Spanish · Beginner (A1) · Chapter 1 of 12
Hello and goodbye
Hola y adiós
Say hello and goodbye in Spanish, tell people your name and where you're from, and learn the words for I, you, we and they and the verb ser.
In this chapter you'll learn to
- Greet people at different times of day
- Say your name and ask someone theirs
- Say where you and others are from with ser and the subject pronouns
- Pronounce the main Spanish sounds
Listen
On her first morning at a new job in Madrid, Carmen meets a colleague in the office kitchen. Listen to the whole dialogue first, then line by line.
David
Hola, buenos días. ¿Qué tal?
Hello, good morning. How are you?
Carmen
Muy bien, gracias. ¿Y tú?
Very well, thank you. And you?
David
Bien, gracias. Me llamo David. ¿Cómo te llamas?
Fine, thanks. My name is David. What's your name?
Carmen
Me llamo Carmen. Encantada.
My name is Carmen. Nice to meet you.
David
Encantado. ¿De dónde eres, Carmen?
Nice to meet you. Where are you from, Carmen?
Carmen
Soy de Sevilla. ¿Y tú?
I'm from Seville. And you?
David
Yo soy de Madrid. Bueno, hasta luego, Carmen.
I'm from Madrid. Well, see you later, Carmen.
Carmen
Adiós, David. Hasta luego.
Bye, David. See you later.
Understand
Greetings for every time of day
(hello) works at any time and with anyone. People often add a greeting for the time of day:
In Spain, is used until lunch, which is around 2 pm. After that you say until about 8 or 9 pm, and then . means both “good evening” and “good night”.
| Spanish | English | When |
|---|---|---|
| Hello. / Hi. | any time | |
| Good morning. | until lunch (about 2 pm) | |
| Good afternoon. / Good evening. | from lunch until about 8 or 9 pm | |
| Good evening. / Good night. | late evening and night | |
| See you later. / Bye. | when you leave | |
| Goodbye. / Bye. | when you leave |
I, you, he, she: subject pronouns
The “subject” is the person doing the action. Words like “I”, “you” and “she” are called “subject pronouns”. Spanish has two words for “you” when you talk to one person: for friends, family and people your age, and the polite (more in chapter 3). For more than one person, Spain uses (informal) and (polite); Latin America uses for everyone.
Spanish usually leaves the pronoun out, because the verb ending already shows who you mean: is enough for “I'm from Madrid”. Use the pronoun only for emphasis or contrast: (I'm from Madrid), (And you?)
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| I | |
| you (one person, informal) | |
| / | he / she |
| you (one person, polite) | |
| / | we (: a group of women only) |
| / | you (more than one person, informal; Spain only) |
| / | they (: a group of women only) |
| you (more than one person, polite; in Latin America for everyone) |
Ser: to be
To give your name, say … (literally “I call myself…”) or simply … (I am…). To ask someone's name, say
comes from , “to be”. Use it for who someone is, where they're from and what they do: , , (I'm a student). is irregular, so learn all its forms by heart. takes the same form as and , and the same form as and .
| Person | (to be) | Example |
|---|---|---|
| (I'm David.) | ||
| (Where are you from?) | ||
| / / | (He's / She's from Bilbao.) | |
| / | (We're from Madrid.) | |
| / | (Are you from Seville?) | |
| / / | (They're from London.) |
How Spanish sounds
Spanish is written almost exactly as it sounds, and every vowel is short and clear: a, e, i, o, u. A few letters sound different from English.
Questions start with an upside-down question mark and exclamations with an upside-down exclamation mark: An accent on a vowel (á, é, í, ó, ú) shows the stressed syllable: is stressed on the last syllable.
| Letter | Sounds like | Example |
|---|---|---|
| h | silent | , |
| j | a strong h, from the back of the throat | , |
| ll | the y in “yes” | , |
| ñ | the ny in “canyon” | |
| c (before e, i) and z | th in “think” (in Latin America: s) | , |
More in the grammar: Ser and estar: two verbs for “to be” · Spanish in Spain and Latin America · Subject pronouns: yo, tú, usted, vosotros… · The Spanish alphabet and pronunciation
New words
- holahello, hi
- buenos díasgood morning
- ¿Qué tal?How are you? / How's it going? · informal
- muy bienvery well
- graciasthank you, thanks
- ¿Y tú?And you? · informal
- me llamo…my name is…
- ¿Cómo te llamas?What's your name? · informal
- encantado / encantadanice to meet you · men say , women say
- ¿De dónde eres?Where are you from? · informal
- soy de…I'm from…
- buenowell, OK (to start or end a conversation)
- hasta luegosee you later, bye
- adiósgoodbye, bye
Practise
1.It's 10 am. How do you greet your new neighbour?
2.Complete with the right form of : “Ana and I are from Valencia.”
Ana and I are from Valencia.
3.Complete with the right form of : “Where are you from?”
Where are you from?
4.Put the words in order to ask someone's name.
Tap the words below in the right order.What's your name?
5.Laura meets someone for the first time. What does she say?
6.Match the Spanish with the English.
Pick a word on the left, then its meaning on the right.
0 of 6 exercises done.
Say it out loud
Hola, buenos días. Me llamo Ana.
Hello, good morning. My name is Ana.
Listen, then say it out loud, as close to the recording as you can.
Check
Five questions on this chapter. Then mark it as finished to add its words to your review deck.
0 of 5 answered.