Agua = Water
Agua con gas = Sparkling Water
Café = Cofee
Café con Leche = Caffe Latte
Refresco = Soft Drink
Leche = Milk
Cerveza = Beer
Cerveza Negra = Dark Beer
Cerveza de Barril = Draught beer
This is a short list of some colors in Spanish. Observe the rules of pronunciation of the first lesson, and with a little practice you can easily learn
Rojo = Red
Amarillo = Yellow
Azul = Blue
Azul celeste = Pale Blue
Azul Marino = Dark Blue
Naranja = Orange
Verde = Green
Negro = Black
Blanco = White
Rosa = Pink
Marrón = Brown
Gris = Grey
Purpura = Purple
Although they are less similar to the names of the months of the year in English, there is no difficulty in learning the days of the week in Spanish.
Lunes = Monday
Martes = Tuesday
Miércoles = Wednesday
Jueves = Thursday
Viernes = Friday
Sabado = Saturday
Domingo = Sunday
Both in English and Spanish, the names of the months of the year, have their roots in the Latin Language of Ancient Rome. For this reason there is no significant difference between the names of the months in both languages. You just have to keep in mind the pronunciation, and practice a little bit.
Enero = January
Febrero = February
Marzo = March
Abril = April
Mayo = May
Junio = June
Agosto = August
Septiembre = September
Octubre = October
Noviembre = November
Diciembre = December
The numbers in Spanish are fairly straightforward. If you practice with this list, you can learn it in a easy way.
Uno = One
Dos = Two
Tres = Three
Cuatro = Four
Cinco = Five
Seis = Six
Siete = Seven
Ocho = Eight
Nueve = Nine
Diez = Ten
Once = Eleven
Doce = Twelve
Trece = Thirteen
Catorce = Fourteen
Quince = Fifteen
Dieciseis = Sixteen
Diecisiete=Seventeen
Dieciocho= Eighteen
Diecinueve=Nineteen
From the number twenty on, the numbers are composed of a very similar form. For example, the number 22 (Veintidós) is composed by two nouns: “Veinte” (Twenty) and “dos” (two).
Veinte=Twenty
Treinta=Thirty
Cuarenta=Forty
Cincuenta=Fifty
Sesenta=Sixty
Setenta=Seventy
Ochenta=Eighty
Noventa=Ninety
Cien= One Hundred
Ordinal numbers are numbers that denote the position of an element belonging to an orderly succession, and are usually written in Spanish as follows:
Primero = First
Segundo = Second
Tercero = Third
Cuarto = Fourth
Quinto = Fifth
Sexto = Sixth
Septimo = Seventh
Octavo = Eighth
Noveno = Ninth
Décimo = Tenth
5.1 Gender in the Spanish Article
Articles in Spanish have two genders: Male (Masculino) and female (Femenino). In addition the article in Spanish has two forms definite, and indefinite. Definite article, in its singluar form, is used in the same way as “The” in English.
SINGULAR DEFINITE ARTICLE
Male: El Caballero = The Gentleman
Female: La Dama = The Lady
PLURAL DEFINITE ARTICLES
Male: Los fotografos = The (male) photographers
Female: Las fotógrafas *= The (female) photographers
(*) Keep in mind the underlined a in the word fotógrafas. Do you remember what we said in the Lesson 3 when we are talking about the final vowel and the gender?. Well, most of times, in Spanish the final “o” or the final “a” are used to determine, obviously, the gender of the word.
But you have to be careful. This is not always as it seems. There are exceptions with some words that are feminine, but nevertheless, they can mention a concept, object, or word that is both male or female.
Example: “Las Aguilas” defines all the eagles, containing both males and females. We´ll talking about in deep about this issue at the point 5.2 of this lesson.
On the other hand we have the indefinite article could be used to mention “a” “an” or “a few” but also “the” in plural.
SINGULAR INDEFINITE ARTICLES
Male: Un libro = A Book
Female: Una camisa = A shirt
PLURAL INDEFINITE ARTICLES
Male: Unos libros = (Some) Books
Female: Unas camisas = (some) Shirts
5.2 Gender in the Spanish Nouns
Spanish nouns also have two genders: Male (masculino) and Female (femenino)
Male: Hombre (Man), Chico (Boy), Hombres (Men), etc.
Female: Mujer (Woman), Chica (Girl), Mujeres (Women), etc.
Do you remember the pronunciation guide of the Lesson 1. Well, it is time to practice now the basic question words that you may use in Spanish.
¿Que? = What?
¿Por qué?= Why?
¿Quien? = Who?
¿Donde?= Where
¿Cuando? = When?
¿Cual? = Which?
¿Cuanto? = How much?
¿Cuanto? = How many?
Most of basic questions can be formed with the words that you’ve seen forwards. So if you want to say,
“How much is it?”
you can ask
¿Cuanto es?
(In this case you only need to add the verb “ser” in its third person “es” to the word “Cuanto”).
Let’s see another example:
“Who is?”
Could be translated as:
“¿Quien es?”
This question can be used both to ask about male or female, but if you want to be more specific about it, you can use articles like “El” (He) or “Ella” (She).
Note that double L (ll) is pronounced as the J in the English word Jam, but never as a simple L.
For instance: It’s a common mistake to pronounce the Spanish word “Paella” as “paela”. The correct fonetical pronunciation is pa’eʎa
There are many ways to introduce yourself in spanish. Most of times people will use some of this phrases to ask you about your name.
¿Cómo te llamas? Is the most common question related with meeting people in spanish.
It means: What is your name?
In a more polite, some people often can ask to you ¿Cual es tu nombre?, which also means What is your name?, but is used in a more polite places or moments. This question is also very used in Latin America.
The answer to this question is “Mi nombre es”, but you can also use, without distinction the answer “Me llamo”. The meaning of both is almost the same in english: “My name is”.
For example:
1)
-Hola, ¿Cómo te llamas?
-Mi nombre es Mary.
-Encantado de conocerte.
2)
-Yo me llamo Sarah ¿Cuál es tu nombre?
-Me llamo Paul.
-Encantada de conocerte.
As you can see, you can use both forms, to say “My name is”. For the English “Nice to meet you” in Spanish we can use “Encantado de conocerte”. Note that in the dialog that we have used before in this lesson, the vowel o and the vowel a depends of your gender.
So, if you are female, you may say “Encantada”
In the male case you can say “Encantado”.
Most of basic greetings are very easy in Spanish. Let´s see some examples using this dialogs:
Dialog One.
SPANISH ENGLISH
Ana: -Hola ¿Como estás? Ana: – Hello, How are you?
Jose: -Muy bien, ¿y tu? Jose: – Very Well, and you?
Ana: -Estoy bien Ana: – I´m fine
Jose: -Me alegro de verte Jose: – Glad to see you
Ana: -Y yo. Que tengas un buen día Ana: – Me too. Have a nice day
Jose: -Gracias, adiós Jose: -Thanks, Godd bye
Dialog Two.
María: - Buenos días Pedro ¿Que tal estás? María: - Good Morning Pedro ¿How are you?
Pedro: - Muy bien ¿Y tu que tal? Pedro: – Very well, How about you?
María: - Yo estoy muy bien. María: - I am very well
Pedro: - Que tengas un buen día. Pedro: - Have a nice day
María: - Gracias, Adiós María: - Thanks, good bye.
Pedro: - Hasta luego. Pedro: - See you
Now you are able to have a basic conversation in Spanish. You can also use other words.
- Buenas tardes = Good afternoon
(Usually in Spain this is used from 1:00 PM until the nightfall).
- Buenas noches = Good evening
(“Buenas noches” is also used to greet someone who is going to sleep, like “Good Night” in English)
- Hasta luego / Hasta la vista = See you
(Literally means “Untill we meet again”).
In this lesson you will learn the alphabet in Spanish. See this list with the letters, and the following pronunciation types.
A: a
B: bé
C: ce
D: dé
E: e
F: efe
G: gé
H: hache
I: i
J: jota
K: ká
L: ele
M: eme
N ene
Ñ: eñe
O: o
P: pá
Q: cú
R: erre
S: ese
T: te
U: u
V: uve
W: uve doble
X: equis
Y: ye (formely known as i griega)
Z: zéta
As you can see most of the Spanish Alphabet is the same as English alphabet. There are only few important exceptions in pronunciation of combined letters that you must know.
Exceptions on G.
G: In this case G sounds like J, but only if G its followed by an E and/or an I. For example:
Gigante: It means Giant, (same as in English), but the correct pronunciation is “Jigante”.
Genio: It means Genius, (same as in English), but the correct pronunciation is “Jénio”.
The Spanish G followed by E or I sounds always as a J. This sound is very particular in Spanish, and don´t exist in English, son you need a little practice. We´ll talking about “J” soon. Now we need to focus on some more exceptions that Spanish G contains.
When G is followed by A or O, it sounds similar to English. Let´s see this example:
Gato: It means Cat. The pronunciation of “Ga” is the same that in the English word “Gain”.
Gorrión: It means Sparrow. The pronunciation of “Go” is the same that in the english word “Goal”.
As you may see, it´s easy, and with a little practice you can pronounce many words in an accurate way.
There is only exception that could be a little complicated, but nothing that you can´t deal with some more practice. This exception appears when G is used with U. Let me explain it with some examples:
1) G+U+A = Are pronounced in a similar way as the W pronunciation in English.
Guapo: Wapo
Guardián: Wardián
2) G+U+I= Are pronounced in a similar way as the G pronunciation in the English word Guitar.
Guia= Guide
Exceptions on J.
J: As we previously explain when we were talking about “G” , the sound “J” is one of the most notable particularities of Spanish pronunciation. To practice the sound, think in English words like “Heavy”, or “Hard”. Both contains “H” followed by a vowel. This is almost the same sound that the Spanish “J”, but a bit harsh. The good thing about “J” is that there is no exceptions like in the G case.
Exceptions on Q.
There is no notable exceptions on Q. The pronunciation rules are the same like in the Gcase.
There is only exceptions in the words Quorum, that it´s pronounced as “Cuorum”, like the Italian pronunciation for “Cuore”. Q in Spanish always sounds like K in english.
Examples:
Quién = Who = sounds like Kién
Queso = Cheese = sounds like Késo
Exceptions on Ñ.
This is the only particular letter that you can’ t find in English alphabet. Its pronunciation is the same that the GN in Italian, and the NH in Portuguese.
Think in the Italian word lasagna. The pronunciation in Spanish is the same tha the soundGN. There are no particular exception in the pronunciation of Spanisn Ñ.
Exceptions on R, and doubled R.
The exceptions related to Spanish R are few. Most of times, like in the case of J sound you need to practice a little bit. The pronunciation on double R, or RR sound, is normally a bit “harsh”. Let´s see some examples.
Caro= Expensive
In this case the r is simple, like the pronunciation of the English words car or argument.
Carro = Charriot (or car in Latin America)
In this case the rr sounds a bit harsh. You need to practice a little bit, putting your tongue in your mouths palate, and make an rolling sound. Something like “rrrrrrrr” sound. After two minutes you can know almost perfectly to pronounce the Spanish R.
In your way to learning Spanish you’ll find some more exceptions, but for this introduction, this is enough.
