Common Words/Phrases

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Last Updated: Tuesday, 04 February 2025 13:36
Published: Saturday, 29 July 2023 13:33
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General Greetings and Common Phrases:

Greetings in Spanish have exclamation marks (¡ ... !) before and after to indicate that it's a greeting. NOTE: the direction of 1st exclamation is upside down.

  • Greetings: Good Morning, etc:
    • Good morning => ¡buenos días! => días means days (Note the accent on i), bueno means good masculine. So, literally it means "good days". We use plural for "good" here, since días (s at the end) is plural. Remember "días" is masculine (see in noun section). This is true only for morning though, since other times of day are feminine. "mañana" is for morning, so exact translation should be "buena mañana". But we never use that. We use "mañana" for tomorrow too in greetings. See below.
    • Good Afternoon => ¡buenas tardes! => Note, buenas and NOT buenos is used here, as other times of day are treated as feminine. "tarde" also means late (similar to tardy which means late).
    • Good evening/night => ¡buenas noches! => same for evening and night. atardecer (means sunset). Late afternoon is noche tarde (i.e late evening)
    • Welcome => bienvenido (see in adjective section)
  • Other Greetings to start conversation: Hi/Bye, Please, Sorry, etc:
    • Hello => ¡Hola! (pronounced ola), We also say ¡Oye! for Hi. GoodBye => adiós or chau. Adiós => A (to) + diós (gods) => means "To God". So, whole meaning is "to God you go", but meaning changed over time to mean "Good bye".
    • What is going on? => ¿Qué pasa? => pasar is a verb which means to go on or to happen. Other form is "What is happening? => ¿Qué está pasando? (gerund form of pasar is psasndo). Yet another form is ¿Qué tal? => What's such or what's the matter? But it's used to mean "How are you?". On similar lines => ¿Qué tal el trabajo? => How is the work?
    • How is it going? => ¿Cómo vas? => vas => "you are going". So, it literally means "How are you going?"
    • How was your weekend? => ¿Cómo estuvo tu fin de semana? (see in ser/estar section, estar version is used as it's temporary)
    • What are you doing today? => ¿Qué estás haciendo? (NOTE: with gerund form, estás is used)
    • How are you? => ¿Cómo estás? (informal way for friends). "Cómo estás" means "How" and "estás" means "are (you)". Since it's temporary condition, we use "estar" form of verb. You is left out here. Ideally, it should be " ¿Cómo estás tú?, but we leave tú out, as is common to omit pronouns in Spanish. It's "estás tú" and NOT "tú estás" as it's a question, so translate it as "are you?" instead of "you are". To make it more respectful when talking to elders or people you are meeting for first time, say "¿Cómo está usted?". Again "usted" may be left out, to just say "¿Cómo está?". In both cases, you reply with "Bien" meaning good or "muy bien" meaning "very good" or "muy bien, gracias". You may also say "Asi asi" which means "so so". Followed by question "And you?" which is "¿Y tú?". Recall "Y" is for "and" pronounced as "ye". Other ex: How is the family? => ¿Cómo está la familia? 
      • We may also use the ser version (permanent state) of "is" which is "es".Then the meaning changes completely. "¿Cómo es él?" which means "how is he?". We are not asking "how is he" as in "how is he feeling right now", but in a permanent way as "How is he as a person". i.e "Is he a good person?". Other example: "¿Cómo eres tú?" which means "how are you as a person?" or what are you like?.
      • More video on this is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLr3ognAdjA&list=PLv63dFTP4Sjq6knRsZQI-bTnRE38cZZoy&index=13
    • Nice to meet you, Jose => Mucho gusto, Jose => Mucho means "much", gusto means to be pleased (see in gustar section above). So, much gusto means "much pleasure". "Encantado" is also used which means "enchanted".
    • See you later => !Hasta luego!. Hasta means until, luego means then. So, the 2 words means "until then". You may also say "Hasta pronto" => see you soon. Similarly "See you tomorrow" is Hasta mañana. We also use "Hasta la vista" => until the view or until later. Meaning "see you next time or see you later". OR "hasta la proxima" => until next time
    • Where are you from? => ¿De dónde eres?. Response is "I am from the US" => yo soy de Estados Unidos (Spain is España). This is permanent, so ser form used.
    • Where do you live? => ¿dónde vives?. Response is "I live in Mexico city" => yo vivo en ciudad de Mexico.
  • Other common expressions: quotes
    • Good Luck! => !Buena Suerte!
    • Awesome! => ¡Formidable! Or  ¡Genial! (pronounced henial) . That is awesome => ¡eso es Formidable! . Oh really? => ¿De veras?
    • Ah, very interesting => ¡Ah! ¡muy interestante!
    • Congratulations => ¡Felicitaciones!
    • OK => ¡Está Bien! => It is good or simply ok.
    • Please => Por Favor => Por means For, Favor (pronounced Favo-er) means favour, meaning "give me favor".
    • Thank You => Gracias. Or "Many Thanks" is "Muchas Gracias" or "Mucho Gracias". In response you say "you are welcome" or "De nada". nada means nothing, so "De nada" means "of nothing". "Por Nada" is also used which is "for nothing". Thanks for your help => Gracias por tu ayuda.
    • Sorry / Excuse Me => "Perdon" is used meaning "Pardon" in English. "Perdone" is another formal way of saying "sorry", while perdona is informal way of saying sorry. Or you may also hear "Disculpe". You may use "Perdon" or "Lo Siento" for "I'm sorry". Perdon comes from verb "Perdonar" which means "to forgive". "Lo Siento" is only used when you really mean "I am sorry" and NOT for "excuse me".
    • Yes => Sí (with an accent on i, Si without an accent on i means if), Yes, of course => Sí, por supuesto. No => No.
      • NOTE: Si is an exception, as usually words w/o an accent are ones which are for more common words, while words with accent are for less common words. Here Sí (with an accent) is the one for "yes" which is more common usage.
    • I like your dress/smile => me gusta tu vestido/sonrisa. This is a very easy way to open up conversation by liking something about other person.
    • How can I help you? => In what can I serve you? => ¿En qué le puedo servir? ("I can help" is "puedo servir". You is "object pronoun", so goes in front of verb "help" => te puedo servir => I can help you. putting questions makes it "Can I help you?" => ¿te puedo servir? In what is "En que", so the whole translation is as shown. Can you help me? => ¿Me puede ayudar?
    • I know => lo sé. This is very common to say as a response, when you agree with the person. I don't know => no lo sé. (sé is 1st person conjugation for saber => to know)
    • Only => solamente. ex: I only speak English => Yo solamente hablo Español.
  • What is your name? => ¿Cómo te llamas? => Cómo means "how", llamar is a verb meaning "to call". (see in verb - ar section). So this becomes "how do you call/name yourself?". You can also say ¿cúal es tú nombre? => What is your name?Response to this is "My name is Jose" => 3 ways to say it.
    • Yo soy Jose (or just "Soy Jose") => I am Jose. Follow it up by ¿Y tú? ¿cúal es tú nombre? => And you? What is your name?
    • Yo Me llamo Jose (Yo is optional. pronounced meh yamo ...) => I call me Jose => I'm called Jose
    • Mi Nombre es Jose (pronounced mee ..) => This is literal translation of "My name is Jose", as Mi is for My.
  • Do you speak ... or not?
    • Do you speak Spanish => ¿Hablas Español? => Hablar means "to speak", For "you speak", it translates to "Hablas" (see table for -ar verb). You is left out.
    • I speak Spanish => Hablo Español => Hablo means I speak. To say "I don't speak spanish", say "No, No hablo Español". In both cases, I is left out.
    • I am learning Spanish => Estoy aprendiendo español => learn is "aprender".
    • I speak little spanish => hablo poco español  (I can be omitted). Or I can speak little spanish => yo peudo hablar poco español (instead of hablar being conjugated, it's the 1st verb "pueder" that got conjugated. That's the rule for consecutive verbs.
    • Is that correct? => ¿es eso correcto? => This is useful when you say something in Spanish and you aren't sure if you messed it up, you may use this question. "Ser" form is used since it's NOT "feelings/conditions, location or -ing",
  • Occasion Greetings: "Feliz" is used for wishing people a happy event/occasion. Felicidades is more general and means congratulations (appropriate for a wider range of occasions, and is used for Birthdays, etc).
    • Happy Holidays => ¡Felices fiestas! or ¡Felices vacaciones! (vacations => vacaciones)
    • Happy Birthday => ¡Feliz cumpleaños! 
    • Merry Christmas => ¡Feliz navidad! 
  • Others:
    • ¡Vamos! => Let's go
    • Where is the restroom? => ¿Dónde está el baño? (for location, we have to use "está" and NOT "es"). May I use the bathroom? => Puedo usar el baño.
    • I'm from Spanish => yo soy de españ

 

 

Common words:

Learning words in pairs of opposite words is also very effective. Here are 60 such pairs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNlvF9eE3l8

  • Abajo => Bottom/Down, Arriba => Top/Up (way to remember is "ab" starts with b, so b for bottom). Arr-, here r comes which is much later in alphabet, so top
  • Adentro => inside, Afuera => outside. Way to remember is Af => here f is for far, so outside.
  • Antes => before, Después => after
  • Frente => front, Atrás => back
  • Frío (accent on i) => cold,  caliente => hot. Frío sounds like frigid
  • cerca => near (close by), lejos (le-hos) => far
  • cierto => true, falso => false

 These are 100 words that are used 50% of the times in Spanish (very nice video with examples): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eviS6a_ld2A  => You should know all these words based on study material that we have on this site.

Here's a list of 1000 words for beginners: https://www.spanishdict.com/lists/506025/beginner

  • Places: (el or la used for "the")
    • Bank = > el banco
    • Moviehall => el cine
    • beach => la playa (pronounced as playa). Sea => el mar
    • shop or mall => la plaza
    • house, home or business => la casa. ex: mi casa => my home
    • city => la ciudad, town => el pueblo
    • downtown => el centro
    • market => el mercado
    • park => el parque, garden => el jardin (jardin and garden sound similar). Plural is jardines
  • Things in home:
    • table => la mesa (remember as in 'hostel mess", we eat on table)
    • chair => la silla
  • People:
    • father => el padre, mother => la madre
    • brother => el hermano, sister => la hermana
    • grandfather => el abuelo (aa-booelo), grandmother => la abuela,
    • child => el niño (m), la niña (f)
    • teacher => el maestro (like master of something)
  • direction:
    • Left =>  izquierda/izquierdo, Right => derecha/derecho
    • Near => cerca, far => lejos
  • joining words:
    • but => pero (i.e I want to go, but I can't => quiero ir, pero no puedo)
    • in/on > en
  • Days (los días) / Dates (fechas): día is (m) even though it ends in a.
    • ex: What a beautiful day! => ¡Que día tan bonito! (tan => so, ex: so fast => tan rápido). day is masculine, so bonito (and NOT bonita)
    • later => más tarde
    • time => tiempo (I don't have time => no tengo tiempo). "hora" also means time or hour.
      • second => segundo/segunda. This has gender/plurality just like adjectives. segundo/segunda also means second (as in 2nd place, see in numbers)
      • minute => minuto/minuta. This has gender/plurality just like adjectives. Unos minutos (m) / Unas minutas (f) => a few minutes,
      • hour => hora (also means time). ahora means now (or this hour)
      • year => año / años (years). n w/o tilde changes meaning. ano => anus.
      • yesterday => ayer (aa-yehr)
      • today => hoy
      • tomorrow => mañana (mañana also means morning)
      • every => every is todos (m)/todas (f).  todos itself is plural, so the noun/pronoun needs to be plural too.
        • every day => todos los días,(dia is male, so todos used)
        • every night => todas las noches (noche is female, so todas used)
        • every sunday => todos los domingos (plural, as it implies all sundays).
      • before / after => antes de / después de (de is used with both of these), ex: before lunch => antes del almuerzo
      • early / late => temprano / tarde
    • seasons => la estación (estación also means station). All seasons except spring, end in -o, hence masculine
      • summer => el verano
      • winter => el invierno (viernes is Friday, while invierno is kind of opposite of Friday, so not a good day => winter)
      • fall/autumn => el otoño (sounds like autumn)
      • spring => la primavera (feminine, ends in a). Remember "spring" is nice/prime or "prima". It's feminine as spring sounds like colors, fun, etc => so nothing masculine about it.
    • days of week => los días de la semana (week is la semana) (days/months are all written in small cap). All days are masculine, so use "el" (days don't end in -a). Mon-Fri end in -es, while weekends end in -o.
      • Monday => lunes (remember as monday being a lunar day)
      • Tues => martes
      • Wed => miércoles
      • Thurs => jueves (pronouned huebes)
      • Fri => viernes (bear-nes)
      • Sat => sábado (remember as sabath for jews on saturday)
      • Sun => domingo (remember as domino game which you play on a holiday, which is sunday)
      • The weekends => los fines de semana (the ends of week => weekends). The weekend => fin de semana
    • Months of year => los meses del año (mes is month) (they are similar to English names, days/months are all written in small cap). All months are masculine, so use "el" (months don't end in -a)
      • Jan => enero
      • February => febreero
      • March => marzo
      • April => abril
      • May => Mayo
      • June => junio (pronounced hunio)
      • July => julio (pronounced hulio)
      • August => agosto
      • September => septiembre (em changes to iem and ber changes to bre for these 3 months => Sep, Nov, Dec)
      • October => octubre
      • november => noviembre
      • december => deciembre
    • ex:
      • What day/date is it today? => ¿Qué día/fecha es hoy? (Here "ser" form used since it's not feeling or location). In response, we say "today is Tues, sept 12" => hoy es martes, el doce de septiembre (written as the 12 of sept). We usually say the date in cardinal number form. We may also say in ordinal number form as "it's oct 15 => es el quince de octubre (the 15 of oct). however this is less common. Only for date=1st of the month, we use "el primero" and NOT "el uno"
      • When is your B'day? => ¿Cuándo es tu cumpleaños? (tu=>your). es is used as it's ser form, since it's permanent state. Response is "It's on May 5th" => Es el cinco de mayo (the 5 of May)
  • Time: For asking or telling time, we use ser form (since it's not feeling or location). For time=1 am/pm, we use "es la una", for all times we use plural form "son las dos, etc". For minutes from 1-30, we use " y + number". For 30-60, we count to next hour and then minus (menos) the 1-30 minutes (No "y" used). For 15 minutes, we use cuarto, while for 30, we use "media". medio/media means "mid", so we use "media" since it's middle of hour. (mediodía => mid day or noon, while medianoche means midnight). For am/pm, we use "of morning(am), of afternoon(pm), of night(pm)" - i.e "de la mañana, de la tarde, de la noche".
    • What time is it? => ¿Qué hora es? It's 2:10 pm => son las dos y diez de la tarde
    • It is 12:40 am => es la una menos veinte de la mañana (No y used when menos is used)
    • It's 7:45 => son ocho menos cuarto
    • I leave at 3 o' clock => salgo a las tres un punto (un punto is used for "o clock")
  • Colors;
    • white => blanco (remember as pan blanco written on Bread, which means "white bread"
    • black => negro (probably from older term negro used for black african people who were brought as slaves)
    • red => rojo
    • green => verde
    • blue => azul
  • misc:
    • metros: meters (SI unit of measurement)
    • más o menos => more or less (i.e around). Used when saying something is "around" this price, etc. ex: hace más o menos 30 grados => It is around 30 degreees

 

 

Common Phrases:

  • que lindo => how cute !!