Les salutations

Hola, bienvenidos, welcome to Spanish for Beginners with Lingua.

This is lesson one, of course, one. I'm your teacher, Isabella, and I've been studying Spanish for nine years and living in Spain for the last two. I'm so excited to help you on your Spanish language journey. So without further ado, let's get started.

Our first lesson is all about greetings, or saludos. This is a perfect place to start when beginning any new language, because this is the first thing that you say to a person when you meet them.

Our first vocabulary word in this lesson is "hola". I'm sure you already know this word, but let's practice it anyway. Hola. Hola. Very good. It's important to note that the H in Spanish is always silent, no exceptions, so we don't say "hola", it's just "ola". Ola.

Awesome. Let's keep going. After you've said hola, you might want to introduce yourself. There are two ways to introduce yourself in Spanish. The first is by saying "soy". Soy. Soy and add your name at the end, so I would say "soy Isabella", I am Isabella. Soy Isabella. You try it with your name. Very good.

Now, like I said, there are two ways to introduce yourself in Spanish, and this is one of them. The more common way is by saying "me llamo". Me llamo. Literally, this means "I call myself", but really it's just a way to say "my name is". Now, this word is not "me" in Spanish. The E always makes the sound "é". So this word becomes "mé". Mé. And in Spanish, the double L always makes the sound "y", like the way in English "yeah". Me llamo Isabella. Me llamo Isabella.

Fantastic, let's keep going. So what if you want to ask someone what their name is? You say "¿cómo te llamas?". Cómo te llamas. Literally, this means "how do you call yourself?", but again it's really just a way of saying "what is your name?". The O in Spanish always makes the sound "o", never "oh", always "o". And the accent over the first O indicates where the stress in the word is : if you have an accent over a letter, then that means that is where the stress is. So instead of "comó", it's "cómo". Cómo te llamas.

Very good. So after you have introduced yourself to someone and they have introduced themselves to you, you can say "mucho gusto". Mucho gusto. Mucho gusto just means "nice to meet you". Give it a try. Mucho gusto. Excellent.

All right, let's try a practice, a practica. This is a practice conversation. I will be black and you be red. I will say the words and phrases and then I will pause and allow you to reply. We're only using the phrases that we just learned.

Hola. ¿Cómo te llamas? Me llamo Isabella. Mucho gusto.

How did you do? Let's check. Is this what you said? If not, go ahead and rewind the video and do it again. If it is what you said, then let's keep going.

Another great way to greet someone is by saying "buenos días". Buenos días. Buenos días just means "good morning". And look, we have an accent over the I, so this is where our stress is. Buenos días. Another great thing to know is that in Spanish, the D is much softer than it is in English. An English person would say "de". But a Spanish person would say "the". When making the sound, put your tongue right behind your teeth ; it softens the sound. So instead of saying "días" it becomes "días". Buenos días.

Excellent. Let's keep going. After the morning comes the afternoon, so we say "buenas tardes". Buenas tardes. It's important to note that the R in Spanish does not roll : it's only with two R's. So it's not "buenas tarrdes", it's just "buenas tardes". Buenas tardes.

Now, why is there an A instead of an O? That's because the word "tardes" is feminine and the word "días" is masculine. And so these two words need to match : masculine gets an O and feminine gets an A. Buenas tardes. Good afternoon. Buenas tardes.

What comes after afternoon? Good evening and good night are the same in Spanish ; we just say "buenas noches". Buenas noches. "Noches", again, is a feminine word, so it gets an A. Buenas noches.

Very good. Buenas noches. Now, what if you want to say "how are you?". It's very simple in Spanish. ¿Cómo estás? ¿Cómo estás? How are you doing? You try it. Excellent.

How do you reply to this question? There are many ways, but the best way to start is by saying "estoy bien". Estoy bien. You can use the word "muy", which means "very", so you can say "I am well" or "I am very well" : estoy muy bien. Estoy muy bien.

Excellent. Now, if someone has said "¿cómo estás?", I say "estoy bien", and if I want to know how they are, I can say "¿cómo estás?" or I can say "¿y tú?". Y tú. Literally, it means "and you", which is correct, but we might say "and yourself" in English. Y tú. ¿Cómo estás? Estoy bien, ¿y tú? Y tú.

The T in Spanish is much like the D : it's softer than it is in English. So this is not "tu", it's "tú". You can make the softer T by bringing your tongue right up behind your teeth instead of through your teeth. Tú. Y tú. Perfect.

Time for another practica. This one's very easy, ready?

Buenas tardes. ¿Cómo estás? Estoy muy bien, ¿y tú?

How did you do? Did you get them more or less correct? Excellent. If you did, let's continue. If not, give it another go.

Let's move on. A good way to say goodbye in Spanish is a simple "adiós". Adiós. Excellent. Notice the accent : this is where our stress is. Adiós. Adiós.

Another great thing to say in Spanish when saying goodbye is "hasta luego". Hasta luego means "see you later". Hasta luego. Very good. Remember, the H in Spanish is silent, so this is not "Hasta", just "asta luego". Hasta luego.

Excellent. Let's review all the words and phrases we've learned today. Repeat after me. Hola. Soy Isabella. Me llamo Isabella. ¿Cómo te llamas? Mucho gusto. Buenos días. Buenas tardes. Buenas noches. ¿Cómo estás? Estoy muy bien. Y tú. Adiós. Hasta luego.

Excellent. Let's do one more practica for today. This time you are still red, but you are going to start the conversation. Look at what I'm going to say and use that to help you figure out what you are going to say. I'll wait for you to begin.

Hola. Me llamo Isabella. Mucho gusto. Estoy bien, ¿y tú? Hasta luego.

How did you do? Let's check. Is this what you said? If not, feel free to rewind and try again. If it is, congratulations, you've done very, very well. ¡Felicidades! Congratulations, you have completed the first lesson of this entire course. Maybe it seemed very simple to you, maybe it seemed a little difficult ; either way, you did it, and I'm very, very proud of you.

In our next lesson, we will start to learn the manners. Until next time. Adiós.