Jan 30 2008
| ¿Dónde es/está? or Where is? This is one of the most useful phrase bases for would-be travelers. This simple phrase will allow you to ask for directions in Spanish, and even if you don’t understand the full reply, you will most likely be pointed in the right direction. |
Jan 30 2008
Basic communication is usually the first goal for people wanting to learn a new language. There are many reasons people want to learn Spanish, but they all come down to one thing, communication.
Over the next few lessons we will be covering three phrase bases that will get you speaking immediately. For me, these represent the bare essentials needed when traveling in a Spanish speaking country. I chose these phrases within the context of travel, because wanting to communicate with the locals while on vacation is a very common reason for learning basic Spanish.
While what I consider essential can, and I’m sure will, be argued, the links to the pages below are a start for someone with a week or so of prep time.
Essential Spanish phrases:
This page will be updated as content is added.
Jan 21 2008
This is another basic Spanish vocabulary lesson. A few notes before we start. First, some numbers change slightly depending on the gender of the noun they’re coupled with. For examle, un niño and una niña. Notice that we didn’t use uno for niño; uno is used in counting or when replying to someone asking if you want more. You would say, “Un taco, por favor”, when ordering, but when asked if you would like more, you could reply, “Sí, uno más, por favor.”
Another number that often gets confused is 500 - quinientos - not cincocientos. Also in Spanish, a number like 1,400 is shown as 1.400 and is always spelled and pronounced as mil cuatrocientos, not catorcecientos or fourteen hundred. We’ll cover this more in future lessons within the context that gives rise to such confusion, such as when dealing with dates.
To further confuse this, it is common to see different spelling for certain numbers. The numbers 16 to 19 and 21 to 29 can be written two different ways, Veinte y cinco or veinticinco. The later is used today in Mexican schools, but the other way is still common and widely used.
Below is a list of numbers and below that is a Shockwave application to help with pronounciation and to test your listening skills.
Jan 15 2008
In Spanish, greetings are called saludos, and for something as simple as a hello, choosing the correct Spanish word to match the occasion can sometimes be confusing. Don’t worry about formal and informal structures, we will be covering those in a later lesson, as well as how some of the words below can change meaning depending on emphasis and context. This is a vocabulary lesson.
Mucho gusto is a polite general greeting / hello when you meet someone for the first time.
¡Hola! is the classic hi or hello!
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