The Spanish language is the fourth most popular language in the world, spoken by 580 million people, which is 7.6% of the world’s population. An increasing number of people are learning Spanish as beginners, including working professionals who do business with Spanish companies. Others are taking up learning Spanish as a new hobby and school-age children learn Spanish as a second language. Ofqual reports that the number of pupils taking GCSE Spanish in 2020 has increased by 5%, the largest increase for any of the modern foreign languages.
Nowadays, a large number of people choose to learn a language via apps, such as Duolingo, Babbel, and Memrise. The benefit of these apps is that they allow the user to see the word written out and hear its pronunciation.
As with any foreign language, Spanish beginners should start by learning the basics in order to hold a simple conversation. These include the words for hello, goodbye, please, thank you, sorry, bless you, yes, no, who, what, why, where.
When meeting someone for the first time, obviously one would want to greet them by saying hello. In Spanish, you say Hola! (o-la).
Then when leaving, one would say goodbye, which in Spanish is Adiós! (a-djos).
A simple conversation often includes buying/purchasing something or ordering something from a menu. To be polite, you need the word please. Por favor (por fa-vor) is the Spanish word for this. When your purchase appears, one should always respond with a thank you, which in Spanish is Gracias (gra-sjas).
In a simple conversation, one often agrees or disagrees with a suggestion made. For example, Can I help you? answered by yes or no. In Spanish, yes is Sí (si) and no is No (no).
An apology is often used in the case you accidentally bump into someone in the street. Sorry in Spanish is Lo siento (lo sjen-to). Especially in alergy season, the phrase bless you would also be a useful one to know! In Spanish, this is Salud (sa-lud).
When talking to someone, either asking for directions or finding out information, question phrases are useful sentence starters. One may want to ask, Who is coming on the trip? In this instance, the Spanish word for who is ¿Quién? (kjen).
If enquiring about someone’s behavior, you may want to start with the word why, for example, Why are you crying?. The word why in Spanish is ¿Por qué? (por ke).
When curious about a location, the word where is a useful one to know, for example, Where do you live?. ¿Dónde? (don-de) is the word for where in Spanish.
Obviously, these beginner words will only allow for the shortest of conversations without the further vocabulary to develop phrases. Some of the most useful phrases for beginners in Spanish are good morning, good afternoon, good evening, what’s your name?, my name is…, how are you? , I’m well, thank you, what time is it? , I am lost, I do not understand, would you speak slower.
More sophisticated methods of greeting people vary by the time of day. Good morning in Spanish is buenos días (bwe-nos di-as), good afternoon is buenas tardes (bwe-nas tar-des), and good evening is buenas noches (bwe-nas no-tches).
The conversation would naturally progress to introducing oneself or asking another person to introduce themselves. This involves asking what’s your name?, which in Spanish is ¿Cómo te llamas? (ko-mo te ja-mas). In response to this question, one would reply my name is…, which is Me llamo… (me ja-mo).
The next stage in a polite conversation may involve inquiring about the person’s health, asking how are you?, in Spanish, the phrase is ¿Cómo estás? (ko-mo es-tas). Answering this question, you may say I’m well, thank you, which in Spanish is Estoy bien, gracias (es-toi bien gras-jas).
If one is curious about the time, one would need to ask the question what time is it?, which in Spanish is ¿Qué hora es? (ke o-ra es).
Finally, if a tourist needs help in a foreign city, there are some helpful phrases. For example, if one can’t get one’s bearings, it is important to know the phrase for I’m lost. In Spanish, this is done by saying Estoy perdido/a (es-toi per-di-do).
If you are finding it difficult to follow the conversation, you could say I do not understand, which is Yo no comprendo (yo no kom-pren-do). Spanish people talk fast so don’t worry, this is quite common for Spanish beginners!
Another useful phrase if they are finding it hard to keep up is would you speak slower please, which is Por favor, habla más despacio.
Learning a language is a useful and enjoyable task. It is always made easier by starting with some straightforward words and phrases, allowing for a basic conversation. These are often the words and phrases used by tourists when visiting a country for the first time. As outlined above, beginner words and phrases in Spanish are easy to recognize when written down and also relatively easy to speak out loud. If someone manages to master these basic phrases, this will encourage them to continue their studies of the Spanish language and progress to more complicated vocabulary and grammatical constructions.
From Spanish words for beginners to real sentences
Vocabulary is the easy half of Spanish. The harder half is the two verbs for to be, the gendered nouns that change the words around them, and the fact that Spanish drops the subject pronoun far more often than English does.
A practical way through this is to learn words inside short phrases rather than alone, so the grammar comes attached. It is slower for the first fifty words and considerably faster after that.
For a lighter look at the language, try ten funny Spanish phrases. Our Spanish translation service covers the professional side.
