【Spanish Lesson #1】Survival Expressions

Recently, I enrolled in a Spanish class. Enrolled meaning I took it via online class which I could attend anytime I want. Though it's free so ‘enroll’ is not the right word, I guess. What should I call it? Anyway, the course has seven weeks to finish. I am still in week 1. If I wanted to get a certificate, I need to upgrade my status from free lessons to full access so I can unlock the graded and non-graded assignments and I will also earn a certificate, but it will take a lot of cents to upgrade. For now, I will stay for free lessons. But if I have extra cents, I think I will upgrade. 

I will share here the lessons I learned from the online class. Though I still have a lot of questions, I guess I need to finish the whole seven weeks so I could fully understand it. 

What have I learned so far?

Here are my thoughts:


I. Survival expressions

  • When you want to great somebody, you will say:    

            ¡Hola! – Hello

            ¿Qué tal? – How are you?

            ¿Cómo estás? – How are you?

            ¡Adiós! – Goodbye

            ¡Buenos dias! – Good morning

            ¡Buenas tardes! – Good afternoon

            ¡Buenas noches! – Good night

  • When you ask someone a favor, you will say:

                Por favor – Please

  • When you want to say your appreciation, you will say:

               Gracias – Thank you

            De nada – You’re welcome

  • When you feel the need to say sorry, you will say:

               Lo siento – I’m sorry

  • When you cannot understand or you want someone to say it slowly, you will say:

               No intiendo – I don’t understand

           ¿Puede repetir más despacio? – Could you repeat that more slowly?

 

II. Personal pronouns

 

Spanish

English

Yo

I

You (informal)

Usted

You (formal)

El

He

Ella

She

     


  • Example of asking someone’s name:

               ¿Cómo te llamas? – What`s your name? 
              Yo me llamo Irene. – My name is Irene.
              Tú te llamas Anna. – Your name is Anna. 
              Usted se llama Juan – Your name is Juan.
              El se llama Carlos. – His name is Carlos.
              Ella se llama Elsa. – Her name is Elsa.

Spanish

English

Nosotros/Nosotras

We

Vosotros/Vosotras

You (informal)

Ustedes

You (formal)

Ellos/Ellas

They

 

 

 

 




Nosotros (Nosotras) nos llamamos Garcia. - Our name is Garcia.

Vosotros (Vosotras) os llamáis Rodriguez. - Your name is Rodriguez.

Ustedes se llaman Rodriguez. - Your name is Rodriguez.

Ellos (Ellas) se llaman Diaz. - Their name is Diaz. 


III. B’s and V’s are pronounce the same way.

In Spanish language, there is no difference between pronouncing the letter B’s and V’s. The letter B is read as ‘be’ while V is ‘uve’ but read as ‘ube’.  In other Spanish speaking countries, B is read as ‘be alta’ while V is ‘ve baja’.

 

                            Examples:

                                        Vino – wine (but read as bino)

                                  Vaso – glass (read as baso)

                                  Bicicleta – Bicycle

 

IV. Pronunciations of R’s

The pronunciation of R has two ways, the strong and the soft.

l  If the R is in the beginning of a word, it has strong pronunciation. (as in rrrr~)

l  If R is after ‘N’ and ‘L’, it is pronounced in strong way.

l  If there are double ‘R’. the pronunciation is strong.

l  Not in the three categories, the pronunciation is soft.

 

              Examples:

                          Rosa – Rose (Pronounce the ‘R’ strongly ~ Rrrrrosa)

                      Alrededor – around, surroundings (Pronounce it as alrrrrededor)

                      Perro – dog (has a strong pronunciation ~ Perrrrrro)

                      Arbol – Tree (soft pronunciation)

                      Cara – Face (soft pronunciation)

                      Pera – Pear (soft pronunciation)

 

V. Some conversations that I’ve learned in the first weeks.

 

¿Qué es esto? – What is this?

¿Dónde está el baño? – Where is the toilet?

¿Cuánto vale esto? – How much is this?

¡Salud! – Cheers (when you want to toast)

 

While attending the first week of the lessons, I asked myself why the exclamation marks and questions marks are inverted. Or why it is written before and after the word? Or why there are stresses on some vowel letters? 

I still have questions, but I guess I need to finish the lessons as they will be answered along the way.

 

So, that’s all for today’s post. I will post what I’ve learned in week 2 soon.

 

See Yah!












If you want to learn about Hiragana and Katakana, just click the link below. 

<< The Hiragana Character                                               The Katakana Character >>



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Related Topic:
📔 【Spanish Lesson #2】More Examples
📔 【Spanish Lesson #3】Vocabularies
📔 【SPANISH LESSON #4】The verb “to be”

Latest Update: April 27, 2024
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