Samples The following are examples how a noun s gender affects the usage of the other words. the man el hombre (masculine article EL, masculine noun HOMBRE) the woman la mujer (feminine article LA, feminine noun MUJER) a man un hombre (masculine article UN, masculine noun HOMBRE) a woman una mujer (feminine article and noun) the men los hombres (plural form of masculine article and noun) the women las mujeres (plural form of feminine article and noun) the fat man el hombre gordo (masculine article, adjective GORDO, and noun) the fat woman la mujer gorda (feminine article, adjective GORDA, and noun) some men unos hombres (masculine determiner and noun) some women unas mujeres (feminine determiner and noun) He is fat El es gordo. There is no doubt you can learn from books and software, but there is something to be said about personalized learning materials, those that you made yourself and therefore address your needs and strengthen your weak points. For instance, you can make flash cards with Spanish words on one side and the equivalent English word on the other side. Language teachers would say that committing mistakes would show that you are indeed putting some effort into learning. You make mistakes in Spanish because you are participating in activities like conversation or writing. When conversing with a local or native Spanish speaker, they would often appreciate a person who tries to speak Spanish even with a lot of mistakes. In other words, they believe that although age is a contributing factor, motivation still counts as the most influential factor to a Spanish learner s ability to learn the language. That said, an older Spanish learner has no reason to be bothered by his age. Realistically, there would be tough times, but that is also the case for younger learners. The diminutive meanwhile connotes some sense of affection like CASITA (little house), ABUELITA (dear grandmother) and GORDITO (chubby). Current new words Many Spanish sites provide words right from current publications read by native speakers, and are therefore deemed part of contemporary, everyday speech. Bilingual children are more attentive and focused compare with monolingual children. In a study conducted by Ellen Bialystok in 1997, four and five-year-old bilingual children show better understanding of symbolic representation in print than monolingual children. Younger children, according to studies, have greater ability to learn and acquire language.