Basic Spanish - Lesson 2 Notes

Basic Group – lesson two

Buenos diás señores y señoras. Bienvenidos a la semana segunda de la clase de español. Empecemos.

In Spain, women do not change their name when they are married, everyone keeps their name throughout their life. Children, both boys and girls, are given a surname which is the surname of their father and the surname of their mother.

So when Lucía married my son, she didn't become Lucía Rayner, she kept her name  Lucía Rojas Rodriguez. Their children's surnames are Rayner Rojas. My Spanish surname would be Rayner Little from my dad (Eric Rayner) and my mum (Nellie Little). The man's surname always comes first. Nick Clegg's wife is called Miriam González Durántez, what would her mother's name be?

What are your Spanish surnames?

Checking into a Spanish hotel might cause some confusion. Spanish pronunciation of my name and how an English speaker would say it are quite different. You may be asked: ¿Cómo se escribe tu nombre? Or ¿Cómo se escribe tu apellido?

Spell out surnames in Spanish.

Our first words

Let's start with some basics – Greetings and farewells. Learn these: they are the basics of a conversation. Even if that's all you can do, a Spanish-speaker will appreciate that you have made an effort! When speaking to a stranger (or in a formal situation), you should add señor, señora or señorita. When does a señorita become a señora?

Hola

Buenos días (to which you may answer “muy buenos”)

Buenas tardes

Buenas noches

Note the plurals. It is not Good Day, but Good Days. The adjective agrees with the noun and also takes the plural.

Those are greetings, now look at farewells.

Adiós (to God) is rather formal.

Nos vemos (see you)

Hasta luego (until then)

Hasta pronto (until soon). You could also say “adiós, hasta pronto” (bye, see you soon).

Chow is the most used farewell in Latin America. You could copy The Terminator and say “hasta la vista” – but don’t say hasta la vista baby!

But hello and goodbye is not a conversation. What else would we say?

 “How are you?” Would be a good start and here there is one of those little things that we find problematic. There are two forms of address in Spanish – the formal and the informal. In English we say 'you' but in Spanish there is usted (formal) and tú (informal). So how should you use them? Here are a few rules:

Use “usted” when talking to someone older, a judge, policeman, soldier (any formal situation), shopkeeper or your boss.

“Tú” for family members, friends, colleagues, people younger than you and children.

So the verb changes depending upon the formal or informal use.

Buenos días ¿como está? – is formal

Buenos días ¿como estás? – is informal

Both mean: good day/good morning, how are you? Note that, in Spanish, there are two question marks around a question and the one at the start of the question is upside down!

Hola ¿Qué tal? - means Hello, How are you/How's it going?

How should you respond? That depends on how you are feeling …

Estoy bien, gracias – I am well, thank you.

Estoy estupendo – splendid! (a superlative)

Estoy regular  or estoy más o menos – OK

Estoy mal – not well

Estoy fatal – terrible.

You can drop the “estoy” and just use the adjective. You might also say ¿y tú? Or ¿y usted? - which means “and you?”

Please and Thank you

Apparently we British have a reputation for being polite and we're often considered over polite – I know, it’s hard to believe.

Por favor – please

Gracias – thank you

Muchas gracias – thank you very much

Muy amable – how kind

The correct response to a 'thank you' is: “de nada” or “no hay de que” (don't mention it). When learning Spanish, be wary of trying to translate everything literally. It doesn't work and it's best to learn the phrase and its proper use.

Apologies

Another essential lesson for we Brits!

Lo siento      Disculpe       Perdón … can all be used to say 'sorry' of one kind or another.

A sneeze, a belch (or worse) might warrant 'perdón', if you tread on someone's foot 'lo siento' and if you misunderstood, you might say 'disculpe'.

If there's a queue and you want to get past, it's fine to just push your way through. A Spaniard might say “perdón” but don't count on it. We British would have to say:

¿Puedo pasar? -  literally 'I can pass' but use inflection to make it a question.

¿Con permiso? - literally 'with permission' but its use is 'excuse me'.

Asking a name:

There are several ways of asking someone their name:

¿Cómo te llamas? - informal

¿Cómo se llama? - formal

To which the response is: me llamo … Eric

You could also say:

          ¿Cuál es tu nombre? - informal

¿Cuál es su nombre? - formal

To which the response is: Mi nombre es Eric Rayner

Or you could say: Yo soy Eric Rayner

The word for surname is apellido, so you could also say: ¿Cómo te llamas? And then ¿Cuál es tu apellido?