Hola y bienvenido a Spring Spanish. Mi nombre es Juan and I'm one of the Spanish Teachers at Spring Spanish. I give you a warm welcome to our Free Spanish beginners course. If you're just starting out with Spanish or want to refresh the most important basics of Spanish then you are in the right place. We have prepared the most important beginners topics and created videos for each one of them, for you. Here are some topics that you can expect in this course. Greetings. Introductions. Saying thank you. Saying goodbye. Spanish Pronunciation. The alphabet. The numbers. The colors. The days of the week. The months. The time. Basic Spanish Grammar. Speaking about topics such as the weather, your family, your nationality, your job, your hobbies, and much, much more. In these videos, we'll teach you how to speak about these topics in Spanish through our conversation based chunking method. A way to speak Spanish without having to cram words list and study grammar rules by heart that we also use in our Spring Spanish Academy. You'll learn more about that throughout the beginners course. So lean back and enjoy while the Spring Spanish Teachers Team consisting of: Cory, María Fernanda, Mariana, Paulísima, and myself, help you to learn Spanish to finally speak with natives, having Spanish sentences roll out of your tongue and travel to Spanish speaking countries while conversing with locals effortlessly. To make sure you'll have these video saved in your account and you won't miss any new videos from our channel click the subscribe button now. ¡Acompáñame! How to greet people. As you probably know, there are many countries in the world that speak español. Specifically, in Latinoamérica and España. Spain... Spanish... that makes sense! So there are several ways to greet people in Spanish. But fear not, ¡mis buenos amigos! In this video I will give you 5 sentences that will work no matter what country you are in. And the first one is... Hola. Well, that was easy. Hola means "hello" or "hi" and it's a very convenient greeting as it can be used at any moment of the day and pretty much in any context. You can even combine it with our next sentences, which actually takes me to... Buenos días. Buenos días. Buenos días. "Buenos días" means "good day" in Spanish. This is used both as "good morning" and "good day", and we usually use it from sunrise to the start of noon. Even though "buenos días" is used in most Spanish-speaking countries it is also perfectly fine to use the not-so-common singular version: "buen día". Me, being from Venezuela, we use "buenos días" there, but when I moved to Argentina, I realized "buen día" is much more popular here. So there you go! Two options to greet people in the morning: "buenos días" and "buen día". So what happens in the afternoon? We say "buenas tardes". Buenas tardes. Buenas tardes. This means "good afternoon" and it's used from 12 p.m. until the last hour of light. Since Spanish is a language spoken from la Patagonia to Madrid, you may want to check outside to see if there's still sunlight before saying "buenas tardes". So what happens when the night comes? In Spanish, we say "buenas noches". Buenas noches. Buenas noches. The great thing about "buenas noches" is it means "good evening" but also "good night", so you can use it as greeting or farewell in the night hours. Now, you've noticed in Spanish greetings always start with "buenos" or "buenas", this means "good" in English. But in Spanish, words can be feminine or masculine, singular or plural. For example, "tardes" is feminine and plural, so we use "buenas". "Buenas tardes, buenas noches". For "días", which is also plural but masculine, we use "buenos". "Buenos días". ¿Ves la diferencia? See the difference there? You will also see that our greetings are mostly in plural, like saying "good days" or "good nights". There are many theories about why we use the plural version, but one of the most popular is we, Hispanic people, tend to be very intense. It's a cultural thing! So we are not happy with wishing you only one good day or afternoon, we want to give you the whole package so we wish you all of the good days you can get. "Buenosssssss días". "Buenasssssss noches". It's actually a pretty good deal if you ask me, es un muy buen trato. So there you go! Now you have 5 sentences in Spanish to greet people at any time of day. Remember you can combine "hola" with any of the other, depending on the hour. So if you ever walk into a church in Barcelona at 5 p.m., you can say "hola, buenas tardes". If you have a craving for medialunas for breakfast, and you run into a bakery store in Santiago at 9 a.m., you can use "buen día" or "buenos días", and both are perfectly fine. If in the middle of the night, you have to stop for directions at a gas station in Ciudad de Mexico, you'll want to greet the clerk with "hola, buenas noches". How to introduce yourself. Introducing yourself and giving your name is a very important first step to approach anyone new. When meeting a new group of people, you might think a wave and a quick hola will cover the whole group, but usually that's not the case with us latinos. If you really want to seem friendly and polite, agrégale más sabor a tu presentación. Add some extra flavor to your introductions. There are many words and expressions you can use, but one that will always work no matter the context is: Hola, mi nombre es Juan. ¡Mucho gusto! Hola, mi nombre es Juan. ¡Mucho gusto! This means: "Hello, my name is Juan. Nice to meet you!" So, let's break it down a little to fully understand how to use it. Hola means hello or hi, and it's a great way to start introducing yourself in any context. Then, you'll want to give your name. Even though we, Hispanics, tend to have two or more first names, and two last names, we usually give our first name, and depending on the context, we provide our first family name. So, even if your name is Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar Palacios Ponte y Blanco, you probably want to keep that to Simón Bolívar. These are some common options you can use: Soy. Soy Juan. Soy Juan. This means: I am Juan. Mi nombre es. Mi nombre es. Mi nombre es Juan. My name is Juan. Me llamo. Me llamo Juan. Me llamo Juan. I'm called Juan, which works exactly as: my name is. So, now we finish the sentence in a very polite way. Mucho gusto. Mucho gusto. This means: nice to meet you. If you want to make it a little more personal and say where you're from, you can use soy. As we already know, soy means I am. So it can be... wait! What? Soy can be used to describe yourself in many ways. In this case, it can be used to describe your nationality, or where you're from. Veamos algunos ejemplos, let's see some examples. Soy de Medellín. Soy colombiano. This means, I'm from Medellín. I'm Colombian. Soy de Kentucky. Soy estadounidense. I'm from Kentucky, I'm American. Soy de Toronto. Soy canadiense. I'm from Toronto. I'm Canadian. ¿De dónde eres? Where are you from? Let me know in the comments. ¿Cómo vamos hasta ahora? How are we doing so far? We're halfway there so buckle up! because at this point, your new friends will be very impressed with your español and will probably want to shake your hand or even give you a kiss too. We latinos tend to shake hands in the first time we meet someone, and there are some places where, depending on the situation, they will give you a hug or even a big fat juicy beso en la mejilla. ¿Han visto mi nave espacial? We gotta switch him back. A way to keep the conversation flowing and show some interest in the other person is to ask them the same information. So here are some expressions you can use. ¿Cuál es tu nombre? ¿Cuál es tu nombre? ¿Cuál es tu nombre? What's your name? ¿Cómo te llamas? ¿Cómo te llamas? ¿Cómo te llamas? This literally means: How are you called or named? but in Spanish, again, this is just another way to say: what's your name? ¿De dónde eres? ¿De dónde eres? ¿De dónde eres? Where are you from? ¡Excelente! Now that we know this, let's notch it up a little and combine our introduction with some friendly questions. Hola, me llamo John. ¿Cuál es tu nombre? Hola, me llamo John. ¿Cuál es tu nombre? Hello, my name is John. What's your name? Hola, soy Cadence, ¡mucho gusto! ¿Cómo te llamas? Hola, soy Cadence, ¡mucho gusto! ¿Cómo te llamas? Hello, I'm Cadence. Nice to meet you! What's your name? Mucho gusto, Eduardo. Mi nombre es Declan. Yo soy de Inglaterra. ¿De dónde eres? Mucho gusto, Eduardo. Mi nombre es Declan. Yo soy de Inglaterra. ¿De dónde eres? Nice to meet you, Eduardo. My name is Declan. I'm from England. Where are you from? How to say Thank you and Your welcome! Being thankful is a sign of good manners, and of appreciation for the other person, and it's an excellent way to make someone a little bit happier. Spanish is a language rich in expressions for thanking, and a lot of them revolve around one word: Gracias. Thanks. O como dicen en España, how they say it in Spain: "Gracias" Gracias literally means "graces" because in Spanish, we give thanks by wishing you graces. One of the theories is that it comes from the biblical expression "te doy la gracia de Dios" "I give you the grace of God" but over the course of history I guess we Latinos became a little less dramatic and thus, it transformed into just gracias. But I don't think you'd use the same "thank you" expression para cualquier ocasión, ¿verdad? For any occasion, right? Let's see some different ways to say thank you: Muchas gracias. Muchas gracias. Thanks a lot. ¡Muchísimas gracias! Thank you very much! ¡Mil gracias! ¡Mil gracias! A thousand thanks! You can also sound elegante y educado, elegant and polite, by using the verb agradecer. Agradecer means being grateful for something, so you'll find it combined in many ways to express appreciation. There are two ways you can use it. The first one is: Te agradezco por... le agradezco por... I thank you for... Know the difference between te and le? One is formal and the other one is informal. ¿Quieres saber cuál es cuál? Want to know which is which? You'll have to check Paulísima's video where she explains that perfectly! Estoy agradecido por... estoy agradecida por... I'm thankful for... Remember, agradecido is masculine and agradecida is feminine! Of course, for these expressions to make sense, you have to add what you're thanking for. Example time! ¡Te agradezco por tu ayuda, José! I thank you for your help, Jose! Estoy agradecido por la cena, Abuela. ¡Muy rico! I'm grateful for the dinner, Grandma. Very tasty! Le agradezco por las direcciones, Oficial. I thank you for the directions, Officer. ¡Genial! Great! Now go to the comments and thank us in Spanish for this awesome video! Just joking! Just go and tell us what you're grateful for. So how do you respond when someone thanks you in Spanish? One of the most common and accepted expressions through all of Latin America to accept thanks is: De nada. De nada. This means something like "it was nothing", but depending on the context and location, vas a agradecer tener otras opciones, you'll be grateful to have other options: ¡Con gusto! With pleasure! Fue un placer. It was a pleasure. ¡No hay por qué! This means something like "there's no reason to thank me". O como dice mi buen amigo, el Chavo, like my good friend El Chavo says: No hay por dónde, "nowhere" to thank me. ¡Gracias! ¡No hay por dónde! There are always some exceptions on how people say you're welcome in some countries. In places like Venezuela or Colombia, we use ¡A la orden! This means something like "at your service" to show how serving and available we are as a sign of good manners. My Mexican friends, whenever you say gracias, they respond "las que te adornan" which is kind of a funny comeback which means something like "the graces that embellish you" Please keep in mind if you ever come across argentinos or uruguayos, if you say thank you they'll usually respond with: no, ¡por favor! Or just plain ¡no! If you're not used to it, this might come as rude or weird, but it is actually a way of saying "do not worry, it was nothing, please!" ¡Qué decís querido! No pasa nada, no, ¡por favor! ¡Quedáte tranquilo! No, no, por favor, ¡no, no! ¡Por favor, no! Ok so, before you go out there and start thanking everyone in Spanish, let's recap a little bit, shall we? Here are some chunks that's what we call phrases or expressions here at Spring Spanish and in the Spring Spanish Academy) to say thank you. ¡Gracias! ¡Muchas gracias! ¡Muchísimas gracias! ¡Mil gracias! Te agradezco por Le agradezco por Estoy agradecido por Estoy agradecida por And here are some chunks you can learn by heart to say you're welcome: ¡De nada! ¡Con gusto! ¡Fue un placer! ¡No hay por qué! ¡A la orden! Venezuela and Colombia mostly No, ¡por favor! Las que te adornan ¡Muy bien!, now you know how and when to say gracias, thank you and de nada, you are welcome, in Spanish! How to say goodbye. Saying goodbye properly is very important in any language. Heck, you could even become a star by saying bye in rapid succession with proper dance moves! Am I right Nsync? And of course, Spanish is no exception. So let's see some sentences to say goodbye in Spanish. La primera es, the first one is: Adiós Goodbye This means goodbye in Spanish. It's a very short and convenient word to use in any occasion, but you don't want to keep saying adiós a todos, todo el tiempo, to everyone, all the time. In a lot of places in South America, if you're talking to friends or family in a casual or informal situation, you can get away with chao. Talking about casual goodbyes, aquí hay algunas otras opciones, here are a few other options: ¡Nos vemos! See you! or we'll see each other. ¡Suerte! Good luck! Cuídate or Cuídese. Cuídate Cuídese. They both mean take care. If you want to know the difference between them, it's pretty much the same with tú and usted, which you can check in another one of our Spring Spanish videos! ¡Hasta la próxima! This means until next time. the great thing about these options is you can combine them como tú quieras, however you want! Let's see some examples. ¡Chao, nos vemos! Pretty common to use among family or friends. ¡Adiós, suerte! If it's someone you just met or you're not too acquainted with them. ¡Hasta la próxima, cuídese! If it's an elderly person or you need to show particular respect. ¿Cuál te gusta más? Which one do you like better? How would you combine them? Let me know down here in the comments! Now, if you're in a situation like a job interview or a business meeting, ¿qué dirías? What would you say? The most common option is using ¡Hasta luego! which means roughly See you later! ¡Hasta pronto! Which means "See you soon!" in a fairly formal way. This works wonders if you're planning on seeing the other person again so, if you're in an interview, this is the one you want to use. If you want to step up your game, then combine que tengas I wish you and then include the remaining moment of the day: ¡Que tengas buenos días! I wish you a good day! ¡Que tengas buenas tardes! I wish you a good afternoon! ¡Que tengas buenas noches! I wish you a good evening or night! Sounds confusing? ¡Tranquilo, yo te cubro! easy, I got your back! Just look for my other Spring Spanish video about saying hello in Spanish, where I explain when to use días, tardes and noches. Of course, Spanish is a language spoken in many places in the world, and each culture has their own way to say goodbye. There's a lot of options you could use depending on the place and situation. So, let's suppose you got a job in Veracruz in México. You're chilling with your coworker near the water dispenser and your boss is calling you for a meeting. You could use: Hasta luego, ¡que tengas buenas tardes! which means something like See you later, have a good afternoon! and sounds casual but formal at the same time. I come from a city called Barquisimeto in Venezuela. Whenever I needed to leave a gathering with friends in a casual and quick way, I would use: ¡Chao, panitas! Bye, partners! Now here in Argentina, the same context would need a swift ¡Chau chau chicos! Bye bye, guys! So what if you're leaving your newfound Colombian crush at the airport in Bogotá? Will you settle with a cold and quick ¿"Que tengas buenas tardes"? Of course not! If you really want that farewell kiss, ¡tiene que ser espectacular! It has to be spectacular! ¡Hasta siempre, Maria Teresa! Until forever, Maria Teresa! ¡Siempre te recordaré! I will always remember you! Estamos cerca de despedirnos por hoy, we're close to saying goodbye for today, so let's recap what we've learned so far: Informal: ¡Adiós! ¡Chao! ¡Nos vemos! ¡Suerte! ¡Hasta la próxima! Formal: ¡Hasta luego! ¡Hasta pronto! ¡Que tengas buenos días! ¡Que tengas buenas tardes! ¡Que tengas buenas noches! So what do you think? ¿Estás listo para despedirte en español? Are you ready to say goodbye in Spanish? Give me your best shot in the comments! Spanish Conversation Basics Having a first conversation with anyone can be challenging, especially if you're just starting out with Spanish but ¡no te preocupes! Do not worry! Today, we'll be breaking down a casual conversation in Spanish, and I'll give you some of the most common chunks in Spanish that you can use in any conversation with natives. The first thing you need to know is how to start a conversation, so let's see some chunks in Spanish to say "Hi". They never change, so you can just learn them by heart entirely and you'll always use them correctly in conversations. Hola, ¿cómo estás? Hello, how are you? Estoy bien, gracias. ¿A ti cómo te va? I'm doing good, thanks. What about you? Literally: "How is it going for you?" This one is used if the other person starts the conversation asking you how you're doing. ¡Buenas tardes! ¿Qué tal tu día? Good afternoon! How's your day? Me llamo Juan, un placer conocerte. ¿Tú cómo te llamas? My name is Juan, a pleasure to meet you. What's your name? If the other person did something for you like offering you to come in or help you with directions, or if someone says thank you, here are some ways to say thank you and you're welcome: ¡Muy agradecido! Much obliged! Mil gracias por... A thousand thanks for... and then you add the motive. Le agradezco su ayuda. I thank you for your help. ¡De nada! You're welcome. No, ¡por favor! If you're in Argentina and someone thanks you. ¡A la orden! If you're in Venezuela, Colombia or Panamá, this is a way to say at your order or at your service. When the conversation finishes or someone leaves, you can use these chunks to say goodbye: ¡Nos vemos luego! See you later! Que tengas buenas noches. Have a good night. ¡Chao, hasta mañana! Bye, see you tomorrow! Adiós, fue un gusto verte. Farewell, it was a pleasure to see you. If you want to learn more chunks, check the Spring Spanish playlist of my videos, where I cover greetings, saying thank you and you're welcome, saying goodbye and much more. Click on this link and de nada, you're welcome. Ahora que sabes lo básico en una conversación, now that you know the basics in a conversation, let's jump to some chunks to ask preguntas para romper el hielo, Ice breaker questions: ¿En qué trabajas? What do you do for a living? ¿Te gusta el...? ¿Te gusta la…? ¿Te gustan los...? ¿Te gustan las...? If you want to ask if the other person likes something in particular, like, ¿Te gusta la comida callejera? Do you like street food? Or ¿Te gusta el beisbol? Do you like baseball? Want more chunks about how to use gustar? ¡Estás de suerte! You're lucky! I made a video about that! ¿Qué haces en tu tiempo libre? What do you do in your free time? ¿Tienes hijos? Do you have children? ¿Cuántos hermanos tienes? How many siblings do you have? ¿Eres de Canadá? ¿De qué parte? Are you from Canada? Which part? And what happens if you're on the answering side of these questions? Let's see some examples: Yo soy abogada. I'm a lawyer (feminine) Me gustan las empanadas de pollo. I like chicken empanadas. ¡Qué bien! ¡A mí también me gusta el fútbol! Cool! I like soccer too! This will make you sound like you were born in Latin America if the other person says they like soccer first. Yo tengo dos hermanos y una hermana. I have 2 brothers and 1 sister. Mi amiga es mexicana pero vive en los Estados Unidos. My friend is Mexican but she lives in the U.S. No me gusta hablar de política, perdón. I don't like to talk about politics, sorry. This one will really come in handy, we love to talk about politics, trust me. So once you got your chunks rolling and your conversation with a native going, they might start speaking faster or louder or more people will want in on that conversation. If you ever get to this point, no temas utilizar la vieja confiable, don't be afraid to use the old trustworthy: Disculpa, no entiendo. Excuse me, I don't understand. ¿Puedes hablar más lento? Can you speak more slowly? Todavía estoy aprendiendo español. I'm still learning Spanish. ¿Hablas inglés, de casualidad? Do you speak English by any chance? Perdón, ¿qué significa …? I'm sorry, what's the meaning of... This one will be really useful, as we Latin Americans love to use slang. If you ever visit a Spanish-speaking country, you'll be hearing stuff like: chanchullo, chicote, coroto, gamba, el cogote, escabio, lepe, carnal, na guará, echar pa' lante, chido, panita, mae, birra, tirar la toalla, ya merito, de una, el guaro, candelilla, funar, hostia, batería, causa, asere, la cana, echar los perros, cámara, qué volá, ya wey, me mola, su merced, unas chelas, los macundales. Muy bien, now you are equipped with the basics you need to have a conversation with a stranger or a friend in Spanish! Don't be afraid! Go out and use what you just learned! Useful phrases for beginners. We've selected some basic sentences you can use, and we'll go una por una. One by one. Yo soy or yo soy de... As you probably know, this means I am or I am from. No hablo español. Now, let's be honest and tell me how many times have you said this sentence? This, of course means I don't speak Spanish, but let's imagine that you are in a gathering and somebody comes to you and they start talking to you about last night's telenovela, Soap opera. Then you can say: No hablo español. Perdón, no entiendo. I'm sorry, I don't understand. ¿Podría hablar más despacio, por favor? Could you speak slower, please? This is a very useful phrase, we Spanish speakers, are very skilled in saying as many words as possible per minute y debo confesar, I must confess. Even I have some issues understanding sometimes if people talk to me really fast. Don't be afraid to ask ¿Podría hablar más despacio por favor? If you are using the formal you, or: ¿Podrías hablar más despacio por favor? In the informal way. ¿Podría repetir eso, por favor? Could you repeat that, please? Given the fact that there are so many different accents in the Spanish language, you might hear something that maybe you don't understand the first time or you are doubtful about it. Don't hesitate to ask: ¿Podría repetir eso, por favor? Remember, ¡Por favor and a good smile open doors! ¿Habla inglés? Do you speak English? But don't be lazy and do your best to continue in Spanish. La práctica hace al maestro. Practice is key. Estoy aprendiendo español. I'm learning Spanish. And I bet you are excited about it, so, go and tell everyone about it, and you can also tell them about our channel as well. ¿Puedo utilizar un traductor? Can I use a translator? Now, the following are what I call, Spanish phrases for rookie survival. And the first is: ¿Pica? or ¿Esto pica? Is this spicy? Here in Mexico, there's an illness called "El mal de Moctezuma" Moctemuza's illness. And a lot of foreign people "catches" this after eating a large amount of spicy food, and they end up suffering at el baño. The toilet. So to avoid this, you first better ask ¿Pica? or ¿Esto pica? Now, If the answer is yes… well, is really up to you. Tengo sed or ¿Me da un vaso con agua, por favor? I'm thirsty. Can I have a glass of water, please? The survival tip here is: If you didn't ask if your food was spicy or not and you feel very, very hot, as spicy hot, then you don't want to drink water, believe me, it's better off if you ask for some sal. Salt. ¿Dónde está el baño? Where is the toilet? You might have to use this if you forgot to ask if your food was spicy or not. ¿Dónde está el hospital? Necesito un doctor. Where is the hospital? I need a doctor. Now, I'm not trying to scare you, but maybe going to el baño, the toilet, hasn't been a lot of help after all those tacos and you actually need to go to the hospital. Well, now you know how to ask for it. ¿Cuánto cuesta? o ¿Cuánto es? How much is it? In English, the translation for both sentences is the same, but in Spanish it is common to ask ¿Cuánto cuesta? For a service or an item before you buy it. And ¿Cuánto es? after buying them so you can pay. Or you don't care and you have a lot of money and gastas y gastas, you know? Those are some of the basic phrases you can learn. And of course, you're welcome to our channel where we have more videos with other sentences that are going to help you to improve your Spanish. For example: ¿Qué hora es? What time is it? ¿Qué día es hoy? What day is it today? ¿Cómo te llamas? What's your name? Y muchos, muchos más. And many more. ¡Muy bien! Now you know some easy phrases that will help you to become confident when you use your Spanish. Hey, Cory here! ¡Felicitaciones! Congratulations! You just have completed the first chapter, the first quarter, of our free Spanish beginners training, Your first milestone with us at Spring Spanish Academy! Yeah! You now know how to have the most basic conversations with a native Spanish speaker. You can say hello and use other greetings to initiate a conversation, you can introduce yourself, you can say thank you and you're welcome and you can end a conversation by saying goodbye! You also know the most important basic phrases you need for your Spanish survival kit! Are you ready to enter the next chapter of our free Spanish beginners course? There you will learn the most important Spanish basics. This includes: The correct pronunciation of Spanish, the alphabet, the numbers, the colors, the days of the week, the months, how to speak about time and when to use the formal you, usted, and when to use the informal you, tú. By the way, if you like what you've learned so far, would like to take your Spanish a step further than just our YouTube videos and get really serious about learning Spanish, then you should also check out our free Spanish training, where we will teach you our method that we use in our Spring Spanish Academy to have you speaking Spanish súper rápido, super fast! Without boring grammar rules and without memorization of endless word lists. We do this through a method called Conversation Based Chunking, which you've actually secretly been using already in the Spring Spanish videos. You can find out more about how this works and find a free in-depth Spanish lesson from our Academy by clicking on the link in the description. Ready for chapter 2? Entonces, ¡comencemos! The Spanish vowels. Let's go over the basics of Spanish vowels. Like I said, son cinco vocales, there are five vowels in Spanish: A E I O U Como podrás darte cuenta, as you may have noticed, they're pronounced differently in relation to English, but unlike English, Spanish vowels are always pronounced the same way... Literally, always, as in every single time! Regardless of whether a vowel appears at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a word, in between two consonants, or one vowel next to another, las vocales siempre suenan igual, vowels in Spanish will always be pronounced the same way. So, in words like acá, over here, casa, house, mapa, map, taza, mug, letter a is always pronounced "ah". Try it: Acá. Casa. Mapa. Taza. Similarly, la letra E, letter E, will always be E. Listen: Elegante. Elegant. Detergente. Detergent. Estrella. Star. Again: Elegante. Detergente. Estrella. Same goes for la letra I, letter I: Idioma. Language. Internet. Interés. Interest. Try it: Idioma. Internet. Interés. Now, ¡ten cuidado! Be careful with these two vowels: E, I. En español, letter I is called letra "Ih". That might cause confusion. So, remember their names letra "eh" y letra "ih". Then, we've got la letra oh, letter "ouh". To pronounce it correctly, try to avoid that English touch of yours and refrain from rounding it with your lips or adding that extra sound at the end: o. Say O, instead. O. See the difference? Now listen to these words and then repeat after me: Oro. Gold. Oro. Ocaso. Sunset. Ocaso. Obligación. Obligation. Obligación. Great! Last one, la letra U, letter U. Notice that I don't say u in uno. One. Uno. Uniforme. Uniform. Uniforme. Urgencias. The ER. Urgencias. So, to sum things up: Spanish vowels always sound the same way, no matter where they are. Additionally, you should always pronounce each of them when they appear next to each other. There's only one exception to that rule, and that's in words like Queso. Cheese. Quiero. I want. Guerra. War. Guiso. Stew. In these cases, letters q and g silence letter u, but they need it to make those k and g sounds in front of letters e and i. If letter u were pronounced in these words, they would sound like qüeso, qüiero, güerra, and güiso. But those are words that don't exist in Spanish. Okay, now that you know the basics, let's go over vowel combinations. You'll find all sorts of them in Spanish, but even when Spanish vowels appear next to each other, unlike French or English, vowel combinations don't change how vowels are pronounced individually. Consider these words: Bailar. To dance. Bailar. Reina. Queen. Reina. Tierra. Earth. Tierra. Deuda. Debt. Deuda. Fuego. Fire. Fuego. Boina. Beret. Boina. Avión. Plane. Avión. Antiguo. Ancient. Antiguo. Residuo. Residue. Residuo. As you can see, I pronounced each vowel separately. So, vowel combinations in Spanish don't create special sounds. Let's go over some other examples of vowel combinations for you to fully grasp the idea. Try repeating each word after me. Ciudad. City. Ciudad. Circuito. Circuit. Circuito. Juicio. Trial. Juicio. This word is very tricky because it has two vowel combinations, did you notice? Juicio. Jui-cio. Awesome! Do you want some more examples? Cool! Now try caer. To fall. Caer. Feo. Ugly. Feo. Poseer. To possess. Poseer. Zoológico. Zoo. Zoológico. País. Country. País. Ataúd. Coffin. Ataúd. Increíble. Incredible. Increíble. As you may have noticed, the pronunciation of the letters doesn't change because vowels in Spanish are always pronounced the same way. What changes is the stress, and accent marks will prove useful in that regard. ¡Muy bien! now you know the vowels in Spanish and how to pronounce them. The Spanish alphabet. El abecedario. Same as in English, after la letra a, comes la letra b, letter b. To pronounce it, say bebé. Bebé. Baby. Next, la letra c. Letter c. This one is tricky because it has two sounds, c and c. The best example to illustrate the difference is the word cicatriz. cicatriz. Cicatriz. Scar. In Spain, people pronounce the soft version of letter c as c, so they'll say something like cicatriz. Now, there are words where the letter c is accompanied by the letter h. In those words, the resulting sound is ch, like the ch sound in the English word church. Try the word chonchito. Chonchito. It means chubby. So far, we know la letra a, la letra b y la letra c. This is the key to abecedario. Let's move on to la letra d, the letter d. To pronounce this letter like a native, try to push your tongue forward, d. Try saying dedo. Dedo. Finger. We've already learnt the next letter, la letra e, remember? If you've forgotten already, I suggest you rewind the video. Next comes la letra f, letter f. Its pronunciation doesn't change much in comparison to that of letter f. So, try these words. Feliz. Happy. What comes next? You're totally right, la letra g, letter g. Similar to letter c, la letra g has two sounds, g and g. So, you'll find it in words like gato and gema. Gema. Gem. Now, to make a g sound before the vowels i and e, we need to cast a spell on the spelling of words and this spell needs a combination of letter g, letter u and either i or e. As a result, we get a smiling u like in the words pingüino or bilingüe. Bilingüe. Bilingual. If we skip the spell, these words will sound pinguino or bilingue, and we don't want that. Let's move on to la letra h, letter h, which is the easiest of them all because it's basically invisible. So, unlike English where one says history, we say historia. Basically, we see the letter h and we ignore it. Then comes la letra i, letter i, which we've covered already. Next we've got la letra j, letter j. This is the funniest letter because it's the one we use to write the sound of laughter, jajaja. You'll also find it in words like Jamaica, jícama, jirafa. As you can see, our j is like the h in English. So, to pronounce la letra j, think of history or hungry. Now, let's move on to la letra k, letter k. Most of the words spelled with this letter come from other languages like kilo, from Latin, and kiosko, from Japanese. We don't use it as much because we already have the same sound in letter c, remember? Next, la letra l, letter l. This one doesn't change much, so the words león and lion not only refer to the same animal, but are pronounced almost the same way. Fairly easy, right? There are words that are spelled with two l's. To pronounce this sound, think of putting an I in front of the word, like llamar. Llamar. To call. You should know, however, than in Argentina and Uruguay, this sound is pronounced sh. So they'll say llamar and llegar. It's like they're shushing you all the time. Sorry Argentina, no offence intended, we love your accent. Moving on to las letras m y n, letters m and n. They're very similar to those in English, so we've got mejor. Better, and nada. Nothing. Before we move on, we should go over a letter that exists only in the Spanish language, la letra ñ. This letter is basically an n with a magic hat. So, when the n puts on its hat and casts the spelling spell, it turns into ñ, and you'll find it in words like mañana. Mañana. Tomorrow. Interesting, right? Next. We've got letter o, but you know that one already. Just remember not to round your lips. Say o instead of o. The next one is fairly easy, la letra p, letter p, as in puente. Puente. Bridge. To pronounce this letter like a native, put your hand in front of your mouth and try not to blow air like you do in English. P, pe. Moving on to la letra q, letter q. This letter should always be accompanied by the letter u. So we've got queso. Queso. Cheese. Next, la letra r, letter r. This letter is somewhat hard because it has two sounds. The first sound resembles the r in butter. It's called a flap and you'll find it in words like parar. Parar. To stop.
Parar. To stop. The second sound is called a trill, it's basically a double r and you'll find it in words like Perro. Dog. So, to do the soft version of the r which is called ere, you should flap your tongue like you do in the word butter. But to do the harder version of the r which is called erre, you have to trill your tongue. Try both sounds. Pero, perro. Awesome! Okay, we're almost done, and you'll be happy to know that the following letters are pronounced very similar to those in English. So we've got la letra s, letter s. Try sangre. Sangre. Blood. Next, letter t, la letra t. This one you won't forget because it is the first letter in the name of the most delicious food in the entire world. Taco. Trust me when I say this is the most delicious food in the whole world, you should try it if you ever come to Mexico City. Moving on to la letra u, letter u, which we've covered already. The next letter has different names depending on where you are. Uh beh, beh chica or beh corta, so short v. The reason is that Spanish speakers pronounce letter b and letter v the same way. Therefore, when we spell out the words, we make the distinction in the way we refer to the letter. So, you may refer to the letter b as beh larga or beh grande, because it's taller than letter v, or you may say beh de boca, or use any other word that starts with a b. Then, we've got la letra w, w, which appears only in words that come from other languages like Washington. Next, we've got la letra x, letter x. This letter has three different pronunciations in Mexico. It may sound like a j, as in México, it may sound like an s, as in Xochimilco, a very nice town South of Mexico City, and it may sound like an x, as in explicar, to explain. Fun fact: in Mexico, we say equis to mean whatever. So, if someone says something they think might have offended you but it actually didn't, you may say ¡equis, no te preocupes! Whatever, don't you, worry! Then, we've got la y griega, literally Greek I. This letter has two sounds: it may sound like la letra I or like the combination of two l's, remember? So, you'll hear it in soy, which means I am, where the sound resembles that of letter I, and you'll hear it in soya, as in soy sauce, where the sound resembles that of the double l in llamar and llegar. And, last but not least, la letra z, letter z. In most countries, it's pronounced like the soft version of letter C, but in Spain, this letter is pronounced z, so you might hear that the word shoe is pronounced zapato and zapato. Now, to make sure you've really got it, let's go over the whole abecedario from the top. Ready? a b c d e f g h i j k l m n ñ o p q r s t u v w x y z. I hope you made it to the very end. Otherwise, remember to practice. And a way to do that, is by spelling your name or the name of your country. Let's give it a try, shall we? My name is Mariana, and it's spelled m a r i a n a. Mariana. Now, why don't you pause the video and try to spell your name? I'll wait for you, don't worry. Awesome, now let's spell the name of some Spanish-speaking countries, shall we? Let's begin with Mexico. m e x i c o Muy bien, now you know the alphabet in Spanish, so you are ready to spell everything! Spanish pronounciation. First of all, buenas noticias, good news: Spanish is a phonetic language, which means that words are pronounced as they are spelled, and are spelled as they are pronounced. Does that make any sense? Maybe not so much, so let's go over an example in English, which is not a phonetic language. Take the word read, for instance. It may be pronounced reed, as I did just now, or red. The difference in pronunciation results in different meanings, right? When Spanish speakers learning English come across words like read, they usually pronounce each vowel individually, as in read. They do that because, as a phonetic language, that's how Spanish works, and that's something you should use to your advantage! Now, there are a total of 32 sounds in Spanish: 27 consonant sounds, such as d, p, f and 5 vowel sounds, such as a, e, i. It might seem like a lot, but you'll be happy to know that, since Spanish and English have a common ancestor, you already know 18 consonant sounds and 2 vowel sounds. See? Es más sencillo de lo que parece. It's easier than you might have thought! By the way, since vowels and consonants are the building blocks of pronunciation, you should definitely check out my video about el abecedario. In the meantime, let's go over the tips and tricks I promised! Escucha con atención, listen carefully! There are a lot of letters in Spanish that share the same sound. Which, you might ask? Well, you'll be surprised. First, we've got la letra B y la letra V. I have a whole video about these two friends. So, feel free to check it out to learn more about them. Before you do, listen carefully and try to repeat after me: Bienvenida, verbo, verbo. Did you notice any difference? You didn't, right? Similarly, letters c, s, and z sound like the English letter s. Listen carefully and try to repeat after me: sorpresa, zapato, decir, cerca, cerca. Did you notice that letter c has two different pronunciations in the last word? Well, that's because when letter c appears in front of vowels a, o, u, it sounds like letter k in English, but when it appears in front of vowels i and e, it will always sound like letter s. If you train your listening and speaking skills, in our Spring Spanish academy for instance, you'll get a hang of this very quickly. Now, you should know that Spain treats letters c and z a bit differently. Al otro lado del charco, across the pond, people say zapato and cerca. What can I say? Spanish is incredibly rich and varied! Another set of words that share the same sound are la letra Y y la LL, letters Y and double L. Take the words: yate, inyección, inyección, llamada, llamada. Let's take it a step further and look at these words in a sentence: Recibí una llamada en mi yate. Basically, if you memorize these sounds, you're all set. But if you got to Argentina or Uruguay, you'll notice that they say: Recibí una llamada en mi yate. Argentinians might also say Se está cayendo el cielo con esta lluvia, which means it's raining cats and dogs. Letters g and j also share a sound, but that happens only when letter g appears in front of the vowels e and i. Look: jirafa, jamón, gemelo, gigante, gigante. So, always think of the word history to pronounce la letra jota, letter j and la letra g, letter g. Now, did you notice that letter g has two different sounds in the word gigante? Well, you're already familiar with that sound. Think of the word goose in English. Letter g in Spanish will always have that sound in front of vowels a, o, and u, but its sound will resemble that of letter h in English when followed by the vowels e and i. Lastly, letters c, k, and q comprise the last set of words that share the same sound. La letra k, letter k is very rare in Spanish, and that's because letters c and q sort of replace it. You'll see letter k in words like kilómetro, kilómetro, and you'll listen to that same sound in sentences like: ¿Dónde queda tu casa? Queda a un kilómetro de aquí. If you have any doubts about the pronunciation of these sets of words, leave a comment below. Now, antes de despedirme, before saying goodbye, I'd like to go over three sounds that are unique to the Spanish language. First, la letra h, letter h: a common mistake made by English speakers is that they pronounce this letter because that's what you do in words like house and helmet. Pero en español, la letra h es muda, letter h is silent in Spanish. So, you should never say its name. It's like you-know-who in that particular storyline about a boy whose name starts with an h. ¡Exacto! You got it, letter h is Lord Voldemort in Spanish. For example: Hola, hijo. ¿Cómo estás hoy? Another sound that is unique to Spanish and that usually makes non-native speakers struggle is the double r. So, to pronounce words like ferrocarril, carrera, tierra, perro, barril, simple think of trilling the r sound. Listen and try repeating after me: Fumé un cigarro en el ferrocarril. And last but not least, la letra ñ. This letter exists only in the Spanish language. Think of it as an n with a magic hat that changes its pronunciation. To pronounce it, think of the words onion and canyon. Now, listen and try to repeat after me: Esta mañana vi una araña. En otoño iré a la cabaña. Time to put this into practice and learn some phrases in Spanish. Well, we've got: Quisiera bailar salsa. Remember that letter q sounds like letter k. Me gusta la historia. Remember that letter h is Lord Voldemort in Spanish. Ya llegó por quien lloraban. It's a saying we use to announce someone's arrival in a funny or dramatic way, it depends on context. And remember, letter y and double l sound the same way. Compremos piña para la niña. We're not talking about a specific girl, we just enjoy making rhymes. And remember that la letra ñ is an n with a magic hat. Muy bien, now you know the secrets that will allow you to master the sounds in Spanish just like native speakers do! The numbers. Okay guys, when I travel, I really like to know the basics, how to reply, or how to answer to a question. If you're really used to numbers, then they become really helpful for the next questions if you are abroad, for example. ¿Cuánto cuesta? How much is it? O ¿cuántos años tienes? How old are you? Or ¿cuál es tu número telefónico? What's your phone number? In this case, you must know the numbers and I'm going to teach you now from zero to twenty. Well, they... for me, they´re the most of the tricky ones because you have to learn them as they are. However, after 21, life becomes really, really simple. Entonces, ¿estás listo? So, are you ready? Repite después de mí. Repeat after me. Uno. Dos. Tres. Cuatro. Cinco. Seis. Siete. Ocho. Nueve. Diez. Once. Doce. Trece. Fun fact: trece is the number of dogs I have. I know, I'm a dog lover, right? Catorce. Quince. Dieciséis. Diecisiéte. Dieciocho. Diecinueve. Veinte. ¿Vamos bien? Are we going good? this is a literal translation. Vamos bien is a chunk in Spanish, that means like: are we doing well? So, I don't know if you noticed but from dieciséis to diecinueve, so from sixteen to nineteen, we're just adding number ten, the word and, and then the number that we want to say. For example, diez y seis, diez y siete, diez y ocho, and diez y nueve. So, to be honest, if you learn from zero, from cero, to quince, fifteen, those are the numbers that do not have a pattern, and after sixteen you will see that there is a pattern. So, we will learn ten by ten now, from thirty to ninety. Because in between, this formula I just gave you, it will apply for all the numbers. That makes sense, right? Vamos a continuar. Let's continue. Treinta. Cuarenta. Cincuenta. Sesenta. Setenta. Ochenta. Noventa. And at last we have a hundred, cien. That comes from the English centenary or the word percent, meaning from the latin centum. So that means a hundred. So the last word will be cien. However, let's go back a little bit, as we said, the formula I gave you, the numbers in tens, then the word and, which in Spanish is y and then the number you want to say? Well, this applies from twenty to ninety. We say it from veinte al noventa. We'll literally apply the number in tens so, veintiuno, treinta y dos, cuarenta y cuatro, cincuenta y cinco, sesenta y seis, setenta y siete, etcétera, etcétera. Pero, ¡buenas noticias!, but good news! Now, you can reply and answer to the questions I told you at the beginning of this video. Vamos a practicar, let's practice. ¿Cuántos años tienes? Yo tengo 21 años. So, how old are you? I am 21 years old. I'm using my mental age for this matter. Segunda pregunta, second question. ¿Cuánto cuesta? Esto cuesta noventa y ocho dólares. How much is it? This costs 98 dollars. ¿Cuál es tu número telefónico? What is your phone number? I'm gonna use some random number just to have an idea, so we have uno, cuatro cero siete, tres nueve ocho, veintiséis cero cinco. So one four zero seven, three nine eight, twenty-six zero five. You must learn your number in Spanish so it will be easier for you to say it. And of course, in English as well. Aquí los tienes, there you have them! Los números en Español. The numbers in Spanish. And now, you might be able to answer any questions relating to numbers. For example, do you want to share with me ¿cuántos hermanos tienes? How many brothers and sisters do you have? Por ejemplo, yo tengo dos hermanas. What about you? Please leave me in the comments below with the structure yo tengo I have, the number, and then the word hermanos for brothers, or hermanas for sisters. Or you can put them together and say hermanos, that means siblings. And remember, recuerda, we also have more videos coming from me and also feel free to check out the other videos from the other teachers here in the Spring Spanish channel. And if you're ready to take a step further to enhance your Spanish learning, then check out in the description box, we have a link to our website, the Spring Spanish Academy, where you can see our methodology and there's a free training so you can become a fluent Spanish speaker, where you will have access to free lessons, free samples and many things more. And along with these videos, believe me, they're going to help a lot. The colors. This is Oreo, este es Oreo, y Oreo es mi perro. Oreo is my dog, and he's the first prop for today's lesson. You're going to learn the color negro. Black. Repeat after me. El perro es negro. The dog is black. He's an amazing prop, right? Gracias, Oreo. See you later. Next one. Rosa, o rosado. El mono es rosa. O el mono es rosado. The monkey is pink. We have two words for pink, you can say "rosa" o "rosado". If you use "rosado", don't forget to change the gender according to the noun that you are using. We will get there, stay until the end of the video so you can know the trick I am talking about. ¡Siguiente! Next one! Naranja. La motocicleta es naranja. The motorcycle is orange. Fun fact: in Spain, they also say the word "anaranjado". However, if you have a noun in feminine you should say "anaranjada". So, in our example, "La motocicleta es anaranjada". Verde. La taza es verde. The cup is green. Ah, ¿a quién no le gusta el café? Who doesn't like to drink coffee? This is what the las tazas are good for, right? And that brings us to the next color. Café. El sobre es café. The envelope is brown. Did you notice that "café" is a drink and "café" is a color? Well, in Latin America, we know the brown color as "café". But don't worry, if you ever go to Spain, then you might hear the word "marrón", and that is also correct. So in our example before, "el sobre es café", it is also correct to say "el sobre es marrón". Morado. Purple. La libreta es morada. The notebook is purple. Rojo. El corazón es rojo. The heart is red. Well, at least this one is red. Amarillo. La cámara es amarilla. Are you starting to see some patterns here? I said "rosado, rosada" "amarillo, amarilla". We will continue to see these changes. Continuamos, let's continue. Blanco. La cebolla es blanca. The onion is white. Azul. La bolsa es azul. The bag is blue. Gris. El plato es gris. The plate is grey. So, I'm going to give you two points so you can remember next time that you have to use the colors. Primer punto, first point. Gender related. If the noun comes in femenino o masculino, most of the colors have to change their ending from O to A depending on which gender you are talking about. However, there are some exemptions to this rule and it will make your life so much easier. So take note, we have six colors, seis colores, that are exempt from the ones that I taught you today. Those are: azul, blue, café, brown, rosa, pink, naranja, orange, verde, green, and gris, grey. Those colors will never change their gender. For example: La camisa es azul. The t-shirt is blue. El botón es azul. The button is blue. Do you see we change the articles and the genders but they remain the same? So, there you have it, those six colors you will never change into a gender even if the noun is masculino o femenino. Segundo punto, second point that I am going to share with you is singular or plural. Most of the colors, if they have to change according to the gender, then you will add an s to the end. For example: Las cebollas son blancas. The onions are white. Or if it's masculino, masculine, it will be: Los conejos son blancos. The rabbits are white. So you just change the ending according to the gender and add an s in the end. Exemptions are: the color gris and azul, grey and blue, you must add an e and an s in the end to make it sound plural. For example: Las nubes son azules. The clouds are blue. Los ojos son grises. The eyes are grey. Do you notice the difference? Perfecto. Perfect. You have learned so far once colores, eleven colors, that are going to be really useful for the next time you go abroad. And I really want to know, I am very curious. Which is your favorite color? ¿Cuál es tu color favorito? Write it down in the comments below with the structure "mi color favorito es" and share with me, I am really curious about knowing you guys, so just write down in the comments. By the way, mi color favorito es el azul, porque el cielo y el mar son azules. The sky and the sea are blue. My favorite things to see and to swim. The days of the week. One of the first things I like to learn how to say when I'm learning a new language is "Odio los lunes", "I hate Mondays" "because I hate Mondays, tell me why" Lo siento, tuve un momento. I'm sorry, I just had a moment there. But anyway, so, let's see the days of the week, shall we? Lunes. Monday. Martes. Tuesday. Miércoles. Wednesday. Jueves. Thursday. Viernes. Friday. Sábado. Saturday. Y domingo. Sunday. In Spanish, we don't pluralize los días laborales, the days of the week. We just make sure the article defines if we're talking about, let's say, "los lunes", "the Mondays", or "el lunes", "the Monday". For the weekend days, sábados y domingos, Saturdays and Sundays, we just add an s at the end. So it would be "sábados" for Saturdays y "domingos" for Sundays. Es fácil, ¿verdad? It's easy, right? Ahora, dos notas importantes. Two important notes. One: unlike English, we do not capitalize the days of the week. Unless, of course, we are starting a sentence. And number two, número dos: all of our weekdays are masculine. So, that means that the article that we will use will be "el" "el martes" or "un/uno" "un viernes". You got it, right? As I said at the beginning of the video, hoy es miércoles, today is Wednesday. Well, at least the day that I'm recording this, so... ¿Qué día es hoy para ti? What day is it today for you? All this sounds muy bien, great, but how can I do to remember the days of the week? I got it! ¡lo tengo! So, in Spanish, we name the days of the week after the planets, except the Moon, los lunes, because the Moon is a satellite. Anyway, anyway, tú me entiendes, you got me, right? So, it goes like this. Lunes, Monday, after the Moon. Martes, Tuesday, after Marte, Mars. Miércoles, Wednesday, after Mercurio, Mercury. Jueves, Thursday, after Júpiter, Jupiter. Viernes, Friday, after Venus, Venus. I hope that will help you remember the days, what do you think? Let's move on with the pronunciation. Repite después de mí, repeat after me. Lunes. Martes. Miércoles. Did you notice we have an accent there, at the e? It's very important to emphasize the e, so it's miércoles. Jueves. Did you notice we pronounce the j as if we were saying "who" but a little bit stronger? So repeat after me: Jueves. Viernes. Sábado. We also have an accent there, so emphasize the a. Domingo. Very well, that's easy, es fácil, ¿verdad? Let's try a sentence for each day of the week, ¿shall we? Vamos. Odio los lunes. I hate Mondays. You already know this, but ok. Los martes como con mi familia. On Tuesdays, I eat with my family. Miércoles es mitad de semana. Wednesday is hump day. El próximo jueves me voy de vacaciones. Next Thursday I'm going on holidays. Los viernes son mi día favorito de la semana. Friday is my favorite day of the week. Los sábados hacemos carnes asadas. On Saturdays, we do a barbecue. Y me gustaría que los domingos nunca terminaran. I wish Sundays would never end. Now you've learnt the days of the week so tell me in the comments ¿Cuál es tu día favorito? What's your favourite day? ¿Es el viernes, como el mío? Is it Fridays, like mine? Or ¿qué día es hoy? What day is it today? The months and seasons. Los meses son, the months are: Enero. January. Febrero. February. Marzo. March. Abril. April. Mayo. May. Junio. June. Julio. July. Agosto. August. Septiembre. September. Octubre. October. Noviembre. November. Y diciembre. And December. Easy, right? Notas importantes, important notes. In Spanish, we do not capitalize the months or the names of the months, unless, of course, we are starting the sentence. Also, los meses, the months are masculin. So, when we talk about them, we will probably use the article el. For example, en el mes de diciembre celebramos navidad. In the month of December, we celebrate Christmas. A continuación, next, you will see how to give the correct date in Spanish. Because, funnily, at least for me, we do it al revés, backwards. So, for example: hoy es el 20 de julio del 2020. Did you see what happened there? The most common pattern to write dates in Spanish is number + de + month + de + the year. Another difference you might have noticed was that we use cardinal numbers in Spanish, twenty of, while in English, we use, or you use, the ordinal numbers. for example, July 20th. ¿Es más difícil? Is it harder? I don't know, ¿qué piensas tú? What do you think? Otra nota importante, another important note. In Spanish, when saying what year it is, we can say del 2020, of the 2020, or we can simplemente, simply say of 2020. When somebody asks ¿cuándo es tu cumpleaños? When is your birthday? You will normally say, or well... I would say, Mi cumpleaños es el 26 de junio, my birthday is June 26th. So it kind of follows the same formula, right? So, it's, the number of the day, el 26, + de, + the month, el 26 de junio. Es fácil, ¿verdad? It's easy, right? Ahora es tu turno, now it's your turn. ¿Cuándo es tu cumpleaños? My favorite season of the year has to be verano, summer. Sol, playa, amigos, festivales. I'm sorry, I was talking about the sun, the beach, friends, festivals, all this, in summer! Plus, it was my birthday. But anyway, let's see the seasons in Spanish. Well, first comes primavera, or spring. Did you see what we did there? With Spring Spanish? Primavera is the first. Then we have verano, summer, followed by otoño, which is autumn or fall. And we finish with invierno, winter, best season for winter sports, right? ¿Cómo recordar los nombres en español? How to remember the names in Spanish? I'm pretty sure you already noticed, but the names of our months, de nuestros meses, are very similar to the names in English. And this is because they come from the Roman gods, the Roman festivities, the Roman leaders, the Roman numbers, in that order. Así que vamos a ver, let's see! Enero, January, comes from the Roman god Ianuarius, Janus. Febrero, February, comes from the Roman festivity Februa. Marzo, March, comes from the god Marte, Mars. Abril, April, comes from Afrodita, Aphrodite. Mayo, or May comes from yet another Roman goddess, Maia. Junio, June, is also a goddess, Juno, or June. Julio, or July, is in honor of Julio César, Julius Caesar. Agosto, August, is also in honor of August Caesar. Septiembre, September, means el séptimo, the seventh. Octubre, October, means el octavo, the eighth. Noviembre, November, means el noveno, the ninth. Y diciembre, December, means el décimo, the tenth. Yeah, you can blame the Romans or you could also look for a song in Spanish about the love calendar, and say "enero, Rosca de Reyes cortamos", it's a nice song, you should check it. Anyway, let's continue with this, please, okay? We've learnt the months. Now, let's use them in the next ejemplos, examples. Los meses de verano son junio, julio, agosto y septiembre. The summer months are June, July, August and September. ¿Cuándo es tu cumpleaños? When is your birthday? Mi cumpleaños es el 26 de junio, my birthday is June 26th. El día de muertos se celebra el 1 y 2 de noviembre. The day of the dead is celebrated the 1st and 2nd of November. El primero de enero es el Día Internacional de la Paz. January 1st is the International World Peace Day. Now, this is a very useful one: el 5 de mayo no es la fiesta de independencia de México. The 5th of May is not Mexico's Independence Day, okay? Now, if I'm not mistaken and I better not be because I am Mexican, el 5 de mayo we celebrate a battle that we won against the French army. Now, it's a great accomplishment, don't get me wrong, but it's not our biggest day. Still, if you want to invite me to a fiesta, to a party, just llámame, call me. ¡Fantástico! Fantastic! Now you know todos los meses, all the months in Spanish. ¡Ahora es tu turno! Now, it's your turn. Tell us in the comments, ¿cuál es tu mes favorito? What's your favorite month? ¿Y por qué? Why? Or ¿cuándo es tu cumpleaños? When is your birthday? How to tell the time. Learning how to ask for the time is very useful. Yes, I know most of us have un teléfono, a phone, o un reloj, a watch, but if you are asked what time is it o ¿qué hora es? you will absolutely want to learn what to respond, right? In Spanish, we have two ways at least to ask for the time. La primera, the first one, will be ¿qué hora es? What time is it? And you can also say ¿tiene hora? or ¿tienes hora? That depends on whether you're going to use the formal or informal you, but you can check a video in our channel about this. Also, and before we go any further and I forget about it, let me clarify a couple of things for you. The word tiempo, time, in Spanish also refers to the weather. So el tiempo está lluvioso, which means the weather is rainy, but no te preocupes, don't worry. We never use it to actually to ask for the time, you'll see. Now let's go back to telling the time. In Spanish, we have two ways to answer that. So, we say es la una, or we can also say son las dos. Pero no es complicado, it is not difficult. Let me explain it. In Spanish, we say es la una, and we use the feminine article la because it is feminine, la hora, and we use it in singular, because it's only one. From two p.m. on, we're going to say son or they are. If somebody asks ¿qué hora es? What time is it? Then, nosotros decimos, we say: Son las cinco. It is 5 o'clock. Or ¿qué hora tienes? What time is it? For more specific times of the day, let's learn mediodía, noon. Noon or midday in Spanish is mediodía. It literally means half-day, and we can use it in sentences like la hora más calurosa es el mediodía. The warmest time is midday. For midnight, in Spanish we say medianoche. Remember: día is masculine, noche is feminine. So we say la medianoche and we can use it in sentences such as la fiesta termina a medianoche. Boo! Anyway, the party finishes at midnight. Nota importante, important note: before mediodía or midday, we will always say de la mañana or a.m. and after midday, we will say de la tarde, or p.m. and the literal translation will be of the afternoon, of course. And we also say de la noche, of the night. Veamos algunos ejemplos, let's see some examples: Son las tres de la tarde. It is 3 p.m. Es la una y cuarto de la mañana. It is 1:15 in the morning. Son las once y media de la noche. It is 11.30. Por supuesto, of course, we also want to learn how to say la hora exacta, the exact time. In English, it is said 10 past 6, but in Spanish, we say first the hour, six, plus the number of minutes, ten. Veamos otro ejemplo, let's see another example. ¿Qué hora es? Son las cuatro y veinte. Hour plus minutes. But of course, like everything in Spanish, there are some excepciones, exceptions. Let's see them. The first: when it's fifteen minutes past the hour, then we say hour plus y cuarto or and a quarter. Of course, you can also say son las cuatro quince, it is 4.15, and everybody will understand. Veamos otro ejemplo, let's see another example. Es la una y cuarto, it is 1:15. That would be kind of the translation. The second, when it's half an hour, then we say hour + y media, veamos, let's see:
then we say hour + y media, veamos, let's see: Son las cinco y media. Or it is 5:30. Son las cinco y treinta minutos. Remember: you can use both formulas, both are correctas, correct. The third is when it's past 40 minutes something happens! We take the numbers of minutes left to the whole hour and we say: Son veinte para las siete. It is 20 minutes to seven o' clock. Yes, you can also say it is 6:40 or seis cuarenta, todo el mundo te entenderá, everybody will understand you. And last, when it's quarter to, veamos, let's see. Son cuarto para las doce. It is a quarter to twelve. Or it's fifteen minutes before twelve. Otro ejemplo, another example is: Son cuarto para las ocho, it is a quarter to eight. Or son las siete cuarenta y cinco, it is 7:45. If you think you need a little bit of help remembering los números, then you can always go and check our other video in our channel, ¡vamos, ve! Let's go! ¿Listo para darme la hora? Ready to give me the time? Let's see algunos ejemplos, some examples! Tengo una cita con el dentista a mediodía. I have a dentist appointment at midday. ¿Qué hora es? Son las tres y cuarto. What time is it? It is 3:15. Yo me levanto a correr a las seis de la mañana. I wake up and go running at 6 a.m. Mi hermana siempre duerme después de la medianoche. My sister always goes to sleep after midnight. ¡Muy bien! So, ¿qué hora es? Here, it is las ocho de la noche, eight p.m. Pero ahora, but now you can also tell me ¿qué hora es? What time is it? In the country you are living in. And tell me the country also, I love travelling so, ¡gracias! Tu or usted when addressing someone? En términos generales, in general terms, we can say that tú is informal and usted is formal. You would use tú to convey familiarity and closeness and you would use usted to denote respect. So, you would use tú with children, your family, your friends, and you would use usted to address people who are like maybe in a position of authority in relation to you. For example, a police officer, your doctor, a judge, also your boss. You will also use usted in professional settings, and usted is the go-to way to address somebody that you have just met. So we will use usted in all the conjugations of the verbs that correspond to the verb us- I'm sorry not to the verb, to the pronoun usted, when you meet a stranger. More about pronouns and how it changes the verb in the Spring Spanish video about pronouns that you will find in this channel. I've said that usted is the go-to version version? No, it's the go-to word to talk to a stranger. But that doesn't mean that when you talk to somebody as usted, you're going to be stuck in the usted song forever. So, how do we transition from usted to tú? The best thing about Spanish is that you never have to think about it, because it's really not you who will decide. It's the other person! You will start the conversation and the interaction as usted, and then eventually, and hopefully, the other person will tell you: Ah, no te preocupes, puedes hablarme de tú. Don't worry, you can tutearme. This tutearme means you can use the word tú, which means you can address me informally, which will mean we are closer now. So, normally we make the transition from usted to tú and not the other way around. Actually the word usted can be used to mark a certain distance with somebody. So, perhaps you have told somebody that is talking to you as usted, you already told this person Oh, you can tutearme, and this other person is still referring to you as usted. So this might be their polite way to tell you they want to keep the relationship a little bit more formal. That's up to them, right? It's actually super, super weird, I can't even think about a situation, I don't remember any time where somebody has asked me or somebody that I know to address them as usted. Perhaps in a school or in court, maybe. But it will be very, very weird. So, normally the transition is from tú...¡no! From usted to tú. And it will be something super strange. I've you've ever been in that situation where somebody asks you to hablarle de usted, to address them as usted, let me know in the comments, I really want to know about it. There are an infinite number of nuances that play into the use of usted or the informal tú and vos. More on vos in a little bit. And they all have to do with where you are from, when you were from, your personal preferences. Por ejemplo, in my case, I am a Mexican millenial, and I can assure you that 99.99% of people my age from Mexico don't use usted to address their parents. They will use tú. But I was raised to call them usted, and that's the way I was raised, and I kind of like it! It's very similar to southern manners from the United States of America. You know how they use "yes sir" or "no ma'am"? They have these terms that connote respect to address older people. De hecho, actually, usted and these words like sir and ma'am are so similar that en Español, some people actually might find it slightly offensive that you call them usted because it will make them feel viejos, make them feel old. But that's another story, because really being old is not a bad thing. And now, for my two favorite tips to remember when to use tú and when to use usted. Tip number one: if you are on a first name basis with this person, use tú. And tip number two: if with this person you would use terms like Mr. Something or Your Honor or Dr. Something, that person in Spanish should be addressed as usted. It's quite simple. So now you know everything about tú and usted, but what about vos? Well, vos, en términos generales, is like another tú. It is an informal word for you and it is used throughout Latin America in countries like, famously, Argentina or Uruguay, and in other countries like Paraguay or Honduras or Costa Rica. There are very different variations about the use of vos in all of these countries, but you don't need to worry about it too much. Not because vos is not important, of course not, there are hundreds of millions of people that use it. But also, there are hundreds of millions of Spanish speakers who like me, have never used it. And the good news is that we don't have any difficulty understanding each other or adapting to that way of speaking. I don't have any problem understanding people who use vos, or who use the voseo, and likewise, they don't have any problem understanding and adapting to the people that use tuteo. Now you know everything about tú and about usted. And when we meet, you are absolutely, 100% authorized to tutearme, and I really hope I can tutear you as well. Full disclosure: I did say that we have three words to say you, but we actually have cinco. So, we have: tú, usted, vos and ustedes and vosotros. Ustedes and vosotros also translate as you, but it's the plural you. Like saying, you all, or you guys. Hey, Paulisima here! Congratulations! You have now successfully completed the second chapter of our free Spanish for beginners course at Spring Spanish! This means you are halfway through! This is your second milestone with us at Spring Spanish! So, yes, you did it! And you´ve done it very well! You now know the most important Spanish basics which includes: the alphabet, the vowels, the right pronunciation, the numbers, the colors, the days of the week, months of the year, how to tell the time! And when to use tu and when to use usted. Isn’t that great? Are you ready to enter the next chapter of our free Spanish beginners course? What’s waiting for you there you might ask? You will learn the basics of Spanish grammar! Which ncludes things like the pronouns, gender nouns, articles, just a hint, it´s not 2 like in English, it’s a bit more complicated, but no te preocupes. And you will also learn about the difference between ser and estar, they both mean to be and the way conjugations work en español, in Spanish. if you like what you´ve learned and you want to continue learning more Spanish perhaps you want to check out our free Spanish training where you will discover the method that we use to have our students speaking fluent Spanish in no time. Without nightmarish grammar rules or memorizing endless word lists. You´ll see how we do it if you check out or free Spanish training We do this through a method called Conversation Based Chunking which you’ve actually secretly been using through out the videos that you have watched. You will learn more about this method if you follow the link in the description where you can also get a free in-depth Spanish lesson that comes directly from the Spring Spanish Academy ¿Estás listo para el capítulo 3? Are you ready for chapter 3? If you are, then, ¡empecemos! The Spanish pronouns. En Español, the personal pronouns are as follows: Yo, I, tú, you, él, he, ella, she, nosotros, nosotras, we, ustedes, you, but the plural you, ellos, ellas, they. Antes de continuar, before I continue, I want to make a little note about the importance of gender in the Spanish language. This is for two reasons. Number one: because as you may have noticed, I used two words to say we, nosotros and nosotras, and two words to say they, ellos and ellas. And one is masculine, the other one is feminine. En este video, in this video, you will learn when to use which. That was reason number one, and reason number two is that because things, not only people, are gendered in Spanish, we don't really have a use for the pronoun it, because things are either a he or a she, and therefore we don't really use a word for it. Now I'm going to say the pronouns and I will make a little pause so you have time to repetir después de mí, to repeat after me, okay? Yo. Tú. Él. Ella. Nosotros. Nosotras. Ustedes. Ellos. Ellas. Excellent! Now that you know the pronouns, podemos hablar un poquito, we can talk a little bit, de cada uno, of each one. Let's start with yo. About yo, I want to tell you two things. First, we don't capitalize it, like they do in English, we don't. Just at the beginning of a sentence, of course. And the other thing is the pronunciation. I say yo, but there's a lot of people, especially from Argentina and Uruguay, who say it differently, like yo. But don't trust me in that, because I'm not from there, I don't really do it well. I just say yo. And a lot of people say it like me, so you're fine if you say it like that. Now we have tú. Two things about tú. Two about tú. Okay. Number one. It lleva acento, it has an accent, you have to write it arriba de la u, above the u. Because if you don't, you're saying something else. You're saying a possessive and you don't want that. And the other thing is that it is informal. There are three words to say the singular you en Español and those are: tú, usted and vos, and you can find more about that, of course, here, in Spring Spanish. So we have a video about that, check it out, check it out. And also we are going with él, él también lleva acento. It also has an accent mark, and you have to write it down because if you don't, you are saying something else, you are saying the article the. Okay? So don't forget about los acentos. Continuamos con nosotros. Now, this is when the gender thing I mentioned at the beginning is important. Because we have two words, nosotros and nosotras. The go-to one, the one that we normally use would be nosotros, and the reason for that is that when we talk about we, it doesn't matter if, let's say, there's five women and one guy, I'm not going to say nosotras even if there's more women. As long as there is one man, we use the masculine version of the pronoun, so we use nosotros, okay? Now, we go with ustedes. Ustedes is the plural of you, it's the you guys, you all, that's ustedes. A special note before my friends from Spain call me out on this one. In Spain they don't- well they do use ustedes, I think, but they normally use vosotros, which is the plural of vos, so there is another word that is not ustedes, it's vosotros, take that into consideration. It exists, it's real, you will hear people using it. And now we move on to ellos and ellas, which mean they. So, they, en español, follows the same gender rules that I mentioned before. So, if I am talking about a group of five hundred women and there is one guy, one half guy, a third of a guy, that group is not a feminine, you will still use the masculine to refer to that group. So it is ellos. Ellas would be if you were talking about they, but they are a group made of exclusively females, okay? It is very important to know that in español, the verb follows the subject. So it will change in each conjugation according to the person that you're talking about. Tomemos por ejemplo, let's take for example, el verbo entender, the verb understand. In English you will say I understand, she understands, you understand, they understand, we understand. So you see? It's understand for most of the pronouns, and it just changes for he and she. In Spanish, it changes for all the pronouns and this makes it so that when you hear or see the verb, you will know who you're talking about just because the verb will tell you. So at the beginning, I said ¿tú me entiendes? Even though it is grammatically correct, really, I wouldn't say it like that. We would just say ¿me entiendes? Tú is not necessary because I'm saying entiendes and the conjugation entiendes is exclusive for the person tú. So you don't really have to say the pronoun, you can drop the pronoun most of the times in Spanish. I think that you get it by now, but maybe you think "Yes, you said me entiendes, but what is that me?" Well that me belongs to another category of words, in this case, me, te, se, they are reflexive pronouns, and we have a lot of these tiny words that have a lot of functions, but in general they are made to simplify or shorten a sentence. And you can learn more about this kind of pronouns or possessive pronouns and many other types of pronouns in the series of Spanish for beginners that we have ¿dónde más? Here, at Spring Spanish. Muy bien, so now you know your pronombres personales en español and you can use them right away to make sentences. The first one you can say is ¡yo entiendo! Noun gender. First of all, it is important for you to know that in English it doesn´t exist a gender for each noun. However, in Spanish: la manzana means the apple, la corbata means the tie, el carro means the car, el perro means the dog. Apparently the can mean el or la. So I suggest that you learn the nouns with their article, so you will know if it's el it will be masculino, and if it's la, it will be femenino. There are some rules and tricky points about learning the gender of each noun but I will try to make your life easier with these useful tips if you're in the process of learning Spanish. Primer tip, first tip, is to paint them with a color. For example, this is a really good technique where you imagine a color in your mind and take, for example, red as feminine and blue as masculine. Therefore, you can imagine a red apple, a red tie, a blue car or a blue dog. And this mnemonic device will actually make your life easier to recognize or assume the gender of the noun. Segundo tip, second tip: the ending rule. It is most likely that if it ends with an o, it is masculino. Por ejemplo, for example: El libro, el libro El teléfono, el teléfono And If it's a feminine word, usually they will end with an a. And we have recognized also six endings that could be related to a feminine word. Those are: -sión with an s, -ción with a c, -dad, -tad, -tud and -umbre. Let's have a look at those examples as well: La cascada, la cascada La infusión, la infusión La canción, la canción La ciudad, la ciudad La libertad, la libertad La solicitud, la solicitud La certidumbre, la certidumbre There are some exceptions to this rule, that’s why I always tell you, like before: learn the nouns with their gender, that will make it easier for you to know if it's feminine or masculine. But, let's have a look at those exceptions I am referring to: For example, it is most likely it's masculine if it has a Greek origin and ends with -ma, -pa and -ta. Examples are: el problema, el problema, el mapa, el mapa, el planeta, el planeta. And there's some words that end with o and are still feminine, such as: la mano, la mano, la radio, la radio. This next exception es muy importante, it's very important, because it is a matter of sound. The words starting with a they have the a sound as their first syllable, so we use the article el to start with. It wouldn't sound correct if we used the article la. However, these words are strictly recognized as feminine. Let's have a look. For example, the word water, in Spanish es agua, and it wouldn't sound correct if we say la agua. Therefore, we use el agua. Another example, el águila, el águila. El alma, el alma. And those words starting with an h and a, they have the same pronunciation of a because h doesn't make a sound in Spanish, just like the word hola. Therefore, we have to use the article el as well for those words starting with hache and a. Por ejemplo, for example: el hacha, el hada. Pero no te vayas, but don’t go yet! Because at the end of this video we'll show you how to apply adjectives to those strictly recognised feminine words that start with el. Vamos a continuar, let's continue. Tercer tip, third tip: the gender rule. So, it is most likely that if you're using the same word to refer to a male or a female, if it's, for example, a profession, probably you just have to add an a to the end to make it a feminine word. Or, if it's a noun that is neuter, then, in that case, you will just change the articles. Go and check out my video on the article so you know and understand what I mean. For example: el profesor, el profesor becomes la profesora, la profesora. El doctor, el doctor becomes la doctora, la doctora. El abogado, el abogado turns into la abogada, la abogada. And for those professions that are recognized as neuter words, then, we just change the article to become feminine or masculine. Let's do and see an example. El artista, el artista, la artista, la artista. El estudiante, el estudiante, la estudiante, la estudiante. And this actually applies also to the animals that do not have a word for their females. And for this, usaré mi ejemplo favorito, I will use my favorite example, which, if you have seen my numbers video, you will know by now that I have 13 perros, I know, 13 dogs and I'm a dog lover. So, for this matter I will use: el perro, el perro, la perra, la perra. El gato, el gato, la gata, la gata. Cuarto tip, fourth tip. There is not a specific rule about learning the genders of the nouns, that actually would be very hard to do. Even for me as a Spanish Speaker, because we learn by practicing and applying, and you’ll notice that after a while of using them, you’ll automatically know which is the gender of each noun without even thinking about the rules! This is how natives do it as well. If you use them several times in writing or speaking with someone or yourself, they will start to sound right. And this is actually how we, as native speakers learn Spanish. We just end up having a feeling because you use them so often that instead of memorizing the gender we just end up saying that sounds correct. And this is actually how we will teach Spanish in our Spring Spanish Academy. So don't give up y sigue practicando, keep practicing! A few fun facts to add… If your word is feminine or masculine, then the adjectives should be in the same gender that you are using. For example: La manzana roja, la manzana roja. El listón rojo, el listón rojo. El segundo día, el segundo día. La segunda hora, la segunda hora. Did you notice that I changed the adjective according to the gender of the noun? Good job then! That’s great and that actually makes sense, right? Well, at least in Spanish it does. But wait! Remember I told you about those words that are strictly recognized as feminine but we use the article el to make it sound correct? Well, because those are feminine, then the adjective must be in feminine too. I'm going to give you some examples so you can apply those on your Spanish learning: El agua fría, el agua fría. El águila blanca, el águila blanca. El hacha café, el hacha café. Muy bien. Good job! Now, we can test you. Let's see how many of these words you can remember the article. Let's give it a try. Manzana, la manzana. Perro, el perro. Agua, el agua. Canción, la canción. Gato, el gato. Muy bien, now you have essential tips to find out the gender of each noun in Spanish! Don't forget to check out the other video I made for you about the articles in Spanish, because they come together as a set, so it will be very important for you to learn those as well. Don't forget that we have Spanish videos for beginners, made by me and the other Spring Spanish teachers here at our Spring Spanish channel so feel free to go and check them out too! In general, in this video I gave you a lot of rules, but as I mentioned before, the easiest way to learn Spanish is to not overthink the rules, because the correct word gender, or verb conjugation will roll out of your tongue effortlessly once you've practised and know how to apply them. The articles. Before we take off, we gotta go over the basics. Did you know that in English we have definite and indefinite articles? Tada! Definite is the article “the” and we have "a" and "an" for the indefinite articles. In both languages, definite is for a specific thing, place or people. However, in English for singular and plural we only have “the” In Spanish we use “El” for masculino and singular or “La” for femenino and singular as well. Please note that el does not have an accent, because if you use it with an accent then you will change completely the meaning of it. Instead of meaning “The” it would mean “He” So, es muy importante. It’s very important. That you respect that rule. Now, let’s review some examples. El perro más viejo. El perro más viejo. The oldest dog. La clase de los artículos. La clase de los artículos. The articles lesson. As for the plural form: “El’ becomes “Los” (masculine) and “La” becomes “Las” (feminine) So, let’s have a look to more examples of it. Los perros más pequeños. Los perros más pequeños. The smaller dogs. Las clases de español. Las clases de español. The Spanish lessons. And how do we know if the noun is masculino or femenino? Well, go and check out the video that I made for you to know the Noun’s gender. And I gave you some useful tips there so you can use it in your daily life while learning Spanish. And just when you thought that we only have two definite articles, because we only have 2 genders, right? Actually we have a third definite article that we know as "Neutro" Neuter in English. Which is used for general ideas or concepts and doesn't refer to any gender. “Lo” is usually followed by and adjective. Let’s see some examples! Lo más importante. Lo más importante. This, in English, literally means: The most important. Although, in English we have to add the word “thing” so it could make sense, It would mean: The most important thing. Another example: Lo más importante es respirar. Lo más importante es respirar. The most important (thing) is to breathe. Lo mejor. Lo mejor. The best. Now, let’s move to the indefinite articles. In English an indefinite article is the one that wants to refer to a general thing, so for example, an exam or a school. It could be any school or any exam. Same as in Spanish, although we have “Un” if it’s masculino and we use “Una” if it’s femenino. Let’s do some examples with some phrases. Somos una escuela de español. Somos una escuela de español. We are a Spanish school. Una niña. Una niña. A girl. And here is how to use them in plural. In English it would be the word “some” So, in Spanish we use: “unos” if it’s masculino. Or “unas” if it’s femenino. For example: Tengo unos exámenes mañana. Tengo unos exámenes mañana. I have some exams tomorrow. Quiero unos zapatos nuevos. Quiero unos zapatos nuevos. I want some new shoes. And Papá y Mamá if you’re looking at my video this last statement is actually true. With these examples, now it would make even more sense when you use definite and indefinite articles. But just in case, I made this table for you. Let’s summarize. For definite articles that talk about specific things, or people, or places we use: "El" and "Los" for masculino. And "La" y "Las" for femenino. Indefinite articles that are used to generalize things or concepts, then for masculino we use: Un-Unos. and femenino: Una and Unas. The article “Lo”, just as a reminder, Is used for general things and doesn't respond or do not refer to any gender and is usually accompanied by an adjective. Now it’s your turn de practicar, to practice. Can you guess the article? Let’s try. I need a dog. Necesito… un perro. Did you get it right? Okay, ¡La siguiente! Next one! I think it’s a girl. Creo que es… una niña. Conjugations. I know that verb conjugation in Spanish might come across as unpredictable, nonsensical even, but there are two features that will allow you to fully understand how verb conjugation works in Spanish. Number 1: in terms of conjugation, verbs in Spanish may be either regular or irregular. Regular verbs follow a pattern, irregular verbs don't. To keep things simple we'll focus on regular verbs for now. Number 2, regardless of whether they are regular or irregular, Spanish verbs in the infinitive form, also known as the unconjugated form, will always end in either -ar, -er, or -ir. You should remember these endings because they will tell you la raíz del verbo, the stem of the verb and when it comes to regular verbs, the stem never changes. Spanish has many tenses and verb conjugation depends on the tense but again, to keep things simple, we're going to focus only on the present tense, which is called el presente. This tense allows you to talk about things that are currently happening. Enough theory for now! Let's go to the essence of the matter with a couple of examples. Let's have a look at three verbs: Cantar (to sing) which ends in -ar. Aprender (to learn) which ends in -er. Aplaudir (to applaud) which ends in -ir. If you take those endings out, you are left with the stem: cant-, aprend-, aplaud- If I want to express that singing, learning, and applauding are things that I usually do, I would say: Yo canto una canción. I sing a song. Yo aprendo alemán. I learn German. Yo aplaudo en el teatro. I applaud at the theater. What's the pattern? Yes, when regular verbs are conjugated in the present tense in the first person singular, which is I, the ending is always "o" regardless of whether the infinitive form ends in -ar, -er, or -ir. Easy, right? So how do you imprint this pattern on your brain? Memorize some of these verbs as chunks or word combinations directly in a sentence, that way you’re actually learning and imagining them in context! For example, you can make a flashcard saying: On the front: (I sing) una canción. What’s the answer? On the back: Yo canto una canción. If you learn a couple of different sentences like this using flashcards, it'll become so automatic for you to say "yo aprendo" or "yo canto" that you won't have to worry about verb tables anymore. Alright, so what should we do if we want to talk about you? Look: Tú cantas una canción. You sing a song. Tú aprendes español. You learn Spanish. Tú aplaudes en el teatro. You applaud at the theater. So, if the ending is -ar, the conjugation in the present tense in the second person singular (tú) will be -as, but if the ending is either -er or -ir, the conjugation will be -es. You can memorize these patterns in exactly the same way: create flashcards where you fill in the conjugation or the chunk in a sentence, like this: On the front: You sing una canción. On the back: Tú cantas una canción. Now, the following personal pronouns share the same conjugation, if you don't know which are the personal pronouns in Spanish, you should not miss out on Paulísima’s video about this topic! Ella canta una canción She sings a song. Él aprende español. He learns Spanish. Ella aplaude en el teatro. She applauds at the theater. Usted canta una canción. Formal you sing a song. Usted aprende español. Formal you learn Spanish. Usted aplaude en el teatro. Formal you applaud at the theater. So, verb conjugation in the third person singular ella/él and in the formal version of you, usted is just like the informal version of you, tú, but with an "s" at the end. Now, if we want to talk about us, which in Spanish would be either nosotras or nosotros, depending on gender, the conjugation would be as follows: Nosotras cantamos una canción. We sing a song. Nosotros aprendemos español. We learn Spanish. Nosotras aplaudimos en el teatro. We applaud at the theater. What's the pattern here? We've got the stem and depending on whether the ending is -ar, -er or -ir, the conjugation is either -amos, -emos or -imos. That's why I told you these endings are the key! Once again, the following pronouns share the same conjugation: Ustedes cantan una canción. Plural you sing a song. Ustedes aprenden español. Plural you learn Spanish. Ustedes aplauden en el teatro. Plural you applaud at the theater. Ellas cantan una canción. They sing a song. Ellos aprenden español. They learn Spanish. Ellas aplauden en el teatro. They applaud at the theater. As you might have noticed, the verbs ending in -er and -ir are conjugated in exactly the same way in the second and the third person plural, ustedes and ellos or ellas. Additionally, when compared with the conjugation of the formal version of you (usted) and the third person singular (ella or él), there's another pattern: The conjugation is exactly the same, but an "n" is added at the end. Ella canta una canción. Ellos cantan una canción. Usted aprende español. Ustedes aprenden español. Side note: In Spain, people make a distinction in the second person plural: They say vosotras or vosotros in informal situations, and they say ustedes in formal situations. The conjugation of vosotras/vosotros is peculiar, so you should definitely check out our video to learn more about this topic. So, to sum things up: The conjugation in the first person singular (yo) is always "o" The conjugation in the second person singular (tú) is either -as or -es The conjugation in the third person singular (ella or él) and the formal version of you (usted) is either -a or -e. You basically drop the "s" from the informal version of you. The conjugation in the first person plural (nosotras or nosotros) depends on the ending of the infinitive form. If it's -ar the conjugation is amos, If it's -er the conjugation is -emos, If it's -ir, the conjugation is -imos. The conjugation in the second and the third person plural (ustedes and ellas or ellos) is -an or -en. These patterns are followed by all regular verbs when conjugated in the present tense. Try to always learn them in the context of a sentence instead of verb tables, it'll help you quite a lot when speaking Spanish in conversations. Now, let's see if you are able to conjugate the verbs in the following examples: Ustedes aplaud... mientras yo cant... Cuando ellas aprend... yo aplaud... Tú aplaud...porque él aprend... Nosotros cant... mientras ella aplaud... ¡Muy bien! Now you know the basics of verb conjugation in Spanish. Ser or estar as "to be" To be, or not to be? After all, that has always been the question, right? So, yes, the English verb “to be” may be expressed in two different ways in Spanish: with the verb ser and with the verb estar. Although that might seem difficult, there are very clear-cut rules as to when to use which. In general, ser is used when talking about permanent traits or qualities, while estar is used when talking about emotions or states, which, we could say, are temporary. Now, which are deemed to be permanent traits or qualities? Well, those that identify someone or something, such as nationality, occupation, character, religion, shape, size, or material. Let's go over some examples. To tell someone where you are originally from, you may say: Soy estadounidense. Soy de Estados Unidos. I'm from the US. Soy canadiense. Soy de Canadá. I'm Canadian. I'm from Canada. Soy costarricense. Soy de Costa Rica. I'm Costarican. I'm from Costa Rica If you want to talk about your job, you may say: Soy abogada. Si eres mujer. If you are a woman, or: Soy abogado. Si eres hombre, if you are a man. I'm a lawyer. Soy empresaria. I'm a businesswoman. Soy empresario. I'm a businessman. Soy mamá. I'm a mom, or: Soy papá, I'm a dad. Because we all agree that being a mom or a dad is a full-time job, right? If you want to describe yourself, you may say: Soy morena. I'm brunette. Soy rubia. I'm blonde. Soy organizada. I'm an organized person. Soy desorganizada. I'm a disorganized person. Soy introvertida. I'm an introvert. ¡Soy extrovertida! I'm an extrovert. Notice how all the traits I just mentioned end with an A. That's because, yo soy mujer. I am a woman. Pero si eres hombre, but if you are a man, in general, the adjectives you use to describe yourself should end with an O. So, how would you describe yourself? ¿Eres mujer u hombre? Are you a woman or a man? ¿De dónde eres? Where are you from? ¿Eres callada o eres parlanchín? Are you a quiet person or a talkative one? Tell me in the comments below! Now, if you want to talk about your feelings or where you are located, then you should use estar because generally speaking a person's emotions, state, mood or location are temporary. Usually, when you meet or run into someone, after saying hola, which means “hi” or “hello”, the other person might ask you: ¿Cómo estás? How are you? You could be feeling happy, tired, sad or even bored. How should you express this in Spanish? Well, you could say: Estoy bien. I'm fine. Estoy cansada. I'm tired. Estoy emocionada. I'm excited. Estoy triste. I'm sad. Estoy enferma. I'm ill. Now, let's say you are to meet with a friend at a mall, but they can't find you. So, they call you and ask: ¿Dónde estás? Where are you? What should you respond? It depends on where you actually are: If you are stuck in traffic, you should say: Estoy atorada en el tráfico. Estoy atorada en el tráfico. If you are still at home, you should say: Estoy en mi casa. Estoy en mi casa. If you are already waiting for them at the restaurant, you should say: Estoy en el restaurante. These are all temporary locations, right? Hopefully, unless there's a COVID-19 pandemic, you won't be stuck at home forever and you won't live at a restaurant day and night. If you live in Mexico City, chances are you're gonna be stuck in traffic most of the time, but again, it won't be forever. So far, we've talked about ourselves in the first person singular. You might have noticed a pattern: Soy estadounidense, estoy en el restaurante. Bingo! Both ser and estar have a similar ending. Let's focus on these conjugations for now as they are the ones that will allow you to talk about yourself. I have prepared a video for each of these verbs separately, so feel free to check them out to learn more about the conjugations of each. In the meantime, remember: Ser is used to talk about permanent traits, while estar is used to talk about temporary ones, such as emotions or location. Now, there's one exception to this rule: Although you could say time is temporary because it goes by, in Spanish we use ser to talk about it. ¿Qué hora es? or ¿Qué horas son? What time is it? Es la una y media. It's 1:30. Son las tres y media. It 's 3:30. So, since one is singular, you should use es, which is the conjugation of the verb ser in the third person singular, but son is the conjugation of the third person plural because three is plural. If you want to know more about how to tell or ask for the time, check out Cory's video about this topic. I suggest you learn this by heart, otherwise, you could embarrass yourself a bit. For instance, if you say "Soy aburrido" you’re not saying "I'm bored" instead, you’re saying that you are boring. So, to express your boredom, say "Estoy aburrido" or aburrida, if you are a woman. Similarly, if you say "Soy borracho" you won't be saying that you are tipsy, instead you will be saying that you are a drunkard. So, Unless you are indeed a drunkard, you should say "Estoy borracho" because being drunk is only temporary, right? Muy bien, now you know the rules to use ser and estar correctly! Yay! And the good news is that after a while, you won't even think about these rules because questions and phrases like "¿Dónde estás?" “¿De dónde eres?” “¿Qué hora es?” "Estoy bien" “Estoy triste” "Estoy en mi casa" will just roll off your tongue because they are chunks that never ever change in Spanish. So, after hearing them and saying them often, they'll just come automatically and naturally. Hey, Maria Fernanda here! Congratulations! You have successfully completed the third chapter of our free Spanish beginners training Great work! Only one more chapter to go! And then, your third milestone here at Spring Spanish! You now know the most important Spanish grammar rules: Such as the pronouns, noun gender, the articles, there are a lot, right?, when to use ser and when to use estar, as both mean the verb to be and how conjugations work in Spanish. Are you ready for the last chapter of our free Spanish beginners course? I hope you are because now you will learn the basics of the conversation in Spanish and that it will help you to have your first simple conversations with a native. You will learn how to make small talk, how to ask questions, how to apologize, how to describe someone, even yourself! You will also learn to speak about the most important topics, including: Nationalities, family, hobbies and work! ¿Estás listo? Entonces, ¡síganme! By the way, if you´ve liked what you´ve learned so far and you would like to take your Spanish a step further than just our YouTube videos and get really serious about learning it, then why don´t you check out our free Spanish training? where we will teach you our method that we use in the Spring Spanish Academy to get you speaking fluent Spanish in no time! Without boring grammar rules and without memorization of endless word lists. We do this with a method called Conversation Based Chunking, which you’ve actually secretly been using with our Spring Spanish videos. And if you wanted to know more about how this method works and you want to get a free in-depth Spanish lesson straight from our Academy then go and sing up on the link in the description box! Ready for chapter 4? ¿Estás listo? How to make small talk. Small talk is a very important part of Latinamerican culture and it works wonders if you want to ease your way into an important topic, try to boost your confidence into a job interview or break the ice with someone you want to get to know better. Anyways, te voy a ayudar con tus charlas casuales en español. I'll help you with your small talk in Spanish. For this, we'll practice some chunks. That is, common phrases in Spanish you can learn by heart because they will always work and you don't have to change them ever. Vamos a ver, let's see: The first thing you want to do is introduce yourself, so let's review some ways to do that: Hola, me llamo Juan. ¡Mucho gusto! ¿cómo te llamas? Hello, my name is Juan, nice to meet you! What's your name? Un placer, Claudia. Yo soy Juan. A pleasure, Claudia. I am Juan. Creo que no nos han presentado. Mi nombre es Juan, ¿y el tuyo? I believe we haven't been introduced. My name is Juan, and yours? I do have a whole video about introductions actually, I'll leave the link for you to check right here. Also, after the introduction part, you'll probably start talking about some personal information, like hobbies, family or nationality. Here are some phrases you can use: Yo soy de Venezuela. ¿Tú de dónde eres? I'm from Venezuela, where are you from? ¿Qué edad tienes? Yo tengo 33 años. How old are you? I'm 33 years old. Yo soy profesor. ¿Tú en qué trabajas? I'm a teacher. What's your job? ¿Qué te gusta hacer en tu tiempo libre? What do you like to do in your free time? So what if you’re not feeling comfortable with sharing personal information yet? Well, we can talk about the weather. Muy básico, lo sé, pretty basic I know, but a lot of small talk starts with the weather since it's an easy topic to talk about. ¿Qué te parece el clima de hoy? What do you think about today's weather? Lindo día, ¿no? Nice day, isn't it? Qué calor hace, ¿no te parece? It's hot today, don't you think? ¿Te gusta la primavera? Do you like spring? If you want to know more about how to talk about the weather, check Cory's video about it. She's got great chunks prepared for you! Another common thing to make small talk about is any major current event. Let's learn some chunks about it. ¿Te enteraste de la situación del COVID en Estados Unidos? Did you get the news about Covid in the U.S.? Leí/escuché/ví que Messi se iba del Barcelona. I read/ I heard/ saw that Messi is leaving Barcelona. ¿Sabes alguna nueva noticia del Playstation 5? Do you know any news about Playstation 5? Why don't you leave a comment and let me know what kind of questions you'd ask to make small talk. Let's go! Of course, small talk is not only about you talking all the time. The other person will probably ask you or give you some relevant information about the topic in question. You can always use okay as it works exactly like English, but if you want to step up your small talk game, you'll want to impress them by using some expressions in Spanish, so let's check em’. Ah, ¿sí? Oh, yeah? ¿En serio? Really? ¡Vaya! Wow! ¡No manches! Literally: Don't stain. If you’re in Mexico, this is a way to express incredulity, like saying: you’re kidding, right? ¿Me estás cargando? Literally: are you charging me? Same as the previous one, but only used in Argentina. For a casual approach to anyone here are some questions you can ask to start the conversation: Disculpe, ¿está ocupado este asiento? Excuse me, is this seat taken? Perdón, ¿sabe a qué hora abre este lugar? Excuse me, do you know what time this place opens? ¿Desde cuándo conoces a Felipe? How long have you known Felipe? Oye, ¿te molesta si me siento acá? Hey, do you mind if I sit here? Y, ¿qué te parece esta fiesta? And, what do you think about this party? ¿Qué te parece Buenos Aires hasta ahora? How do you like Buenos Aires so far? Ajá, Let's suppose you’re at a party. The music's great, you look like a million bucks, you’re looking at her, she's looking at you and you start to smoothly walk towards her, what do you say? Hola belleza, no te había visto por aquí antes, ¿ya probaste el pico de gallo? Hello gorgeous, haven't seen you around before, did you try the pico de gallo salad, yet? No, pero en serio. No, but seriously. If you’re feeling confident and you’re in a place suited for such interactions, here are some chunks you can use to see if there's some spark going on there: Estás muy guapa or estás muy guapo. You look gorgeous (feminine and masculine). Hueles muy bien. ¿qué perfume usas? You smell very nice, what perfume are you using? ¿Me darías tu número telefónico? May I have your phone number? Hola, ¿te puedo acompañar? Hello, may I join you? ¿Te gustaría bailar conmigo? Would you like to dance with me? Por cierto, by the way, the belleza thing? That was a joke, don't ever use that, please. At least it never worked out for me. Muy bien, now you know how to make small talk in Spanish and please don't be shy! Use what you have learned today the next time there is an opportunity for some small talk in Spanish. How to speak about the weather. Before I go further, hay una nota importante, there is an important note. In Spanish, we refer to the weather as el tiempo, the time, for example: El tiempo está horrible. The weather is horrible. But it doesn't mean that the day is bad, just that the weather is. We are not talking about la hora, or the time, for that, we have another video that you can check out in our channel. Spanish weather expressions can be split into tres categorias, three categories. When the weather hace or does. When the weather es or is. And when hay or there is some kind of exciting weather. Now, let's imagine we are chatting with somebody from abroad and they start asking about el clima, the weather. ¿Cómo está el clima? How's the weather? If you are talking about the weather in general. ¿Qué tiempo hace hoy? What's the weather like today? To respond, we can say: Hace frío, It is cold. Hace mucho frío, It is very cold. Hace calor, It is hot. Hace mucho calor, It is very hot. Some months hace mucho frio, are very cold and in some months hace mucho calor, are very warm, but if you want to know how to talk about los meses I have a video, so go and check it out. To talk about the weather in general ¿Cómo está el clima? Or ¿Qué tiempo hace? What's the weather like? We use “está” or it is: Está soleado. It is sunny. Está nublado. It is cloudy. Está granizando. It is hailing. Algunas veces, sometimes, we'll use the verb to be or "hay" and that's to talk about a specific weather or exciting weather like: Hay viento. There is wind. Hay mucho sol. There is a lot of sun. ¡Muy bien! Great! Now we know how to ask about the weather and how to respond, but what if you just want to state how you feel? For example: Tengo frío. I am cold. Did you notice we use the verb “To have” instead of, like in English, “to be”? Tengo calor. I am warm. You can always complete your sentences by stating how warm you are: I am very warm. Tengo mucho calor. Tengo mucho frío. I am very cold. Now, basic expressions. Here at Spring Spanish and in the Spring Spanish Academy we call them “chunks”, word combinations that are always used together. Está soleado o hace sol. It is sunny. Hace mucho frío, It is cold. Hace mucho calor. It is very warm. Está lloviendo. It is raining. Está nevando. It is snowing. Some other expressions or chunks for the weather: ¡Qué calor hace! It is very hot. Está rico el clima. What a pleasant weather. ¡Me estoy congelando! I'm freezing. ¡Es un horno! It's an oven! Hace mucho viento. It's very windy. Here in Veracruz, we have two phenomena called "Norte" which means "north", and "sudada" which the translation would be “from the south” and these are winds going fast, sometimes hay vientos de más de 100 kilómetros por hora. There are winds of more than 100 kilometers per hour. So, we'll say: Hay norte, there is wind. Está la sudada. The south winds are in. ¡Muy bien! ¿Cómo está el tiempo donde vives? What's the weather like where you live? ¿Está lloviendo o hace calor? Is it raining or is it warm? Ask (basic) questions. Spanish has question words that helps us in obtaining specific information. To keep things simple, we're going to divide them into two categories: those that never change and those that change depending on number and gender. The following are question words that never change: ¿Qué? What? ¿Cómo? How? ¿Cuándo? When? ¿Dónde? Where? ¿Por qué? Why? The following are question words that change depending on number and gender: ¿Cuál? Which? turns into ¿cuáles? to indicate plural ¿Quién? Who or whom? turns into ¿quiénes? to indicate plural ¿Cuánto? How much or how many? turns into ¿cuántos? to indicate plural and masculine or ¿cuántas? to indicate plural and feminine There are two things you should bear in mind: Number 1: You may have noticed that they all have accent marks. When making a question, you should never omit it; otherwise, the meaning changes. For example, if you don't include the accent mark on cuándo, it is no longer a question word instead it is an adverb in a sentence like Debes hacer la tarea cuando yo lo diga You should do your homework when I say so. Similarly, you should not omit the accent mark on por qué, otherwise it is no longer a question word, instead it's a conjunction that could be translated as “because”. For instance: Debes hacer la tarea porque yo lo digo. You should do your homework because I say so. Number 2: Question words will always appear at the beginning of the question. Let's go over some chunks or fixed word combinations for you to understand what I'm saying. If you watch Cory's video about time, you'll discover that ¿qué hora es? or ¿qué hora son? are the equivalent of “what time is it?” Another popular chunk using qué is: ¿qué haces? or ¿qué estás haciendo? What are you doing? Similarly, when friends have heard the latest gossip and want to share it, they say or text: ¿Qué crees? Guess what? The other person usually responds: ¿qué pasó? What happened or what's up? In Spanish, just like in English, you may ask questions politely or impolitely depending on context and by changing your intonation. So, if my brother were to knock on my door... or open it because he couldn't be bothered about me recording this video… ¡Ah! ¡¿Qué quieres?! I'm busy here! Basically, if someone is being annoying, you may say, ¿qué quieres?, which translates into “what do you want?” But make sure that your intonation conveys how annoyed you are. The word cómo will always appear in the following questions: ¿Cómo te llamas? Literally, how do you call yourself? What's your name? ¿Cómo estás? How are you? ¿Cómo me veo? How do I look? The word dónde is specifically used to obtain information about the location of someone or something. ¿Dónde está mi mamá? Where is my mom? ¿Dónde están mis lentes? Where are my glasses? Ah, here they are! This happens to me very often. But, if you want to obtain information about direction, then you should combine this word with the preposition a: ¿A dónde vas? Where are you going? Speaking of prepositions, if you want to know more about them, you should definitely check out my video about prepositions of place. The word cuándo is used to ask for time-related information. Look at these examples: ¿Cuándo es tu cumpleaños? When is your birthday? ¿Cuándo sales de vacaciones? When are you going on a holiday? ¿Cuándo vienes a visitarme? When will you visit me? Now, if you want to know the reason behind something, you should use ¿por qué?, which is the equivalent of “why”. ¿Por qué lloras? Why are you crying? ¿Por qué no me hablas? Why aren't you talking to me? ¿Por qué estás aprendiendo español? Why are you learning Spanish? Tell me in the comments below. Let's move on to the question that undergo changes to indicate number or gender. If you want to know who did something, you may ask: ¿Quién escribió ese libro? Who wrote that book? if there's only one author. ¿Quiénes escribieron ese libro? Who wrote that book? if there's more than one author. If you are in a store and need some advice because you don't know which pair of shoes to buy for yourself, you may ask your friend: ¿Cuál te gusta más? Which one do you like best? if you are talking about the pair of shoes, in singular. ¿Cuáles te gustan más? Which ones do you like best? if you are talking about the shoes, in plural The words quién and cuál and their modification due to number are not affected by gender, but the word cuánto is. Let's go over some examples! ¿Cuánto dinero necesitas? How much money do you need? Dinero is the equivalent of “money” and it is masculine, that's why cuánto ends with an O ¿Cuántas bebidas tomaste? How many drinks did you have? Bebida is the equivalent of “drink” and it is feminine, since there's more than one drink, that's why we say cuántas instead of cuántos. Now, when it comes to plural, you only need to add an S at the end. Look: ¿Cuántos años tienes? Literally, how many years do you have? How old are you? Años is the plural of año, which is the equivalent of “year” and it is masculine. ¿Cuántas hermanas tienes? How many sisters do you have? hermana means sister. Since we are talking about more than one sister and they are all female, we say cuántas. ¿Qué aprendiste en este video? What did you learn by watching this video? ¿Cuántas preguntas puedes hacer ahora? How many questions are you able to make now? Ask for help. Ayúdame a ayudarte. This literally means: Help me to help you. ¡Comencemos! Let 's start! Disculpe, ¿podría ayudarme? Disculpa, ¿podrías ayudarme? We use disculpe in formal situations and disculpa in informal situations. This usually comes when we refer to someone by tú. But if you're in doubt on which is the difference between formal and informal, usted and tú, go and check out Paulísima's video. Necesito ayuda, por favor. This phrase usually comes accompanied by a preposition such as para, in English what it means is to and then a verb. Lets review the next examples with different contexts. Necesito ayuda para encontrar… I need help to find… Un hotel. El aeropuerto. Un taxi. Una tienda. What about the next banner? ¡Necesito ayuda para encontrar a mi perro! Pero no te preocupes. Don't worry. Because Oreo is always next to me. Oreo, no sé qué haría sin ti. Oreo, I don't know what I would do without you. Okay, say bye, Oreo, see you soon. Siguiente, vamos a continuar. You could also use this statement to ask for help to dial an international phone. Such as: Necesito ayuda para marcar un número telefónico. Just in case, if you don't know how to say your phone number in Spanish I have made a video for you about the numbers where I show you how to spell your number in español. Puedes o podrías, for informal situations. Puede o podría, for formal situations. This will be used with complementary verbs such as: ¿Puedes pasarme la pluma? Can you give me the pen? ¿Podrías despertarme mañana? Could you wake me up tomorrow? ¿Podría manejar más lento? Could you drive more slowly? Please use this one when you are on a taxi in Mexico City. Otherwise, if you prefer, close your eyes. Whatever works for you. ¿Me ayudas? as a question. or ¡Ayúdame! as an exclamation. ¿Me ayudas a hacer el desayuno? Can you help me to make breakfast? Ayúdame a cargar esto, por favor. Help me carry this, please. This quotations mean: Help me, or in English it would be, can you help me? Help me! Like somebody is demanding for your help. ¿Te importaría? Would you mind? ¿Te importaría traerme una botella con agua? Would you mind bringing me a bottle of water? ¿Te importaría llamar a tu mamá? Would you mind calling your mother? ¿Me podrías hacer un favor? Could you do me a favor? By the way, in Mexico we love sarcasm and mexican moms when they use this statement like: ¿Me podrías hacer el favor? They actually instead of saying ¿me podrías hacer un favor? They would use: ¿Me podrías hacer el favor? Let's have a look at this example. Maria, ¿me podrias hacer el favor de recoger tu cuarto? As you can see, they use the word the favor instead of a favor. So in this case they are not asking you for a favor, they are demanding you to do the favor of picking up your room. Maria Fernanda, ¿me harías el favor de venir a tu cuarto? Okay, guys I think it's my time to go now. And I will see you next video. Okay, just kidding. That was my mom “asking me” for a favor. ¡Vamos a continuar! Let 's move on! Well guys, now that you know lots of chunks to ask for help in Spanish. What about some bonus phrases? Just in case you find yourself in an undesirable situation, which I hope you don't, however, this is what you would say in case of an emergency, If you’re getting robbed and you need to call someone for help: ¡Auxilio! ¡Socorro! ¡Ayúdenme! This is literally asking for S.O.S. What about if you need to go to the nearest police station? You're just going to add: ¿Te importaría llevarme a la estación de policía más cercana? Also, if you really need to find a place and you need to ask where is it, in Spanish you can use two ways to ask . The first one is: ¿Dónde está? And the second one is: ¿Dónde hay? In the first phrase, “¿Dónde está?” you would use it for specific places, for example. ¿Dónde está el hotel “Las maravillas”? ¿Dónde está el aeropuerto? ¿Dónde está la embajada americana? And then, you would use “¿Dónde hay?” for any place. You don't have to be specific in that case. For example: ¿Dónde hay un hotel? ¿Dónde hay una farmacia? Awesome! So, now you have plenty of chunks. Now you know how to ask for help, and: Espero realmente haberte ayudado el día de hoy. I really hope I have helped you today. ¡Muy bien amigos! Ahora que ya saben cómo pedir ayuda en español. Now that you know how to ask for help in Spanish. ¿Por qué no te ayudas a aprender español? Why don't you help yourself to learn Spanish? How to apologize. In Spanish we have several ways to apologize. In our culture it's very important being polite. So, of course we have several ways to apologize depending how bad you need to apologize or how bad we need it. So we can go from a simple “Disculpa” to your mesero or waiter at the restaurant. to “Lo lamento mucho”, “I’m deeply sorry” To show a little bit more of feeling. But let's see the vocabulary, let's go! Disculpa or Disculpe. Is "Excuse me" Lo siento or Lo lamento. Means "I am sorry" Perdón o Perdóname. My apologies. Con permiso. Excuse me. Now, between Lo siento and Lo lamento, it really means the same but translated Lo siento is like "I feel it" I feel you, bro, I feel it. Lo lamento would be more like "I'm sorry", like that's the literal translation. as you may have noticed by now, apologizing in Inglés y Español, English and Spanish, is very similar! in both languages we apologize when we did something wrong, when being polite, or to express a feeling of sorrow for example if you lose someone. Still, I think one of the biggest differences between Español e Inglés, Spanish and English, is that in English “Sorry” or “I am sorry” seems to be a solution that fits almost any situation. Pero no en español, but not in Spanish. in Spanish we have several ways to apologize. and vamos a ver, let's see, how to use each one, ¡Vamos! Disculpa or Disculpe is used as “Excuse me” in English. So, por ejemplo, for example, if you're walking on the street and you bump into someone, you just say “Disculpe”. and you just keep walking, or for example, if you want to know the time: Disculpa, ¿Qué hora es? Excuse me, what time is it? By the way, we have a video about the time in Spanish, so go and check it out. Siguiente. Next. Lo siento or Lo lamento, is used in Spanish like “I’m sorry”. This is to express sadness to something que no es tu culpa, that is not your fault, but you are still sorry about. Por ejemplo, for example: if your sister asks you to bring tacos for dinner but you're on a strict diet so you said: “Lo siento, hoy no hubo tacos" I'm sorry, no tacos today. Wich by the way, is a very sad situation. Es muy triste. Anyway, let's continue! Perdón o perdóname is used as a way to say “I'm sorry” for something that we might have done or for doing something that is wrong but not too bad. Por ejemplo, for example: Perdón, se me olvidó comprar las tortillas. Sorry, I forgot to buy the tortillas. Perdón por haber llegado tarde. Sorry for being late. Nota muy importante, very important note, if a Mexican mom ever tells you: “¿Perdón?” like, “¿Perdón?” run away! If you are in an area with many people, or it's a crowded area and you need to pass, you can also use: “Con permiso” or excuse me. You can also use it when for example you need to talk to somebody and you're going to interrupt the conversation. “Con permiso, ¿Podría hablarle en privado?” I'm sorry, could I speak to you in private? There will be times when we really need to be serious and ask for forgiveness or to give it. Para estas ocasiones, for these occasions, we use: ¿Me perdonas? Would you forgive me? Perdóname. Forgive me. And of course this will always be up to you, but if you do forgive them, then the right way to say it is: Acepto tu disculpa. I accept your apology. ¡Veamos! Let's see! ¿Me perdonas por haberte gritado? Can you forgive me for yelling at you? No debí haber usado tu coche, ¿me perdonas? I shouldn’t have used your car, would you forgive me? Excuse me, can I go back to my... Anyway. ¡Muy bien! Now you have learned How to apologize in Spanish! How to describe a person. First, let's start with the basics. The chunks you'll use to describe yourself, they would be: Yo soy, I am, or yo tengo, I have. They come from the verb to be and to have. Ser y tener. And if you want to describe someone else then you would say: Él o ella es, he or she is or él o ella tiene, he or she has. Let's start with my personal description. Yo soy una mujer alta, I am a tall woman. Yo tengo cabello castaño, I have light brown hair. Yo tengo ojos cafés, I have brown eyes. Yo soy joven, I am young. Yo tengo piel morena, And I have brown skin. As you can see if you want to refer to someone's physical description you could start with estatura, with their height. In Spanish we say: Alto o alta for a tall man or a tall woman. Or bajo or baja, for a short man or a short woman. My personal favorite it's when we say: Chaparrito o chaparrita. This is a really short man or a really short woman. And we only use this one as a nickname. So make sure you say this to someone that you care because if you say chaparro, chaparra, it could be a bit rude, so watch out with that. What about when we refer to tamaño, the size? This is usually related to el cuerpo, the body. For example: Delgado o delgada, this means slim. Flaco o flaca, skinny. And this is actually kind of rude just like in English, we don't say, we don't call someone skinny but we refer to someone skinny as flaco o flaca. To say if someone is fat, we say: Gordo o gorda, however this would be kind of rude if you call someone gordo. On the other hand, if you hear on the street “gordito o gordita”, this is a nickname as well. As you can see, you would start to figure out that in Spanish when we use diminutives this are also nicknames or caring names that we use to people that we care. Grande, big. This is more a polite way of calling someone that is bigger and pequeño or pequeña, small. It is helpful for you to learn the body parts for this matter, because as I said, tamaño refers to el cuerpo, the body. And we have so many adjectives for different parts of our body. If you don't know the body parts yet just go and check out the video I have made for you so you can know the parts first and then the adjectives that come along, for example: El cabello, the hair, could have so many ways, so in length it could be corto, short, or largo, long. In color it could have different colors, such as: Castaño, light brown. Negro, black. Rubio, blonde. Pelirrojo, ginger. Or what about the way that hair is? For example: It could be lacio, straight o rizado, curly. Ondulado, wavy. And finally the way the hair is done. In my example here I have loose hair, so we say el cabello suelto and if it's tied, we say el cabello recogido. Same thing goes for the facial hair, en la cara, in the face. For example: Un bigote. A mustache. Una barba. A beard. There are also other unique features en la cara, in the face of someone and that would help you to recognize and describe them, for example: Freckles, pecas. Yo no tengo pecas. I do not have freckles. Or hoyuelos, dimples. Yo no tengo hoyuelos, I do not have dimples. However, I have lunares, moles. Un lunar, a mole. Also, somebody could be recognized because they wear glasses. In Spanish we don't say wear, we say usa, so like the verb to use, so in the following example: María Fernanda usa lentes. María Fernanda wears glasses. And yeah, I do wear glasses, those are actually mine. And finally, what about talking about apariencia? Appearance. Then we could say: Un hombre guapo, a handsome man. Una mujer guapa, a beautiful woman. Un hombre feo, an ugly man. Una mujer fea, an ugly woman. And we can say that something it's pretty we say bonito or bonita as well. Let's watch the following example in the real life context. Hola, ¿has visto a mi amigo? Have you seen my friend? Él es alto, muy guapo y tiene ojos azules. He is tall, very handsome and has blue eyes. Tiene una nariz larga con un lunar. He has a long nose with a mole. ¿Lo has visto? Have you seen him? Did you notice I used muy? That means very. So if you want to accentuate a characteristic of someone then you can use muy guapo like my example, very handsome. Okay, now that we're back from la fiesta, from the party. What about when you can not really describe someone only by their physical appearance? And you must talk about las cualidades, the qualities? In that case una persona puede ser, a person can be: Inteligente, smart. Astuto o astuta, clever. Amable, nice. And the opposite of amable es grosero o grosera, rude. Cariñoso o cariñosa, caring. Tonto or tonta, stupid. Trabajador o trabajadora, hard-working. Flojo o floja, lazy. Extraño o extraña, weird. And we also say in Mexico raro o rara, which means something it's weird or bizarre. So did you notice that the ones that end in “e”, don't have two words for each gender? Well, in that case the adjectives that end in “e” they work for the same man and woman. Let's see the following example: Marta es mi mamá, ella es una mujer inteligente y muy trabajadora. Marta is my mom, she is a smart and very hard-working woman. So, speaking about qualities, there is a fun fact that you must know if you ever come to Mexico. When we refer to someone that is friendly or not and we say a person that is friendly we say: Eres buena onda, you are a good wave. Which actually doesn't make sense in English but don't worry if you come to Mexico and somebody says “Eres buena onda” that means that you are a really friendly person or the opposite of that it would be if someone says: Eres mala onda. You are a bad wave. And that means you're not friendly and we don't like you. On the other hand if you want to say something is really cool or cool we say: Muy chido o chido. And a thing could be chida, una cosa puede ser chida or una persona puede ser chida, a person could be chida, cool in this case. So, if someone says: ¡Eres muy chido! You're very cool! That means we like you a lot and the opposite of this would be: Una persona víbora. This literally means a person that is a snake. And a person that is a snake is mala onda, no es chida. Because it would be a person that talks behind your back and we don't like this kind of people. However, if you use these chunks when you are in Mexico… ¡ya eres mexicano, wey! You are a mexican, dude! Okay, guys, we're almost done with the lesson today but I need to teach you how to ask in case you want that someone describes somebody else for you. In that case you would say the following two chunks. One is ¿cómo luce? How it looks like? And the other one is ¿cómo es? and then you have to add the noun you're referring to. How is something? For example: ¿Cómo es tu hermana? How is your sister? ¿Cómo es tu mamá? How is your mom? ¿Cómo es tu novio o tu novia? Your boyfriend or your girlfriend? And you have done an excellent work, guys, today. So, es tiempo de practicar. It's practice time. So I'm going to put on the screen two images and I'm going to say the description in Spanish of course, and you will try to guess which photograph I'm referring to. The first one. Ella es una mujer con el cabello blanco, tiene ojos verdes y tiene una nariz pequeña. el cabello es corto y lacio. So, did you get it right? The correct answer is A as we're referring to a woman that has white hair. I know that both of them have white hair but once has corto y lacio short and straight, green eyes and small nose. Let's continue with our following exercise. Él es un perro negro, alto y grande, tiene ojos cafés y pequeños. So… of course we're talking about photograph B as we are talking about a black dog which, obviously both of them are black but in this case he's tall and big and has small brown eyes which compared to the other one, he, of course, he doesn't. Tiene ojos grandes, big eyes. Excellent work, guys! Now you know how to describe yourselves and others in Spanish! So, what about you describe yourself en español, in the comments below. I want to know. You can start with yo soy and then use the vocabulary I have just taught you today. How to speak about nationalities. First, we are going to learn how to ask and answer where you are from. So, let's imagine we are in a gathering and somebody ask: ¿De dónde eres? Would you not know know how to pronounce or how is your country named in Spanish? ¡Qué vergüenza! How embarrassing! So let's start. ¿De dónde eres? Where are you from? Yo soy de México. I am from Mexico. ¿De qué nacionalidad eres? Yo soy mexicana. Nota importante. Important note: When talking about nationalities in Spanish, we will use the verb form ser or to be, this means personal pronoun + ser + nationality. For example: Yo soy mexicana. I am Mexican. Let's see some nacionalidades y países, nationalities and countries that end with an “o”: Sudáfrica. And the nationality is sudafricano or sudafricana. Remember, "a" is for feminine and "o" is for masculine. Ejemplo, example. La copa del mundo fue en Sudáfrica. The world cup was in South Africa. Australia. We write it the same, the spelling is the same but of course, the pronunciation it's very different. Somebody from Australia is called australiano or australiana. Ejemplo: Los canguros son australianos. Kangaroos are Australian. If you noticed, we added an "s" to “canguros son australianos” because it's in plural. Noruega or Norway. Nationality is noruego or noruega. Las luces boreales se ven en Noruega. Northern lights are seen in Norway. Argentina or Argentina and nationality is argentino or argentina. La Antártida forma parte de Argentina. Antarctica is part of Argentina. Ahora veamos, now let's see, some countries and its nationalities that end in an "e" or an accented vowel, where the masculine and feminine singular forms of these adjectives are the same: Estados Unidos. United States and the nationality is estadounidense. Because the word finished in “e”, it comprises masculine and feminine, and we would know more about the gender because of the context, for example: Su esposa era estadounidense y él, mexicano. His wife was from United States or American and he was Mexican. Now, you might have noticed there, we don't call the people from the United States “Americans” because for us, everybody who lives in the American continent is American. Even we Mexicans are Americans. So when we talk about people from the United States it's more common that we use the word estadounidense than Americans or americano. Canadá. Same as México or Mexico, we spell it the same, but we pronounce it different, people from Canadá or Canada are called canadiense. And it's the same rule if we want to know the gender then we look at the context. If we want to talk about plural we would add an S in the end. El hockey es muy popular entre los canadienses. Hockey is very popular among Canadians. Costa Rica. By the way, did you know this beautiful country got his name after Christopher Columbus traveled there and he was surprised and in awe by the beauty and the richness of its coast? That's why it's Costa Rica and the nationality is costarricense. The same rule applies, we need to see the context to see if we're talking about the female or male and if we want to do it plural we just add an "s" at the end. Now it's the turn of countries and its nationalities that end in a consonant, here we need to add an “a” to make it feminine. Por ejemplo, for example: España or Spain and the demonym is español or if we want to talk about a femenine, we add "a", española. El mejor tenista del mundo, es español. The best tennis player in the world is Spanish. Y si...¡Vamos Rafa! Francia or France. Nationality is francés o francesa. La torre Eiffel está en Francia. The Eiffel Tower is in France. Inglaterra or England. Nationality is inglés or inglesa. El verano inglés, es famoso porque llueve. The English summer is famous because it rains. Nueva Zelanda or New Zealand and the nationality is neozelandés o neozelandesa. El señor de los anillos fue filmado en Nueva Zelanda. The Lord of the Rings was filmed in New Zealand. Irlanda or Ireland and the demonym is irlandés o irlandesa. Extraño vivir en Irlanda. I miss living in Ireland. Japón or Japan and nationality is japonés or japonesa. Karate es un deporte japonés. Karate is a Japanese sport. Nota Importante, important note: Unlike English, in Spanish, we do not capitalize nationalities. ¡Muy bien! So, ¿de dónde eres? Where are you from? ¿De qué nacionalidad eres? What's your nationality? Let me know in the comments! How to speak about family. Family is generally a very important part of any Latin American, so it's very likely that your Spanish-speaking friends will want to talk to you about sus familias y preguntarte por la tuya. Their families and ask you about yours. So first let's see some vocabulary in Spanish that you'll need to know to answer like a native: Padre. Father. Madre. Mother. Hijo. Son. Hija. Daughter. Hermano. Brother. Hermana. Sister. Abuelo. Grandfather. Abuela. Grandmother. Tío. Uncle. Tía. Aunt. Primo. Cousin (masculine). Prima. Cousin (feminine). Esposo. Husband. Esposa. Wife. Please note that in Spanish, the plural default expression if there's at least one male involved is generally the masculine plural. So for parents, we say padres. For children as in sons and daughters, we say hijos. For siblings, hermanos. For grandparents? Yeah, you guessed: Abuelos. Why don't you try it with cousins and the others and let me know in the comments? I'll make sure to check your answers! If you come from a big family and have many siblings, aunts or cousins, you can use mayor, older and menor, younger in expressions like these: Mi hermana mayor es alta. Mi hermana mayor es alta. My older sister is tall. Mi padre es menor que mis tíos. Mi padre es menor que mis tíos. My father is younger than my uncles. A tu primo menor le gusta el fútbol. A tu primo menor le gusta el fútbol. Your younger cousin likes soccer. These are very useful chunks you can learn by heart to start speaking about your family in Spanish! So as you can see, similar to English, we use possessive pronouns to address our family members, so let’s review them really quick. Mi. My. Tu. Your (informal). Su. Your (formal), her, his and their, also work for this. Nuestro (masculine). Nuestra (feminine) . Our. Remember if it's plural, add an "s" to the pronouns like: Mis papás, my parents. ¡Muy simple! Very simple! If you want to give more details about your family then you want to use es and está to describe situational, physical or personality traits about them: Tu papá es ingeniero. Es el mayor de sus hermanos. Your dad is an engineer. He's the oldest brother. ¡Mi hermana está embarazada! My sister is pregnant! Nuestros primos están en Estados Unidos. Our cousins are in the United States If you want to know more about the verb ser/estar, the verb to be, just check Mariana's video where she has great chunks prepared for you about that! I'm going to leave the link to her video right… come on, right! There you go! Right here. Ahora sabes cómo hablar de tu familia inmediata, now you know how to talk about your immediate family. But what about your familia política? Family in-law? These are the words to use: Suegro. Suegro. Father in-law. Suegra. Suegra. Mother in-law Cuñado. Cuñado. Brother in-law. Cuñada. Cuñada. Sister in-law. Yerno. Yerno. Son in-law. Nuera. Nuera. Daughter in-law. Let me give you some chunks about myself: Mi hermana tiene una hija. My sister has one daughter Mi sobrina es Argentina. ¡Es una bebé! My niece is Argentinian. She's a baby! Mi padre y mi madre están felizmente casados. My father and mother are happily married. Mi mamá es baja y mi papá es alto. My mom is short and my dad is tall. Yo estoy casado, mi esposa es venezolana y morena. I am married. My wife is Venezuelan and a brunette. También se enoja fácilmente. She also gets angry really easy. Es un chiste, es un chiste, It's a joke. Epa, hey! ¿Qué estás haciendo con eso? No, no, wait, it was a joke, no no, wait! No! ¡Buenísimo! Very good! Now that you know some chunks in Spanish to talk about your family. Why don't you tell me in the comments, ¿Cómo es tu familia? What's your family like? How to speak about hobbies. A great way to find things in common with someone, to make friends or just have una linda conversación en español, a nice conversation in Spanish is to talk about your pasatiempos. Hobbies. Whether you like simple and common things like sports, music, outdoor activities or very quirky and eccentric things like collecting Mesopotamian emerald swords, you need how to express your passion in Spanish. Let's see some ways to do this! A common and general expression to talk about something you like is: Me gusta. This is how it works: Me gusta la música. I like music. Singular and feminine, so we use: Me gusta la. Me gustan los deportes. I like sports. In this case, it's plural and masculine and thus we use: Me gustan los. Me gustan las carreras de motos. I like motorcycle racing. Also plural but feminine, so we use: Me gustan las. If you’re wondering how to properly use the género de los sustantivos, the noun gender, go and check my friend's Maria Fernanda’s video about that! You'll learn ¡muy rápido! Really fast! So let's say you like soccer, pero además de eso, but besides that, you actually practice it. How would you say that in Spanish? Lets see: Me gusta practicar tenis. I like to practice tennis. Me gusta jugar ajedrez. I like to play chess. Me gusta tocar el piano. I like to play the piano. So as you can see, you can use the verbs practicar, jugar and tocar to express you actually like to do something as your hobby. Practicar is normally used for sports or hobbies that require discipline like music or arts. Jugar means something similar but not so rigid and tocar is used specifically for playing instruments or music styles like tocar la batería or tocar salsa. Although I guess if your hobby is touching people, you can also use tocar gente but please don't do that. Seriously. Stop. Now, if you really like something and you’re passionate about it, you can use: Me encanta. I love. Mi favorito es. My favorite is. ¡Es mi pasión! It's my passion! Soy fanático de or Soy fanática de, I'm a fan of. Let's see how to use these expressions! ¡Me encantan los deportes! Soy fanático del fútbol. Mi equipo favorito es Boca Juniors. I love sports! I'm a soccer fan. My favorite team is Boca Juniors. Me encanta jugar videojuegos. Mi favorito es Final Fantasy siete. I love to play videogames. My favorite is Final Fantasy 7. By the way, this one’s true, Final Fantasy 7 is the best. I'll fight you over it. ¡Soy fanático de la cocina! Mi favorita es la cocina caribeña. I'm a fan of cooking! My favorite is Caribbean food. ¡Buen trabajo! Good job! Now that you know how to speak about your hobbies, I'll give you some common examples of hobbies in Spanish. Let 's check em’! Jugar Básquet. To play basketball. Patinar. To skate, either skateboard or roller skates. Acampar. To camp. Aprender idiomas. To learn languages. Viajar. To travel. Bailar. To dance. Mirar series. To watch TV series. Now, a couple of facts about me: I'm actually a nerd, a writer, and a musician. I even have a band and play percussion there. So I can say: ¡La música es mi pasión! Me encanta tocar la batería. ¡Tengo una banda! Music is my passion! I love to play the drums. I have a band! By now you know how to talk about your pasatiempos, hobbies. But if you want to keep the conversation moving around this topic, you can use the following expressions to ask the other person what they like: ¿A ti qué te gusta hacer? What do you like? ¿Cuál es tu pasatiempo? What's your hobby? ¿Cuál es tu favorito? ¿Cuál es tu favorita? What's your favorite? ¡Genial! Now you know how to speak about your hobbies in Spanish! Please tell me in the comments ¿Cuál es tu pasatiempo favorito? What's your favorite hobby? How to speak about jobs. In any common conversation in Spanish, it is very common to see people talking about their jobs. So if you don't want to be left behind in your conversaciones con hispanohablantes, conversations with native Spanish speakers, you better learn your chunks. These are word combinations in Spanish that you can learn by heart and use anywhere in your conversations, because they never change. Aprendamos algunas. Let's learn some using the verb to be: Yo soy profesor de español. I am a Spanish teacher Él es piloto de aviones. He is an airplane pilot. Ellas son futbolistas. They are soccer players (female and plural) Nosotros somos ingenieros. We are engineers (masculine and plural) Of course, you need to know the word in Spanish for your job to be able to use these chunks, so stick around until the last part of this video where I give you great and useful vocabulary para hablar de tu ocupación, to talk about your occupation! There's another common way to talk about your job, and that is using the verb trabajar, to work. This can be combined in chunks in the following two ways: Yo trabajo en una panadería. I work at a bakery store. Ella trabaja en un restaurante. She works at a restaurant. Tú trabajas en un periódico. You work at a newspaper. This is used if your job is common and can be directly associated with a location or a type of place. Si trabajas en un hospital, probablemente eres médico. If you work at a hospital, you're probably a medic. The other way is using the word como after the verb trabajar, like this: Ellos trabajan como bomberos. This literally means they work as firefighters. Nosotras trabajamos como policías. We work as policewomen. (since nosotras is female and plural) Yo trabajo como abogado. I work as a lawyer. The particular thing about the verb trabajar is you can use it to describe different aspects of your occupation like these examples: Yo trabajo en casa. I work from home. Anna trabaja 5 horas diarias. Anna works 5 hours a day. Ellas trabajan muy duro. They work very hard. Female. Arturo trabaja los sábados también. Arturo works on Saturdays as well. But what if you want to ask the other person about their job? Here are some friendly questions you can ask: ¿En qué trabajas? What do you do for a living? ¿Cuál es tu trabajo? What's your job? ¿A qué te dedicas? Literally, what do you dedicate yourself to? It's just another way to say what's your job. ¿Cuál es tu profesión? What is your profession? You can also ask for details using chunks like these: ¿Te gusta tu trabajo? Do you like your work? ¿Qué es lo que menos/más te gusta de tu trabajo? What do you like the least/most about your job? ¿Desde cuándo trabajas como bombero? How long have you been working as a fireman? ¿Hasta qué hora trabajas? What time do you get off of work? ¿Qué haces en tu trabajo? What do you do at your job? So what if at the moment you don't have a job? Well, you've probably been in this kind of situations: ¡Estoy en búsqueda de un nuevo desafío! I'm searching for a new challenge! (Has never had a job and has no idea where to start) No, estoy en un proceso de cambio muy personal. I'm in a very personal transformation process. (He's unemployed and has no clue on what to do next) Mi antiguo empleador no valoró mis capacidades, así que me fui. My previous employer didn't value my skills, so I left. (He was fired and now he's unemployed) If you don't want to give any details, you can use Estoy desempleado, I'm unemployed or actualmente no tengo trabajo, currently, I don't have a job. Of course, you can be unemployed for several reasons, but probably you're still studying or on an internship. In these cases, you can use: Estoy estudiando ingeniería todavía. I'm still studying engineering. Estoy haciendo pasantías para trabajar como abogada. I'm doing an internship, so I can work as a lawyer. Estoy terminando mi curso de electricista. I'm finishing my electrician course. Sé que prometí enseñarte vocabulario, I know I promised to teach you some vocabulary, so let's see some common professions: Policía. Policeman/ Policewoman Secretaria o secretario. Secretary. Taxista. Taxi driver. Médico. Doctor. Profesor. Teacher. Camarero or Mesero. Waiter Mecánico. Mechanic. Ingeniero. Engineer. Dentist. Dentista. Periodista. Journalist. Abogado. Lawyer. Artista. Artist. Empresario. Businessman. Muy bien, now you know how to speak about your work in Spanish! Please tell me in the comments: What is your profession? ¿Cuál es tu trabajo? Use your favorite chunk of this video. Hey, Mariana here! Congratulations! You have successfully completed our free Spanish beginners training here on Spring Spanish! This really is an achievement since most people don’t usually get this far. So please, give yourself a pat on the back from me. You have now learned to make small talk, ask questions, apologize and describe yourself and other people, You have also learned to talk about the most important topics, like nationality your family, hobbies and work! So now you know all the basics that you need to have conversations with natives speakers. What did you like the most? What was new for you? What did you learn? Please tell us in the comments below so that we know how useful this course was for you. Are you ready now to take it even a step further and learn Spanish in a structured way? Then I highly recommend that you register to our free Spanish training at our Spring Spanish Academy! In this training you’ll flearn everything you need to know about the chunking method that we use at Spring Spanish this method allows you to speak and understand Spanish without having to memorize word lists and grammar rules. You have actually already learned Spanish secretly with this method in all the previous videos so it will be really easy to understand and to put into practice. You will also get some free sample lessons straight from our academy so you can really only win! So, what are you waiting for? Click on the link in the description box and come to our free training now!
