Survival Spanish Part 1: Basic Greetings

So you're traveling to Latin America or Spain soon and you need to know some basic phrases in Spanish to help get you by! We'll go through a quick primer on survival Spanish to help you on your way! This tutorial will emphasize on greetings in Spanish so that you can introduce yourself and also greet people depending on the time of the day.

First, let's start with some basic vocabulary:

Spanish	English	Comments
Español	Spanish	masculine noun
Inglés	English	masculine noun
¡Hola!	Hi
me	I, me, myself	direct/indirect/reflexive form for the first person pronoun
mi	my
llamo	I call	the present form of the indicative mood for the first person singular.
¿Cómo?	How
te	you	direct/indirect/reflexive form of the second person pronoun
llamar	to call	infinitive form
llamas	to call	the present form of llamar in the second person singular
soy	I am	first person form of ser (to be)
nombre	name	masucline noun
es	is, it is, is it
bueno	good
días	days	masucline noun
tarde	afternoons	feminine noun
noches	night, evening	feminine noun
estar	to be
está	is	third person of the singular verb estar (to be)

Great! Once you have mastered the basic vocabulary above, let's start with some simple Spanish greetings and phrases:

English	Spanish	Comments
Hi, I am called Romina.	Hola, me llamo Romina.
Hi, I am Romina.	Hola, soy Romina.
Hi, my name is Romina.	Hola, mi nombre es Romina.
What is your name?	¿Cómo te llamas?	This is a more informal way of asking a person's name. ¿Cómo se llamas? is more formal.
How are you?	¿Cómo estás?	An informal way of asking how someone is feeling.
Good morning.	Buenos días.
Good afternoon.	Buenas tardes.	Since tarde is a feminine noun, the adjective buenos is expressed in feminine form so it becomes buenas.
Good night.	Buenas noches.	Since noches is a feminine noun, the adjective buenos is expressed in feminine form so it becomes buenas.

Please try part 2 of our Spanish survival guide.

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