Learning Useful Spanish Phrases Properly
Common Spanish phrases found in Spanish phrase books can be useful and many people buy them before embarking on vacation to Mexico or Spain. However, many times, a number of Spanish learners discover that phrase books lock you into a fixed way of saying something, and life is far from being like that.
Being able to say, “Can you tell me if this is the 10.15 or the 10.30 train leaving for Barcelona?” is all very well. But when you are in Bolivia and it’s a bus leaving at midnight you are hoping to catch to some small village you can’t even pronounce, it isn’t very helpful. You need to learn more than just easy Spanish words, or at least you need to be able to adapt the Spanish phrases you know.
It is good to start by learning the useful Spanish phrases. Learn how to greet people by saying “good day” (buenas días), “good afternoon” (buenas tardes), and “good evening” (buenas noches). You can always just say “hola” (hello) if you’re not sure which phrase to use.
You can naturally progress from there to a relatively more complicated greeting: “¿Cómo estás?” This means, “how are you?” However, that’s a little bit formal and stilted. Usually, most people just say, “que tal?” If someone says that to you, answer them, “bien, ¿y tu?” (I’m well, and you?). They will be impressed with your command of Spanish, believe me!
In keeping with the popular Spanish phrase books, you need to also learn how to ask for something when you are in a Spanish café or restaurant. As in most English speaking countries, Spanish speaking people have several courses for their meals. The first is the, “primero plato,” the second is the “segundo plato,” and the third is the “tercero plato.”
You may wish to have a glass of water (un vaso de agua) with your meal, or a coffee (un café). If you want your coffee to have milk, then it should be, “un café con leche.” A glass of red wine (un vaso de vino tinto), or white wine (un vaso de vino blanco) may also go down well. Maybe you want a whole bottle of wine (una botella de vino). And now you can ask for one that’s either red or white too.
You may have noticed that in all those Spanish words I didn’t say “please” in any instance. Because we do it to be polite in English, we assume that everyone else does it too. In fact, we generally can’t comprehend why anyone would want to be so rude as to not use “please” when asking for a favor.
It simply is not a Spanish custom. On the contarary, they regard it as rude if you do say, “please” for every single thing. For example, if you were to say to a Spanish barman, “un vaso de vino tinto, pro favor,” he would very likely get a little offended.
Visualize a man who has been standing at the bar in an English speaking country waiting for a long time to get served. Finally, he speaks to the barman with a loud voice, “a glass of red wine, PLEASE.” The “please” at the end is said in a rather sarcastic way, and that’s pretty much how it feels to a native Spanish speaker when you add “please” in Spanish. Don’t do it and you’ll keep yourslef out of needless trouble.
Tags: common spanish phrases, easy spanish words, useful spanish phrases