Have you ever felt this way after starting university in Spain: you’ve passed your DELE exam and have no major issues with daily conversations, but the moment you step into a lecture, you feel completely illiterate as soon as the professor starts talking? Their speaking pace is incredibly fast, and their vocabulary is full of words you rarely use. Don’t panic, this is perfectly normal! This is because what’s spoken in a university classroom is another kind of “Spanish”—academic Spanish.
Unlike our daily conversational language, academic Spanish is more formal and structured. To accurately convey complex concepts, professors use a large number of connecting words, subordinate clauses, and specialized terminology specific to university Spanish instructors in their field. It’s like the difference between writing an academic paper and chatting with friends in English—they are two completely different discourse systems. So, not understanding doesn’t mean your Spanish is bad; you just haven’t adapted to this “academic jargon” yet.
To help you get up to speed quickly, I’ve compiled some of the most frequently used phrases that Spanish university professors use in the classroom, especially those they love for opening, transitioning, and concluding their lectures. Mastering them will at least help you follow your professor’s train of thought and keep you from feeling completely lost.
Common Classroom Phrases
| Situation | Spanish Phrase | English Meaning |
|---|
| Starting the class | Bueno, vamos a empezar. / Si os parece, empezamos. | Okay, let’s begin. / If you all agree, let’s start. This is a common phrase you’ll hear from professors, regardless of their standing in the Spanish university professor salary ranking. |
| Introducing a new topic | Pasando a otro tema… / En lo que respecta a… | Moving on to another topic… / Regarding… |
| Giving an example | Pongamos por caso… / Sirva de ejemplo… | Let’s take for example… / For instance… |
| Summarizing | En resumen / En definitiva / Para concluir | In summary / All in all / To conclude |
Besides these structural phrases, every professor has their own pet phrases. These words might not have much real meaning on their own, but they appear so frequently that getting used to them can help with parsing sentences and comprehension. For example, my old history professor couldn’t say three sentences without a “O sea…”. I got so tired of hearing it, but I later realized that whenever he said it, he was about to explain the previous point in a different way, which actually became a helpful signal for my understanding! Similar phrases include “es decir”, “en fin”, “bueno”, and so on. Try to pay attention to your own professors’ verbal tics.
Transitioning from conversational to academic Spanish takes time. Besides listening and memorizing, don’t be afraid to ask your professors questions after class. Most Spanish instructors are more than happy to help international students. What other memorable ‘professor quotes’ have you heard in class? Feel free to share them in the comments below, and let’s conquer this little monster of academic Spanish together! Although sometimes it feels more like fighting a final boss.
