Spanish Greetings: The Basics
Learning to speak Spanish can be very rewarding and enjoyable today if you live in the United States.
When you initially start learning Spanish, your initial words will commonly be a greeting of some type.
The primary greeting words in the Spanish language such as “hello” are the easiest because the complication of how the words go together is not included in these greetings. They are the simplest form. You do not add anything, you simply say “Hello”. Therefore, the first word of Spanish you learn should be “Hello”. This is “Hola” in Spanish (do not pronounce the “H”).
“Hola” is an appropriate greeting for both acquaintances or strangers when addressing them in person. However, Spanish speakers usually use “bueno” or “diga” when answering the telephone, unlike English that uses “hello” for both situations.
After first greeting someone, you will eventually separate and the Spanish equivalent of “goodbye” is “adios.”
The Romance languages (Romanian, French, Portuguese, Italian and Spanish) generally have two forms of verbs for addressing people. There are what is commonly referred to as the formal form (usually used when addressing strangers, older people (who are not close friends or relatives) or people of higher status and the informal form generally used when addressing relatives, friends, younger people or people of lower position.
Following the initial greeting, one usually says something such as “How are you?” A Spanish speaker would say, “Como esta?” (formal) or “Como estas?” (informal), or perhaps “Que passa?” (What’s happening?”), “Como se va?” (formal) or “Como te vas?” (informal) for “How is it going with you?”.
When saying “Good afternoon” “Buenas tardes” is the Spanish phrase. If you want to say “Good morning, Good day, etc” “Buenos dias” is the same thing in Spanish.
“Good night” in Spanish is “Buenos noches.”
Should you inquire as to someone’s name you would ask, “Como te llamas?” (informal) or “Como se llama?” (formal).
These are the simplest greetings to learn and once you master these Spanish phrases the rest is easy. There are a few harder ones to learn, but not yet. The next step to learning Spanish is numbers, letters, time, asking how to get somewhere, male or female, colors, parts of the body, and relatives.
Simple every day phrases and words such as these greetings are some of the most commonly used in Spanish and regular use will help increase your comfort with the language.
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Tagged with: Basic Spanish • Basic Spanish Greetings • learn spanish • learning spanish • learning to speak spanish • Spanish Greetings • spanish language • the spanish language
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