(analysis)¿LO SABÍAS?
There may be an accent on the singular form of a word but not on the plural and vice versa: ración, raciones; joven, jóvenes.
Whether you’re going to be working in a Spanish-speaking country or spending some time with your Spanish-speaking friends, you’ll want to be able to chat with people and get to know them better. The phrases in this unit will help you communicate with acquaintances, friends, family and colleagues in a variety of everyday situations.
To get you off on the right footing, you need to know how to say hello to people properly. Just as in English, there are several ways of doing this in Spanish. You can simply use hola (hello or hi) on its own. You can also use buenos días (good morning), buenas tardes (good afternoon or good evening – provided it’s still light), and buenas noches (good evening – once it’s dark). Spanish-speakers often use both together, as in hola, buenos días and hola, buenas tardes.
Hello
| Hola. | Hello. |
| ¡Hola, Jaime! | Hi Jaime! |
| Buenos días. | Good morning. |
| Hola, buenos días. | Good morning. |
| Buenas tardes, Luis. | Good afternoon, Luis. |
| Buenas noches. | Good evening. |
¿LO SABÍAS?
When you pass friends and acquaintances in the street and don’t stop to talk, rather than saying hola you say hasta luego or adiós.
You’ll also want to ask the people you know how they are. The simplest way to do this is by using ¿Qué tal? This is quite informal, and suitable when you know the person quite well. If you want to be more formal you say ¿Cómo está? to someone you speak to as usted.
How are you?
| Hola, Juana, ¿qué tal? | Hi, how are you, Juana? |
| ¡Buenos días! ¿Cómo está, señor García? | Good morning! How are you, señor García? |
| Hola, Pepe, ¿qué tal te va? | Hello, Pepe, how’s it going? |
| ¿Qué pasa, Raquel? ¡Cuánto tiempo sin verte! | How are things, Raquel? It’s ages since I’ve seen you! |
Use adiós (goodbye) or hasta pronto (see you soon) to say goodbye to people you don’t know well. You can just say hasta luego (see you) if you want to sound more informal.
Goodbye
| ¡Adiós! | Goodbye! |
| ¡Adiós! ¡Hasta otra! | Goodbye! See you again! |
| ¡Buenas noches! | Good night! |
¿LO SABÍAS?
Buenas noches means both good evening and good night. So you use it both when arriving and leaving somewhere in the evening. When saying goodbye to someone you know you’ll see tomorrow, such as a colleague, you say hasta mañana (see you tomorrow).
See you…!
| ¡Hasta luego! | See you! |
| ¡Hasta pronto! | See you soon! |
| ¡Hasta mañana! | See you tomorrow! |
| ¡Hasta el lunes! | See you on Monday! |
You’ll want to introduce people you know to one another. The simplest way is by saying éste es (this is) when introducing a man, and ésta es when introducing a woman.
This is…
| José, éste es mi marido. | José, this is my husband. |
| Pedro, ésta es Marta Valls. | Pedro, this is Marta Valls. |
| Quiero presentarte a nuestro director de ventas, Jorge Mata. | Let me introduce you to our sales director, Jorge Mata. |
| Quiero que conozcas a mi amigo Daniel. | I’d like you to meet my friend Daniel. |
¿LO SABÍAS?
When you’re introduced to someone, you’ll want to know how to react. The traditional encantado should only be used in formal or business situations these days, and very often people just say ¡Hola! ¿Qué tal?. You would reply in the same way – ¡Hola! ¿Qué tal?.
To get the conversation going, you’ll need to be able to say at least what your name is, who you are or what you do, and where you’re from. Saying what your name is is rather different in Spanish from English. You say me llamo (literally I call myself). me llamo comes from the verb llamarse. If you want to say what someone else is called you use se llama. For more information on reflexive verbs like llamarse, see here.
My name is…
| Me llamo Daniel Norrington. | My name is Daniel Norrington. |
| Me llamo Liz Owen. | My name is Liz Owen. |
| Me llamo Jack. | My name is Jack. |
| Se llama Kevin. | His name is Kevin. |
| Se llama Helen. | Her name is Helen. |
I’m…
