Easy Learning Spanish Conversation

¿LO SABÍAS?

There may be an accent on the singular form of a word but not on the plural and vice versa: ración, raciones; joven, jóvenes.

Small talk (#ulink_9026ab59-a9dc-5f29-a268-e0c3b4073c9f)

¿Qué tal? – How are things? (#ulink_3a2848c5-4019-58ba-9803-39e5e010e064)

Whether you’re going to be working in a Spanish-speaking country or spending some time with your Spanish-speaking friends, you’ll want to be able to chat with people and get to know them better. The phrases in this unit will help you communicate with acquaintances, friends, family and colleagues in a variety of everyday situations.

GREETINGS (#ulink_26eaf8b4-61bc-5840-b8d3-477fe4fdf3a2)

To get you off on the right footing, you need to know how to say hello to people properly. Just as in English, there are several ways of doing this in Spanish. You can simply use hola (hello or hi) on its own. You can also use buenos días (good morning), buenas tardes (good afternoon or good evening – provided it’s still light), and buenas noches (good evening – once it’s dark). Spanish-speakers often use both together, as in hola, buenos días and hola, buenas tardes.

Hello

¿LO SABÍAS?

When you pass friends and acquaintances in the street and don’t stop to talk, rather than saying hola you say hasta luego or adiós.

You’ll also want to ask the people you know how they are. The simplest way to do this is by using ¿Qué tal? This is quite informal, and suitable when you know the person quite well. If you want to be more formal you say ¿Cómo está? to someone you speak to as usted.

How are you?

Use adiós(goodbye) or hasta pronto (see you soon) to say goodbye to people you don’t know well. You can just say hasta luego(see you) if you want to sound more informal.

Goodbye

¿LO SABÍAS?

Buenas noches means both good evening and good night. So you use it both when arriving and leaving somewhere in the evening. When saying goodbye to someone you know you’ll see tomorrow, such as a colleague, you say hasta mañana (see you tomorrow).

See you…!

INTRODUCING PEOPLE (#ulink_d0476125-acac-53e7-8f66-59e731784b1f)

You’ll want to introduce people you know to one another. The simplest way is by saying éste es (this is) when introducing a man, and ésta es when introducing a woman.

This is…

¿LO SABÍAS?

When you’re introduced to someone, you’ll want to know how to react. The traditional encantado should only be used in formal or business situations these days, and very often people just say ¡Hola! ¿Qué tal?. You would reply in the same way – ¡Hola! ¿Qué tal?.

TALKING ABOUT YOURSELF (#ulink_bb89975c-b79d-5422-84fc-d0bd2af6fd90)

To get the conversation going, you’ll need to be able to say at least what your name is, who you are or what you do, and where you’re from. Saying what your name is is rather different in Spanish from English. You say me llamo (literally I call myself). me llamo comes from the verb llamarse. If you want to say what someone else is called you use se llama. For more information on reflexive verbs like llamarse, see here (#litres_trial_promo).

My name is…

I’m…

¿LO SABÍAS?

When you say what you do in Spanish, don’t include a word for a or an before your job: soy maestro (I’m a teacher), soy enfermera (I’m a nurse).

To say how old you are, use tengo followed by your age and then años (literally I have… years). tengo comes from the verb tener. For more information on tener, see here (#litres_trial_promo).

I’m…years old

I have…

I live…

¿LO SABÍAS?

Remember to say vivo sola rather than vivo solo if you’re female.

I’m staying…

To talk about yourself, you’ll need to be able to say how long you’ve been doing something, such as learning Spanish! One way to do this is to use hace followed by the length of time and then que and the verb in the present. For more information on the present tense, see here (#litres_trial_promo). You can also use llevo to mean I’ve been in examples like these.

I’ve been…for…

APOLOGIZING (#ulink_a935494c-a900-57ed-9d8b-1ad3847f9848)

There may be times when you wish to make an apology to somebody. The simplest way to do this is to say perdona (to someone you speak to as tú) and perdone (to someone you speak to as usted).

I’m sorry…

¿LO SABÍAS?

If you need to get past someone, or if you bump into them, just say perdón (excuse me or sorry).

I’m afraid that…

ASKING FOR INFORMATION (#ulink_0a95ec07-ff3a-5f14-aa70-df5ac93a2198)

In social situations you will often want to find out more about someone or their family, job and so on. To do this use háblame (tell me).

Tell me…

You can use the next questions when chatting socially.

What’s…?

You’ll often want to find out where things are. Remember that when you use ¿Dónde…?, está is how you generally translate the word is.

Where…?