subject: Teach Yourself Spanish - The Greetings [print this page] Want to teach yourself Spanish? A great place to start is with greetings. Most likely you already know the most popular, "hola". There's one tick mark on the list.
Greetings are a simple place to begin when you teach yourself Spanish because you generally do not have to worry about sentence structure or verb agreements or any of that other hard stuff. Greetings are usually just short simple phrases to get you started -- nothing to look up, add, or fumble through.
Alright, first greeting, "hola"; "Hola" is hello and can be used in a casual or formal setting to acknowledge someone you encounter. However, if answering the telephone, you may want to say "diga" (hello, what can I do for you).
A few other short greeting phrases are: "Cmo ests?" - How are you; "Buenas tardes" - Good afternoon; and "Cmo te llamas?" - What is your name?
Finished with the conversation or ready to go? Goodbye is simply "Adis." You could also say "Buenos das" - good day; or "Buenos noches" - good night.
Once you have these basics downs, you are ready to move on to harder phrases, well actually sentences, to teach yourself Spanish so that you can truly participate in a conversation. However, let's begin with a few intermediate greetings.
How's it going? -- "Qu pasa?"
What's new? or What's up? -- "Qu hay?"
Nice to meet you -- "Mucho gusto."
From a cultural aspect, in Spain, greetings are often accompanied by a kiss on each cheek. (Cultural differences are another aspect to learn when you teach yourself Spanish.) I would however advise against this if you do not know the person, especially if in America. You could get quite the rude awakening; though it might be fun with friends or other people you know who are trying to learn Spanish as well.
