INTRODUCTION |
Today, we'll cover basic greetings for the appropriate time of the day. As there are quite a few to cover, let's jump right in. |
GRAMMAR POINT |
In Spanish, the phrase hola can be used as a universal greeting. Though, in formal situation, you should use a politer greeting we’ll look at a bit later. |
Hola. |
Let’s break it down by syllable: Ho-la. |
Now, let's hear it once again, Hola. |
Hola means “Hello.” |
In Spanish, "Good morning" is Buenos días. |
Buenos días. |
Let's break it down by syllable: Bue-nos dí-as. |
Now, let's hear it once again, Buenos días. |
The first word, buenos, means "good" applicable to the masculine plural here. In Spanish, the adjective must agree with the gender of the noun they describe. Here, we have the masculine plural form of bueno. |
buenos |
Let’s break it down, this word, and hear it one more time: bue-nos. |
buenos |
This is followed by días which in Spanish is "days.” |
días |
dí-as |
One more time, días. |
In Spanish, "Good afternoon" is buenas tardes. |
Buenas tardes. |
Let's break it down by syllable: Bue-nas tar-des. |
Now, let's hear it once again - Buenas tardes. |
The first word, buenas, means “good,” applicable to feminine plural here. Here we have the feminine plural form of bueno - buenas. |
Let’s break down this word and hear it one more time: bue-nas. |
buenas |
This is followed by tardes, which in Spanish is “evening.” |
tardes |
tar-des |
tardes |
And finally, we have buenas noches, the evening greeting in Spanish. |
Buenas noches. |
Let’s break it down by syllable: Bue-nas no-ches. |
Now, let’s hear it once again, buenas noches. |
The first word, buenas, means “good,” applicable to feminine plural. |
Let’s break down this word and hear it one more time: bue-nas. |
buenas |
This is followed by noches, which in Spanish is “night.” |
noches |
no-ches |
One more time, noches. |
Sometimes, it’s a bit confusing knowing when you have to greet with buenos días or buenas tardes, since there isn’t a clear time when you have to change from one to another. The best way to distinguish this is to determine whether lunchtime has already passed or not. Commonly, you say buenos dias until you have had your lunch. Afterwards, you say buenas tardes. You will use buenas tardes until the sun sets. And at the moment it gets dark, you will use buenas noches. |
Outro
|
Okay, to close out today’s lesson, we'd like for you to practice what you've just learned. I'll provide you with the English equivalent of the phrase and you're responsible for saying it aloud. You have a few seconds before I give you the answer, so buena suerte, that means “good luck” in Spanish. |
Okay, here we go. |
"Hello" - Hola |
Hola |
Hola |
"Good morning" - Buenos días. |
Buenos días. |
Buenos días. |
"Good afternoon" - Buenas tardes. |
Buenas tardes. |
Buenas tardes. |
"Good evening" - Buenas noches. |
Buenas noches. |
Buenas noches. |
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