again when you opt for ChatGPT, where you can translate a whole book if you wanted to.
Generate Spanish Stories With ChatGPT
If you have a story that you can’t find translated into English, ChatGPT will translate it for you happily! Not only this, but GPT will write you a story of your own if you tell it to.
For example, you could say: “Write me a 1,000-word story in Spanish for beginners about a gangster turtle who was a school teacher on the side”.
You can also add 100 words that you learned recently and say “Include these words” - can you imagine how much easier it will be to memorize words now with our beloved Chatbot?
Translating Spanish Articles With ChatGPT
ChatGPT can be a valuable tool for translating articles and news when learning Spanish. Its ability to understand and generate human-like text allows it to accurately translate complex sentences and paragraphs.
Translating articles with ChatGPT can aid you in improving your language skills by showing you different structures, vocabulary, and idiomatic expressions.
You can explore Spanish articles and news, and through ChatGPT's translation capabilities, you’ll be able to comprehend the content, study sentence patterns, and expand your vocabulary.
Translate Your Own Writings From English To Spanish
Just like with articles/news and stories, you can write your own content in English and get a wonderfully accurate translation from ChatGPT.
This is a super-smart tactic because our brains only want to remember what is most relevant, and of course, your own stories, words, and ideas are generally more relevant to yourself those of others. One way I have used ChatGPT is to translate summaries about my day, week, or month.
This always helps me get some practice expressing myself in the past tense, and talking about personal experiences.
Song Lyrics
Remember that Google Translate limit? I can’t tell you how many times I couldn’t find a translation for the lyrics of a song, and Google Translate wouldn’t give it to me because it was “too long”. But this is a problem of the past, thanks to ChatGPT, there no longer is a text that’s too long to translate.
Use ChatGPT As Your Conversation Partner
I have used ChatGPT multiple times as an AI conversation partner. Personally, I tried to use the Memrise Chatbot (AI Integration In The Language App Memrise) but I found it slow, and it ended up crashing the App.
It seems the best source for AI conversations is found within the ChatGPT website itself. Just say “Hey, can we practice my Spanish” and the Bot will be happy to start the conversation.
Get Your Spanish Sentences Corrected
I always ask ChatGPT when practicing my French which corrects my grammar. Whenever I start the conversation I just say “Can you correct any mistakes that I make in this conversation?” And the Bot responds happily - “Of course!”.
I find this much easier to get started with than a real person, especially if you don’t like the feeling of being wrong, maybe it will be a bit easier for you to be corrected by a computer than a real person.
Here is a real example of Chat GPT correcting me - I wrote "Intentado" and it knew that what I meant to say was "Intentando".
Ask For More Creative Ways To Express What You Just Said
Another way you can expand your skills is by asking ChatGPT to give you new ways to say a sentence. You can ask “What are some more creative ways to say Yo no quiero hacer eso” and it will give you some examples you can use in the future.
Take a look below at one of my most recent conversations with ChatGPT when I asked it to give me all the ways to greet somebody in French.
Ask ChatGPT For Well Known Spanish Idioms
Another way you can leverage ChatGPT is by asking for well-known Spanish idioms. I have asked people for this before, and usually, they can’t come up with many on the spot, but ChatGPT can give you a list of 20 in the blink of an eye.
Idioms are a way to show you are comfortable in the language, and it's a way to go far beyond the most basic ways of expressing oneself. Try this in your next study session with the GPT-Bot.
Use ChatGPT For Spanish Grammar Practice
As I mentioned earlier in this article, I use Chat GPT to correct me when I say something wrong. However, there are many other ways to further your knowledge of Spanish grammar when using the GPT-Bot.
The best ways to use ChatGPT for Spanish grammar practice are by asking for example sentences that use specific Spanish conjugations, for explanations about when to use certain tenses, and for grammar explanations.
Ask For Examples Using A Specific Spanish Conjugation
Whenever I am trying to get used to seeing a new conjugation in French, I ask ChatGPT to give me example sentences using that tense. For example, you could say: “Give me 30 example sentences using the Spanish Past Progressive conjugation”.
A lot of things can be found on blogs, sometimes with better explanations, but this is one thing ChatGPT can do that no other website can!
Ask For Explanations About When To Use Certain Tenses
If you are not sure about a certain tense, you can identify it by saying “What is the name for this tense - Hubiese”. Then when it tells you the name of the tense that the word is in, you can ask “Why do you use the … tense in this sentence?”.
ChatGPT usually does a good job of explaining the uses for each conjugation in a simple way.
This is an example of me asking for an explanation about the difference between the Past Perfect and the Preterite Perfect tenses in Spanish.
Ask For Grammar Explanations
If you are confused about a grammar explanation, you can always ask ChatGPT. For example, a common problem in Spanish is that there are two words to say “for” so you can ask “What is the difference between Por and Para in Spanish”.
Below is an example of the type of answers that ChatGPT will give to you to resolve your confusion.
Ask ChatGPT To Tell You Stories Using A Specific Conjugation Or Word(s)
Recently while trying to understand all of the different past tense conjugations in French, I asked ChatGPT to “give me a 400-word French story using every past tense conjugation”.
This worked phenomenally and helped me memorize all of the conjugations and their use, thanks to the simple context provided around the conjugations. Look below and you’ll see an example of when I did this in Spanish to help teach the past tense conjugations.
Conclusion: How To Study Spanish With Chat GPT
Before you get scared about AI, give it a try and you’ll see that just like all other technology we use daily, it is created to serve us. If you want to know how to study Spanish with Chat GPT, the possibilities are just about as endless as your imagination is.
My favorite way to use Chat GPT to learn languages is to have it write me stories using my newly learned vocabulary and conjugations. This helps me remember that vocabulary because I am getting the chance to put it into practice immediately.
If you need a refresher, the methods we discussed in this article were the following.
You can use Chat GPT to learn Spanish by:
Generating Frequency Lists
Finding Synonyms And Antonyms To Broaden Vocabulary
Generating Topic-Specific Vocabulary Lists
Translating Stories, Articles, Song Lyrics, And Our Own Writings
Getting Our Sentences Corrected
Finding More Creative Ways To Say Any Sentence
Finding Well-Known Spanish Idioms To Use In Conversation
Getting Explanations, And Examples For Spanish Grammar
Generating Stories Using Our Newly Learned Spanish Words/Conjugations
If this article helped you and you would like to know the other ways that I mastered Spanish, check out this article I did where I sum up all of the 13 (free) methods I used to get fluent in Spanish.
Have a great day and keep progressing!
- Ben