How to learn a language in under 24 hours

1. Pronunciation 6. Word Order

Learning the pronunciation and writing system of the Learn the word order for the 3 most important simple
target language is always the necessary first step before sentences: declaratives, negations, and interrogatives.
starting to speak. If the target language has an If it is different, learn the syntax for handle verbs, and
unfamiliar writing system, try to find resources that use using conjunctions like ‘but’ and ‘because’ to join two
a transliterated writing system, like ‘pinyin’ for simple sentences.
Mandarin Chinese. Listening to audio can be helpful to
learn accurate pronunciation. 7. Interrogatives
Learn the basics: who, what, where, when, why,
2. Pronouns 202how, how much. Some language may have other
Pronouns are used in almost every sentence. Learn the interrogatives – only choose the most relevant ones.
most important declensions, which are usually the
nominative (subject pronouns), accusative (direct 8. Articles and Nouns
object pronouns), and dative (indirect object pronouns). Learn how to use nouns. This may require learning
To save time, focus on the most important pronouns, articles. Articles are more complicated in some
which are usually ‘I’, ‘you’, and ‘it’. languages than in others, but they are important
omitting or misusing articles in a language that has
3. Top Verbs articles can result in foreign-sounding speech. Ex. “I go
Mastering the most important verbs to restaurant to eat sandwich.”
(auxiliary/modal/handle) will allow you to converse in
any context. 9. Possessives
TOP 10 VERBS IN ANY LANGUAGE:
Possessive adjectives are very useful. Focusing only on
to be, to have (to)*, to want*, to need*, to be able to*, “my” and “yours” can save time.
to go*, to know*, to do, to understand, to think/believe
10. Demonstratives
4. Important Irregulars Both demonstrative adjectives and pronouns are
Learning all the exceptions to all the rules is not
important. Learning these will enable useful sentences
reasonable. Therefore, only learn the irregular like “I want that” or “I want to go to this place”.
conjugations for the most important verbs in the most
important tenses. This principle also applies to other
rules/exceptions. Do not learn them unless they will be
11. Other Useful Words
used frequently. These include the basic ‘yes’/’no’; conjunctions like
‘but’ and ‘because’; indispensable prepositions like ‘to’,
‘in’, ‘for’, and ‘from’; adjectives like ‘also’, ‘a lot’, and
5. Tenses / Moods
‘very’; and the numbers.
Only learn the most important tenses. Present tense is
by far the most important. Other tenses may be learned
quickly given the language. For example, some 12. Top Nouns
languages use the infinitive as the imperative, or use a Learning nouns is the lowest priority because they are
single word to signify the future tense. Only focusing on easy to learn. With a simple dictionary app, you can look
the conjugations for ‘I’, ‘you’, and ‘it’ can save time. up any noun you want. It is hard to generalize what the
Other tenses/moods are not needed for basic speech. most important nouns are because this will depend
greatly on the context and situation of the learner. For
example, a student would want to learn words like
‘university’ and ‘student’, whereas a businessman would
want to learn words like ‘meeting’ and ‘business’.

This guide describes what I believe are the 12 most important areas of focus (ordered by importance) when
attempting to learn a language in a short amount of time. Although most of the relevant information can be
summarized on 1-2 pages, it is useful to learn about these 12 areas in a bit more detail from some language learning
resource. Also, since such 1-2 page language guides that cover all 12 of these areas practically don’t exist, you will
almost definitely need to use different sources to learn about these topics.

© Copyright 2017 Akshay Swaminathan

 Learn Quechua in under 24 hours
Pronunciation notes: Vowels are identical to Spanish. Consonants are identical to Spanish, except for some exceptions: “ll” is pronounced
as “ly”. “q” is a “k/g” sound made in the back of the throat (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_uvular_stop). “kh”, “ph” and “qh” are
aspirated consonants. “k’”, “p’”, and “q’” are ejectives. The “k’” sound is a click-like sound, just like the hard “ck” sound at the end of the
word “click”. The “p’” sound is the hard “p” sound at the end of the word “pop”. Look up bilabial, velar, and uvular ejective on Wikipedia.
Stress is always on the penultimate syllable.

Pronouns: Top verbs: Word order:

English to be kay  Declarative: Subject + Object + Verb.
Subject
Subject to have tiay/tiyapuy*  Negations: “mana” and “-chu” sandwich the
I noqa to want munay
verb. Ex: “I don’t want” = “Mana munanichu”.
singular

to need necesitay
you qan to say niy  Interrogatives: Same as declarative, but add “-
he to understand jap’ekay chu” to the end of the verb. Ex: “munankichu?”
pay
she to speak parlay NOTE: Subject pronouns are usually omitted,
to do ruway
we (inclusive) noqanchis
to like gustaway especially “it”. Ex. “Noqa munani”  “Munani”
we (exclusive) noqayku
plural

to eat mikhuy
you qankuna to return kutiy Tenses:
they paykuna to come jamuy  Present progressive: add “sh” before the
to arrive chayay
to learn yachashay
present tense endings. Ex: “I am doing” =
to be able to atiy “ruwashani”.
to know yachay  Past: add “rqa” before the present tense
to start qallariy endings
Top Verb Conjugations: to go riy
If you are unsure as to how to say any verb, it is  Imperative: use the infinitive
common to use the Spanish verb. For example “to
English to speak to have study” may be said as “estudiay”.
Particles:
parlay Quechua is an agglutinative language, which means
Infinitive Past tense tiyapuy Demonstratives:
that instead of using prepositions or conjunctions,
Future tense this kay that chay particles are often added to the ends of words to
parlani
make them longer and change the meaning.
noqa parlarqani tiyapuwan
parlasaq ser vs. estar:
question/negation Because
parlanki Spanish uses these two verbs to -chu -rayku
particle of
singular

parlarqanki mean “to be”. In Quechua, “kay” Softening

qan tiyapusunki
parlanki -man to -lla
is “ser” and “kashay”, the present particle
progressive form of “ser”, can be -ta Direct object -raq Still/yet
parlan
pay parlarqan tiyapun used to express “estar”. - In order
parlenqa Plural -paj
kuna to
parlayku Interrogatives: -pi In -pis Also
noqayku parlarqayku tiyapuwayku ima
parlasqayku who pi why With/
rayku -wan -manta From
indirect object
parlanchis what ima how imayna
noqanchis parlarqanchis tiyapusunchis how
parlasunchis
plural

when mayk’aq much machka Possessive Adjectives:

parlankichis /many
Add the following suffixes to the noun.
qankuna parlarqankichis tiyapusunkichis where may
parlarnkichis
When not used as interrogatives, add our (exc.) -yku
parlanku my -y
a “-chus” after the interrogative. our (inc.) -nchis
paykuna parlarqanku tiyapunku
parlenqanku your -yki your (pl.) -ykichis
his/her -n their -nku

Some important words:

because of hello/how
a lot ashka now kunan chay-rayku imaynalya
that are you
a little pisi no mana food mikhuna here/there kaypi/chaypi
all tukuy only -lla good/well walej yes Arí
already/yet -ña water yaku bathroom baño

© Copyright 2017 Akshay Swaminathan

 Learn Quechua in under 24 hours
How to use this guide
This guide provides the vocab and grammar fundamentals needed to start speaking. Now you need to train your muscle
memory and creative ability to form sentences: Take any one of the sample sentence structures from above (or make your
own), and repeat out loud until it sounds fluent. Then gradually substitute in different nouns, verbs, and pronouns to develop
your creative ability and functional understanding of syntax, all while repeating each sentence until it sounds fluent. Using just
the information on this sheet, you can create hundreds of sentences by substituting words and combining sentence structures.
Look up other nouns, adjectives, and verbs on your own and substitute into the sentence structures from above to make even
more sentences. In the example below, the bolded text develops muscle memory through repetition while the underlined parts
develop your syntax understanding and ability to form sentences on your own. Don’t read from the paper (except the 1st time),
and aim for fluid speech without pauses or hesitations. If what you say doesn’t sound fluent, say it again and again until it
does.
I want to go to the store. I need to go to the store. I don’t want to go.
I want to go to the bank. I have to go to the store. She doesn’t want to go.
I want to go to the restaurant. I should go to the store. We don’t want to go.

Notes

© Copyright 2017 Akshay Swaminathan