The main school subjects in Spanish are las matemáticas (maths), el inglés (English), las ciencias (science), la historia (history), la geografía (geography), el arte or la plástica (art), la música (music) and la educación física (PE). With a plural subject, use me gustan: Me gustan las matemáticas, but Me gusta la historia.
School subjects in Spanish
In the pronunciation column, capitals mark the stressed syllable. “h” stands for the jota, a throaty sound like the ch in Scottish “loch”. “th” is the Spain pronunciation of z, and of c before e or i; in Latin America it is “s”.
| Spanish | English | Say it like |
|---|---|---|
| las matemáticas | maths | mah-teh-MAH-tee-kahs |
| la lengua | Spanish language lessons (in Spain) | LEN-gwah |
| el inglés | English | een-GLES |
| el francés | French | frahn-THES / frahn-SES |
| el alemán | German | ah-leh-MAHN |
| el español | Spanish | es-pah-NYOL |
| las ciencias | science | THYEN-thyahs / SYEN-syahs |
| la biología | biology | byoh-loh-HEE-ah |
| la química | chemistry | KEE-mee-kah |
| la física | physics | FEE-see-kah |
| la historia | history | ees-TOH-ryah |
| la geografía | geography | heh-oh-grah-FEE-ah |
| la tecnología | technology, DT | tek-noh-loh-HEE-ah |
| la informática | computing, ICT | een-for-MAH-tee-kah |
| el arte, la plástica, el dibujo | art | AR-teh, PLAHS-tee-kah, dee-BOO-hoh |
| la música | music | MOO-see-kah |
| la educación física | PE | eh-doo-kah-THYON FEE-see-kah |
| la religión | RE | reh-lee-HYON |
| el teatro | drama | teh-AH-troh |
| el latín | Latin | lah-TEEN |
Every word ending in -ía has a written accent: biología, geografía, tecnología. The accent breaks the vowels into two syllables and carries the stress. In Spain, pupils often shorten las matemáticas to las mates.
Words that come with school
| Spanish | English | Say it like |
|---|---|---|
| el horario | timetable | oh-RAH-ryoh |
| la clase | lesson, class, classroom | KLAH-seh |
| el recreo | break | reh-KREH-oh |
| los deberes | homework (Spain) | deh-BEH-rehs |
| el examen | exam, test | ek-SAH-men |
| la nota | mark, grade | NOH-tah |
| aprobar / suspender | to pass / to fail (Spain) | ah-proh-BAR / soos-pen-DAIR |
| el profesor, la profesora | teacher (secondary) | proh-feh-SOR |
| el maestro, la maestra | teacher (primary in Spain) | mah-ES-troh |
| el instituto | state secondary school (Spain) | eens-tee-TOO-toh |
| el colegio | school (primary in Spain) | koh-LEH-hyoh |
Grammar for subjects
- Gustar agrees with the subject, not the person. Me gusta la música (singular); Me gustan las ciencias, Me gustan las matemáticas (plural). Two singular subjects together are plural too: Me gustan el inglés y el francés.
- Opinions take the article. Me encanta el dibujo, Odio la química.
- Adjectives agree. La historia es interesante, El inglés es fácil, Las matemáticas son difíciles, La física es aburrida.
- Timetables use tener, often without the article. Los lunes tengo inglés a primera hora (first lesson). Hoy tenemos educación física.
- Teachers take de and no article. el profesor de historia, la profesora de francés.
- Capitals. Languages are always lower case: el inglés. For subjects on a timetable, the Real Academia Española recommends a capital (Tengo Matemáticas), but lower case is very common in school materials. Pick one convention and keep to it.
Talking about school
¿Cuál es tu asignatura favorita?What’s your favourite subject?
Mi asignatura favorita es la historia porque es muy interesante.My favourite subject is history because it’s very interesting.
Me gustan las ciencias, pero no me gusta nada la física.I like science, but I don’t like physics at all.
Los martes tengo dos horas de matemáticas.On Tuesdays I have two hours of maths.
La profesora de inglés es muy simpática.The English teacher is very nice.
Saqué un nueve en el examen de geografía.I got a nine in the geography test.
In Spain, marks usually go from 0 to 10, and 5 is a pass. Sacar buena nota means “to get a good mark”.
Spain and Latin America
| Spain | Latin America | English |
|---|---|---|
| la asignatura | la materia | subject |
| los deberes | la tarea, las tareas | homework |
| suspender | reprobar (Mexico and others) | to fail |
| las matemáticas | la matemática (some countries, as a subject name) | maths |
| el instituto | el colegio, la escuela secundaria, la preparatoria (Mexico, upper secondary) | secondary school |
Idioms about school
| Spanish | Literally | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| hacer novillos, hacer pellas | to do young bulls, to do lumps | to skip school (Spain) |
| empollar | to brood (eggs) | to swot (Spain) |
| quemarse las pestañas | to burn your eyelashes | to study very hard |
| ser un hueso | to be a bone | to be a tough teacher or subject (Spain) |
Typical mistakes of English-speaking learners
- “Me gusta las matemáticas”: plural subject, plural verb: me gustan.
- “Las matemáticas es aburrido”: verb and adjective agree: son aburridas.
- “El Inglés”: language names are lower case.
- Colegio is not college: it is a school, usually primary in Spain. Sixth-form college might be el bachillerato, the last two years of secondary.
- Suspender is not “suspend”: it means to fail an exam. He suspendido química is bad news, not a punishment.
- Pronouncing the h of historia, which is silent, and giving geografía and biología an English g.
In class: subjects as a word of the day
School subjects are the one topic pupils live every day: the timetable on the wall is already a word bank.
- Show the picture (a test tube) and the English word: “chemistry”.
- Ask ¿Cómo se dice en español? Pupils write their guess; the cognate helps.
- Reveal la química with its pronunciation. The class repeats it, stressing the first syllable: KEE-mee-kah.
- Show the example sentence: Tengo química los jueves y me gusta mucho.
- Give the reuse task: each pupil gives an opinion with a reason: Me gusta la química porque es práctica. Pupils who choose a plural subject must switch to me gustan.
- Recall yesterday’s subject and ask for the day it appears on the class timetable.
That is exactly what a daily routine does: one word a day, reused in a sentence that is true for the pupils.
Timetable games
Project the class timetable in Spanish and ask ¿Qué tenemos el miércoles a segunda hora? Pupils answer with Tenemos…. At A2, a “dream timetable” task works well: En mi horario ideal, tengo dibujo todos los días y nunca tengo exámenes.
- A1The subject with its article and gustar: Me gusta el inglés.
- A2Timetable, teachers and reasons: Los lunes tengo historia; es interesante porque el profesor es divertido.
- B1Past results and school life: El año pasado suspendí física, pero este año he aprobado.
- B2Opinions on the school system: Sería mejor que los alumnos pudieran elegir más asignaturas.
At KS2, a picture and me gusta are enough. At KS3, insist on gusta and gustan and adjective agreement. At GCSE, school life is a core theme: move on to comparisons between schools, past results and future study.
For extra vocabulary between lessons, the free site unapalabrapordia.es, created by the maker of VocaDial, publishes an illustrated Spanish word every day, translated into French, English and German, with its pronunciation and an example sentence recorded in all four languages.
The “La palabra” module does it for you
A picture and the word in the pupils’ language: the class works out how to say it, then the word is revealed with its pronunciation and an example sentence to reuse. No preparation needed: try everything free for 15 days of use.
Frequently asked questions
How do you say "school subject" in Spanish?
La asignatura in Spain; la materia is also used, and is the usual word in much of Latin America. “What’s your favourite subject?” is ¿Cuál es tu asignatura favorita?
Is it me gusta or me gustan las matemáticas?
Me gustan las matemáticas, because las matemáticas is plural. The same goes for las ciencias. With a singular subject, me gusta: Me gusta el inglés.
Are school subjects capitalised in Spanish?
The Real Academia Española recommends a capital when the word names the subject on a timetable or course: Tengo Matemáticas a las nueve. As a general field of knowledge it is lower case: Me interesa la historia. Many school materials use lower case throughout. Language names such as inglés are always lower case.
How do you say "homework" in Spanish?
Los deberes in Spain, always plural. In much of Latin America, la tarea or las tareas.
What is PE in Spanish?
La educación física. In everyday speech it is often called gimnasia: Hoy tenemos gimnasia. “PE kit” is la ropa de deporte.