If you speak Spanish, you can communicate with almost 500 million people worldwide!
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
LANGUAGE: English
ARTIST: Scooch
SONG: Flying the Flag (for You)
COUNTRY: Spain
LANGUAGE: English, Spanish
ARTIST: Nash
SONG: I love you mi vida
Most verbs in Spanish follow regular patterns, according to their infinitive ending, -ar, -er or -ir. Some verbs, however, change more radically and have to be learnt separately. They are known as irregular verbs.
Unfortunately, some irregular verbs are also the most commonly used, such as ser, ir, tener and salir.
They do have some similarities, though, and the most unexpected endings often only occurs with yo:
Some end in -oy:
* ser: soy I am
Soy de Asturias. I am from Asturias.
* ir: voy I go
Voy al cine. I go to the movies.
* estar: estoy I am
Estoy soltera. I am single.
Others end in -go:
* salir: salgo I go out
Salgo con amigos. I go out with friends.
* tener: tengo I have
Tengo una reunión. I have a meeting.
When you want to talk about something you and other people do together, you use nosotros or nosotras, the pronoun we.
As always in Spanish you don't need to actually say the pronoun, because the ending -mos in the verb tells you that is we
Nos vemos el martes We'll meet on Tuesday. Literally We see each other on Tuesday
Vamos el jueves We go on Thursday
¿Podemos …? Can we…?
I and he/she verb endings: trabajo, trabaja
In Spanish, verb endings are very important as they show who is doing something. Most of them follow regular patterns.
The ending for yo, I, is -o:
* trabajar: trabajo
* comer: como
* vivir: vivo
Trabajo en Patios Ltd. I work for Patios Ltd.
Como a las dos. I eat at 2:00.
Vivo en el centro. I live in the centre.
The ending for él, ella and usted, he, she, you formal, is -a or -e.
The infinitive, or dictionary form, tells you what the pattern will be. For verbs ending in -ar, like viajar, the ending is -a:
* viajar: viaja
Adriana viaja a Madrid a menudo. Adriana often travels to Madrid.
For verbs ending in -er or -ir, like comer and vivir, the ending is -e:
* comer: come
* vivir: vive
Él come mucho. He eats a lot.
Esteban vive en Málaga. Esteban lives in Málaga.
Formal and informal words for 'you': usted and tú
In Spanish, usted and tú are both ways of saying you.
Usted is formal, and comes from the old respectful form of address Vuestra Merced, Your Grace. It's used with people you don't know very well, in business or commercial relationships, or with people who are older than you.
When you use usted the verb has the él and ella endings:
¿En qué trabaja usted? What do you do for a living? formal
¿Qué hace? What do you do? formal
Tú, on the other hand, is informal: it's used amongst friends, family members or when adults are speaking to children.
¿Cómo te llamas? What's your name? informal
¿Qué haces? What do you do? informal
The words for your also change.
su trabajo your job formal
tu trabajo your job informal
There's an increasingly widespread use of tú these days, but if you're not sure which one to use, you should take your cue from the native speakers.
Talking about places: estar and ser
Estar and ser both mean to be.
To ask or say where a place is located, you use estar:
¿Está cerca? Is it close?
Está en el centro. It's in the centre.
But to talk about what the place is like, you use ser.
Es bonita, ¿verdad? It's nice, isn't it?
Es muy antigua. It's very old.
Ser and estar are irregular verbs and have their own distinct patterns:
* I am... soy or estoy
* You are... eres or estás
* It, he or she is... es or está
The alphabet
Here are the names of the letters in the Spanish alphabet. Some slightly unexpected ones are h, hache, j, jota, k, ka, ñ, eñe, w, uvedoble, y, i griega and z, zeta.
A a
B be
C ce
D de
E e
F efe
G ge
H hache
I i
J jota
K ka
L ele
M eme
N ene
Ñ eñe
O o
P pe
Q cu
R ere
S ese
T te
U u
V uve
W uve doble
X equis
Y i griega
Z zeta
Telling the time
To ask the time you say...
¿Qué hora es? What time is it?
To ask at what time something happens you say...
¿A qué hora…? At what time...?
¿A qué hora es el desayuno? Literally: At what time is breakfast?
Times are always preceded by la or las.
13:00 La una One o'clock
17:00 Las cinco Five o'clock
14:00 Las dos Two o'clock
Times are given with the hour first. Then the equivalent of past, y, or to, menos, followed by the minutes.
7:20 Las siete y veinte Twenty past seven
18:50 Las siete menos diez Ten to seven
Y media is the equivalent of half past, and quarter is translated as cuarto
6:30 Las seis y media Half past six
4:45 Las cinco menos cuarto Quarter to five
Questions and question words
Questions often start with a question word like dónde where, cuándo when, qué what.
¿Dónde está la estación de Chamartín? Where's Chamartín Station?
¿Cuánto cuesta? How much is it?
¿De qué andén sale el tren? From which platform does the train leave?
Or you can ask a question simply by altering the tone of your voice. Unlike in English, you don't need to change the order of the words.
Llega con retraso. It's delayed.
¿Llega con retraso? Is it delayed?
Hablas inglés. You speak English.
¿Hablas inglés? Do you speak English?
You will often hear ¿no? or ¿verdad? at the end of a sentence. They correspond to English question endings, such as isn't it? aren't we? don't they?
Éste es el andén 2, ¿verdad? This is platform 2, isn't it?
Este tren va para Segovia, ¿no? This train goes to Segovia, doesn't it?
In writing, questions are always introduced by the upside-down question mark, which is characteristic of Spanish punctuation.
Indicating possession: mi, nuestro, vuestro
When you want to say who something belongs to, or when speaking about relationships you can use words like mi, nuestro and vuestro.
* mi my
Ésta es mi casa. This is my house
* nuestro our
Eres nuestro invitado. You are our guest.
* vuestro your more than one person
¿Qué coméis en vuestro país? What do you eat in your country?
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