Greetings in Spanish
Post 8 of 365
¡Hola! Buenos dás, ¿Cómo estás?
Be sure to have your Notebook and a pen handy today!
This week we are going to work on Los saludos – Greetings
Whether you are learning Spanish for social, work or travel reasons, you need greetings in Spanish!
Everyday we greet people.
Before we even leave the house, we greet our family members “Good morning.”
We greet our co-workers when we get to work.
If you stopped for coffee you probably greeted the cashier or barista.
We greet people on the phone or in person. We greet people we know, we greet people we’ve never met before.
What we’ll learn this week is that very first connection you make with people. Let’s make it good!
Over the days and weeks we’ll expand our greeting so we can have a full conversation getting to know another person.
Vamos a empezar – Let’s start
Hola – hello
Buenos días – Good morning
Buenas tardes – Good afternoon
Buenas noches – Good night
¿Cómo está (Usted)?
How are you? (formal)*
¿Cómo estás?
How are you? (informal)*
Muy bien, gracias. – Very well, thanks
Bien, bien, gracias – Good, good, thanks
Bastante bien -pretty good (rather well)
Más o menos – so so / More or less
Así así – so so
No muy bien – Not so good
(Muy / Un poco) mal – (Really / a little bit) sick
Keep the conversation going with…
¿y Usted? – and you? (formal)* or
¿y tú? – and you? (informal)*
*More on formal and informal later. For now we’ll lean toward formal, but soon you’ll be versed in both.
Action Steps for Today: Use your Spanish notebook
1. Write a couple of dialogues between 2 people.
Include these elements:
– Give your characters names.
– Make one dialogue formal and another informal.
– Vary the time of day that the 2 people meet.
– Vary the way they answer the question ¿Cómo está?
Note: Even if you feel like you know this, say it several times aloud to smooth out your speech.
Gracias y hasta mañana,
Carolina