Learn Hardcore Spanish (Latin America): A veces parece imposible estudiar español cada día. - Sometimes it seems impossible to study Spanish every day.

In Spanish, the subject of parece is the whole idea estudiar español cada día (to study Spanish every day). Since that idea comes after the verb and Spanish doesn’t use a dummy it, nothing is needed in front of parece.

You could make the subject clearer and say:

Estudiar español cada día a veces parece imposible.
(To study Spanish every day sometimes seems impossible.)

But the original version is more natural and common.

What exactly does a veces mean, and where can it go in the sentence?

A veces means sometimes. It expresses a non-regular, occasional frequency.

In this sentence:

A veces parece imposible estudiar español cada día. = Sometimes it seems impossible to study Spanish every day.

Typical positions:

At the beginning (very common):
A veces parece imposible estudiar español cada día.
After the verb (also possible):
Parece a veces imposible estudiar español cada día. (correct but a bit less natural here)
At the end (sounds more marked/emphatic):
Parece imposible estudiar español cada día a veces. (understandable but not the most natural)

Most natural here: A veces at the start.

What’s the difference between a veces, algunas veces, de vez en cuando, and a menudo?

All of these talk about how often something happens, but with different nuances:

a veces = sometimes
Neutral, very common:
A veces estudio por la noche. – Sometimes I study at night.
algunas veces = some times / a few times
Slightly more specific or counting-ish; often interchangeable with a veces, but feels a bit more like “on some occasions”:
Algunas veces no tengo tiempo. – Some times I don’t have time.
de vez en cuando = once in a while / from time to time
Suggests it doesn’t happen very often:
De vez en cuando estudio el fin de semana. – Once in a while I study on the weekend.
a menudo = often
Much more frequent:
Estudio español a menudo. – I often study Spanish.

In your sentence, a veces is the natural choice, because we mean sometimes, not often or once in a while in a stronger sense.

Why is estudiar in the infinitive and not conjugated like estudio or estudia?

Here, estudiar español cada día functions as a thing (an action as a concept), not as an action happening right now.

Spanish uses the infinitive to treat actions as nouns, especially:

As the subject of a verb:
Estudiar español es importante. – Studying Spanish is important.
After certain verbs like parecer when you’re describing the action as a whole:
Parece difícil estudiar español cada día.

If you conjugated it, you’d be saying something else:

A veces estudio español cada día.
This sounds odd because a veces (sometimes) doesn’t fit well with cada día (each/every day) when the verb is actually being done, rather than talked about as an idea.

So estudiar is correct because here it means to study / studying as an abstract action.

Why is español not capitalized, when in English Spanish is?

In Spanish, names of languages are not capitalized, unless they start a sentence:

Yo estudio español. – I study Spanish.
El inglés y el francés son lenguas extranjeras. – English and French are foreign languages.

By contrast, in English we capitalize language names: Spanish, English, French.

So español is correctly written with a lowercase e in this sentence.

Why is it cada día and not something like todos los días? Do they mean the same?

Cada día and todos los días are very close in meaning, and both are common:

cada día = each day / every day
Slightly more “one by one” / “every single day” feeling.
todos los días = every day
Slightly more general and very common in speech.

Examples:

Estudio español cada día. – I study Spanish every day (each day).
Estudio español todos los días. – I study Spanish every day.

In your sentence:

A veces parece imposible estudiar español cada día.
A veces parece imposible estudiar español todos los días.

Both are correct. Cada día has a tiny nuance of every single day, without missing one, which fits the idea of it feeling impossible.

Does imposible ever change form (like plural imposibles)?

Yes, imposible is an adjective, and it can be singular or plural:

Singular: imposible
Es imposible la tarea. – The homework is impossible.
Plural: imposibles
Son imposibles las tareas. – The homework assignments are impossible.

In your sentence:

A veces parece imposible estudiar español cada día.

Here, imposible is describing the action estudiar español cada día as a whole. That’s treated as a singular idea, so we use the singular imposible, not imposibles.

Why do we say parece imposible estudiar español cada día and not parece que estudiar español cada día es imposible?

Both are grammatically correct, but they’re structured differently:

Infinitive phrase as the subject:
- Parece imposible estudiar español cada día.
  Literally: It seems impossible to study Spanish every day.
Clause with que:
- Parece que estudiar español cada día es imposible.
  Literally: It seems that studying Spanish every day is impossible.

Differences:

Version 1 is shorter and more natural in everyday speech.
Version 2 is a bit heavier, more explicit, and sounds slightly more formal or emphatic.

In conversation, speakers strongly prefer the first structure here:
A veces parece imposible estudiar español cada día.

What’s the difference between parecer and parecerse? Why is it parece, not se parece here?

Parecer and parecerse are related but used differently:

parecer (without se) = to seem / to appear (to be)
- Parece fácil. – It seems easy.
- Parece imposible estudiar español cada día. – It seems impossible to study Spanish every day.
parecerse (a) = to look like / to resemble
- Se parece a su madre. – He/She looks like his/her mother.
- Ese idioma se parece al español. – That language resembles Spanish.

In your sentence, we want seems impossible, not resembles impossible, so we must use parecer, not parecerse.

Correct:

A veces parece imposible estudiar español cada día.
Incorrect meaning:
A veces se parece imposible… (would be wrong here; it doesn’t make sense)

Is parece in the present tense? Could I change the tense?

Yes, parece is present indicative, 3rd person singular of parecer.

A veces parece imposible estudiar español cada día.
= Sometimes it seems impossible…

You can change the tense depending on what you want to say:

Past (imperfect):
A veces parecía imposible estudiar español cada día.
– Sometimes it used to seem / seemed impossible…
Future:
A veces parecerá imposible estudiar español cada día.
– Sometimes it will seem impossible…
Conditional:
A veces parecería imposible estudiar español cada día.
– Sometimes it would seem impossible…

The original uses present because it’s talking about a general feeling now / in general.

Could I say the sentence in a different word order, like Estudiar español cada día a veces parece imposible?

Yes, Spanish allows flexible word order, and your alternative is grammatical:

Estudiar español cada día a veces parece imposible.

Common, natural options include:

A veces parece imposible estudiar español cada día.
(Most natural and neutral.)
Estudiar español cada día a veces parece imposible.
(Focuses a bit more on the idea “studying Spanish every day.”)
A veces estudiar español cada día parece imposible.
(Also natural; puts a veces right before the action.)

What you should avoid is splitting elements in a way that sounds unnatural or confusing, like:

Parece estudiar español cada día imposible. ❌

Stick to patterns like 1–3 and you’ll sound natural.