Español básico - lección uno
Buenos días, me llamo Eric.
I have been
learning Spanish for five years.
I started to learn
Spanish because my son married an Ecuadorian. We went across for the wedding
and I felt like the typical Brit abroad, expecting everyone to speak English
(which most of them did very happily). I decided I needed to speak Spanish and I
now have two bilingual grandchildren, so I really must up my game.
¿Por qué quieres aprender español? Why do you want to learn Spanish?
Of course, learning
a new language is excellent exercise for the brain, keeping us quick thinking
and helping to stave off dementia.
By the end of this
year, you should be able to have a conversation with a Spanish speaker and do
things like order a meal, go shopping, get around by bus or train, book a hotel
room and also complain about things.
I hope you all
enjoy the classes – I will try to make it fun, but if we are going to learn
Spanish we will have to work quite hard. There will be homework, which will
take an hour or two each week, and I’d encourage you to practise your Spanish
every day in one form or another. Talking to my dog …
We have a coffee
break at about 11.10 there are always biscuits.
Please stick your hand up at any time if you have a question
and don’t worry about sounding daft – you’ll soon realise that’s what we’re
here for. It’s impossible to learn a new language without making a fool of
yourself.
Spanish is a very theatrical language. It’s spoken with the
whole face and, often, the hands as well. People say: “Why do the Spanish speak
so fast?” My daughter-in-law says the English speak fast, so it’s partly that
we’re struggling to understand, but even allowing for that, the Spanish do
speak quickly. Why? They have a lot of long words and, although some phrases in
Spanish are very concise, many phrases are extremely long. In a Spanish word,
you have to pronounce every letter. English has lots of silent letters,
softened vowels and shorthand phrases.
So, we’re starting to learn Spanish, but I bet you already
know lots of Spanish words
Who knows these words?
Paella Tacos Playa Por
favor
Anyone know any more? – olé, vino, cerveza, amigo
What
about Speedy Gonzales? What did he say.
¡Ándale! ¡Ándale! - let’s go (from andar to
walk)
¡Arriba! - up or above
There
are also many words we have stolen from Spanish (and the Spanish stole from
languages spoken in pre-colonial South America):
Chocolate Patata – potato Maíz – Maize or corn
Chile
– chilli
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. There is also Don or Doña when you want to be extra respectful.
We English often get a little hung up about when to call
someone señora or señorita. It has nothing to do with being married. If a girl
reaches 20, she becomes a señora. That’s my rule. I’ve never called anyone señorita,
except in fun.
Greetings
Formal:
Buenos días (to which you may answer “muy
buenos”)
Buenas
tardes
Buenas noches
Informal:
Hola
¿Qué hubo?
Hola
¿Qué tal?
Hola
¿Qué más?
Note the plurals. It is not Good Day, but Good Days. The
adjective agrees with the gender of the noun and also takes the plural.
Those are greetings, now look at farewells.
Adiós (to God) is rather formal.
Chao is informal.
Nos vemos (see you)
Hasta luego (until then)
Hasta pronto (until soon).
Don’t copy The Terminator and say “hasta la vista”
You might want to add a little extra word or phrase. We often
say: bye, take care.
In Spanish that would be Nos vemos. ¡Cuidate!
You could also say, Nos vemos. Que te vaya bien - see you, good luck. The literal translation
is “that you go well”.
Qué tengas un buen día - have a good day
But hello and goodbye is not a conversation. What else would
we say?
We would often say - “Nice day” But remember; only the British
are obsessed with the weather. What else would we say on meeting someone?
“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.
Don’t be too worried about this, you’ll get used to it. My son
has used nothing but the informal for five years. Some folk think he’s a bit
forward, but he is understood.
To say “how are you, we need to use to verb estar, which means
“to be”.
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?
¿Qué tal tu día? – how’s your day?
How should you respond? That depends on how you are feeling …
If you’re feeling OK or fine, that’s regular
or más o menos in Spanish. Here are some other
responses:
Estoy bien, gracias – I
am well, thank you.
¡Estoy estupendo! – splendid! (a
superlative)
Estoy regular o 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?”
Let's practise that with a short conversation.
Hello, how are you, goodbye.
Video: https://youtu.be/h5R2qyp9NYM
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. The Spaniards think
it odd to say please too often and call the British “por favors”.
Por favor – please
Gracias – thank you
Muchas gracias – thank you very much
Muy amable – how kind
Muy agradecido (for a man) muy agradecida (if you are a woman)
– I am very grateful. You´ll find this in Sueños, but Lucy says this is very
old fashioned.
In South America, they have a saying Dios te pagará (God will
pay you). It generally means you won’t get paid. This is a bit of a joke in my
daughter-in-law’s family
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.
The literal translation of lo siento
is “I feel it” from the verb sentir. There is no
word in Spanish for sorry.
A sneeze, a belch (or worse) might warrant 'disculpe', if you
tread on someone's foot 'lo siento' and if you misunderstood, you might say 'perdón'.
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'.
You are all doing really well. No-one has left yet and no-one
has fallen asleep.
Learning a new language is never
easy, but there are some things about Spanish that help?
For a start there is a very precise way of pronouncing each
letter and each letter in the word is sounded. For example: how would we
pronounce this letter (e) in English? It can be pronounced 'ee' as in Peter or
'eh' as in Eric or 'a' as in rein.
In Spanish, it is only ever pronounced 'eh'.
Hand out alphabet sheets
Here is the Spanish alphabet (el alfabeto español) you will
see that all letters have a precise and exact sound and these never change. The
most important letters to pronounce properly are the vowels – a, e, i, o u.
Those of you who have learned French at school will need to
watch your pronunciation.
De is duh in
French in Spanish it is day.
Let’s have a quick run through the alphabet: https://youtu.be/x4QL10041Fc
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