This article begins a series of articles from the CHiLES staff highlighting individual resources available through Children & Libraries en Español. 

If you are looking for a FREE online resource to help you learn to speak Spanish, check out today's featured web link, E-Spanish. 

E-Spanish provides for free online most of the resources of a beginning Spanish course, including basic vocabulary and every day expressions, rules of gendered nouns and the conjugation of regular and irregular verbs, writing, listening, and speaking practice, games, and more. 

The Interactive Word Practice module is simple, but allows you to test your knowledge of the vocabulary you learn in the lessons.

One downside is that there is only one right answer provided for words with more than one translation (for example, when asked for the word for 'wife' in Spanish, I entered 'la esposa', and was told that I was wrong, because the word they had for 'wife' was 'la mujer', which is also correct, but is only one correct form).

There are many positive attributes to make up for the small problems, however, including a bank of letters with diacritical marks (á, ü, ñ, etc) you can insert into words for those of us who have difficulty inserting those with our standard qwerty American keyboards.

Overall, this is a good resource for teaching yourself some basic Spanish if you don't have time or access to a beginning Spanish class. The lessons can be completed at your leisure, and lessons proceed in a logical order. The audio transcripts include a song, consonant sounds, the abcs, and everyday conversations. 

Enjoy!