Lesson One

Lección Uno



In this lesson, you will learn how to:

Greet someone
Say goodbye
Ask someone how they are
Tell others how you are
Say what your name is
Ask others for their name
Say where you are from
Ask where others are from
Count to ten


Saying hello in Spanish is easy, the basic word for hello is:

Hola



To say good morning, you say:

Buenos días





Good afternoon is simply:

Buenas tardes

Good night is:

Buenas noches





Hola, buenas tardes - hello, good afternoon




Now for saying goodbye. Just like in English there are a number of ways of saying goodbye in Spanish.

To simply say goodbye say:

Adiós

Easy! Now of course there are other phrases for bidding someone farewell and here are a few of them:

See you later - Hasta luego

See you tomorrow - Hasta mañana

See you soon - Hasta pronto

See you again - Hasta la vista







OK, so you can say hello and goodbye, now for the hard-hitting stuff!

To ask someone how they are is easy too. There are two main ways of asking how are you?
¿Qué tal? This is quite informal but commonly
heard in Spain.

¿Cómo estás? Another fairly informal way of asking how someone is. You would use these two for children, peers, and friends.

¿Cómo está usted? This is a more formal, polite way of asking. Use it for older people and in more formal situations.




Estoy this means 'I am'

Bien well/good

Muy bien very well

Bastante bien quite well

Mal bad

Muy mal very bad


Estoy muy bien Listen - I am very well
No estoy muy bien Listen - I am not very well



Other ways of saying how you are:

Regular fine/OK



Excelente excellent

Terrible terrible

Hola, Ramón ¿cómo estás? Listen (hello, Ramon, how are you?)
Estoy bastante bien, gracias ¿y tú? Listen (I'm quite well thanks, and you?)





This is a short section to teach you how to ask where you are from? and how to ask others.

¿De dónde eres? Where are you from? (informal way)

¿De dónde es usted? Where are you from? (formal way)

Soy de… I'm from...



Obviously I am not going to list the Spanish names for all the countries of the world here… but here are a few of the one you might need. For others, refer to the 'Word Groups' section of this site.


Gran Britaña
Los Estados Unidos (de América)
Canadá
Australia
México
Europa
España

Looking those words that you cannot guess up in the dictionary will help you to remember them.


This is the final section of this lesson. Here you will learn the number is Spanish from zero to ten. I suggest learning them in groups of three and not trying to learn them all at once.
Writing them down over and over can also help.







SpanishEnglishSpanishEnglishSpanishEnglish
Cero zero Cuatro four Ocho eight
Uno one Cinco five Nueve nine
Dos two Seis six Diez ten
Tres three Siete seven


Listen to the numbers






Well, that brings us to the end of Lección Uno. I hope you
enjoy learning and don't forget the exercises! Practicing is the best way to learn.
¡Buena suerte! (good luck!).

M.Cosgrove