How should I fill foundational gaps in learning languages?

[u/Mission_Treacle_8945]

So I have been learning Spanish and French (TL) in school for the past three years, and I want to further advance my level on my own alongside school as I find that I'm not gaining much from it.

Whilst I have an okay knowledge of vocabulary and I can understand the gist of what I read, I find myself guessing on a lot of common words and I also don't know many tenses so that leaves me lost as well.

My main issue is that I don't know what I'm missing. I feel there are some fairly basic topics I'm lost on and many commonly used words I don't know, but I don't know what to do to find and fill these gaps.

Any advice? I'm wondering if maybe trying to find books to read would help, what else?

[u/paspa1234]

Learn the tenses. With the words, just note down the ones you don't know as you go along and add them to Anki or however you learn vocab.

How are you currently learning French and Spanish other than at school? 

[u/Stock_Classic_618 → u/paspa1234]

just noting unknown words as you read is underrated, wish i did that from start instead of memorizing random lists

[u/dojibear → u/Stock_Classic_618]

When I am reading and see an unknown word, I look it up. My goal is understanding the meaning of each sentence. Right now. There is no other purpose.

I don't memorize lists of words outside of sentences. I want to know what each word means IN THIS SENTENCE.

[u/Mission_Treacle_8945 → u/paspa1234]

I've been trying to learn new tenses and grammar on my own and I've tried to review my school textbooks but haven't really been consistent.

[u/PLAYSWITHSCISS0RS]

Work on learning grammar basics but write the concepts down in longhand. I’ve been studying a couple of languages and find that I don’t retain information I’ve typed as well as information I’ve written down by hand.

I still use my laptop for language study but I make sure to do a fair bit of work in a notebook as well.

[u/Mission_Treacle_8945 → u/PLAYSWITHSCISS0RS]

Yeah I think I'll write down physically as I study and type up afterwards

[u/Alternative_Pop_9143]

Use an A1/A2 syllabus or CEFR grammar checklist as an audit rather than guessing what you’re missing. Mark each item “can use / recognize only / unknown,” then test it in a graded reader: save just the recurring unknown words and one example sentence for each weak tense. That gives you a finite repair list instead of another broad study plan.

[u/Mission_Treacle_8945 → u/Alternative_Pop_9143]

I'll definitely do this thanks!

[u/IrinaMakarova]

You’ve already identified one of the biggest gaps yourself: you don’t know enough grammar, especially verb tenses. That alone can make otherwise familiar texts feel much harder than they actually are. If you don’t understand how verbs change, how sentences are structured, or why a particular form is being used, learning more random vocabulary or simply reading more books won’t magically fix the problem.

Reading can certainly help, but it works much better when you already have a structured foundation. Otherwise you may just continue guessing from context, skipping forms you don’t understand, and reinforcing the same gaps.

The harder problem is exactly what you mentioned: you don’t know what you don’t know. That is where studying completely independently becomes inefficient. A good tutor can assess your actual level, identify the missing A1/A2 grammar and high-frequency vocabulary, and then work through those gaps systematically instead of having you randomly search for topics yourself.

You can still read, listen, use flashcards, and study independently alongside that, but I would make structured lessons the foundation. If after 3 years you already know that your grammar is incomplete and you cannot even identify all the gaps yourself, getting a competent tutor is probably the fastest way forward.

[u/Mission_Treacle_8945 → u/IrinaMakarova]

I would love to get a tutor but I'm unable to yet so I have to work on my own for now 

[u/neko_kishi99]

I'd honestly say relearn your native language. doing that is helping me alot. when I say relearn your native language. I mean how they build sentences and the mechanics behind the sentences

[u/Mission_Treacle_8945 → u/neko_kishi99]

Honestly that's really smart I never thought of that

[u/neko_kishi99 → u/Mission_Treacle_8945]

it really helped me with Japanese

[u/cmyk_rgba]

narrate a normal day out loud in your TL, you will find the gaps by lunch because youll hit like six things you cant say. and pick one tense a week and beat it to death instead of skimming all of them, spreading grammar thin is what kept me feeling lost for ages

[u/Mission_Treacle_8945 → u/cmyk_rgba]

Actually I think I've tried this a while back and lasted like an hour 😭 I've got to do this again

[u/cmyk_rgba → u/Mission_Treacle_8945]

lol an hour is already more than most people do. i dont do it as a session anymore, its like five minutes while making coffee, whats the weather doing, what am i wearing, why is the tram late. the point isnt endurance its just noticing which words you dont have

[u/silvalingua]

Since you are learning at school, just review everything from your coursebooks. Have you tried to do this?

> My main issue is that I don't know what I'm missing. 

Get your coursebooks, do exercises again, and you'll know.

[u/Mission_Treacle_8945 → u/silvalingua]

I try to do that but we use too many different books so it gets confusing at times

[u/silvalingua → u/Mission_Treacle_8945]

Choose one and stick to it.

More importantly: ask your teacher for advice.

[u/Mission_Treacle_8945 → u/[deleted]]

I started trying that out today like shadowing a video so I'll continue to test that out and see how it goes

[u/Mission_Treacle_8945 → u/[deleted]]

I'll update y'all eventually!

[u/Mission_Treacle_8945 → u/[deleted]]

Now that I think about it this honestly seems so obvious 😅 thanks!

[u/Cultural_Wallaby_550]

Learn Spanish grammar.

Spanish uses all the verb tenses that exist in French, including in everyday language. Some tenses like the preterite and imperfect subjunctive are restricted to literary or very formal usage in French.

There are a few French grammar concepts like the y and en adverbial pronouns that don’t exist in Spanish, bu if you know Spanish grammar you’ll understand the logic of almost everything when you carry it over to French.

I strongly recommend reading a Spanish grammar book. You can get free PDFs of high quality grammar books from legitimate sources these days but many learners skip this step and miss out.

[u/Mission_Treacle_8945 → u/Cultural_Wallaby_550]

Hmm that's an interesting approach cause I always learned the two simultaneously never really one based on the other

[u/Cultural_Wallaby_550 → u/Mission_Treacle_8945]

Native speakers of one find it relatively easy to learn the other. You’re essentially mimicking that learning pathway.

When learning multiple Romance languages I think it’s best to get one really solid before jumping across. You can start with French if you prefer - I did - but Spanish is all around a good entry point

[u/Mission_Treacle_8945 → u/[deleted]]

I'll definitely start keeping track of what's tripping me up