You are considering learning this incredible language, like Spanish, and you don't know where to start, because here I offer you this incredible page where you will learn the basics to start in this language.

Why study Spanish?

Studying Spanish is always a good optionbecause learning Spanish is one of the trends of today. Spanish or Castilian is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world along with English and Chinese and is spoken on different continents either as a mother tongue or as a second foreign language. There are many reasons and advantages of learning Spanish and choosing the Cervantes language.

Spanish Greetings

HOW TO SAY "HELLO" AND "GOODBYE" IN SPANISH

You probably already know that "hello" in Spanish is "hola", right?

But Spanish greetings and pleasantries don't stop there. Just like in English, there are a bunch of ways you can say "hi", "how are you?" and "goodbye", depending on the situation.

How to say "hello"

We'll start with the greetings you'll probably see in a Spanish phrase book. There's a good chance you've probably already learned these, but here's a quick refresher:

¡Hola!

Hi!

Buenos días

Good morning

Buenas tardes

Good afternoon

Buenas noches

Good evening

Note that Spanish greetings are always in the plural ("Good days"), but you might occasionally hear the singular "buen día" instead of "buenos días".

Buen día

Good day

"Buen día" is not very commonly used. So if in doubt, stick to "buenos días".

How to say "how are you?"

Just like in English, it's nice to follow up with "how are you?" (Although just like in English, don't always expect to get an answer.)

¿Cómo está?

How are you? (formal)

¿Cómo está usted?

How are you? (also formal)

¿Cómo estás?

How are you? (informal)

For casual, everyday conversations you can take your pick from any of the following. They all mean "how are you?", "what's up?" "how's it going?" "how you doin'?" etc. Which one you pick depends on which Spanish-speaking country you come from, or your own personal preference.

¿Qué tal?

¿Cómo andas?

¿Cómo va?

¿Qué haces? *

how are you? / what's up? / how's it going? how you doin'? (very casual)

* Note that ¿Qué haces? can also mean "what do you do?" or "what are you doing?", depending on the context.

How to say "good, thanks!"

Yup, just as you do in English, if someone asks you "How are you?" you will usually say "good, thanks!" Although just like in English, often the person blurting out a quick "¿Qué tal?" isn't really expecting a response.

Bien, gracias, ¿y usted?

Good, thanks, and you? (formal)

Bien, gracias, ¿y tú?

Good, thanks, and you? (informal)

If things are a little better than "good" in your world, you can use one of these instead:

Todo bien

Everything's good

Muy bien

Very good

If things are a bit more so-so, you could also use one of these:

Aquí estamos

Acá andamos

Literally "here we are", but it's usually used like "I'm hanging in there", or "I'm alive".

Bien...¿o te cuento?

Good... or shall I really tell you about it?

Even if you're feeling really terrible, it's bad form to ever come straight out and say "mal" ("bad").

In some Spanish-speaking countries (eg, Argentina) people will often only say that they're "very good" when they're being ironic. If you hear someone say "¡Mejor imposible!" ("it doesn't get any better than this!") — there's a good chance they're probably not having a very good day.

How to say "goodbye"

When it's time to say goodbye, again you've got some polite options, and some more casual options.

Adiós

Goodbye

Chau

Bye! (casual)

Nos vemos

See you (casual)

Hasta mañana

See you tomorrow

Hasta luego

See you later

Hasta la próxima semana

See you next week

Hasta el próximo lunes

See you next Monday

(It's well worth getting familiar with Hasta. It's very adaptable and useful for saying goodbye, and it's easy to remember: Just think of Arnie in Terminator: Hasta la vista, baby.)

Question words in Spanish

WHO? WHAT? WHEN? WHERE? WHY? AND HOW?

Asking questions in Spanish is quite similar to asking questions in English. It's really just a matter of learning the vocabulary.

Spanish question words

Here are the words to help you solve all the world's mysteries. (At least the mysteries in the Spanish-speaking world.)

The words in square brackets like [this] are optional. (More about that later!)

¿Quién?

Who? (one person)

¿Quién eres [tú]?

Who are you?

¿Quiénes?

Who? (more than one person)

¿Quiénes son [ellos]?

Who are they?

¿Qué?

What?

¿Qué quiere [él]?

What does he want?

¿Dónde?

Where?

¿Dónde está el teatro?

Where is the theater?

¿Cuándo?

When?

¿Cuándo es la fiesta?

When is the party?

¿Cuál?

Which?

¿Cuál quieres [tú]?

Which one do you want?

¿Por qué?

Why?

¿Por qué están [ellos] aquí?

Why are they here?

¿Cómo?

How?

¿Cómo sabes [tú] mi nombre?

How do you know my name?

Asking questions without question words!

Just like in English, you can ask a question without using any question words. All you need to do is say it with a rising intonation at the end. (Consider the difference between saying, "He finished it." and saying "He finished it?")

You'll usually find that if the question includes one of those personal pronouns (you, me, he, she, they, etc) the question will make it move to after the verb, but either way is fine.

Tu tienes mi lápiz.

You have my pencil.

¿Tú tienes mi lápiz?

Do you have my pencil?

¿Tienes [tú] mi lápiz?

Do you have my pencil?

Tú sabes como llegar ahí.

You know how to get there.

¿Tú sabes cómo llegar ahí?

Do you know how to get there?

¿Sabes [tú] cómo llegar ahí?

Do you know how to get there?

Differences between Spanish and English questioning

You might have noticed, there are a few differences between asking questions in English and asking questions in Spanish. These are the main differences between Spanish and English:

No auxiliary verbs (hoorah!)

In Spanish you don't need to use words like "do" or "will" (auxiliary verbs). So there's no "will she come?", it's just "she comes?"

The important part is your intonation: Rise at the end of the question, so it doesn't sound like you're just affirming "yes, she comes."

You can usually leave out the personal pronoun (yay!)

As you saw in the examples above, in Spanish you can often leave the he / she / you / me (personal pronoun) out of the question. So instead of "You stole my iPod?" you'd just say "Stole my iPod?".

Of course this doesn't make much sense in English, but in Spanish each verb (like "to steal") changes to agree with the personal pronoun (he, she, they, etc).

So you can tell who it's talking about just by looking at the verb, and you don't actually need to say "you". There are a few exceptions to this, and you may need to clarify in some instances, but this is true a lot of the time.

Different word order

In Spanish you'll put a verb immediately after the question word. So instead of "How do you know?" it would be more like "How know you?".

Or you could even just say "How know?" since the "you" isn't really necessary either.

Telling the time in Spanish

Even though everybody has a cellphone these days, there will probably come a moment in your life when you will need to ask someone what the time is.

How to ask what the time is

¿Qué hora es?

What time is it?(Literally "What hour is it?")

¿Tiene hora?

Do you have the time?(Literally "Do you have the hour?")

Important: Even though "tiempo" means "time" (and, confusingly, "weather"), you never use the word "tiempo" to ask what the time is.

How to say what the time is

This is fairly simple, although there are a couple of little tricks:

Es la una

It's one'o'clock

Son las dos

It's two'o'clock

Son las tres

It's three'o'clock

Son las cuatro

It's four'o'clock

Son las cinco

It's five'o'clock

Son las seis

It's six'o'clock

Son las siete

It's seven'o'clock

Son las ocho

It's eight'o'clock

Son las nueve

It's nine'o'clock

Son las diez

It's ten'o'clock

Son las once

It's eleven'o'clock

Son las doce

It's twelve'o'clock

You'll see that the verb "ser" ("to be") goes before the time. This will always be "son", except for when you're saying "one'o'clock", when it will be "es".

You'll also see that the feminine article (la/las) goes before the number. It's feminine because it's referring to "la hora". Again, this will always be "las", except in the case of one'o'clock, when it's the singular "la", because it's just one hour

You might also hear:

Es el mediodía

It's noon / midday

Es la medianoche

It's midnight

Is it morning or evening?

In many Spanish-speaking countries, you'll use the 24-hour clock, so you won't need to clarify whether that dentist appointment is at two in the afternoon, or two in the morning.

But in case you do, you'll do it like this:

Son las dos de la mañana

It's two in the morning

Son las dos de la tarde

It's two in the afternoon

Son las ocho de la noche

It's eight in the evening

When does "the night" start?

In most English speaking countries you'd probably start talking about "the night/evening" around 6pm. But in a lot of Spanish-speaking countries, you wouldn't roll out the "de la noche" until around 8pm.

And when it's not exactly on the hour?

Most of the time it won't be exactly 2'o'clock, so here's how to deal with that: