Breakdown of Aprender español me cuesta menos cada día.
Questions & Answers about Aprender español me cuesta menos cada día.
In Spanish, costar is very commonly used figuratively to mean “to be difficult / to take effort” for someone.
- Literal: Esta casa cuesta mucho dinero. – This house costs a lot of money.
- Figurative: Esto me cuesta mucho. – This is very hard for me / This takes a lot out of me.
So Aprender español me cuesta = Learning Spanish is hard for me / takes effort for me.
Adding menos cada día gives the idea: it’s less hard every day → it’s getting easier every day.
The verb costar does not agree with the person; it agrees with the thing that is difficult.
Structure:
[Subject: the difficult thing] + costar + [indirect object pronoun: person]
- Aprender español me cuesta.
- Subject: Aprender español (singular)
- Verb: cuesta (3rd person singular)
- Indirect object: me (to/for me)
Compare:
- Me cuesta el trabajo. – The job is hard for me.
- Me cuestan los trabajos. – The jobs are hard for me. (plural → cuestan)
So it’s me cuesta because the subject (aprender español) is singular.
Yes, Me cuesta aprender español (cada día menos) is completely correct and very natural.
- Aprender español me cuesta menos cada día.
- Me cuesta menos aprender español cada día.
Both mean the same. The difference is word order and emphasis:
- Starting with Aprender español slightly emphasizes the activity (learning Spanish).
- Starting with Me cuesta menos emphasizes your experience (it’s less hard for me).
In everyday speech, Me cuesta menos aprender español cada día is probably more common, but both are fine.
You could say:
- Aprender español es más fácil cada día. – Learning Spanish is easier every day.
But costar is a very natural, everyday way in Spanish to talk about how hard something feels:
- Me cuesta mucho levantarme temprano. – It’s really hard for me to get up early.
- Ya no me cuesta hablar en público. – Speaking in public is no longer hard for me.
Cuesta menos literally = costs me less → is less hard / takes less effort.
It sounds very idiomatic and conversational.
Here, aprender español is being used as a noun phrase, the activity of learning Spanish:
- Aprender español = learning Spanish (like an English -ing form used as a noun).
In English you say Learning Spanish is getting easier…
In Spanish you normally use the infinitive for that kind of “verb-as-noun”:
- Fumar es malo. – Smoking is bad.
- Trabajar tanto cansa. – Working so much is tiring.
- Aprender español me cuesta menos. – Learning Spanish is less hard for me.
Aprendo español means I learn / I’m learning Spanish (a full sentence), not “learning Spanish (as an activity)”.
When you talk about languages in a general sense, Spanish usually omits the article after verbs like hablar, saber, aprender, estudiar, etc.:
- Aprendo español. – I’m learning Spanish.
- Hablas inglés. – You speak English.
- Estudia francés. – He/She studies French.
El español is possible, but it changes the nuance:
- Aprender el español me cuesta… might sound like you’re talking about “the Spanish language in particular” (slightly more specific, or stylistic), but it’s less common here.
In everyday speech, Aprender español me cuesta menos cada día is the natural choice.
Here menos means “less” in the sense of “to a smaller degree / not as much”.
- me cuesta menos = it costs me less / it’s less hard for me.
You’re comparing the difficulty now with the difficulty before:
it costs you less effort than before → it’s getting easier.
You’d use fewer only with countable things (e.g. fewer problems), but English already uses less for uncountable “effort / difficulty”, which matches the Spanish menos here.
Both are possible, but they don’t feel quite the same:
- cada día = every day, with a nuance of gradual change over time.
- todos los días = every day / all the days, focuses more on frequency.
In this sentence:
…me cuesta menos cada día.
Suggests progress: each new day, it’s a little less hard than the day before.…me cuesta menos todos los días.
Sounds more like “it’s less hard every single day”, but with less emphasis on that step‑by‑step progression. It’s understandable, but cada día is more idiomatic here for “it’s getting easier day by day.”
The sentence Aprender español me cuesta menos cada día is perfectly natural and widely understood in both Spain and Latin America.
- The verb costar with this meaning (to be hard for someone) is common everywhere.
- cada día and the word order are also standard.
There’s no special “Spain-only” grammar here; this is neutral, international Spanish.
Día has an accent because of Spanish stress rules and the vowel combination í + a.
- The natural stress would fall on the second-to-last syllable if it were written dia (DI-a), as if it were one syllable group.
- But in dí-a, the vowels form two separate syllables (a hiato): dí-a, and the stress is on dí.
- To show this irregular stress and syllable split, Spanish writes día with an accent on the í.
So: día = two syllables, stressed on the first: DÍ-a.
Yes, you can say:
- Aprender español cada día me cuesta menos.
- Cada día, aprender español me cuesta menos.
- Aprender español me cuesta menos cada día.
They all mean essentially the same: Learning Spanish is less hard for me every day.
Differences are very slight and mostly about rhythm and emphasis:
Cada día, aprender español me cuesta menos.
Strong initial focus on “every day”.Aprender español me cuesta menos cada día.
Very natural, smooth; the “every day” comes as a conclusion.
All are grammatically correct and idiomatic.
Yes, there are natural alternatives, each with a slightly different flavor:
Aprender español me resulta más fácil cada día.
Learning Spanish is easier for me every day.
(resultar = to turn out / to be [for someone])Aprender español se me hace más fácil cada día.
Learning Spanish is getting easier for me every day.
(se me hace is very colloquial and common in many regions.)Aprender español es cada día más fácil para mí.
Learning Spanish is easier for me every day.
Your original sentence with me cuesta menos is very idiomatic and common, especially in conversational Spanish.