A1 Archives -

November 29 2019

1- Don’t kiss the wrong hispanic person (basic self introductions in Spanish)

Spanish warm up!

Before we beginn with the lesson, I want to prove to you that you already can understand a lot in Spanish just by relating what you see and hear to your knowledge of English, your mother language and other languages that you might know.

I have written a simple text in Spanish for you to learn some expressions, dont worry, you will find a translation of the words you need right next to it.

Focus on understanding the meaning, not translating word by word!

¡Hola!

En mi vídeo anterior has visto una presentación completa sobre mí en español.

¡No te preocupes!

En poco tiempo vas a comprender y hablar español como un profesional.

Hoy vas a aprender cómo hablar sobre tí: tu nombre, tu país y tu profesión.

!Vamos!

Useful words:

anterior – previous

has visto – you have seen

sobre mí– about me

¡No te preocupes!– don’t worry!

vas a– here: you are going to…

hablar español – to speak Spanish

aprender – to learn

sobre tí – about you

el nombre – name

el país – country

y – and

!Vamos! – here: let’s go!

Today’s lesson!

There are many ways that you can introduce yourself in Spanish.

Today, we will learn how to greet someone in a casual, neutral and formal way;

and how to share some very basic information about ourselves (our name, our country and our job or profession).

Finally, we will learn two different ways to say “nice to meet you“;

and talk a bit about “the culture of kissing” that makes us latinos get often into akward situations from when we meet people from around the world.

¡Vamos!

1. !Hola¡ ¿Qué tal?

Let’s break that down:

¡Hola! is the most common way to say “hello” in Spanish.

It’s neutral, short and practical, so we use it all the time!

Of course, there are many other ways to greet someone in Spanish, but that’s for another lesson 😉 don’t be greedy!

Pronunciation notes:

In Spanish, the consonant “H” is always mute in the beginning of a word.

So, we write <hola> but we pronounce it /’o.la/.

The same happens with the words <has> (/’as/) and <hablar> (/a.’blar/) that you saw before in the warm up.

Can you pronounce them correctly now? 😀

Note: everything written in “<…>” is an ortographic transcription, meaning it is exactly the way we spell and write that word or phrase. Everything written in “/…/” is a phonetic transcription, which means it is the way we pronounce it. In the phonetic transcription we separate the sylables with a dot “.” and we mark the strongest sylable with an apostroph ” … ‘ … “. So <hablar> is pronounced /a.‘blar/

¿Qué tal? is a casual and informal way to ask “how are you?”.

It literally means “what`s up?” or “how is it going?”.

¡No te preocupes! We latinos are very open, so it’s alright to be casual with most people.

To be safe, use “¿qué tal?” with your family, among friends, young people or anyone who seems cool and friendly.

Pronunciation notes:

In Spanish, the combinations “que” and “qui” are pronounced /ke/ and /ki/.

So, we write <queso> (cheese) but we pronounce it /’ke.so/. The same happens with <Quito> (/’ki.to/).

Now you know that <¿qué tal?> is pronounced /’ke.tal/

2. Me llamo Saru

Let’s break that down:

Me llamo + nombre is the most common way to say “my name is…”.

It literally means “I am called …”.

There is another way to say it that is probably easier for you to remember, because it follows a common pattern in most european languages: “mi nombre es….Saru”. Word by word, it means my name is + name.

But, to be honest, since it is longer and takes more time and energy, we barely use it.

If you want to sound more natural simply say me llamo…

Pronunciation notes:

In Spanish, the double consonant “ll” is very special in Spanish. It is a single sound and in phonetics it looks like an inverted “Y” /ʎ/.

Thats the trick, It actually sounds like a “y” in the English words <young> or <you>.

So, <me llamo> is pronounced /’me.ʎamo/

3. Soy de Venezuela

Let’s break that down:

“Soy de …+país” is a combination of the verb to be and the preposition “from“

It means “I am from…”.

The verb to be in Spanish is ser (infinitive or not conjugated), and it’s an irregular verb.

“Soy” is the 1st. person sigular ( “I am”).

¡No te preocupes! For now we only need to talk about ourselves, we will learn the full conjugation of the verb ser later on this course.

“De” has two meanings: to show the place you are coming from (lit. “from”) and to show posession (lit. “of”).

If you are abroad, instead of “soy de…+país” you can also say “vengo de…+ país” (” I come from”).

Pronunciation notes:

In Spanish, “y” sounds exactly the same as the vowel “i” in the English word <inside>, and we transcribe it like this: /i/

Now you know that <soy> is pronounced /soi/ (like soy sauce).

The vowel “e” in Spanish sounds like the “e” in <epic>.

So, <de> is pronounced /de/.

4. Soy profesor de español

Let’s break that down:

To express what our job or profession is we use again the verb to be combined with the name of our job: “soy + profesión”

“Soy profesor” means “I am a … teacher”.

“Soy profesor de español” means “I am a Spanish teacher”. (lit. “I am a teacher of Spanish”)

Remember the second use of “de”, here it is!

Soy estudiante (I’m a student)

Soy estudiante de Física / Economía / Medicina…

Pronunciation notes:

Ah! the beautiful Spanish “ñ”!

Do not confuse with a regular “n” because those 2 make huge differences on the meaning! ( año= year vs. ano=anus)

<ñ> sounds like the combination <gn> in “lasagna”, and in phonetics we write it like this /ɲ/

So, the word <español> does NOT sound /es.pa.’nol/, but /es.pa.’ɲol/. (think about lasagna!)

5. ¡Ecantado!

Let’s break that down:

“¡Encantado!”… is the short form of “encantado de conocerte“, which means “pleased to meet you”.

But, this is another case of natural linguistic laziness… so, we hardly ever use the long version 😉

You might also frequently hear another formula to say “nice to meet you” and it is : ¡mucho gusto!

Choose the one that you like and don’t forget to give a handshake as you say it! (and maybe a kiss on the cheek… talk about this on the video of the lesson)