Starting to learn Spanish, people first of all learn the most used words and phrases for communication. This is done so that a person can answer the most common questions on the trip, get to know others. This method of language learning is used by teachers and teachers of foreign courses. Most authors try to include these words in the first lesson of their textbooks.
Most popular words and phrases
When learning a language, there is a necessary minimum of words and expressions. When starting to master it, you should first of all learn how to say “hello” in Spanish, “bye”, “my name is ...”, “I am ... years old”, “I live ...” and the like. Using this set of words, you can say hello to a person, get to know him, tell about yourself. Almost all textbooks and language courses begin with this.
A list of popular words and phrases is compiled on the material of various books, magazines, even films. Linguists analyze texts, look at how often words are used, and based on their observations make up the top 100, top 1000 of the most used expressions with which to start learning a language.
For Spanish, in particular, greetings and farewells are considered the most commonly used. Therefore, many courses first teach a person how to say “hello” in Spanish, and it takes into account that this word has several synonyms, the use of which depends on a lot of factors.
Greetings in Spanish
There are several ways to say hello in
Spanish. Let's consider some of them.
The most important thing to remember is that “hello” in Spanish will sound: “¡Hola!”. So welcome well-known people, friends. This way of saying hello is the most common in Hispanic countries.
Three greetings follow, each of which is used depending on the time of day, just like ours.
Before lunch, the Spaniards greet each other with the phrase: “¡Buenos días!” - which translates as: "Good afternoon!". If you meet a person after lunch, you should tell him: “¡Buenas tardes!”. In the evening, it is customary to greet people with the phrase: “¡Buenas noches!” - that is, wish them a good evening.
If you greet a good friend, you can say in Spanish: "Hello, friend!" - the phrase: "¡Hola, amigo!".
Using these phrases you can communicate in person and in person with friends from Hispanic countries. The main thing is to use them correctly.
How to ask a person how his business?
Having learned how “hello” will be in Spanish, we will move on to another list of necessary words and phrases. No less common are questions about how a person is doing. In many ways, this is a tribute to traditions and courtesy, so you need to know some of the most common questions and answers on this topic.
There are two ways to ask how a person is doing. The first is to ask the person a question: “¿Cómo estás?” The second is to ask: ¿Qué tal? Both translate: "How are you?" These questions are equally common in Spanish. A more respectful form would be: “¿Cómo está Usted?” - and translated: "How are you?"
Less commonly used: "¿Qué tal la vida?" - which translates: "How is life?" You can also ask what is new for a person by asking the question: “¿Qué hay de nuevo?”
This set is enough to seem like a friendly and well-mannered person to any Spaniard.
Answer questions
So, we learned how “hello” will be in Spanish, learned to ask questions about the affairs of the interlocutor. Now we’ll talk about how to answer a person a question about your affairs.
If your business is going well, you can express it with the phrase “muy bien” which translates as “very good” or “excellent”. You can tell a person that everything is fine using the phrases “todo está bien” and “bien, gracias”. The first is translated as "everything is in order", the second - "thank you, good."
The neutral answers that say your situation is not bad sound like “no está mal, gracias,” that is, “not bad,” “bien” is “good,” and “como siempre,” meaning “as usual.”
If your affairs are bad, you can answer “no muy bien”, that is, “not very”, and “mal” - “bad”.
Goodbye in Spanish
And finally, saying goodbye to a person, you definitely need to say goodbye to him. There are also several expressions for this. We will analyze some of them.
So, you can say “goodbye” using the word “adiós”, and if you say goodbye to good friends, you can safely use “saludos”, which replaces “bye”.
If you are planning to see a person soon, you can use the phrases “hasta pronto” - “see you soon”, or “hasta luego”, that is, “see you soon”. If the meeting takes place in the evening, use “nos vemos esta tarde”, if you plan to meet tomorrow, use the phrase “hasta mañana”. In the evening, it is customary to say goodbye with the phrase "buenas noches", that is, wish "good night."
As you can see, the set of standard phrases is not so large. Studying the grammar of the Spanish language, you not only learn the rules for constructing phrases, using the forms of certain words, but also replenish your vocabulary, learn to communicate correctly and politely with strangers.
Having learned the Spanish translation of “hello”, “how are you”, “bye” and other equally common words, you can start a conversation with a person, show your knowledge of the basics of the language and that you respect your interlocutor.