When you are talking to adults, you probably don’t call them by their first names, right? Instead, you use a title plus their last name. For example, you might call your teacher Mr. Smith. Well, it’s the same thing in Spanish:

English	Spanish	Spanish abbreviation
Mr.	Señor	Sr.
Mrs.	Señora	Sra.
Miss	Señorita	Srta.
Dr.	Doctor	Dr.
	Doctora	Dra.
Teacher	Profesor	Prof.
	Profesora	Profa.

So, if your neighbor is named Mr. Grant, you would call him Señor Grant. If your Spanish teacher is named Mrs. Juárez, you would call her Profesora Juárez. It’s that easy!

Questions—Preguntas

Just like in English, you can ask “yes or no” questions in Spanish by raising your voice at the end of any sentence. Try it with the following questions:

English	Spanish
Is Miguel ready?	¿Está listo Miguel?
Are you thirsty?	¿Tienes sed?

Questions that don’t have a yes or no answer are a little different. They ask for information, like who, what, when, where, why, and how:

Gramática —
Additional Grammar

If you were talking about a person, instead of to him or her, you would need to use the definite article (el or la) and not capitalize the title: La señora Vázquez no está aquí (Mrs. Vázquez isn’t here), El doctor Ortega vive en Madrid (Dr. Ortega lives in Madrid).

Consejo
IMPORTANT TIP

When you ask a question and you’re pretty sure that the answer will be yes, you might add “right?” to the end of the sentence. You can also do this in Spanish by putting ¿no? or ¿verdad? at the end of the sentence. For example: Miguel is ready, right? Miguel está listo, ¿ver-dad? You’re thirsty, right? Tienes sed, ¿no?

¡CUIDADO!

Mistake to Avoid

If someone speaks to you and you don’t hear him the first time, you may say, “What?” to ask him to repeat himself. In Spanish, you can use ¿qué? when you are asking a question with “what,” like ¿Qué haces? But when you just want to say “what?” because you didn’t hear what someone said, it’s more polite to say ¿cómo?

English	Spanish
who	quién
what	qué
when	cuándo
where	dónde
why	por qué
how	cómo
how much	cuánto

To ask “who?” feels or is a certain way, just use quién plus a verb:

English	Spanish
Who is ready?	¿Quién está listo?
Who is thirsty?	¿Quién tiene sed?

Questions, Questions

Follow the lines over and under to learn who is who, and what is what!

To ask questions with the other words, use the question word plus the verb. If you want to include the subject pronoun (such as tú), put it after the verb:

English	Spanish
What are you doing?	¿Qué haces? ¿Qué haces tú?
When are we eating?	¿Cuándo comemos? ¿Cuándo comemos nosotros?
Where is Ana?	¿Dónde está Ana?

Please and Thank You—Por favor y gracias

As you know, it’s always important to be polite. It’s just the same when you’re speaking Spanish, so don’t forget the magic words “please” and “thank you.”

English	Spanish
please	por favor
pretty please	porfis, por favorcito
May I ... ?	¿Puedo ... ?
I want	Quiero, Deseo
I would like	Quisiera
thank you	gracias
thank you very much	muchas gracias
Thank you so much!	¡Cuánto te lo agradezco!
I thank you	Le doy gracias
you're welcome	de nada
don't mention it	no hay de qué

If you accidentally bump into someone or do something wrong, the polite thing to do is say you’re sorry, right? It’s the same in Spanish. The following are some words to use when you need to excuse yourself or apologize:

¿Cómo?—
Say What?

When someone sneezes, the Spanish way to say “bless you!” is ¡Salud! or ¡Jesús! If a person sneezes more than once, Spanish speakers will sometimes say something after each sneeze. For example: for 1 sneeze it’s salud (health); for 2 sneezes it’s dinero (money) or salud y dinero; for 3 sneezes it’s amor (love) or salud y dinero y amor; for 4 sneezes it’s alergias (allergies). Try this out the next time someone in your family sneezes!

¡CUIDADO!

Mistake to Avoid

Perdón, dispense, and con permiso are used to be polite, like when you interrupt someone or need someone to move over so that you can get by. Perdóname and discúlpame are used when you have done something wrong and are asking for forgiveness, like if you broke something or made a mess.

English	Spanish
pardon me	perdón, dispense
excuse me	con permiso
forgive me	perdóname, discúlpame
I'm sorry	lo siento
I'm very sorry	lo siento mucho

Goodbye—Adiós

Just like there are several ways to greet people in Spanish, there are also various ways to say goodbye. Here are some common phrases to use when you part ways:

English	Spanish
Goodbye	Adiós
Bye	Chao
Bye-bye	Adiosito
See you later	Hasta luego
	Hasta pronto
	Hasta la vista
Catch you later!	¡Nos vemos!
See you tomorrow	Hasta mañana
See you next week	Hasta la semana próxima
Have a nice day	Que tengas un buen día
	Que pases un buen día
Good night	Buenas noches

There are also some expressions that are only used for special kinds of goodbyes.

When someone is leaving on a trip, you can say ¡Buen viaje! (Have a good trip!)

If your friend is taking a test, competing, or doing something else difficult, you can say ¡Buena suerte! (good luck!) or ¡Que te vaya bien! (I hope it goes well!)

When saying goodbye to someone they don’t expect to see again for a long time, some Spanish speakers might say Vaya con Dios (Go with God).

Conversations—Conversaciones

Now that you know all this new vocabulary, it’s time to practice with a friend! Here is a sample conversation to help you get started:

Speaker	English	Spanish
JAIME	Hello.	Hola.
LUPE	Hello. What's your name?	Hola. ¿Cómo te llamas?
JAIME	My name is Jaime, and you?	Me llamo Jaime, ¿y tú?
LUPE	My name is Lupe.	Me llamo Lupe.
JAIME	It's nice to meet you.	Mucho gusto.
LUPE	Same here.	Igualmente.
JAIME	How are you?	¿Cómo estás?
LUPE	Fine, and you?	Bien, ¿y tú?
JAIME	Same here.	Igualmente.
LUPE	Goodbye, Jaime.	Adiós, Jaime.
JAIME	Goodbye.	Adiós.

Here’s another conversation. This one is between a boy named Miguel and his teacher, Mrs. López:

Gramática —
Additional Grammar

¡Que te vaya bien! is what you would say to a friend. But if you are saying “good luck” to an adult, you would need to say ¡Que le vaya bien! And if you are wishing good luck to more than one person, you have to say ¡Que les vaya bien!

Consejo
IMPORTANT TIP

Did you notice the upside-down question marks in the conversation between Jaime and Lupe? They have to be in front of the question, not at the beginning of the line. For example, in the sentence Nada, ¿y tú?, “nada” is the answer to a question, and then the question “y tú” comes after it. So the upside-down question mark goes in front of y.

Diversión—Fun Stuff

Now that you’ve read the sample conversations, make up your own! Use Spanish names and as much vocabulary as you can. For example, try one where your friend is leaving on a trip to Spain, and another where your brother or sister is taking a driving test.

Speaker	English	Spanish
MIGUEL	Good afternoon, Mrs. López.	Buenas tardes, Señora López.
SRA. LÓPEZ	Good afternoon, Miguel.	Buenas tardes, Miguel.
MIGUEL	How are you?	¿Cómo está Ud.?
SRA. LÓPEZ	Very good. Who is this?	Muy bien. ¿Quién es ella?
MIGUEL	Pardon me, Mrs. López, this is my sister. Her name is Blanca.	Perdón, Señora López, es mi hermana. Ella se llama Blanca.
SRA. LÓPEZ	It's nice to meet you.	Mucho gusto.
BLANCA	Good afternoon, Mrs. López.	Buenas tardes, Señora López.
SRA. LÓPEZ	Goodbye, Miguel and Blanca.	Adiós, Miguel y Blanca.
MIGUEL	See you tomorrow.	Hasta mañana.